Leukaemia Clusters

Poisoned Pacific -contents Torness: The Waste Remains 3 Comment Inquiry report biassed against With the completion of Rosalie Bertell's speaking objectors by Steve Martin News 4-7 tour to promote her book NO IMMEDIATE DAN­ NPT- No Peace Tomorrow (4) 8 GER, it is perhaps time to review the campaign Nuclear power and non-proliferation on the health effects of low level radiation. The by Jos Gallacher interest generated by Rosalie Bertell was remini­ Campaigning on Clusters 9-10 scent of that which followed the tour by Helen The Campaign on radiation and Caldicott in October 1980 - the Caldicott tour leukaemia in Severnside by Jo Worsnip helped spawn the Medical Campaign Against Radhealth Campaign 1G-11 Nuclear Weapons in this country. The background to the radiation The issue of radiation and health concerns and health campaign by Tony Webb us all; it represents another link between nuclear Rosalie Bertell speaks out 12-13 power and nuclear weapons campaigning; it is An interview with the Radhealth a way of involving the industrial and medical campaigner by Elizabeth Burns workers• organisations; and it can give nuclear Radwaste and ENSEC 14-15 free zones a platform on which to make a stand. Under seabed burial proposals The leak from Windscale in October 1983 and by Don Arnott the Yorkshire TV documentary which prompted Radwaste- Poison for the Pacific 15-16 the Black Report"have made a key issue of rad­ The nuclear threat to the Pacific health. The identification of 'clusters• of leuk­ Peoples by Steve Martin aemia cases close to nuclear installations has Computerised Coal Mines 17 intensified the opposition to nuclear power, de­ The threat of new technology in spite industry statements of 'within the realms the pits by Pete Roche of statistical probability' and •undetectable above Tidal Power- A Reply 18-19 normal background'. The case for the Severn Barrage We have set aside five pages in this issue for by Or Tom Shaw radhealth campaigns: a description of the cam­ Appropriate Technology 2G-21 paign in the south west; a discussion of the issues Reviews 22-23 at stake; and an interview with Rosalie B~rtell Diary, Little Black Rabbit 24. and a review of her book. The strands of these articles should be brought together at the 'Med­ Jos Gallacher is a freelance researcher on pro­ ical Effects of Low Level Radiation' Conference liferation issues. in Gloucester on June 15/16th. A report of that Tony Webb works with the Trades Union Radi­ Conference will appear in the next SCRAM. ation and Health Information Service. Jo Worsnip is a member of the Severnside Cam­ paign Against Radiation Elizabeth Bums is a member of Edinburgh Books Frank Cook M.P. Collective. House of Commons Don Amott is a former Consultant to the Inter­ Westminster national Atomic Energy Agency. London SWJA OAA Pete Roche is a memberof Edinburgh Draught Proofing Co-operative. Dear Campaigners, 1 write belatedly to record my deep appreciation of the Dr Tom Shaw works with Robert McAipine & support and encouragement offered to the community of Bill­ Sons Ltd. ingham in its struggle to oppose the NIREX suggestion that radio active waste should be stored in the disused anhydrite This magazine is produced for the British Anti-Nuclear anct mine below the town. Safe Energy movements by the Scottish Campaign to Resist The community campaign was a long and arduous one, but the Atomic Mer~aee (SCRAM). the hardship experienced merely made the eventual victory. SCRAM, 11 Forth Street. l:dinburgh EH 1 3LE. so much more magnificent. This sustained effort, crowned Tel: 031 557 4283/11. by final triumph, would not have been possible had it not been Editor: Steve Martin for the backing offered so willingly by you and people like you. Layout: Wilf Plum Billingham will be eternallly grateful. Typesetting: Rosie Bell News Editor: George Baxter Yours sincerely, Reviews Editor: Rosie Bell Frank Cook ISSN 0140 7340 Bi-monthly. House of Commons Deadline for next issue - articles, 5th July, news, 12th July. 2 SCRAM Journal June 185/July '85 ""'TJISCHARGEO FLASK

DANGER- 80001 .!~; 0 0 S 4 CLASS 7 llllo.. -*::--1-"-l~.::.. Torness ~The Waste Remains D "' ~· The first part of the Report of last year's safety and radiological risk brought to Torness spent fuel transport Inquiry has the Reporter's attention by ELDC, very been published. (An earlier draft was few were eventually included in the a­ released for comment by the Scottish mended Report. The Sandia Laboratory Office Inquiry Reporters Unit in March.) experimental work on flask integrity per­ The draft contained a large number of formed in the US and presented to the errors, but many of the comments re­ Sizewell Inquiry was cited in the draft ceived by George Maycock, the Principal as if to prove the Torness spent fuel Reporter who presided over the Inquiry transport would be safe. This work con­ at 0181bar in October, referred to omis­ cerned a more robust flask, of a differ­ accident occurring. Nevertheless, the sions. Most of the complaints have been ent shape and casing and for carriage Reporter saw no reason to amend the ignored as 'outside the scope of the in­ of a different type of fuel, and hence paragraph. Such a vital omiSSIOn quiry'. reference to it In the Findings of Fact prompted ELDC to note: 'Such a state­ One of the main objections of the is irrelevant and misleading. The para­ ment does not fill the District Council Report is that of procedure - a complaint graph was amended to include: 'The with confidence with regard to the im­ which arose several times during the In­ flasks used were of a different design partiality of the Report'. quiry and the period running up to it. to the AG R flasks to be used in connec­ Much emphasis was placed at the In­ lt appears that some of the objecting tion with Torness, but otherwise com­ quiry on earlier discussion of spent fuel parties failed to receive a copy of the plied with IAEA regulations.' (14.46) transport. Mr Justice Parker's Windscale draft report: the Fire Brigades Union, The Reporter chose to Illustrate the Report of 1977 was cited: 'spent nuclear the National Union of Public Employees, period in which the fatal whole body dose fuel (transport to Windscale) was exam­ the Tyneside Anti Nuclear Campaign ined in course of the Windscale Inquiry' and the Scottish Ecology party (as well and the Inspector 'found that he was sat­ as numerous individual objectors) were isfied on the evidence that it created therefore excluded from the initial con­ "no significant risk" '· (14.9) The Wind­ sultation process. SCRAM's copy of the scale Inquiry did not examine in detail draft was sent to the home of the indi­ the consequence of a flask accident and vidual representative at the Inquiry in­ not a single calculation of consequence stead of the office, despite our address was presented to the Inquiry. According being on all our proofs of evidence. to ELDC, this represents finding on the lt could be argued that in the inter­ strength of 'incomplete or ill-considered ests of economy, distribution of the 150 knowledge'. page draft should be limited, but a short letter to all objectors informing them Government Policy that the draft was lodged in a public building and available for consultation Because of the on-going Sizewell B and comment before the deadline is the Inquiry at the time, Mr Maycock wrote least that one could have expected. in his preamble that it would be 'point­ less and presumptive' to 'examine and Serious Criticism analyse that being undertaken' at that . The Report itself raises many import­ Inquiry despite the difference in the de­ ant questions. Of more than 20 sign of the fuel flasks under considera­ comments raised by East Lothian Dis­ tion. He does point out to Mr Younger trict Council (ELDC), the principal ob­ that 'consideration of any adjustment jector, only 4 have been incorporated to adopted national policy' will be into the final form of part 1 of the Re­ founded on evidence heard at Sizewell. port's so-called Findings of Fact. Mr So, the Sizewell Report may be useful Maycock will now consider the evidence to the Scottish Secretary in making his and submit his Report, along with his decision. But Mr Maycock's recommend­ reasonings and conclusions (part 2), to would be received from a ations to him will probably be formulated George Younger, the Secretary of State totally-collapsed flask as 80 hours by before the Sizewell Report is published. for Scotland, for his decision. The de­ referring to only one distance from the Also, Mr Maycock describes Central cision is not expected for some months source- SO'm. He was compelled to add, Government policy as being one of re­ yet. 