Risks to Plymouth residents from nuclear facilities at Devonport dockyard are being deliberately downplayed for commercial reasons according to anti-nuclear campaigners and experts. Devonport Management Ltd. (DML) are hiding behind official secrets legislation, they say, to play down the danger the dockyard poses to the public.
John Large, consultant nuclear engineer to the UK and Russian governments, told an audience at Plymouth's Guildhall on Tuesday 2nd July that accident scenarios presented to the city council by Devonport dockyard owners and operators DML involved small radiation discharges which were 'coincidentally' contained just within the 600 yard boundary of the facility. Necessitating little or no evacuation preparation by the Council.
Devonport Management Limited is owned by Brown and Root which is in turn owned by U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheyne's Haliburton. Haliburton are prime contenders to build the Afghanistan pipeline and have their and DML's accounts audited by the discredited Arthur Andersen company.
Plymouth city council's chief executive, Alison Stone, sent a memo to all Plymouth city councillors requesting they stay away from Mr Large's presentation as it was 'not an official consultation'. Though they were all invited either the city council, MOD and DML attended John Large's presentation.
In his presentation, Large detailed MOD accident scenario 'BR6' which envisages a substantial release of radiation and nuclear 'meltdown' necessitating the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from the city and involving medical treatment for all members of the public within seventy miles. However the BR6 scenario was 'classified' and was not available to city councillors, who are responsible for the city's emergency management plan.
There are serious questions in Plymouth as to why the BR6 scenario has been kept secret. Could it be because local people would be outraged if they knew what a danger the dockyard poses to them? The city of Murmansk, in Russia, also has a nuclear dockyard surrounded by a large population. Plans are in place there for the evacuation of the entire city should an accident occur. And evacuation plans around nuclear facilities in the United States are much more comprehensive than those in the UK.
Plymouth's DevPubSafe Emergency Plans are due to be updated by March 2003 at the latest but look unlikely to take into account the terrorist threat post September 11th. The principle of 'the polluter pays' applies to nuclear accidents and there is commercial pressure for DML to convince the council that no plans are necessary since they would be liable to pay for the emergency provision. Safety provision for BR6 is likely to cost Mr Cheyne's company around ten million pounds.
There has also been a refusal to take into account the dangers posed by high-explosives at the dockyard. Cruise missiles, torpedoes and trident nuclear missiles - with their plutonium warheads. The Navy say submarines are stripped of all weaponry before entering Devonport but submarines are known to make unscheduled and emergency stops in port. The fuel for the torpedoes and Trident nuclear missiles is also highly combustible.
Large also explained that ten or more removed submarine reactors now stored at Devonport amounted to 'a nuclear power station in the middle of a city'. Something that, according to him, violates the first rule of nuclear safety, 'you don't put highly radioactive materials near population centres, let alone in the middle'.
Tony Staunton, chair of Plymouth UNISON, wound up the safety presentation in the Guildhall and expressed dismay that councillors responsible for dockyard safety had declined to attend. He concluded that the present emergency plans for the yard were unrealistic and that DML appeared to be pulling the wool over the city council's eyes to avoid the expenditure necessary were a realistic emergency plan put in place.
Patrick van-den-Bulck, for CND, noted that the alternative base for the nuclear fleet, Rossyth, could not be developed because the Scottish Parliament would not allow any expansion of nuclear facilities North of the border. Therefore Plymouth is being 'dumped on' as the cheapest and least publicly accountable option to service Britain's fleet of nuclear submarines. Because of overcrowding and safety issues at Devonport the Royal Navy have been considering basing their Trident submarine fleet in the United States.
Not only is Devonport, the home of the Royal Navy's prestigious nuclear fleet, owned and managed by the Vice-President of a foreign power. But DML is deliberately thwarting Plymouth councillors for commercial gain as councillors attempt to draw up contingency plans for the hundreds of thousands of people in Plymouth and downwind of the docks. To make matters worse both military and civilian authorities are failing to take account of the threat of terrorist attack.
· Trident Ploughshares have organised a Festival for Peace and Hope at 12 noon this Saturday (10th August 2002) at the Peace Garden, Plymouth Hoe, with music followed by a march to Devonport Dockyard park.
· National Demonstration - CND and Plymouth Nuclear Free Coalition - Shut Down Trident - Saturday 12 October 2002, noon, Plymouth Hoe.
Tony at Plymouth Nuclear Free Coalition - 01752 313781
Patrick at CND - 0207 700 2393