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Professor John Robertson OBA
From the Daily Montanan, and covered widely across US media, today:
At a memorial service in 2022, veteran Air Force Capt. Monte Watts bumped into a fellow former Minuteman III nuclear missile operator, who told him that she had non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Watts knew other missileers with similar cancers. But the connection really hit home later that same January day, when the results of a blood test revealed that Watts himself had chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“I don’t know if it was ironic or serendipitous or what the right word is, but there it was,” Watts said.
Within the community of U.S. service members who staff nuclear missile silos scattered across the Northern Rockies and Great Plains, suspicions had long been brewing that their workplaces were unsafe. Just months after Watts was diagnosed in 2022, Lt. Col. Danny Sebeck, a former Air Force missileer who had transferred to the U.S. Space Force, wrote a brief on a potential cancer cluster among people who served at Minuteman III launch control centers on Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.
Sebeck identified 36 former workers who served primarily from 1993 to 2011 and had been diagnosed with cancer, including himself. Of those, 11 had non-Hodgkin lymphoma; three had died. The Air Force responded swiftly to Sebeck’s findings, launching a massive investigation into cancer cases and the environment at three intercontinental ballistic missile bases and a California launch facility. The goal is to complete the research by the end of 2025.
From the CND, in September 2024:
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.
Investigations by The Ferret and The National newspaper found that emissions of radioactive tritiated water vapour had doubled at the Royal Navy’s nuclear weapons storage depot at Coulport on Loch Long between 2018 and 2023. 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.
The Ferret noted that in 2019, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) “changed the rules to allow certain tritium-contaminated effluents from nuclear submarines at Faslane to be discharged into the Gareloch.” Both SEPA and the MoD claim these emissions are within official safety limits.
However Dr Ian Fairlie, CND’s science advisor, states that these limits are unreliable, as official estimated doses from tritium contain “large uncertainties.”
CND General Secretary Sophie Bolt said:
“From faulty nuclear-armed subs on dangerously extended patrols to crumbling nuclear waste sites, Britain’s nuclear industry is putting us all at great risk. Instead of enforcing the highest levels of environmental standards, the government is just redefining what ‘acceptable risk’ means. All so it can allow the dumping of radioactive water, putting local people at greater risk of cancer. This is beyond reckless. It’s time to scrap Trident and its replacement, and decommission the nuclear industry.” https://cnduk.org/radioactive-pollution-is-increasing-at-britains-nuclear-bases/
At the same time Cancer incidence in the under-50s has dramatically increased.
From the Health Foundation in September 2024:
Growing numbers of adults under 50 years [more likely to be exposed at work, in education or outdoor recreation including swimming than over 50s] are experiencing a cancer diagnosis (often known as early or young-onset cancer).
This is a developing field, but evidence is mounting that rates of young-onset cancer incidence are increasing, particularly in high-income countries in the global north. A study looking at global trends focusing on 29 types of cancer in people aged 14–49 years, found incidence of these cancers increased by around 79% between 1990 and 2019, with around 3.3 million cases globally in 2019 and countries in more economically developed regions particularly affected.
In the UK, cancer incidence rates among people aged 25–49 years increased by roughly 22% between 1993–95 and 2016–18 (while incidence rates among those aged 75 years and older increased by around 9%). https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/blogs/rising-cancer-incidence-in-younger-adults-what-is-going-on
Scottish Labour is, of course, committed to the Trident programme.
No doubt, someone will blame the locals for smoking-induced lung cancer but but smoking rates have been in steep decline for decades:
Smoking prevalence is similar in males and females, with a decline observed in both sexes over time; from 2003 to 2021, prevalence fell from 28% to 11% in females and from 29% to 12% in males. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancer-incidence-in-scotland/cancer-incidence-in-scotland-to-december-2021/
The big C Cancer is the main risk from humans ingesting tritium.
Finally on the tritium now being dumped in the Clyde in billions of units. From Scientific American in 2014:
The big C Cancer is the main risk from humans ingesting tritium. When tritium decays it spits out a low-energy electron (roughly 18,000 electron volts) that escapes and slams into DNA, a ribosome or some other biologically important molecule. And, unlike other radionuclides, tritium is usually part of water, so it ends up in all parts of the body and therefore can, in theory, promote any kind of cancer.