'reducing at a distance of 3.3m to 18 processing commercial reactor spent In his Findings of Fact Mr Maycock minutes' (14.48) following strong repre­ fuel at Windscale, despite the fact that seemed to be mesmerised by the Inter­ sentation by ELDC and the Fire Brigades the facility to perform this work - national Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Union (after it was brought to their at­ THORP (Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Regulations and included no mention of tention by the Council). Plant) - is at least seven years from experts' fears that these are inadequate, These adjustments are what the con­ completion, and the commercial treat­ or that US regulations are more strict. sultation period was for, it is true, but ment of Tomess-type spent fuel has yet Whilst admitting that 'slight surface con­ what about those objectors who did not to be successfully demonstrated. More­ tamination of fuel flasks is receive the draft report and hence were over, the murmurings from the House commonplace' (14.33) the Reporter ig­ unable to make any comment? Moreover, of Commons Environment Select Com­ nored that, even within IAEA limits, con­ what about the comments which the Re­ mittee's investigation into nuclear waste tamination may reach a significant level porter chose to ignore? management are expressing real doubts over a long period. Nowhere does the Paragraph 14.41 states: 'To date no about the whole issue of reprocessing Findings of Fact note that objectors CEGB or SSEB nuclear fuel flask has re­ and waste disposal. Is it possible that feels that more stringent limits should ceived damage in a rail accident'. lt was Mr Younger's decision on Torness can be applied. shown at the Inquiry that flasks were be taken in a vacuum? Of the serious criticisms on flask damaged whilst in transit despite no rail Steve Martin SCRAM Journal June •as/ July •as 3 1Radwaste Por

The House of Commons Select Commit­ uranium has fallen by over SO%, and dur­ rently wet-stored at Windscale should tee on the Environment has been taking ing the last ten, the unit reprocessing be reprocessed at best pending a evidence from interested parties on ra­ price has increased by a factor of ten. complete halt to reprocessing. dioactive waste policy. The nuclear in­ There is now general consensus that a 4 Current inventories of LLW and ILW dustry's representatives have given evi­ switch to a breeder reactor on should be stored at nuclear facilities dence, as have some environmental fuel-supply grounds is unlikely to be ne­ for an indefinite period. groups. cessary before 2025 AD. This has been 5 Contracts for the reprocessing of The following are extracts from the confirmed by recent comments from Sir foreign spent nuclear fuel should be Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace Waiter Marshal!, chairman of CEGB for terminated. submissions. the Select Committee. 6 Radiation exposure limits for the FoE energy Campaigner, Stewart population should be reduced from FoE•s summary Boyle, stated at a public meeting in Exe­ 500 mrems to 25 mrems. The current proposals for land dis­ ter where local people are concerned 7 The UK should adopt a position at posal are lacking in scientific and over the Lyme Bay area being used as the upcoming Consultative meeting technical justification and are based a dumping ground, 'No further nuclear of the London Dumping Convention more on political decisions. power stations should be built unless it of support for a continued ban on the 2 Large volumes of additional radioac­ can be shown beyond doubt that radio­ sea-dumping of nuclear wastes. tive waste are being created at Wind­ active wastes can be stored, transported 8 The Government should announce scale. The reprocessing of thermal­ and disposed of in a safe and publicly an abandoning of any plans to dispose oxide spent fuel has no justification acceptable manner. This is not the posi­ of nuclear waste in favour of storage on economic or waste management tion at present.' in a monitorable and retrievable con­ grounds, and is merely compounding dition. the nuclear waste problem. Greenpeace•s recommendations 9 The UK should withdraw from the 3 The storage of spent fuel is an im­ activities of the Seabed Working portant and viable alternative to re­ The reprocessing of spent nuclear Group. processing and the disposal of radio­ fuel should be terminated. (Green­ 10 In order to facilitate the long-term active wastes. peace is already preparing a report consequences of such steps as out­ 4 A number of important categories on alternative job structures in Cum­ lined above, the Government should of radioactive waste have received bria to show that reliance on Wind­ plan now for a non-nuclear energy insufficient attention from the nuc­ scale as the major employer in the strategy for the UK and should begin lear industry. These include wastes area is not feasible in the long-term phasing out nuclear plants in favour arising from the decommissioning and that a diversion of capital into of a more decentralised system based of nuclear plant. more labour-intensive industries is on low-sulphur coal burning together 5 The Institutions which currently ad­ feasible and desirable.) with other fossil fuels coupled with minister and control the production 2 Spent Magnox fuel destined for re­ a stringent energy conservation pro­ and management of radioactive processing at Windscale should be gramme. The long-term goal should wastes do not command public long-term, dry-stored at the site of be to develop a mixed energy stra­ respect at present. Changes will be origin. tegy based on renewable sources aug­ required in these if public accepta­ 3 In the short term, in order to comply mented by fossil fuel burning. bility towards radioactive waste is with the Paris Commission undertak­ The Committee, chaired by Sir Hugh to improve. ing, reprocessing should be suspended Rossi, has also taken evidence at Wind­ The Department of Energy (DoEn) at Windscale until technology which scale, Oldbury Magnox power station, are singled out for heavy criticism over can ensure 'technically zero' and Dounreay. Members of the Commit­ the policy of reprocessing: 'In terms of discharges is installed by the end of tee are to visit France, Germany, the justifying this (policy] the DoEn have 1986. Emergency dry-storage facili­ US and Canada. been notable for their absence,' says the ties for Magnox fuel should be con­ Contacts: FoE 01 837 0731 (Stewart Boyle) ~ubmission. FoE research has indicated structed pending such installation. Greenpeace 01 251 3020 (George that in the past six years, the price of The inventory of Magnox fuel cur- Pritchard)

Tuesday,25thJune1985 THE FUTURE ,.PERSPECTIVES FOR THE ELECTRICITY SUPPLY INDUSTRY• F Wednesday, 26th June 1985 0 T H E ..~~~~S~!ABIUTYANDTHEPUBUC ELECTRICITY Thursday, 27th June 1985 .. DEMOCRATIC CONTROL" FEE £75.00 (Associate Members £65.00) A DISCUSSION SUPPLY Concessionary rate for individuals, students, etc. Accommodation available at the Polytechnic's Hall of CONFERENCE Residence, dose to the conference site. I N D U ST RV Further details from: "THE STRUCTURE OF THE ELECTRICITY SUPPlY INDUSTRY• Ms. Chris Richards, Peter Rost, MP (Member of the Select Committee on Energy) Centre for Energy Studies, "THE MANAGERIAL DIMENSION• Polytechnic of the South Bank, John Baker (Executive Board, Central Electricity Generating Board) Borough Road, London SE1. •GUIDEUNES FOR THE FUTURE OF THE ELECJUCJTY SUPPlY INDUSTRY• 01·928 8989 ext 2399 25th-27th June 1985 The Rt. Hon. David Howell, MP "THE ENERGY POUCY OF THE TRADES UNION CONGREss• at Polytechnic of the South Bank Callaghan (Secretary, Economic Department, Trades Union Congress) •coAL AND THE FUTURE OF THE ELECRICITY SUPPI. Y INDUSTRY• Peter Heathfield (General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers) "THE ELECTRICITY SUPPlY INDUSTRY AND SOCIAL CHANGE• Jonathan Porritt (Director, Friends of the Earth) Centre for Energy Studies and many others 4 SCRAM Journal June 18S/July '85 I Nuclear Transport-Asbestos News1 The Ministry of Defence's plan to trans­ port 300,000 tons of asbestos from the .· ..... former ship breaking yard at Faslane .. ·~. to the Lanarkshie village of Glenboig ...•...... Nhas understandably come up against .... fierce opposition. The 62 acre site is : • planned to be used for berthing Trident ... ~.~::·~·~?;f.:·; submarines. 