The SNP Government has pledged to lift a Ministry of Defence (MoD) exemption on radioactivity to give more power to Scottish environmental officials to inspect military nuclear sites.
Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead made the announcement yesterday in a statement on an incident at the UK Government’s Vulcan Nuclear Reactor Test Establishment at Dounreay.
Mr Lochhead is planning to use the new Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 to remove MoD immunity from regulation by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).
He described the Crown exemption as a “historic anomaly”, which means that Sepa’s powers only extend to the area around the Vulcan facility, but not within the site itself. The MoD detected low levels of radioactivity emanating from a microscopic breach in HMS Vanguard’s reactor at the Caithness submarine test-bed in January 2012.
The reactor was deactivated for 10 months but the Scottish Government was only recently informed, prompting claims of a “cover-up” from the SNP.
Mr Lochhead said: “The secrecy and lack of transparency in this case is an abuse of the Crown exemption. Sepa can regulate and enforce action on radioactivity across the whole of the nation except for the areas covered by MoD establishments.
“That is a flawed and historic anomaly which has been of concern for some time, however the latest incident and the culture of secrecy surrounding it are the final straw. By removing Crown exemption Sepa will be able to regulate all of Scotland and in this situation they would have had the power to demand action was taken rather than the MoD being able to withhold vital information.”
John Ainslie, co-ordinator of Scottish CND said he “warmly welcomed” the proposal last night.
He added: “The MoD’s gagging of Sepa and the Office for Nuclear Regulation shows that the current arrangement is unsatisfactory and unsafe.”
However, Conservative MSP Mary Scanlon said the SNP government was “scaremongering”.
She said: “Given the fact that this event is classed as zero on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s measurement scale, why are the Scottish Government raising uncertainty over the 300 highly-skilled, highly-paid jobs at HMS Vulcan in Caithness?”