N-BASE BRIEFING 145 - - - - - - 23rd 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
145.1 News in Brief
-------------------
Underground shelter not the right messages
Dounreay management have abandoned plans to use a World
War Two underground bunker as a control room in a serious
site emergency as it would give the public the wrong
impression. Management had wanted to close a purpose-built
emergency control room close to the nuclear complex and,
in an emergency, use a the underground bomb shelter 100
miles away in Inverness owned by the Highland Council.
However, the police criticised the move saying the shelter
had not been designed for a nuclear emergency and would give
the wrong message to the public in the event of a serious
emergency. The Highland Council's emergency planning
officer commented: "The police were of the view that it would
not look good if their senior officers disappeared into an
underground facility whilst at the same time telling 'Joe
Public' there was not a lot to bother them."
Sell-off too cheap
MPs have criticised the way parts of the UK Atomic Energy
Authority, which operates Dounreay and other site around
the UK, were privatised in 1996 when the profitable parts
were sold-off as AEA Technology and the nuclear facilities
and huge financial liabilities were kept in public ownership.
The government raised GBP224 million from the sale, but MPs
on the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said at
least another GBP160 million could have been raised for
public finance. The MPs on the committee, who included
Dounreay's local MP Robert Maclennan, also criticised
the government's arrangements with financial consultants
and the way advisers handled the distribution of shares.
Report must remain secret
Dounreay has refused to publish a secret report written
in 1969 which investigated the loss of fissile material
at the complex and suggested possible ways it had been
'mislaid'. The report was referred to in a recent study
into the contents of the controversial waste shaft at Dounreay
and was quoted as the source of information that 170kgs of
highly-enriched uranium had been 'lost' at the site.
Dounreay management said the report was secret and must
remain so for 30 years - until next year.
New Gulf War research
A major study into Gulf War Syndrome by Dr Goran Jamal of
the Neurological Sciences Department at Glasgow's Southern
General Hospital is to be financed by Mr Ross Perot, the
former US presidential candidate. The GBP4 million study
was initially refused funding by the UK Medical Research
Council.
Aldermaston fined
The UK's nuclear weapons factory, the Atomic Weapons
Establishment at Aldermaston in southern England, and the
private company which runs the site, Hunting Brae, have been
fined a total of GBP22,000 after two workers were contaminated
following an accident in December last year.
© Copyright N-Base/NENIG |