0 Dumbarton District Council has An attempted ban by the Panamanian served a notice on the MoD requiring the asbestos by covering it 'then it should Government on nuclear transports the area to be covered with crushed be done•. A similar operation has already through the Panama Canal could have stone and topsoil then seeded with grass. been successfully performed at Washing­ serious consequences for BNFL. All ship­ The notice was served under the. Scottish ton New Town in County Durham. ments of nuclear spent/nuclear fuel from Public Health Act of 1897 and the Coun­ Monklands District Council, the local Japan to Windscale currently pass cil accepts that it would mean that de­ authority responsible for the licensed through the Canal - 16 transits per year. velopment of the site would be imposs­ tip at Glenboig decided at a meeting on If Panama can impose its ban, then the ible. A spokesperson said: 'The safest May 22nd to block the dumping. They ships will have to take the much longer, method of dealing with this asbestos is will ask Shanks McEwen, the company more expensive, and arguably more haz­ the one we are requiring them to carry who will be carrying out the dumping, ardous route around the Horn. out, which would render the land sterile, to suspend work until the Scottish Sec­ Panam·a has complained to British, but would mean it could not be disturbed retary orders a public inquiry. If Shanks French, Japanese and American Govern­ for construction work.' refuses they will take steps to invoke ments about the practice, and particu­ Or Douglas Bell, former medical di­ the dumping licence. Local people were larly objected to an alleged passage rector of the Health and Safety Execu­ delighted when they heard the news and through the Canal on the night of 19th tive (Scotland), agrees. Addressing the cheered enthusiastically. April by a British ship 'with radio-active third annual congress of the Royal En­ Both Dumbarton and Monklands Dis­ materials destined for somewhere in the vironmental Health Institute on May trict Councils are Nuclear Free Zones. Western United States'. Britain maintains 22nd, Or Bell stated that he was against A fuller account of the controversial that the only British ship carrying a nuc­ wholesale removal of asbestos but be­ proposals will appear in the next issue lear cargo which passed through the Can­ lieved that if it was possible to contain of SCRAM. al recently was the Pacific Swan carry­ Scotsman 23.5.15 ing 20 flasks of depleted uranium from Japan to Windscale on the night of 23rd/24th April. The 1977 basic treaty on the opera­ tion of the Canal protects its neutrality and Panama claims that the nuclear transports through it threatens that neu­ trality. Although the Treaty does not apparently restrict nuclear cargoes, it is possible that the passage of hazardous cargoes at night may be limited. BNFL denies there is any danger when its ship­ ments pass through the Canal. Daily Telegraph 2.5.85

fHEDARI:l'r Designed to hnlSt 'P"'-l' hc;tn q~ onlv '11 with 3 lJlcr. fired hy lltn:-,r fuel> Ihe firesprov1dc such qualnw~ ,~>durability, cffinency and cconorm·, that will prove both a comforr to y~mr home and your fuel

hilk .· 11 j l I . We are stunned by the response we have for tu ucta1 ~ s 10wmg our received to our adverts in the Guardian complete rangv of multi-fuel stoves and Sco~sman looking for a second paid please contact our dealer below or lSO worker for the Journal. Over people wntc dm~ct to the Coalbrookdalc contacted us for more Information. Company There is still time before the 8th June deadline to apply. The job includes general office ad­ ministration, library work and Journal production (researching, writing, editing etc). The successful applicant must be able to work collectively, and a know­ ledge of office systems and energy issues 50 ST MARYS ST. EDINBURGH. 031-556-9812. is preferred. Apply to SCRAM, 11 Forth THE BEST OF SAFE AND RELIABLE TECHNOLOGY Street, Edinburgh (031 557 4283). SCRAM Journal June '85/July '85 5 1Dounreay lt was announced on 24th May in the House of Commons by Alistair Goocland Mr Blumfield the Director of Dounreay The Department of the Environment MP that the UKAEA and BNFL will to reassure the public of the safety of has commissioned a survey, on the behalf shortly be lodging a joint application for the plant, hardly corresponds to the de­ of the Scottish Development Depart­ the dernmlstration fast reactor reprcr­ teriorating safety standards which saw ment, to provide further information c:esslng plant for the European collabora­ a threefold increase in radiation acci­ on the levels of artificia~ radionuclides tion. This means that the Comn•'Cial dents between 1977 and 1982. This led in the environment and on the transfer Demonstration Fast Reactor will almost the Scottish Office to regard the discov­ of radioactivity from sea to land. The certainly not be coming to Dowreay. ery of radioactivity on nearby beaches study will be carried out by staff of Highly radioactive spent plutonium fuel between Nov. 1983 and March 1984 as the UKAEA Harwell laboratory along will have to be shipped to Dounreay for revealing a 'lack of control'. the Dumfries and Galloway coast, and France and Germany (the only two For the first time, opposition to is expected to last for a year initially. CDFR"s presently part of the collabora­ Dounreay has grown in Caithness itself. The results will be compared with tion) with the associated hazards of ac­ An action group has been set up after models for predicting radionuclide trans­ ddent and sabotage. a recent public meeting in Wick, to press fer and the findings will be compared Because Caithness is dominated by for a public inquiry into the extension with the 'internationally accepted limits Dounreay, the local economy will col­ of the reprocessing facility. Some 100 for radionuclides in the environment, lapse if they can't get the contract. lt letters expressing concern at possible and with internationally recommended is thus hardly surprising that in the run radioactive discharges have been sent standards of radiological safety' accord­ up to the decision lobbying has intens­ to the Government, and it is hoped to ing to the Scottish Office Press Release. ified: a deputation from the Highland enlist support of local politicians. The Seems OK? Well, it would be if the Regional Council visited the Dept. of Alliance between the Liberals and the parameters of the survey were not what Energy on 17.4.85., the SDP MP for SDP has already broken in the area with they are. Michael Ancram MP, Minister Caithness and Sutherland, Robert Mac­ Robert Maclennan refusing to sign a par­ for Home Affairs and the Environment lennan has written to the PM urging that liamentary early day motion of opposi­ at the Scottish Office, commented when the future of the nuclear industry be as­ tion to the Dounreay reprocessing plant the survey was announced, 'We already sured at Dounreay. tabled by the Liberal MP for Orkney and know from our routine monitoring pro­ A flood of letters to the press from Shetland, Jim Wallace. gramme that levels of radioactivity are low and radiologically insignificant but the Harwell study will help to pro­ vide even more precise radiological as­ produce figures which will show who is sessments and predictions and the results responsible for an increase in verifiable will be published in due course.• illnesses. 'Only too frequently, nuclear industries avoid blame by claiming .there is no proof the illnesses were caused by I Auction their activities', Bridget added. The 629Mw Boiling Water Reactor at As a gesture of goodwill, it was sug­ Zwentendorf in Austria may be auctioned gested that the CEGB contribute some­ off. Hopes for a second referendum were thing towards the cost of the study. The dashed when the required two thirds ma­ DBC feel that this is unlikely, although jority in parliament was not achieved. it would be cheaper than offering recre­ Austria's federal electricity authority, ational facilities as they have done at which is responsible for the plant and Sizewell, NIREX has done at Elstow and is spending £2 million per year maintain­ BNFL has done at Windscale. ing it, decided at its annual meeting on The Druridge Bay Campaign (DBC), the As a point of information no other 27th March to offer the plant to the federation of local organisations opposed nuclear facility has ever had an highest bidder in the summer. "to the building of a nuclear power station independent base line study carried out The BWR cost about £350m to build on the Northumberland coast, is launch­ in this country - the industry usually does and was completed in 1978. According ing its own 'deterrent•. lt will take the its own, and declines to release the re­ to Or Stiegelmeyer, a spokesperson for form of a two part study. The first sec­ sults. However, an independent study the utility, there has been a lot of inter­ tion entails measuring the existing back­ is underway at Torness. The study is only est shown in the plant. He estimated the ground radiation in the earth, water and looking at background radiation levels present day value of the station at about