The terrifying saga of UK radioactive / munitions dumping

 See also Sellafield - A pollution nightmare

Sub incident off Anglesey - What did happen? - 11-11-97

 In 1986 the Celtic League revealed that the American nuclear submarine "Nathaniel Greene" had struck the sea-bed in the area, about fifteen miles further west off Anglesey.

 The submarine of the 8,500 tonne "Lafayette" ballistic missile class was so severely damaged that it lay on the sea-bed for two days whilst a salvage operation was mounted in the strictest secrecy. It was eventually able to surface but had to be towed back to its base at Holy Loch. Damage was so severe that the submarine subsequently returned to its home base at Charleston in South Carolina where it was de-commissioned.

 The US authorities maintained that there was no pollution but the extent of the damage sustained and the subsequent immediate decommissioning raise questions about just what did happen off the North Wales coast in March 1986.

 J B Moffatt
Celtic League

More radioactive dumping in Irish Sea 07-11-97

 The confirmation given in the UK Parliament (06-11-97) that radioactive material had been dumped in the Irish sea off Anglesey is alarming.

 For many years, the Celtic League suspected that such dumping had gone on in coastal dump sites but our concerns, mainly concerning the Beauforts Dyke dump site and other explosive dump sites, were dismissed by the British government. Subsequently however the British did confirm that intermediate grade nuclear waste had been disposed and coastal sites near the Channel Isles and Beaufort Dyke are known to be contaminated.

 Now we have further confirmation of disposal of radioactively contaminated missile distance indicator tags in 1974 in the Holyhead Deep area just 2-3 miles off the Welsh coast.

 Celtic League are already demanding a list of locations around the Irish sea where disposal of other toxic wastes has occurred. In the light of this latest information we will also be contacting sympathetic Nationalist members from both Scotland and Wales asking them to request an urgent list of all coastal disposal sites and a complete inventory of their contents.

 It is likely that the Holyhead revelations are the tip of an iceberg and a question mark must also now be placed upon other coastal sites such as the Firth of Clyde, Loch Linnhe, Milford Haven, Whitesand Bay Plymouth and the score of other sites identified two years ago by MOD.

 Bernard Moffatt
Nov. 7th 1997

New explosive dump danger - 18-10-97

 The route for the interconnector is certain to involve excavation work through the infamous Beaufort Dyke munitions dump which contains all manner of deteriorating conventional and chemical munitions dumped over a fifty year period.

 Last time work was undertaken in the area (involving construction of a gas interconnector) the beaches of the Clyde approach, SW Scotland, Antrim and the N. Isle of Man were seriously polluted as thousands of small chemical and toxic explosives devices were swept in. The pollution lasted for several years and although casualties were limited a considerable danger to the public was posed, injuries did occur and beaches and (in the Isle of Man) roads were closed.

 It is by no means certain that the Dyke simply contains the type of devices experienced last time. Indeed the Celtic League which has campaigned for a clean up at the Dyke for over twenty years know there are potentially much more deadly weapons, such as "Yperite" or mustard gas, which were also deposited there in great quantities. The effects of this material when it was encountered by fishermen many years ago was very serious and deaths were only narrowly averted. There is also the danger of radioactive waste which the British now admit is dumped in the area.

 Beaufort Dyke and its dangers have been well publicised and there is often a tendency if the publicity is sustained to grow complacent. We believe the decision of the British government based on narrow commercial interest exhibits just such complacency.

 Once again these coastal areas have to pay the price for ill judged decisions taken in the safe environment of cabinet rooms in Edinburgh or London to benefit the Directors and shareholders of private utilities.

 Bernard Moffatt

Secret nuclear dumping scandal continues

 It is quite clear from the statement issued by Jeff Rooker MP that the British are still either unwilling or unable to publish full details of their sea dumping programme for nuclear waste.

 What is now confirmed is that, what was being referred to as low level nuclear waste, has had the category expanded to include intermediate waste.

 The mystery seems to surround documentation on material dumped in the fifties and sixties. However it is clear, from information disclosed 15 years ago, that waste was dumped in undesignated areas.