Some evidence suggests the kind of radiation emitted by tritium—a so-called beta particle—is actually more effective at causing cancer than the high-energy radiation such as gamma rays, even though skin can block a beta particle. The theory is that the low-energy electron actually produces a greater impact because it doesn’t have the energy to travel as far and spread its impact out. At the end of its atomic-scale trip it delivers most of its ionizing energy in one relatively confined track rather than shedding energy all along its path like a higher-energy particle. This is known as density of ionization, and has been shown with the similar form of radiation called an alpha particle.
Ionization is what makes radiation dangerous for human health. Essentially, the radioactive particle smashes into the atom or molecule and pushes out an electron or other particle, leaving that atom or molecule in a charged or ionized state. These charged molecules can then cause other damage as they interact with other atoms and molecules. That includes damage to DNA, genes and other cellular mechanisms. Over time this DNA instability results in a higher chance of cancer. As a result, scientists work under the assumption that any amount of radiation poses a health risk. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-radioactive-hydrogen-in-drinking-water-a-cancer-threat/
Scottish Labour is, of course, committed to the Trident programme.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Also in September 2025 and talking “Nuclear”……..
Conflict of Interest klaxon………..
Brian Wilson (another former UK politcian who has -too many- Irons in – too many- fires) had written an article for The Herald stating:
“The Scottish government must end it’s ‘stupid’ opposition to Nuclear Power”
Then Bella Caledonia posted this on ‘X’ on 25 September 2025:
“Great to see Brian Wilson jump aboard the nuclear lobby. In October 2005, he was appointed non-executive director of AMEC Nuclear Holdings Ltd. The announcement boasted that the firm is the UK’s largest private nuclear services business”.
So then he, Wilson, would say that wouldn’t he…about the Scottish government and Nuclear….as he, Wilson, once had a vested interest in “Nuclear”….so you would be “stupid” to not see a former conflict of interest in his current opinion upon this.
The BBC once wrote this in an article on their website in May 2007…….when Tony Blair was UK PM.
“Labour and the Nuclear Lobby” it was written by Brian Wheeler, a political reporter, at the BBC (so not BBC Scotland and not written recently).
“Most industries and large organisations, including the BBC, use lobbyists. They are often former ministers or senior journalists, who have contacts in government and offer advice on how to influence policy”.
“There are certainly no shortage of links between the nuclear industry and the New Labour establishment. Former energy minister Brian Wilson is now a non-executive director of Amec Nuclear, a client of BNFL, the government-owned nuclear reactor operator. Since 2004, BNFL has used lobbyists Weber Shandwick to help it push the case for new nuclear plants”……..
“French energy giant EDF has also been at the forefront of the campaign to change perceptions of nuclear power . The company, which operates 58 nuclear reactors in France and is already a big player in the UK electricity market, has said it is ready to invest in a new generation of plants in the UK, provided it gets the go-ahead from government”
“It has successfully lobbied ministers to introduce a fast-track planning process to make it easier to build new plants without lengthy public enquiries”
“Chancellor Gordon Brown’s brother, Andrew, is EDF’s head of media relations in the UK”
“Yvette Cooper, housing and planning minister, and wife of Mr Brown’s closest political ally Ed Balls, also has links to the nuclear industry”
“Her father, ex-trade union official Tony Cooper, is the former chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association, and is currently a director of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority He has been one of the most vocal champions of the industry’s green credentials”
“One of the most well-connected nuclear lobbyists is Alan Donnelly, former leader of the Labour group in the European Parliament. Mr Donnelly’s company, Sovereign Strategy, represents US engineering giant Fluor, one of the world’s biggest nuclear contractors, which is currently vying for a slice of the UK’s £70bn nuclear clean-up market – but like other US firms, such as Bechtel, also has an eye on future nuclear build”
(There was even a Peter Mandelson connection in this article too “The industry has tried to clean up its act since 1998’s cash-for-access scandal, which saw Peter Mandelson’s spin doctor Derek Draper fired over his links with lobbyists, but it remains controversial”).