atmosphere around Druridge Bay to cre­ and involves monthly readings of water, £900m, but expects to lose nearly £40m ate a 'base line' against which any soil and air samples. lt prompted the on the sale, as the proceeds will not co­ changes can be compared. The second SSEB to increase their own monitoring ver the dismantling and transportation phase of the study is the assessment of to fortnightly in an attempt to discredit costs. He admits that 'we shall be enter­ existing health statistics with particular the independent study. ing unchartered territory. • • a brand reference to radiation-linked diseases. new fully built nuclear plant has (never) The study is based on the work of Rosalie been offered for sale'. Bertell, who met with the scientists in­ Cynics see the sale threat as a ploy volved in the study whilst she was in the to pressurise the politicians to comprom­ area during her recent speaking tour. ise and agree on such things as waste Bridget Gubbins, the DBC Press Of­ disposal. The Soviet Union has offered ficer, explained that 'the main purpose to take spent fuel from Zwentendorf but of this study is as a deterrent. If the not to return radwaste and other mater­ CEGB know that their every radioactive ials produced in the reprocessing opera­ emission is going to be watched and tion. The resulting materials will be put checked, there is a distinct possibility to peaceful uses subject to IAEA safe­ they will decide against developing nuc­ guards! lear Druridge.• However, if they go ahead Nuclear Engineering despite public opposition, the study will International May 1985 6 SCRAM Journal June '85/ July '85 1Secrecy Opinion

There's some good news and some bad public access to meetings and transcripts How should we estimate public opm1on news about approaches to public rela­ from closed meetings. The rule changes on controversial issues? This is a ques­ tions: one from Canada, the other from were implemented immediately without tion which was asked by Frank C Duck­ the US. First the bad news. The US Nuc­ holding public meetings- the first victim worth of the CEGB Berkeley Nuclear lear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has of the new policy! Laboratories in an article he wrote for decided by three votes to two to reduce Now the good news. The Atomic En­ Political Studies (1983 pp463-478), en­ ergy Control Board of Canada has an­ titled 'On the Influence of Debate on nounced that minutes of its meetiings Public Opinion•. held under the Atomic Energy Control He suggested that an 'experiment Act will be public documents from now whereby opinions are assessed both be­ on. These minutes have never been re­ fore and after comprehensive debates leased on an unrestricted basis before. on a variety of issues' is what is required. Minutes of the previous 39 years will He cited the BBC Radio 4 series You be reviewed with the intention of releas­ the Jury as being 'almost exactly' the ing them for public scrutiny also. sort of situation best suited for correct Science 10.5.85 analysis. After analysing the voting pat­ Nuclear Engineering terns in the programme he concluded International May '85 that the Jury, when presented with plain facts by establishment bodies (such as the nuclear industry) the Jury swung to I Uranium the establishment view. Nine women who were ordered to pay our people who have experienced the Unfortunately for Mr Duckworth, £550 in compensation to BNFL by Ches­ detentions without trial, beatings, tor­ things don't always work out as planned! ter Magistrates Court, in a case arising ture and political murders of the apar­ You the Jury debated the motion 'Britain from a demonstration at the uranium theid regime in Namibia.' needs Nuclear Energy' on Sunday 5th enrichment plant at Capenhurst, have The money will be used towards vital May. Voting before the debate was: FOR instead paid the money to SWAPO (South literacy kits and sanitary goods for the 39%, AGAINST 26%, UNDECIDED 35%. West Africa Peoples Organisation). In Namibian people through the SWAPO After hearing the plain facts from both doing this they will inevitably face prison Women's Solidarity Campaign and also the CEGB and FoE the Jury voted FOR sentences. to help with SWAPO's campaign in Bri­ 42%, AGAINST 50%, UNDECIDED 8%. The women were protesting about tain. the use by BNFL of Namibian uranium, its role in the manufacture of nuclear weapons and, by implication, the British Government's economic support to and recognition of the racist South African NO! The Campaign Against Namibian U­ regime. Sixty women took part in the ranium Contracts (CANUC) held a two demonstration, 19 were arrested and day conference over the weekend of convicted. Total fines, court cases and 27th/28th April. The conference was compensation amounted to £2780 - much very lively and generated lots of enthus­ of which remains unpaid. iasm and positive energy. The focus for Following the demonstration and con­ discussion was how best we here in Brit­ victions, the women received commenda­ ain could : - show effective solidarity tion from the Acting President of the with the Namibian people's struggle for United Nations Council for Namibia, social justice; actively oppose apartheid; Ambassador Noel G Sinclair of Guyana. and stop the British nuclear machine. Jonathon Porritt, Director of FoE, The statement runs: 'The United Nations The conference's structure was as infor­ has since written to John Baker of the Council for Namibia has learned with mal as possible. We resolved to: CEGB (who put the CEGB case to the great satisfaction of the actions taken 1 Decentralise the campaign away from Jury) calling upon the CEGB to abandon by a group of women activists to ensure the London office and so encourage local the nuclear option in the light of public respect for Decree No 1 for the Protec­ groups to act autonomously. opinion. tion of the Natural Resources of Nam­ 2 Encourage anti-nuclear, wimmin's ibia, enacted ••• in 1974. and anti-apartheid groups, and peace 'The Council commends this demon­ organisations to work together. I Crisis stration of concern for the natural re­ 3 CANUC resolved to offer uncondi­ During the severe cold spell this winter sources of Namibia and for the interests tional support for SWAPO, the liberation in Eastern Europe,Romania had two con­ of the rightful owners of those resources. movement. (Some non-violent activists secutive energy crises. Televisions,heat­ The Council hopes that such actions expressed concern about SWAPO's armed ing and lighting were restricted in their would increase the awareness. of inter­ struggle, but we resolved to campaign use. One citizen had his electricity cut national public opinion, especially in by a multi-pronged approach i.e. any lit­ off for 75 days after being caught using countries whose corporations are eracy or medical aid that we can offer a 1SOW bulb in his hall. involved in the illegal exploitation of is most welcome.) Electrical Review 22.2.85 Namibia's natural resources on the need Interest was expressed in organising for Decree No 1 to be universally more non-violent direct action. We want respected.' to have a wimmin's action at Faslane Receipts for the money and a letter sometime in the near future. of thanks and support from SWAPO have For more information about the uran­ been sent by the women to the courts ium contracts and action against them and to BNFL. The letter states: 'Your contact: Gill Durber, at CANUC c/o willingness to risk imprisonment••• for Namibia Support Committee,. 