Remember also Linda Pentz Gunter’s book launch in Edinburgh at Lighthouse Bookshop, Wednesday 25th February from 7pm! Register in person or to attend online.
Finally, there are still spaces on buses from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen to Faslane for our demonstration on Saturday 14th March. Note that the departure time for the Edinburgh bus has changed from 10am to 9:45am – so please arrive from 9:30am to ensure we leave on time!
Click here to book a seat from Edinburgh or Glasgow, and email cndabdn@gmail.com to book from Aberdeen.
It had already been reported that radioactive liquid from an underground bunker had leaked into the earth between July 2023 and August 2024. The body in charge of nuclear decommissioning projects – Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS) – was found to have breached its operating permit by allowing this contamination to occur.
The new revelations this week show that investigators into the incident raised the possibility of similar structures causing pollution risks elsewhere in the Caithness area, and called for a comprehensive search of other sites which pose similar pollution risks.
Nuclear reactors require costly care and attention well beyond their operating lifespan. In the case of Dounreay, shut down in the early 1990s, the project to decommission the nuclear site was recently extended from an original end-date of 2033 to 2070. Full decontamination of the site is not expected for hundreds of years.
As well as the incident of radioactive leaks from an underground concrete bunker, there have also been reports of highly radioactive “hot particles” in the countryside surrounding the nuclear plant.
Nuclear technology is therefore not only very expensive to produce in the first instance, but creates a huge cross-generational financial burden to manage the pollution risks it creates.
This argument is the basis of an article that Scottish CND Chair Lynn Jamieson has authored for this Saturday’s edition of The National, which provides detail about the Submarine Dismantling Project (SDP) in which Rosyth Dockyard in Fife plays a central role.
Rosyth currently hosts seven retired nuclear-power submarines which are being dismantled by Babcock International as part of the SDP. Fifteen more expired submarines sit in Devonport Royal Dockyard in Plymouth.
It has taken decades for the first submarine of this cohort, HMS Swiftsure, to be dismantled. This project is expected to be completed at the end of 2026.
Though Scottish CND opposes the construction of new nuclear weapons and reactors, as long as these toxic nuclear legacies exist an efficient and environmentally sound decommissioning enterprise, providing reliable employment for workers, is necessary and worthwhile.
However, it is essential that workers who risk radiation exposure in the course of decommissioning are supported by adequate training and, crucially, long-term health monitoring and care.
Further, given the grave environmental risks and enormous costs involved in managing nuclear legacies, successful decommissioning must not be used to justify continuing to produce nuclear weapons and reactors. The massive resources committed to future decommissioning projects would certainly be better invested in other public infrastructure projects that would serve the Scottish public better.