 The reference to the fifties dumping regime is ominous. Perhaps the greatest emergency the British nuclear industry faced was in 1957 and the years thereafter following the Windscale fire. There is no doubt that large quantities of low, intermediate and high level waste was required to be disposed at that time. The favoured method for swift disposal was sea dumping (the "out of sight out of mind" option) and it would be incredible if none of the material from the British nuclear industry did not find its way to both the Beaufort Dyke and other disposal sites off the west of Scotland.

 Rooker has promised that documentation will be scoured and as new information is uncovered it will be revealed. It probably suits Rooker and his boss Jack Cunningham that information on this scandal is released on a drip feed basis.

 For the communities around the Irish sea and on the west of Scotland however this scandal has continued long enough. Even this administrations attempt at openness is insufficient - what is needed is a full and independent enquiry under the auspices of a reputable International body such as the European Parliament.

 We need to know what dangers for this and succeeding generations is posed by the reckless and seemingly uncoordinated British nuclear sea dumping programme.

 J.B. Moffatt pp. Celtic League

Beaufort Trench - Nuclear fears now confirmed 13-07-97

 It seems that finally there will be grim confirmation that the sea trench at Beaufort Dyke was used by the British government to dispose of nuclear material. The news is a total vindication of concerns raised almost 15 years ago by the Celtic League, when we first started to elicit details of the dumps contents.

 Successive years saw earlier evasions and retractions by the British government. New information has uncovered the vast and deadly nature of the materials now listed as being disposed there. These latest revelations also confirm that successive British governments have been prepared to mislead not only Parliament but also the International community with evasions to the Irish government and lies to the IAEA.

 Any sense of vindication of the early stance taken on this issue by the Celtic League has to be tempered by the thought that these latest admissions raise more questions than they answer.

 Beaufort is now known to contain hundreds of thousands of tonnes of a vast range of material, 'simple' ordnance, chemical munitions and (now with this admission) nuclear material. Do we leave the dump undisturbed and wait until a problem arises? This is what happened with the chemical devices which still periodically drift to shore in N. Ireland. SW. Scotland and the Isle of Man.

 Do we attempt to stabilise the dump and recover the nuclear material from it? In so doing might we disturb other and as yet unconfirmed disposed material. Any admission at this time advances the need for a serious debate on the best means of tackling this nightmare on our doorstep!

 Bernard Moffatt

 pp. Celtic League

League seeks Irish government help in sea dump enquiry

 The League believe that material from the UK's chemical warfare programme, which officially ended in the mid-fifties, is still not accounted for.

 Attempts to clear up the matter via correspondence with the Chemical and Bilogical Defence Establishment at Porton Down have been inconclusive. There has been a reluctance to communicate on the issue and replies which have been recieved over the years have been contradictory.

 Attached: copy of letter to Michael Woods, Minister for the Marine

 Dear Minister,

 I understand that you recently have established a task force to co-ordinate approaches to the British government concerning its sea dumping policy in waters off the west coast and in the north Irish Sea.

 You will be aware, from the papers we supplied to your predecessor, that the Celtic League had a concern for sometime that the British government were being less than honest about the disposal of nuclear material in the Beaufort Dyke and elsewhere.

 In parallel with our enquiries (to which the British provided dishonest responses) concerning disposal of nuclear material we were also probing the disposal of very dangerous chemical and biological warfare compounds. These were manufactured at Nancekuke (near Portreath) in west Cornwall.

 The British government decommissioned the plant in the mid fifties and it was dismantled and 'cleared' over subsequent years. As sea disposal was the favoured option in this period for both the disposal of chemical / conventional munitions and nuclear waste, we not unnaturally concluded that some of the material was sea disposed. The British government, not surprisingly, indicated that the site was cleared without any environmental pollution risk and that no material was sea disposed. However, there was some confusion between correspondence in May 1991 which said that no material was buried on site and correspondence in April 1995 which indicated that material was buried on site. (I attach this correspondence for information). This seems to indicate that they were being less than open about the ultimate location of what must be some very nasty waste product.