53 the sake of the important principles in­ Leverton Street, Kentish Town, London. volved, is a worthy tribute to those of Tel 01 267 1941 SCRAM Journal June '85/ July '85 NPT ~No Peace Tomorrow In this, the fourth installment of our ser­ tors to audit the accounts. Such accounts Argentina with a nuclear reactor and ies on the Non-Proliferation Treaty can be wildly inaccurate, especially heavy water plant. Canada included a (NPT) in preparation for the NPT Review where large quantities of material are demand for full scope safeguards in its Conference in September, Jos Gallacher present, as in reprocessing plants. For bid in the belief that West Germany examines the contradictory attitudes example, at Windscale in 1982 the dif­ would too. West Germany did not, and to nuclear power in the N PT system and ference between the accounts and the so won the contract. discusses Article IV in particular. material physically present - known as The American government pursued In drafting the NPT the superpowers Material Unaccounted For (MUF) - in­ its opposition to reprocessing by unilat­ included a provision encouraging nuclear cluded a missing 10.Skg of plutonium, erally renouncing the technology and power development which has caused enough for two bombs putting pressure on its allies not to ex­ problems for the non-proliferation re­ port reprocessing plants. (As a result gime ever since. Under Article IV, coun­ since 1977 Britain has had the logically tries are obliged to 'facilitate' the fullest absurd policy of refusing to export re­ Material Unaccounted For (MUF) possible exchange of nuclear technology. Plutonium at Windscale (kilogrammes) processing plants but providing repro­ (This provision had been beefed up by 1971 -56.0 1978 +24.1 cessing at Windscale and exporting the the US and USSR at the last minute to 1972 -32.5 1979 +20.2 plutonium produced!) American policy encourage waverers to sign.) Thus, coun­ 1973 -14.4 1980 -1.4 caused so much friction between tries which support non-proliferation 1974 +2.4 1981 -9.9 suppliers and importers and among sup­ 1975 +6.6 1982 are faced with a contradiction. Either -10.5 pliers that the Americans changed tack 1976 +13.3 1983 -o.5 they uphold the Treaty and spread the 1977 -16.1 1984 +4,2 and proposed an International Nuclear means of producing fissile material, or Source: Atom Fuel Cycle Evaluation (INFCE). they withold nuclear technology and un­ The INFCE was a two year diplomatic dermine the NPT. exercise in which the US attempted to The paradox emerges at the five persuade the world that plutonium was yearly NPT Review Conferences when The gradual realisation in the US and not necessary as nuclear fuel, that it non-aligned developing countries have elsewhere of the inadequacy of would be cheaper to burn only uranium criticised restrictions placed on nuclear safeguards has prompted other attempts and that the proliferation risks of this exports. However, these restrictions to reconcile Article IV with route were far lower than for plutonium have been inspired by the desire to pre­ non-pro! i feration. fuel cycles. The INFCE report was a vent proliferation. In 1975 the nuclear exporting coun­ compromise which meant all things to tries began a series of secret meetings all participants. Although hailed as a Safeguards intended to strengthen the 'new consensus' the report could not save non-proliferation regime. Britain wanted the nuclear suppliers from criticism at The earliest attempt to square this the nuclear suppliers to refuse exports the 1980 N PT Review Conference only circle appears in Article Ill of the Treaty to countries unless they accepted safe­ six months later. itself. Article Ill requires that all Non guards on all their nuclear activities - Nuclear Weapon States (NNWS) accept known as 'full scope safeguards'. The Conflict International Atomic Energy Agency US was more interested in a ban on the (IAEA) 'safeguards' on all their peaceful export of reprocessing and enrichment The conflict between nuclear trade nuclear activities, and that exporters plants. Although neither position was and non-proliferation has been muted demand 'safeguards' on any facility ex­ accepted by the nuclear suppliers group, in recent years due to the recession in ported. The term 'safeguards' is wrongly developing countries criticised the secret nuclear ordering. However there are reassuring for a number of reasons. meetings for introducing restrictions signs that the recession is coming to an Firstly, safeguards represent the on nuclear trade in contravention of Ar­ end. Led by overseas orders and with verification system for the NPT and so ticle IV. the prospect of new orders to replace aim only to detect violations. They can­ The suppliers group also failed in its the ageing Magnox reactors in this coun­ not, and are not intended to, prevent intention to remove safeguards from try, the nuclear salesmen are again the diversion of material to nuclear wea­ competition. In 1979 Canada and West peddling their wares. pons. Like any arms control verification Germany were competing to supply Another worrying development is the system they are not 1009-ci effective. The emergence of new supplier countries out­ best they can offer is reasonable side the non-proliferation regime. reassurance that the Treaty has not been Non-signatories to the NPT, in particular broken. Argentina, India and Pakistan have al­ Secondly, the verification system ready established a network of agree­ did not exist when the NPT came il'lto · ments with other developing countries. force in April 1970. Only afterwards These countries have developed the for­ were negotiations held to draw up a mo­ bidden technologies of reprocessing and del safeguards agreement which were enrichment and, not being N PT signa­ completed in early 1971. These negotia­ tories, will be less scrupulous about ex­ tions comprised a relatively weak system porting them. in order to encourage European nations The inclusion of Article IV has pro­ to ratify the Treaty. Individual countries moted the belief that proliferation could then negotiated with the IAEA their own be halted while nuclear power spread specific agreements. There was there­ unchecked. lt has hindered attempts fore a further delay in implementing to control proliferation by restraining safeguards. nuclear technology. In 1985 the contra­ Thirdly, this weak system depends diction must be faced and resolved in on a country's own accounts of fissile favour of non-proliferation and against material and uses international. inspec- Tbe VemoD Seed the nuclear trade. 8 SCRAM Journal June 185/July •as Campaigning Against Clusters There are nine known leukaemia clusters Tory MP for West Gloucestershire and kaemia is not related to radiation. • •the in Britain: - at Wlndscale, Dounreay, the SDP Parliamentary candidate. Paul chronic form is the only type of Leiston (near Sizewell), Lytham St Marland MP and John Watkinson (SDP) leukaemia unrelated to radiation', and Anntis (near Springfields), Winfrith, Hun­ later backpedalled, not knowing which 'considering that most people do not terston. Lydney, Slough and Dane End. side of the argument would bring most work or live near nuclear installations All but the last two are close to nuclear political capital. the man-made dose is disproportionately plants. In the following article Jo Wors­ By this time Black was preparing his borne by a small number of people and nip of the Sevemside Campaign Against report on the Seascale cluster and the will outweigh the natural dose.' Demon­ Radiation (SCAR) reports on the Lydney Forest of Dean CND Secretary Barbara strating that medical opinion of safe ra­ cluster and the campaign which has de­ French called for the release of monitor.­ diation levels had consistently been ad­ veloped to try to prove a link between ing data from 1976-80 (the crucial years justed downwards, the critique pointed leukaemias and their proximity to nuc­ which may prove the link) and for the out that the US safe level is one twen­ lear plants. lydney figures to be referred to Black. tieth of ours. lt concluded that the scale The Severn estuary has the highest Following Barbara· French's talks to a of marine monitoring was so cursory as concentration of nuclear power stations number of groups, the Severnside Cam­ to permit a leak to escape detection. in Europe. The small town of lydney is paign Against Radiation (SCAR) was set A simplified version of the critique on the west bank of the Severn, opposite up by concerned local people. SCAR lob- was sent to every District Councillor the Oldbury and Berkeley Magnox power with the recommendation that a stations; Hinkley Point A and B stations thorough independent inquiry should in­ are further downstream. Four cases of vestigate: lymphatic leukaemia and two of Hodg­ 1) cancers in children and adults (the kin's disease make up the lydney cluster number of adult leukaemias is also and they were all diagnosed between thought to be excessive); 1979 and 1983. 