However back to Brian Wilson, and really we should ask how many people reading that recent article in The Herald would know of his former involvement in the “Nuclear”… ‘business’…..as in that his own self interest would come before a pretend ‘public’ interest……..what was he paid for that role as non Executive Director?…………
Always follow the money….that then tells you why so many certain individuals ‘say what they say’….not for our benefit but purely for what was, and in some cases still is, their own financial benefit and also for those that they act FOR. (and who also then themselves financially benefit from decisions that are made by governments for their Industry).
He , Wilson, should own up to his former “Nuclear” connection….or shut up.
However the media will lap it up….as in yet another contrived #SNPBAD……from someone (Wilson) who we all know supports the opposition …as he himself was once part of that opposition aka the Labour Party…..
So his, Wilson’s, “Nuclear” opinions are somewhat compromised….not just on this , as in respect to his own former personal involvement as a “non-executive director of AMEC Nuclear Holdings Ltd” in a announcement that boasted that this “firm is the UK’s largest private nuclear services business”……….
Companies House shows this:
Brian Wilson was still ‘active’ as a “Director of Wood Finance UK Ltd” up to March 2014 ( who were formerly Wood Nuclear Holding Ltd , also formerly known as AMEC Foster Wheeler Nuclear Holdings Ltd, also formerly known as AMEC Nuclear Holdings Ltd and also NNC Holdings Ltd).
But Wilson is also politically compromised in his connection to the Labour party (as a former Labour MP and also as a former Labour Energy Minister) and so he is hardly one who will endorse or encourage any positive opinions towards the SNP, either as a party or as the Scottish government….especially on “Nuclear”.
The public need to join the dots to see what lies behind most of Brian Wilson’s opinion pieces …..
I mean it’s hardly ‘secret information’ that Wilson was once a Labour politician , so as one (still) in opposition to the SNP, then surely his position is one that always seeks to oppose them………the SNP. (however is it ‘secret information’ that Wilson was once connected to a business involved in Nuclear power….or is Wilson and also The Herald not willing to be forthcoming upon this fact.. that Wilson was once connected to ‘Nuclear’ as a non- executive Director of a Nuclear services Business) ?
Opposition – meaning “resistance or dissent, expressed in action or argument”….
Similar to “opposition” is hostility, antagonism, antipathy and enmity……that then surely puts his, Wilosn’s, opinion pieces into perspective…does it not !
Indeed we are often witness to Brian Wilson going full “Nuclear” on the SNP in some of his (too many) #SNPBAD articles in The Herald…..as it seems to be that his unrelenting opposition to them , the SNP, knows no bounds…..limitless in their repetition (Yawn).
Also this site, TUS, wrote a piece recently in June 2025 entitled:
“The dark Brian Wilson allowed to challenge SNP universalism on winter fuel allowance in a typically under-educated manner”
So look…it seems as if he, Wilson, is at it again as is The Herald…. now in September 2025…as in the same Brian Wilson via the exact same source too….as in The Herald.
Rinse and repeat….a well used formula …..in what they , pro UK types, like Brian Wilson and The Herald, assume is the best way for Labour to try to defeat ….the SNP…..as in those they regard as the ‘opposition’ to them.
However Labour HQ now seem to be doing their best to stop any future defeat happening…...to the SNP by Labour (though the current BBC in Scotland are doing their bit to help Labour….as they , as a broadcaster, choose to reinforce the rinse and repeat #SNPBAD messaging from Labour in Scotland and Labour HQ)………
Hopefully more voters in Scotland will now be more enlightened ……aka ‘clued up’.
Liz S
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I hears Nandy say it was not the ‘Brit Card’so what happened to the link below also BBC Scotland blaming the FM,
https://www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/britcard
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Scotland had no choice or input regarding the site of a nuclear base. If and when wee get independance can we (a) Claim a charge for repatration for the miss use of our land and (b) shut it down and have a nuclear free navy base instead.
Regards John Hay
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