 We also know that as part of the mid fifties disposals off Donegal and Kerry the British government confirm that cargoes of ex WW2 chemical weapons were also accompanied on occasion by disposal on behalf of other UK government Departments. Not unaturally, given the track record of previous British governments on this issue, the suspicion remains that this material was sea disposed.

 We would be grateful if your enquiries to the British would stress the need for a full inventory of material disposed and also in addition to clarifying the question of nuclear waste resolve the mystery of the vanished material from Britain's chemical weapons programme.

 J.B. Moffatt
13/7/97

Alarm as British admit nuclear waste in inshore dumps -20-05-97

 The news released today (20/5/97) that the United Kingdom has disposed of three thousand drums of radioactive waste in the English Channel off Alderney is a worrying development.

 The United Kingdom have long been suspected of dumping waste in the inshore dumps and this is the first solid evidence to confirm this practice.

 Two years ago the British government denied that 2517 tonnes of "concrete waste" destined for a deep water site off Rockall which, due to bad weather, was dumped in the North Channel off Belfast Lough in 1981, were contaminated with radiation. The Celtic League had been investigating rumours of nuclear waste dumping and SNP MP Donald Stewart put down a question to the Scottish Secretary on our behalf in 1985. We were sceptical of the British explanation then and further clarification two years ago of experimentation with "concrete filled drums" to test disposal equipment which was advanced as the purpose of the operation seemed barely credible.

 It is now a fact that several of the identified dumps on the British sea dump site list published some years ago are contaminated with radiation. Previously the British denied that the inshore dumps were used for either chemical weapons or radiation waste. The cover-up over chemical weapons has long been blown. Now it seems likely that the dumps such as Beaufort, which the British admit contain a staggering 700.000 tonnes of assorted muntions dumped over a fifty year period, contain a nuclear nightmare also.

 The British may continue their nuclear denials but increasingly the question must be asked: Was the easy option of inshore dumping used at a time when Britain not only had the large scale low grade waste associated with its early clumsy approach to nuclear power but also other problems? Was it also the favoured option after the disastrous accidents at both Dounreay and Sellafield many years ago? If not, where has all the waste gone? Only a fraction of recent storage is held on land.

 If our coastal waters hold this deadly secret it's time we were told!

 Bernard Moffatt pp. Celtic League

The Bombs of Beaufort Dyke - 31-03-97

Caught in the act - British forces dump munitions

Will fatalities be needed before MOD address this legacy of thoughtless neglect - why no action on clean up?

 The news that more chemical explosive devices have started to come ashore in SW Scotland and Cumbria establishes a pattern for the appearance of this material each year.

 Whilst the recovery of explosive objects occurs throughout the year, our records indicate that serious pollution of the shoreline with these objects tends to happen in the February/March period and extend into the summer months. This was certainly the case in both 1993 and 1995, and it also appears to be the pattern this year.

 As usual, the Coastguard mount their beach patrols and tend to have ensured, via warning and speedy disposal, that injuries are kept to a minimum.
 

Despite several thousands objects being dealt with in recent years, only a handful of injuries have occurred.

 The sequence of events could however make us complacent about the dangers inherent in the leakage of material from Beaufort Dyke. What is clear is that a staggering quantity of both explosive and chemical material has been disposed of there. The phosphorous munitions which are presently causing the problem are containable if one keeps their distance and the Emergency services have a chance to deal with them.
 

It is, however, more than apparent that there are other and more nasty toxic devices in the Beaufort dump. The coastline in other areas is also littered with unexploded ordnance.

 It is past time that the British government's MOD came up with a strategy to address the problem of the Irish sea munitions dumps. Why should the population of Ireland, Scotland, N. England and the Isle of Man have to live with this legacy of thoughtlessness and negligence?

 Will action only occur when fatalities have resulted from the Bombs of Beaufort Dyke?

 Please note. The bulk of objects washed up to date are phosphorous based incendiaries. They are uncased and become extremely unstable once exposed to the air. They can spontaneously ignite if disturbed and burn with a fierce heat that is capable of killing an adult.