2) thyroid diseases (there are unconfirmed reports of excessive cases Official Assurances locally); and 3) birth defects, miscarriages and still In March 1983 a mother whose child births. attended the same village school as three children with leukaemia wrote to the P\t)lic Meeting Area Health Authority asking whether the Berkeley power station could be re­ A leaflet was distributed throughout sponsible. Dr Mary Seacombe, the Au­ the lydney area and a petition collected thority's Registrar in Community Medi­ over 2000 signatures in support of an cine, replied that 'features like [apparent inquiry. The petition was presented to childhood leukaemia clusters] always the Forest of Dean District Council with warrant investigation to determine if a request for an estimated £4500 to be it Is due to coincidence or to search for set aside for the inquiry. Only two coun­ a cause.' Despite a promise to write a­ cillors voted for the full amount, so only gain with more detailed information, £1000 was made available. A month later Or Seacombe did not, and ten months the CEGB announced that the 22 year later she had left her job. old Berkeley power station was to have Following a meeting with a local far­ Its operating life extended by five years. mer who was unable to obtain results bled for an inquiry at the lydney Town A well-attended public meeting was of routine Strontium-90 tests on his Council and the Forest of Dean District organised by SCAR in September which herd's. milk, the lydney Town Council Council and requested funding for the included on the platform Hugh Richards wrote to Gloucestershire's Environmental inquiry. (Avon FoE); Or Michael Braddick (the Health Officer (EHO) raising the issue Bristol medical officer who did much of the number of leukaemia cases in the Report Criticised of the work on the critique), Dr Gareth area. Mr Davis, the EHO, wrote in reply Leyshon (the District Medical Officer) that the cluster seemed to be 'within Avon Friends of the Earth were asked and Or John Bishton (the manager of the realms of statistical probability' and to prepare a critique of the Forest of Berkeley). Dr Bishton said that there that the radiation level was 'undetect­ Dean District Council EHO's report on had never been an accident and he didn't able above normal background.' The con­ the cluster. The report looked at the lev­ believe an inquiry was justified. Or tents of the letter were discussed at the els of discharges from the stations and leyshon said he hoped there would be Council meeting on 9th January 1984 the statistical evidence of the relation­ no more cases of childhood leukaemia and the Mayor commented to the ship of nuclear power stations to the in­ and claimed there were clusters nowhere Gloucester Citizen, the local evening cidence of leukaemia. lt gave scant In­ near nuclear facilities - he knew of a paper, that the report 'must allay our formation on monitoring techniques and dozen or so in Yorkshire - but he was fears.' People were not reassured, and made a number of Inaccurate statements not opposed to an inquiry; Or Braddick the prevailing wind from Berkeley to on leukaemia and, although it conceded described the effect of the disease and lydney didn't help. the local incidence did not conform to argued cogently for an inquiry; and Hugh The media took up the issue. The Ob­ the national average, it included the sug­ Rlchards explained that nuclear expan­ server pointed out that the lydney clus­ gestion that averaging the cases over sion was unnecessary on economic ter was the fourth of its kind, and three the preceding ten years as well would grounds and the health risks made it to­ more were added to the list in less than reduce the high incidence of the disease! tally unjustifiable. a year - all close to nuclear plants. There The FoE critique queried the report lt became clear that both the CEGB were calls for an inquiry, among others at each paragraph. lt stated that it is and the Health Authority were losing from the labour Mayor of lydney, the 'erroneous to say that lymphatic leu- credibility and, summing up, the Chair- SCRAM Journal June '85/July '85 tont!. 01/ftr ~ 9 Radhealth Campaign In the last six years we have seen a dramatic turn around in anti-nuclear effort from the focus on weapons proliferation. accident risks, civil liberties and economic and employment issues. to concern about radiation and health. The possibility of a link between radiation and cancers Is now established in the rvinds of many people. And trades unions worldwide are concerned about radiation as a health and safety inue - low-level is no longer seen as low risk. In this. the first of tlree articles. Tony man Indicated that many questions re­ Webb of the Trade Union Radiation and Health Information Service sets out the mained unanswered. Most questions re­ background to the campaign. mained unanswered during the subsequent correspondence: Dr Bishton The lines are drawn for what may referred queries to the NRPR for clari­ be the most significant struggle yet: fication; Dr Le)'$hon passed letters to convincing the public that we are dam­ his Registrar of Community Medicine, aging health in workplaces and commun­ failed to provide the promised Informa­ ities as a result of our nuclear activities. tion on other radiation-linked diseases This process of death and damage affects and became less enthusiastic about a not only those living close to nuclear local Inquiry. And the number of clusters facitlities, it also affects the rest of us in. Yorkshire dropped to 5, but were still through the widespread promotion of unplaced. nuclear technology in industry and med­ The democratic approach was a little icine, and the long term accumulation more successful. Paul Marlan was unsym­ of radioactive wastes. Finally, perhaps pathetic and even aggressive at his sur­ all too finally, we threaten our own im­ gery. He was given the EHO report and mortality. Exposure to radiation makes Dr Braddick's critique of it and a series successive generations more susceptible of questions. He was more approachable to disease at the same time as the levels on the second visit and agreed to ask of radiation and other pollutants a question in Parliament about the clus­ increase. There are, as Rosalie Bertell ter. so eloquently puts it, no future genera­ Following the publicity the Winfrith tions that are not already alive in the The key to understanding this psycho­ cluster received, and the formation of sperm and ova of people living today. logical coup by proponents of nuclear the SCREAM (South Coast Radiation To damage these is to irreparably dam­ power is the role played by the Interna­ Elimination Action Movement) group age the future. (1) tional Commission on Radiological Pro­ In the area, it was decided to organise tection, a body wholly unworthy of its a weekend conference on low level rad­ ICRP's Role name. The ICRP iation. Through collaboration and pooling *is self appointed and self selecting; of information we may be able to demon­ lt is an amazing accomplishment of *is biased towards the physical ra­ strate links which may not be apparent the nuclear industry that we have been ther than life sciences from a study of one cluster viewed in persuaded that the risks from low level *has consistently failed to speak out isolation. radiation are slight; the only legitimate on such vital issues as fallout from health effects are a few cases of cancer nuclear weapons testing, abuses of and genetic defects. Aspects of radiation medical X-rays, 'burnout' practices The conference 'is planned for the and health which were known and stud­ involving nuclear workers, (4) weekend of June 15th and 16th in ied before 1950 have been buried from *has consistently selected data from Gloucester. Contact: Sue Haverley, Hill­ public consciousness and kept out of sci­ the available studies most favourable side Cottage, Vimty Woodside, Lydney, entific debate. Other life-threatening to the nuclear industry and least fa­ Glos. problems such as heart disease, and the vourable to protection of health of reduction of the quality of life from workers and the pUblic. common illnesses and allergies, are just All this could simply be ignored were not counted. (2) it not that ICRP recommendations are used as the basis for national protection standards all over the world. •••••••••••••••••••••• lt. These standards were last revised in 1957. Since then considerable effort A A A A A A A has gone into maintaining the view that they represent an international scientific consensus on what is, if not absolutely ••••••••••••••••••••••••6 A .& .& A A A A safe, an acceptable level for workers and the public. In reality, the 5 rem a year limit for workers represents a risk at least 17 times greater than would be •••••••••••••••••••••••A A A A A A A considered acceptable for a safe indus­ try. (5) 'Safe' in this context means a life time risk of one worker in 200 dying ••••••••••••••••••••••••A A A A A A a A from an accident on the job. The ICRP estimates of risk are alread)t 2 to 10 times lower than those of other international bodies. (6 & 7) On top of •••••••••••••••••••••••A A A A A A A this, the estimated doses for Hiroshima bomb survivors have been shown to be 10 SCRAM Jownal June •as/ July •as •••••••••••••••••••••••a a a a a a a drastically wrong (8) and that all the above risks may have to be doubled. (9) ~ C Iearly the internationally accepted •.••.••.••.••.••.• .••.