Sunday 13 April 2014

MoD fire depleted uranium shells into Scottish waters


Military bosses dodged an international ban by saying the 30 tons of radioactive waste was “placed” rather than “dumped” off the beach in Kirkcudbrightshire. (Interestingly the spell checker doesn't recognise Kirkcudbrightshire and, without a word of a lie, suggests Buckinghamshire!)

Outraged campaigners yesterday called on them to retrieve the toxic waste. (I'd sent that long faced blokey; the one who looks if he smiled his face would crack into a million pieces...Hammond, isn't it?... Yes, well, I'd send him to pick them up with a pair of Marigolds. That would make his miserable face even more miserable.)

Aneaka Kellay, from the Campaign Against Depleted Uranium, said: “The Scottish public will struggle to understand how the MoD thought they could evade their legal and moral responsibility not to pollute the sea by calling this a ‘placement’. (The Scottish public struggle to understand a great amount of what they do in London. Many of them seem to be under a misapprehension that government in London gives some sort of a toss about health and welfare of Scots. As for "morals" and "responsibilities" ...please... you'll make me choke with laughter.)

“However they name their firing programme, the fact remains they have purposefully released nuclear waste into the Solway Firth.”

The toxic rounds end up in the water when tanks at a military range at Dundrennan fire shells at canvas targets on the cliffs.

Minutes of secret MoD meetings released after a Freedom of Information request show an official raised concerns in 2004 that the practice could breach the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic.

He was told the MoD’s interpretation was that “the projectiles were placements not dumping”. The convention states dumping doesn’t include “placement of matter for a purpose other than the mere disposal thereof”. (What a set of seedy, double dealing reprobates. If we were talking about doing this kind of thing anywhere near the Home Counties it would be a very different kettle of fish.) 

Depleted uranium has been linked to increases in cancers and birth defects in Iraq (where once again any kind of morality was chucked out the window in a desperate attempt to impress the President, thereby winning Tony Blair a Congressional Medal which I'm sure Cherry will sell for cash money.)

Minutes show the MoD have fired more than 6700 of the toxic shells into the Solway Firth over the last 30 years. (Ah well, in Iraq they are only foreigners and in the Solway they are only Jocks... who cares?)

34 comments:

  1. Tris

    Not surprised, the contempt that Westminster has for this country is beyond belief and of course it's Westminster elected reps from the three tory parties will say, and do, nothing as it is just not important and they live in London anyway. I really hate Britan.

    Bruce

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    1. I see the Guardian columnist, Polly Toynbee, was saying that if there is a NO vote, it is unthinkable that a Scot would ever hold a senior position in the EK... and now we should read rUK government.

      No jobs then for Dougie Alexander, Jim Murphy etc...

      Very unlikely that junior jobs would lead to seats in the House of Lords so there's not much point in then hanging around. Greatness will never be theirs.

      Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

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  2. Its a pity the MOD's Spell Checker/GPS doesnt do the same Kirkcudbrightshire / Buckinghamshire substitution.

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    1. Yes indeed... now wouldn't that cause problems!!

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  3. Well considering there is still a load of toxic waste lying on the foreshore at Dalgety Bay sinc the end of WW2, why would we be surprised. In event of a YES vote they are not just going to have to find a home for Trident, what on earth are they going to do about finding a native population who can masquerade as terrorist. My goodness the Highlands and some of the lowlands will be peaceful again, the sheep and cows will be able to graze in peace and not have a jet engine ruffle the fur and wool.

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    1. The toxic waste isn't just from WW11 but from nulcear submarine reactors at Rosyth as well.

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    2. Ah you forget Helena that the toxic waste in Dalgety Bay was just dumped as it was on the fore shore at Lossiemouth as well. At least down in Kirkcudbrightshire it was *ahem* placed. :-)

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    3. It's going to cause a great deal of disruption to people in the higher circles of London government who have been used to palming off the uncomfortable trappings of world superpower (ahem) on their Celtic cousins.

