By Professor John Robertson OBA

Thanks to cuckooshoe for alerting me to this:

From CND on 6^th November 2024, missed by me at the time and, of course, ignored by the staff at BBC Pacific Quay on those very same winds and waters.

Radioactive air emissions have been increasing year-on-year at Coulport one of Britain’s nuclear submarine bases in Scotland. This development is of some concern as it would lead to increased health risks wherever the emissions were inhaled. 

According to the Scottish Pollution Release Inventory, tritiated water vapour emissions at Coulport were 1.7 billion becquerels (units of radioactivity) in 2018, rising steadily to 4.2 billion units in 2023. Tritiated water vapour is  harmful when inhaled, ingested or absorbed through the skin as its radiation causes cancer and cardiovascular diseases including strokes.

The investigation also found that eight miles from Coulport at Faslane, where Britain’s nuclear submarines are based, tritiated water containing over 50 billion units of radioactivity had been dumped into the Gareloch. The level of dumping peaked in 2020, when 16.6 billion units were discharged. 

https://cnduk.org/radioactive-pollution-is-increasing-at-britains-nuclear-bases/

Are BBC Scotland staff warned not to go in the water.

Even breathe?

Scotland’s winds are prevailing from the South-west but now and again blow direct from Coulport only 30 miles away, in the North West, to Pacific Quay in Govan.

In May 2024, SNP MP Deirdrie Brock, asked the the Secretary of State for Scotland what he knew about these risks:

I asked the Scottish Secretary to confirm if there was a radioactive leak beyond safe levels at Faslane last year, after my questions exposed a rise in serious nuclear safety incidents at the bases. Neither he nor the MoD think we have a right to know. pic.twitter.com/rU4mKdhsZ4

— Deidre Brock (@DeidreBrock) May 3, 2024

Silence is revealing?

In May 2023:

QUESTIONS are hanging over the safety of Britain’s nuclear arsenal after it was revealed there were 58 radiation leaks at Trident facilities in Scotland this year so far. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has revealed there were 15 recorded radiation leaks at Coulport and a further 43 at Faslane in 2023 as of April – but said none were considered “serious”. https://www.thenational.scot/news/23545590.trident-mod-confirms-50-radiation-leaks-year/

In March 2016:

Twenty workers at the Faslane nuclear submarine base were exposed to radiation due to safety errors, newly-released documents have revealed. The engineers were repairing a leaking tank on a Trident submarine while a nearby nuclear reactor was operated. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-35739567

From the UK Parliament in 2009:

That this House is deeply disturbed at the revelations of at least eight liquid radioactive leaks into the sea loch over the past 10 years from radioactive waste storage facilities at HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane, near Glasgow, the home port for British nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed submarines, made public on 27 April 2009 following an investigation carried out by Channel Four News and investigative reporter Rob Edwards; notes with alarm that these latest leaks bring the total number of leaks acknowledged at Faslane over the last three decades to more than 40; welcomes the release of around 400 pages of internal e-mails, letters and reports by the environmental regulator, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA); further notes with concern that one of SEPA’s internal reports indicates that many of the ageing facilities used to process, store and dispose of radioactive waste at Faslane are `not fit for purpose’; further notes that the Ministry of Defence has admitted its facilities fail to meet modern safety standards requiring that the `best practicable means’ are used to minimise and control waste; further notes SEPA is pressing for the legal power to inspect and control Faslane’s nuclear operations; therefore calls upon the Ministry of Defence to urgently tighten safety standards at Faslane, and to evaluate the future environmental hazards to those living around the River Clyde, from Faslane; and calls upon the Government to consider urgently the benefits to the economy and the environment of abolishing Britain’s current nuclear weapons, including the planned £76 billion Trident replacement. https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/38606/radioactive-leaks-from-faslane-nuclear-submarine-base

I can find no research specifically on the risk of exposure to known carcinogens, among those who have worked at Faslane.

However, from the USA, this:

Unsafe levels of a carcinogen have been discovered at a nuclear missile base in Montana after the area experienced a spike in cancer case numbers, the Air Force Global Strike Command announced Monday.

A carcinogen is a “substance, organism or agent capable of causing cancer,” a category that includes naturally occurring things like UV rays or those created by human production, like cigarette smoke, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute.

The announcement said an immediate cleanup effort was ordered after bioenvironmental experts reported polychlorinated biphenyls was found in samples taken from Malmstrom Air Force Base Aug. 4.

Polychlorinated biphenyls, often called simply PCBs, are hazardous, manmade substances that were banned in the U.S. in 1977 for their potential ability to cause cancer, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Associated Press said the samples taken found PCB levels in two facilities located at the Malmstrom Air Force Base in central Montana exceeded thresholds recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/carcinogens-discovered-at-montana-nuclear-missile-base-as-area-cancer-cases-rise/ar-AA1eZ4es?apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1

Is there any reason to think workers at Faslane were not exposed to the very same carcinogens.