• standards offer no real protection for a A a a a a a a workers and even the limit for doses to the public represents an unacceptable level of risk. •••••••••••••••••••••••a a a A A a a Despite this mounting evidence, in 1977 the IC RP proposed a new system for calculating doses from exposures to various organs of the body. (10) These ••••••••••••••••••••••••A a a a A a a A changes will dramatically increase the permissible doses to critical organs by between two and eight times the current ••••••••••••••••••••••• levels. (11) For workers in the dirty sec­ ASTMS and a variety of anti-nuclear lear industry and the ICRP. tors of the industry such as uranium min­ unions voiced such opposition in 1980 The very success of the nuclear in­ ing, isotope fabrication, or reprocessing, that even this- Thatcher government has dustry in using the IC RP to create unity this will give management greater free­ held off bringing in the ICRP system for at the international level, both in terms dom to contaminate workers within the 5 years. In the process some concessions of regulations and the underlying way 'legal' limits. have been won. These do not, however, of perceiving and quantifying radiation fundamentally challenge the internation­ and its health risks, may yet be its Canadian Demands al consensus, and may prove to bring downfall. lt only takes one significant little change in practice. (13) breach in this consensus and the whole A few examples may help to In the USA, considerable work has edifice is seen to be a highly question­ illustrate the point. Uranium miners al­ been done within the unions. By taking able series of value judgments masquer­ ready face a one in ten risk of dying of the issue to the membership in California ading as science. In subsequent articles radiation-induced lung cancer from as and the mid-west it has been possible I hope to develop this theme and suggest little as 20 years work underground and to stimulate a debate on radiation and strategies for the future campaign on lung cancers have already reached epi­ health as a health and safety issue sepa­ radiation and health. demic proportions. (11) The accumulat­ rate from the nuclear power debate. ing evidence forced the IC RP to recog­ There are in fact many more workers References nise that exposure to radon 'daughters' exposed to radiation in medicine and in­ 1 Rosalie Bertell, NO IMMEDIATE DANGER, is twice as dangerous as previously be­ dustry than in the nuclear power indus­ The Women's Pr5s 1985 2 Rosalie Bertell, HANDBOOK FOR ESTIMAT­ lieved. At the same time the new system tries. By winning over first the service ING HEALTH EFFECTS FROM EXPOSURE TO permits lung doses to be increased by unions and then the industrial unions and IONIZING RADIATION, available in UK from a factor of three. These combined producing relevant education material RHIS London 1985 means a net increase of 40%, more than for union health and safety courses, it 3 P. A. Green. THE CONTROVERSY OVER wiping out any benefit and inevitably was eventually possible to raise voices L0¥1 DOSE EXPOSURE TO IONISING RADIA­ condemning many more uranium miners TION$ MSc Thesis in Occupational Health and of opposition to the IC RP even from the Safety, University of Aston in Birmingham to die. Similarly isotope production and very conservative building trades unions 4 K. z. Morgan. Conference on 1- level Radi­ nuclear medicine workers could absorb by 1982. Japanese unions and the Euro­ ation. Guys Hospital Medical School London 1979 up to 400% more radioiodines. Workers pean Trades Union Congress have also 5 United States Environmental Protection Ag­ in the CANDU plants or British H-bomb criticised the ICRP proposals. ency of Radiation Programs PROPOSED FED­ ERAL RADIATION PROTECTION GUIDANCE facilities can absorb up to 34% more tri­ FOR OCCUPATION EXPOSURE, EPA tium. (12) Union Opposition 520/4-81-003 1981 6 United Nati- Scientific Committee on the In Canada a coalition of 7 unions led Effects of Atomic Radiation SOURCES AND by the Canadian Labour Congress (cover­ EFFECTS OF IONIZING RADIATION UNSCEAR 1977 and 1982 ing workers in nuclear power plants, u­ 7 U.S. National Academy of Sciences Commit­ ranium mines, isotope production and tee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radia­ health care) submitted coordinated tion. THE EFFECTS ON POPULATION$ OF EX­ briefs to the Atomic Energy Control POSURE TO LOW LEVELS OF IONIZING RADI­ Board (AECB) in 1984. These all opposed ATION, BEIR Ill committee 1980 the new regulations and called for an 8 W. E. Loewe and E. Mendelsohn. NEUTRON AND GAMMA DOSES AT HIROSHIMA AND immediate five-fold reduction in worker NAGASAKI, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories doses with a target of ten-fold reduction 1981 and reductions in permitted doses to the 9 UNSCEAR 1982 above public. The Canadian unions went further 10 International Commission on Radiological Protection Report No. 26 Annals of the ICRP by recognising that cutting individual Vol 1 No. 3 1977 doses (and then spreading the dose over 11 E. P. Radford. LUNG CANCER IN SWEDISH more people) is not enough. They called IRON ORE MINERS EXPOSED TO LOW DOSES for collective dose limits to be set for OF RADON DAUGHTERS, New England Journal all existing and new facilities, and in­ of Medicine Vol 310 No 23 1984 12 Canadian Labour Congress SUBMISSION OF sisted that these should be used to force THE C.L.C. TO THE ATOMIC ENERGY CON­ lt was these proposals to relax the real reductions in overall radiation ex­ TROL BOARD ON PROPOSED REGULATIONS standards that produced the turn around posures. (12) The AECB is still trying UNDER THE ATOMIC ENERGY CONTROL ACT 1984 among the unions. Already concerned to deflect these demands which hit at 13 See Evidence of General and Municipal, Boil­ over compensation cases, the British the very heart of the teetering edifice ermakers and Allied Trades Union to the Sizewell G&MBATU and T&GWU together with of 'scientific' consensus built by the nuc- Enquiry G&MBATU 1984 SCRAM Journal June '85/July '85 J1 Rosa lie Bertell Speaks lately followed by a pro-nuclear spokes­ tarded, and the sea around the Islands man's personal attack on her. 'I later Is so contaminated that the population challenged him to a TV debate which has to live off tinned fish Imported from he agreed to, but then when I got to Mel­ the USA. bourne he bowed out, and said he But even with the stark medical evi­ wouldn't do lt.• In a respected American dence of these extremely contaminated science magazine, 'there was a whole areas, the Industry refuses to make the article criticizing me, paid for by the connection between radiation and Illness. US Department of Energy, and they For example: out of over a thousand wouldn't allow me to respond in the same claims for compensation by American issue, which was really unscrupulous. veterans involved with nuclear weapons, Finally a year and a half after the article only one has ever been granted. had come out they published a letter to the editor from me. They've now said Health Alert! it's not their policy to allow a scientist to respond to criticism.• But, she adds, Similar situations are occurring all laughing, there's nothing like this kind over the world as increasing numbers of dishonesty and criticism to push you of power stations are built and weapons further In a situation. developed. At Wlndscale, the evidence The evidence which Rosalie Bertell of disproportionately high cancer levels has collected and which forms the basis In the area was brought to public atten­ Rosalle Bertell, a Canadian nun and se~ of her book, Is about the effects of radi­ tion by a TV documentary, and Rosalie entist, whose book No Immediate Danger ation on the population and on the en­ Bertell sees 'private' investigations like - Prognot1itl for a Radioactive Earth has vironment. The book and the slides she just been published. has recently been shows give a glimpse of the horrifying travelling and talking in the UK. In situation which has developed In the Edinbwgh she spoke to Elizabeth Bums world since nuclear testing began, and about the i-..s raised by the book and prove conclusively that nuclear power, about how she came to write lt. far from being 'clean and safe' as the After following a career which has In­ Industry claims, has already done enor­ cluded both the hard physical wort< of mous damage to the earth and to the the Order of Grey Nuns and doing a PhD health of those who come Into contact In maths, In 1976 Rosalle Bertell sudden­ with radiation. ly found herself Involved in confronting the American nuclear Industry. She was Medical Effects then working in a cancer research unit, and although she was studying the The wide-ranging and often effects of low level radiation found In undetected effects of radiation are per­ X-rays, she had few doubts about nuclear haps the most worrying. Or Bertell points power. 