Yesterday’s Independent on Sunday carried a report on the intentions of the Ministry of Defence to go ahead and remove low level radioactive waste [LLW] from redundant nuclear submarines parked up at the two bases.
There are eight such submarines at Devonport, on the south coast at Plymouth; and seven at Rosyth in Fife.
Rosyth has the four Polaris submarines, Resolution, Renown, Revenge and Repulse. These were retired between 1992 and 1996, with Repulse the last to be made redundant.
Rosyth is also host to three hunter killer submarines including Dreadnought, the UK’s first nuclear-powered submarine. Another is Swiftsure, the first of her class of six, now all retired and superceded by the Trafalgar class hunter-killer submarines, both classes being replaced by the new Astute class. We are uncertain of the identity of the third retired hunter killer at Rosyth. It is either Sovereign or Spartan, probably the latter.
The age of the retired nuclear submarines is an issue – with Rosyth host to the oldest, Dreadnought, taken out of service back in 1980.
The redundant submarines stored at Rosyth bring a substantial but undisclosed income to the yard – which is contracted out to a private company, Babcock.
The Independent has seen minutes of the Submarine Dismantling Project Advisory Group, which reveal:
- ‘uncertainty running to several decades’ over the establishment of a long term, geologically sound, disposal facility for for submarine reactors and other irradiated waste. This is vaguely slated for ‘sometime after 2040′;
- ‘early removal of low level waste’ is nevertheless being proposed for Rosyth and Devonport;
- expert advisers are aware that the risk of taking such action before proper storage facilities are available, risks Rosyth and Devonport – both near major centres of population – becoming waste storage areas ‘by default’.
When the low level waste – material including equipment – is removed from the old subs, it has to go somewhere. Since there is nowhere appropriate for it to go, it is unlikely to leave the bases in question – hence the risk of their becoming radioactive waste dumps ‘by default’.
During public consultations in 2011 – confirmed in the MoD response in the document linked at the foot of this article – , residents near both bases are said to have been assured by the MoD that there would be no dismantling activity until permanent storage sites had been chosen – which is clearly decades away and which has now apparently been set aside.
The well known independent analyst, John Large, is quoted as saying that he doesn’t see how it would be possible ‘to separate some of the low level and intermediate level waste components’ – which would mean that the waste stored at the bases would be, to some degree, of a higher level of risk.
Large also provides the information that any decommissioning activity sees the opening of the containment area for the submarine’s reactor compartment – which itself is a further risk of the accidental release of radioactive material.
The Independent has now identified HMS Swiftsure – at Rosyth – as the first redundant submarine that will have her reactor core removed.
The MoD had earlier announced that submarine dismantling would be ‘put to the test at Rosyth’ – now we know that this will be with Swiftsure – with local MPs for Devonport welcoming this announcement.
This ‘test’ will see ‘removing all radioactive waste from a single nuclear-powered submarine at Rosyth’ – and then using this experience as a template for the decommissioning of the rest.
However, Rosyth will only dismantle the seven submarines currently stored there. All other decommissioning- of ots present cargo and into the future, will be done at Devonport.
The MoD has said that priority will be given to clearing the seven submarines currently at Rosyth, while ‘this does not preclude the potential for parallel work in Devonport [Ed: our emphasis], it does mean that, with Rosyth’s old vessels the first to be cut up, that base is much more likely to become the repository of radioactive waste material.
By the time they get to Devonport’s stock – on a 60 year decommissioning programe of what will be a total 27 redundant submarines, permanent geologically secure storage facilities should be ready to take the waste.
The MoD has told the Independent that those working on the planned decommissioning will have their exposure to radiation kept to what ‘can be shown to be as low as reasonably practicable’.
Defence Minister, Philip Dunne, has said that consultation will start next year 2014 and that the Rosyth pilot will not go ahead until a storage site has been identified.
Rosyth’s redundant submarines
The Resolution class: The four Resolution-class Polaris submarines, all lying at Rosyth, came into being as the outcome of the so-called Skybolt crisis in the early days of John Kennedy’s US presidency in the early 1960s. Skybolt was a free fall nuclear bomb launched from an aircraft, a system which the Kennedy administration saw as already outdated, with the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles {ICBMs]. The Americans were becoming more anxious about Britain possessing an independently controlled nuclear deterrent , thinking that we might pull them into a nuclear war. They were therefore pushing for a ‘dual key’ deterrent, which would effectively have given them a veto on the UK system. The Prime Minister of the day Harold Macmillan announced his determination to see Britain remain in independent control of its weaponry – and the outcome was that the USA went for submarine delivered ICBMs, Britain got the Polaris warheads and developed its submarines to carry them. Revenge, the newest of the four, retired first in 1992. Resolution, the first and class leader, was retired in 1994; Renown and Repulse went in that order in 1996.
The Dreadnought: A on-off, Dreadnought, the first of Britain’s nuclear submarines [and with a classic 'whale' shape], was withdrawn from service in 1980. She is now laid up in afloat storage at Rosyth until she can be safely disposed under the auspices of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD)’s Submarine Dismantling Project (SDP). Her nuclear fuel has been removed but much of her interior remains intact. She was docked down during 2012 for her periodic hull inspection and re-preservation.
The Swifture class: Two Swiftsures are lying at Rosyth. Swiftsure, the first and the class leader, was launched in 1971 and decommissioned in 1992 because of damage suffered to her pressure hull during trials – although a submariner serving aboard her disputes this. An informal entry on Wikipedia here, says: ‘Having served on HMS Swiftsure for several years AND took it to Rosyth for disposal, I have no recollection of any damage to the pressure hull during trials. We completed sea trails and work-up and headed for Rosyth for refit, after a partial refit the decision came to scrap HMS Swiftsure.’ The Swiftsure class were marked by problems with their reactors. Sovereign, second in the class, was the submarine famous for surfacing at the geographical North Pole on 20th December 1976. Spartan ran aground somewhere on Scotland’s west coast in 1989, neither the first nor the last to do so. The seventh redundant submarine at Rosyth is either Sovereign or Spartan.
Here is a document - Item_7.16_Nuclear_Submarines_Dismantaling_at_Rosyth-1 [Nuclear Submarine Dismantling at Rosyth: Ministry Of Defence Response to Consultation] which was considered on 4th June 2013 by Edinburgh City Council’s Transport and Environment Committee. Note that some of the timelines and assurances given in this response appear to have been superceded by the information in the minutes of the Submarine Dismantling Project Advisory Group, seen by The Independent.
