Government and Military

4^th July, 2002

Dear Prime Minister Blair,

Trident Ploughshares is just about to start another two-weeks of attempts to peacefully, safely and accountably disarm the Trident nuclear weapon system that is immoral, illegal and inhumane. There are now 188 global citizens from 14 countries who have pledged to disarm Trident and I have attached a list of their names in accordance with our commitment to openness and accountability.

Whilst we still await a response to our letter of June 4^th 2002 we felt we should address the two other issues that the Rt Hon Adam Ingram JP MP raised in his reply to us of 17^th April.

He said "They (Faslane and Coulport) also play a full part in the local community, including the provision of a significant number of jobs." He fails to mention that it is generally accepted that many more jobs could be created in lawful and peaceful industries for the same investment. He fails to acknowledge that when the decision to remove nuclear weapons from the UK’s armed forces is taken, there will be many years work for many people at both bases in dismantling the facilities, in rendering the sites safe and decontaminating them, to say nothing of the requirement for ancillary support and security staff throughout that time. He does not recognise the general failure of the government to fulfill its promises on defence diversification and the widespread disappointment at the way the role of the Defence Diversifiation Agency has been distorted by its location within the Ministry of Defence (as part of DERA), with the result that it has given little attention to the fundamentals of diversification and has operated more as a talent spotting organisation for civil technology with defence applications as well as for defence technology for civil applications. These omissions are yet another disturbing example of how short-term military considerations are allowed to overrule the demands of long- term civil strategy.

Rt Hon Adam Ingram also said he could assure me "that the safety of the local population (in the Plymouth area), the dockyard workforce and environment was taken fully into account in the decision to concentrate nuclear refitting at Devonport. Moreover, we welcomed the Environment Agency’s decision to recommend approval of DMLs application to vary radioactive waste discharge levels....". However, new evidence from the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) suggests that risks of tritium discharges into the environment are twice as high for adults and four times as high for children, than previously thought. I have attached a paper on this as it obviously has implications for the amount of tritium that the Defence Industry should be allowed to discharge into the environment. Moreover, radioactive discharges are one thing, but the risk to people living close to the refit site when nuclear fuel is removed and replaced in the reactor is unacceptable. People should be evacuated when these operations take place to ensure their safety.

We hope to have a response to these and the other issues we have raised as soon as possible.

In peace and love,

Angie Zelter, on behalf of Trident Ploughshares

cc. Norman Lamb MP.

AWE TRITIUM DISCHARGES FOUR TIMES AS DANGEROUS TO CHILDREN THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT

Experts from the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) at Chilton now consider that Tritium, discharged from AWE Aldermaston into the River Thames and local streams, is twice as risky for adults and four times that for children, than previously thought.

A paper published by Dr Harrison and Dr Khursheed from NRPB and Dr B. E. Lambert from the Royal School of Medicine & Dentistry, in the latest edition of the journal Radiation Protection Dosimetry, suggests that current safety levels should be raised to protect the public. The report states: "The central (50%) values obtained by uncertainty analysis for adult dose coefficients for the ingestion or inhalation of HTO or OBT are about twice the [current] values." This analysis indicates that appropriate best estimates of dose per unit ingestion by adults would be 4 x 10-11 Sv Bq-1 for HTO and 9 x 10-11 Sv Bq-1 for OBT. Similarly, best estimates of values for children can be taken to be about twice the present dose coefficients." International limits to change

The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Task Force is to recommend the dose coefficient for tritium should be doubled, and for children quadrupled. These changes will affect the amount of tritium the nuclear industry can discharge into the environment. The report acknowledges that there is a degree of uncertainty in previous calculations that should now be corrected. Uncertainty & Precaution

Uncertainty in analysing scientific models is now better understood, and pushing safety levels higher will be welcomed by people living near nuclear installations such as AWE, Aldermaston, BNFL Sellafield and Nycomed Amersham in Cardiff. Concern about Tritium discharges from AWE came to a head in 2000 when the Environment Agency consultation on nuclear discharges from AWE resulted in the decision to close the 18 Km. Pangbourne pipeline from AWE to the river Thames.

The Precautionary Principle is a sound one, and the recognition that radioactive discharges into the environment need to be reduced is long overdue. This new research should be repeated, looking at the level of other radio-nuclear isotopes we are exposed to from discharges.

References

Harrison JD, Khursheed A, Lambert BE (2002) Uncertainties In Dose Coefficients For Intakes Of Tritiated Water And Organically-Bound Forms Of Tritium By Members Of The Public. Rad Prot Dosim Vol 98 No. 3 pp 299-311.

Printer friendly version

Home | Top