      True bringiton... multiplicity of carelessness where we are concerned. Again... maybe they will have to find a place on the Thames for their repairs, say as near to their capital as this was to ours?

      It's all in a word Arbroath... I suppose if they bombed Baghdad without UN permission it would have been a war crime, but we'll probably discover that their defence was that the "placed" the bombs there.

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  4. Latest scare alert as reported in the Herald Nato will not want us

    Do we really care any longer?

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    1. As far as I am concerned, that's fine.I didn't want to be a member of Nato anyway. Especially since in recent years it has become a war making machine rather than a defence organisation.

      Of course it probably isn't true, given pour strategic position, but why let the truth, or the improbability of a something get in the way of a cracking good opportunity to put Scotland down.

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  5. Well that is certainly very nice and extremely helpful of the M.O.D. to place their depleted uranium shells in Kirkcudbrightshire. I mean I'd hate for them to just leave them lying around for any Tom, Dick or Harry to pick up.

    I just hope that no one involved in the placing of these shells was involved with this:

    http://tinyurl.com/npw7xt8

    or this:
    http://tinyurl.com/mu5udss

    Mind you because the M.O.D. *ahem* placed these pieces of ordinance then when we tell them to get them shifted from our waters it should only take them, oh I dunno, say no more than a week to complete the removal exercise. LOL

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    1. It occurs to me, Arbroath, that there is a mite of carelessness about where they launch, fire or even "place" this weaponry.

      I expect that as Hammond was instructed to reduce his costs he did so by sacking people who might have looked after these matters... instead of getting rid of the plethora of Admirals having about the War Office moving the pictures on their office walls.

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  6. As far as I know firing these depleted uranium shells isn't a new thing, I'm pretty sure, David Cameron has fired them out to sea at Cape Wrath, at paper targets, to get around EU strict laws about dumping them. Combine this with the Nuclear Subs at Faslane constantly leaking radio-active materials into Scottish waters, and you quickly build a picture, of a mini-Ukraine dumping ground, known as Scotland.

    Unfortunately there's no point in contacting SEPA, as the MoD out rank them in this unequal United Kingdom, but why should we be surprised at the amount of radio-active waste, and its dangers to Scots, its well documented that David Cameron has said that nuclear weapons are FAR to dangerous to be based in England.

    Finally we are lucky to be in Scotland at all, as in the 1950's the Atomic Weapons Establishment (England based) (AWE) decided it would explode a nuclear bomb in Scotland at Duncansby head, to test the devastating effects of the bomb, the only thing that stopped this disgusting event taking place, was the fact that Duncansbyhead was considered too wet.

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    1. LOL... I knew one day we would have something to be thankful for about our horrible weather!!!

      I'd suggest that there are extensive gardens behind Downing Street and the weather in London is far more clement. Mr Cameron could invite Mr Hammond around and they could watch it together... from only a few feet away.

      Plan?

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  7. I read it

    ' the Campaign Against Depleted Uranium '

    I read it again

    ' the Campaign Against Depleted Uranium '

    I read it again and yet again

    ' the Campaign Against Depleted Uranium '

    Must be joke either that or i will lose the will to live

    I read it again

    ' there is a Campaign for every blooming thing these PC day

    Look nat whingers you give me the depleted uranium
    and ill bury in me croft in ok ? problem solved

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    1. We could perhaps get the MOD to place it there for you?

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    2. I didn't know you were a slow reader Niko, or I wouldn't have typed so fast.

      You can take all the depleted uranium away with you to Cyprus if you like... But keep Taz away from it. I don;t want him hurt.

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  8. After the Yanks left the Holy Loch they kindly informed us that they had left us an extra legacy in memory of their presence.Not only all sorts of scrap and rubbish but also nuclear waste.It was left as a result of accidental dumping,they said,but we would be ok as long as we didn,t disturb the bed of the loch.Over the past few years I,ve watched jcb,s dig up the foreshore.Was anyone monitoring this to determine it was safe? With regard to Dalgety Bay a lot of the painting of the dials was carried out by women and girls in a Canadian factory.The work was carried out by hand and these young people would wet the tip of their brush with their tongue before applying the paint.Lots of them died young of various cancers.Even today their graves can be located by using a radiation detector.

