N-BASE BRIEFING 143 - - - - - - 12th August 1998
NENIG, Bains Beach, Commercial Street, Lerwick, Shetland ZE1 0AG
01595 69 40 99 (tel and fax) n-base@zetnet.co.uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/n-base/
Hundreds of links to nuclear-related sites
and N-Base Database on the Website
143.1 Dounreay weapons link admitted after decades of denial
-------------------------------------------------------------
The government has finally officially admitted that Dounreay
has supplied material for the UK nuclear weapons programme
after any link was denied by both the operators, the UKAEA,
all previous governments and even the present government until
the announcement early in August. The admission came from
Mrs Margaret Beckett in one of her last acts as minister at
the Department of Trade and Industry before moving to her
new post as Leader of the House of Commons. Both plutonium
and highly-enriched uranium were taken from Dounreay for the
weapons programme.
Mrs Beckett said: "As a result of an audit of the records
requested by this Government...it is clear that there were in
the past documented transfers from Dounreay which related to
UK military programmes. Prior to 1973...it is probable that
some material transferred from Dounreay to Aldermaston [the
UK nuclear weapons factory] will have been used in the
UK weapons programme. This is not the case for any transfers
which occurred between 1973 and 1987 - when all such
transfers ceased - since these involved fuel for use
in reactors only".
These reactors, however, were themselves used to create weapons
material, and Dounreay reprocessed spent fuel from the Herald
reactor and fabricated new fuel for the Aldermaston reactor.
The government's admission about Dounreay caused a furious
row between itself and the Scottish National Party. The
Prime Minister recently denied any material had been
transferred from Dounreay to the weapons programme and
strongly attacked the SNP for claiming it had been diverted.
In reply to re-newed SNP attacks the government is saying
Mr Blair was referring specifically to highly-enriched uranium
which was officially listed as 'unaccounted for' and was not
making a claim covering all Dounreay activities.
143.2 News in Brief
-------------------
Another Sellafield leak
The second radiation leak in three weeks hit the Sellafield
reprocessing plant on 3rd August. Seventy-two workers
were evacuated and one suffered external contamination.
Embarrassingly for British Nuclear Fuels the leak happened
in the B33 Mixed Oxide Fuel prototype plant - intended as
demonstration plant for a full commercial facility which
is presently awaiting permission from the UK government.
Gulf War Syndrome
A US Pentagon study has reportedly found there is no apparent
link between Gulf War Syndrome and the use of shells
containing depleted uranium. Meanwhile the UK Government
has announced a GBP75,000 study of all medical literature
relating to Gulf War Syndrome to be carried out at the
University of Wales.
© Copyright N-Base/NENIG |
