Rob Edwards

Time to lance Blair's plutonium boil

comment, from The Guardian, 14 May 2008

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Take the plutonium produced by nuclear power stations, mix it with uranium and make it into a new fuel for reactors to burn. Call it nuclear recycling, so that it sounds environmentally friendly.

That - or something like it - was the rationale for the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to give the go ahead in 2001 to the Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP). Costing an eventual £490 million to build, this was meant to convert Britain’s stockpile of foreign plutonium into a mixed oxide fuel for selling back to foreign customers.

Blair took the decision against the advice of his then environment minister, Michael Meacher and environmental groups. But it was a boost for the flagging nuclear industry and, in retrospect, a foretaste of the government’s current enthusiasm for a new nuclear power programme.

Pollution risk from industrial action

from Sunday Herald, 11 May 2009

Pollution could go undetected, contamination unchecked and toxic waste unscrutinised in the most serious crisis to be faced by Scotland’s official environment watchdog.

Tomorrow, staff at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) are due to begin an unprecedented campaign of industrial action which could see the environment suffer as incidents occurring outside office hours are not covered.

Concerned about the risks, SEPA’s management has made a last-minute plea for exemptions to the industrial action. This is due to be discussed at a meeting with the trade union, Unison, on Monday morning.

Ancient forest 'damaged by cycleway'

from Sunday Herald, 11 May 2008

Wildlife is being damaged by the construction of a cycleway through one of the most precious and protected natural habitats in Scotland, conservationists have warned.

Work to drive a five-kilometre track through Rothiemurchus forest in the Cairngorms National Park is putting red squirrels, wood ants and ancient Caledonian pines at risk, they say, and amounts to “environmental vandalism”.

But this is disputed by the three public agencies who are overseeing the cycleway. They insist that the damage is “minimal” and that the project will bring long term gains.

New evidence of child cancer rises near nuclear plants

from Sunday Herald, 04 May 2008

Children living near nuclear plants run a higher risk of getting cancer, according to three major new studies by scientists from Germany and the US.

The studies have re-ignited the decades-old debate over whether radiation leaking from nuclear power and weapons sites increases the incidence of childhood leukaemia in the surrounding area.

Experts say that the new evidence greatly strengthens the case for releasing a detailed breakdown of leukaemia rates amongst children in the south west of Scotland to help find out if they have suffered from nuclear pollution.

The wrong kind of waste hampers composting

from Sunday Herald, 04 May 2008

One in ten of the wheelie bins collected for composting end up being dumped on landfill sites because they are contaminated with the wrong kind of waste.

The latest figures from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) reveal that nearly 33,000 tonnes of waste collected for composting by local authorities were disposed of as landfill in 2005-06.

According to SEPA and local councils, this is because the waste is contaminated with plastic, tree trunks and other items that can’t be composted. They are urging members of the public to be more careful about what they put in organic bins.