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    1. Hi Alan...

      Of course we know that no matter what America does, the Uk just rolls over and smiles. After all, we have a special relationship. We do what we are told and sometimes they allow the British PM a photo opportunity with the President... (except Obama and Brown).

      I think they have been pretty lax about the safety issues in the Holy Loch.

      It is far far away from anything that the London government would recognise as civilisation.

      There are some horrific stories about people being used in testing of these bombs over the years.

      The scariest thing though is how much money the UK government was prepared to throw about atomic and nuclear research, while so much else was left undone.

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    2. The ahem "Defence" industry has a lot to answer for and that Alan is another of them. Dalgety Bay is just another, Father in Law remembered them crushing the planes that were surplus into the ground there. Mind you we are talking about a time when we all had radioactive clocks and asbestos for the ironing board was the norm and smoking cleared the lungs. We have moved on and you would think they could CLEAN UP after themselves.

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    3. Tories don't move on... They stay the same forever.

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  9. Such is the danger of depleted uranium it virtually never degrades, and will remain longer after mankind has vanished from planet Earth. also anyone who think depleted uranium won't affect them is kidding themselves on for it has been found in deserts and glaciers all over the world carried on wind currents.

    The grossly illegal war in Iraq that Labour endorsed has left a permanent lasting legacy, in the soil of Iraq, in the form of depeleted uranium, which will cause health problems and defects for centuries for the Iraqi people. Thanks must go to the UK and USA governments, for contamination of the planet, with depleted uranium, remember it will be YOUR children and their children that will suffer the effects of depleted uranium as it disperses, over the years.

    Thanks Westminster, you don't do anything half-arsed.

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    1. ... They've never done anything that wasn't.

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  10. Umm! problem wid youse lots your so muddled up wid snp natology
    iffen it wuz snp depleted uranium. youse would exclaim how
    marvelous and wonderful Scottish depleted uranium woz !

    But iffen it wuz Unionist depleted uranium then course that would
    be disgusting.dangerous and just show how the Unionists hate Scotland.

    Bah humbug to all Nats !!!!

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    1. Crikey if that is that standard of education amongst the Better Together Campaign, well what can I say.

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    2. Sure we would.... idiot.

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  11. Replies
    1. The thing is, if the Japanese can make a mess of it, can you just imagine the kind of complete balls up the brits will make.

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    2. Will???? where now Windscale?

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  12. http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/nuclear-fuel-cycle/uranium-resources/uranium-and-depleted-uranium/

    Depleted uranium is not classified as a dangerous substance radiologically, though it is a potential hazard in large quantities, beyond what could conceivably be breathed. Its emissions are very low, since the half-life of U-238 is the same as the age of the Earth (4.5 billion years). There are no reputable reports of cancer or other negative health effects from radiation exposure to ingested or inhaled natural or depleted uranium, despite much study.

    An editorial in the Radiological Protection Bulletin of the UK's National Radiation Protection Board stated: "DU is radioactive and doses from inhalation of dust or from handling bare spent rounds need to be assessed properly. However, the scientific consensus at present is that the risks are likely to be small and easily avoidable, especially compared with the other risks the armed forces have to take in war."8

    Thus DU is clearly dangerous for military targets, but for anyone else – even in a war zone – there is little hazard. Ingestion or inhalation of uranium oxide dust resulting from the impact of DU munitions on their targets is the main possible exposure rout

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    1. Define "large" when referring to quantities - are we talking kilo's or milligrams?

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  13. Inhaling DU dust is a health hazard, and it attacks the kidneys.

    http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/depleted_uranium/

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    1. I'd not want to take the risk with it, whatever anyone says.

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