'I accepted all the statemeats out that it Isn't necessary to be directly made by the Industry,' she says. But by Involved In the production of nuclear chance she got involved in an Inquiry weapons or power to experience harmful about a proposed nuclear power station, effects. She tells, for example, how and became aware of the lies which the women living downwind of the Nevada public were being told to convince them test sites drank contaminated milk and that nuclear power was 'safe'. 'That was as a result gave birth to deformed and ...... ,... my first experience of propaganda.' The retarded children. She gives a frighten­ _ -TIIrt-ft power station was stopped, largely - Ingly long list of the medical effects of -·­ because of the evidence Rosalle Bertell radiation: miscarriage, stillbirth, infant had given on the medical effects of deaths, asthmas, severe allergies, radiation. lt was the beginning of a depressed immune systems, leukaemia, this as the only solution In the face of crusade for her: she was contacted by tumours, birth defects, mental and phys­ the nuclear industry's bland denial of groups all over the country asking her ical retardation, and the results of pre­ the dangers. She believes that once the to speak out against nuclear power sta­ mature aging. These are occurring not public are alerted to the health risks of tions, and at the same time the Govern­ only In extremely contaminated areas, radiation, they will organise their own ment and the industry's continued sup­ but also in ones of low-level radiation. opposition, because as she says, •every• pression of the facts made her carry her World War Ill has already begun, Rosalie one's concerned about their health'. She research further. Bertell believes, and Its casualties are hopes that No Immediate Danger will the 16 million people who have so far be useful: 'Hopefully, the book will pro­ Smear Campaign suffered as a result of radiation. vide a framework so people can write There are the obvious examples of their own stories. I've provided a lot of She's now familiar with t he cover-ups the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, references so people can follow them which go on In the Industry, and with where people are still ill and dying as up.• the way scientists like her are treated. a result of the bombs dropped 40 years Despite the damage already done and Her work is constantly being attacked ago, and the people of the Marshall the evidence of the statistics which she and discredited, and her attempts to re­ Islands In the Pacific, where nuclear has uncovered, Rosalie Bertell remains spond to criticism are silenced. She tells tests have been carried out since 1946. optimi.stlc. 'We can maximise what the story of how she spoke on an Austral­ A high percentage of Marshallese child­ health is left,' she says. 'But I don't ex­ Ian radio programme, which was immed- ren are born deformed and mentally re- pect people who are in top military or 12 SCRAM Jownal June '15/July 'IS Out

top political positions to give up power from men. Men, if they build a nuclear or think of changing. So what we see is power plant, and if they stay within the that outside the mainstream, people are law and are cost effective, then they finding other ways to live, and usually don't see any problem. Women are more what happens is that the fringe becomes concerned with birth and dying.' For ex­ the centre••• new leaders are found who ample, she explains in her book how still are acceptable to the majority of people, births and miscarriages caused by radia­ and as the crisis builds up it helps the tion have not been considered change. There's an extreme crisis before significant. 'When a foetus is aborted a change. lt's very frightening, given the prior to 16 weeks the event may not need precariousness of the crisis.' to be reported and included in vital sta­ tistics. lt becomes a non-happening and Forces for Change the nation appears to be in good health. •• ' As well as the anti-nuclear Rosalie Bertell has a particular re­ movement, Rosalie Bertell sees other spect for the Greenham Common women forces for change, such as the United 'or uncommon women, I should say'. She Nations, 'because our problems are now gives them as examples of women who, international'; the Church, which she realising the dangers we are faced with, sees as 'the only international network have totally commited themselves to which competes with the military and changing things. 'They are not afraid of carefully researched as it is, will no the multinationals'; and the women's the truth,' she says, and believes that doubt spark off controversies and distor­ movement. Women internationally form this is a state which many people will tions of the facts by governments and a 'very strong network', she believes. have to reach. the nuclear industry. But it will also 'They don't respond to the usual silenc­ Having reached that level of com­ inspire people to discover the truth and ing, like threats to their reputation. mitment herself, Rosalie Bertell says to oppose what's going on in their names. Women don't respond to the same social modestly that she's in a privileged posi­ Rosalie Bertell, travelling around the pressures, they have less to lose.' They tion and that her book voices the world to talk about what she's discovered are also more aware of the dangers: - opinions of many people with the same and written about, is a brave and pro- 'Women look at things in a different way ideas as her. No Immediate Danger, phetic woman.

No Immediate Danger: Prognosis for a for human life, will presumably be simi­ tnere is also cause for hope. She calls Radioactive Earth by Rosalie Bertell. larly attacked. the book's final section 'A Time to (The Women's Press, £5.95, 435pp) The power of No Immediate Danger Bloom' (the original title of the book) is that it is more than simply a list of because, she says, we have reached a Already it's been said that No Immediate statistics, important though these are. limit to growth in our society, and must Danger will become a 'bible' for the anti­ now concentrate on 'blooming'. This is nuclear movement, and Rosalie Bertell the most positjve part of the book, mov­ herself says that she sees it being used Rosalle Bertell .£) ing away from the actions of as a framework and a reference book governments and industry to those of by campaigners. She also hopes that the ordinary people. Rosalie Bertell gives book, which will be published worldwide NO examples of the ways in which things and which tells the stories of are changing, from Greenham Common anti-nuclear groups throughout the IMMEDIATE to the United Nations, from solar world, will help people to realise that powered villages in Algeria to the suc­ they're not working in isolation. cessful halting of nuclear power stations. No Immediate Danger is full of in­ DANGER Such a mass of information is obvi­ Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth formation, from an explanation of how ously difficult to categorize, but one radiation occurs to the personal and tra­ criticism of the book is that it needs gic stories and well researched statistics more careful editing, and perhaps a on the medical effects of radiation. stronger authorial voice to link it more There are also extensive references coherently together. And the reference which will help make the book invaluable tables, un-numbered and placed appar­ as a source of facts on the nuclear age. ently randomly in the text, would be of Attempts at researching the connec­ more use if they were better organised. tions between radiation levels and health But this is a unique book - scientific, have been consistently thwarted by the yet moving, an expose and a prophecy, nuclear industry. Rosalie Bertell quotes a catalogue of disasters and a hopeful examples of medical records mysterious­ prescription for the future. One of Rosa­ ly 'lost', grants withdrawn and papers lie Bertell's hopes is that her book will unpublished. Research which has been act as a catalyst. This it is bound to be, completed has been discredited and trl­ forcing the nuclear industry and those vialised. This book, giving conclusive lt is also a testament to the horrors in­ who oppose it into some kind of action. evidence of that research and at the flicted on people in the name of science No Immediate Danger is not a book same time exposing the nuclear indus­ and progress. As such, it makes depress­ which can be easily, or safely, ignored. try's hypocrisy and complete disregard ing readin" ~ Or Bertell believes that Elizabeth Burns SCRAM Journal June 185/ July '85 A.~~ 13 are aii~e suitable. In selecting Stormy Radwaste & ENSEC Bank they have been influenced by local .acceptance of the Fast Reactor project, Continuing his short series on radioactive waste management policy, Don Amott also by the fact - to which we have be­ this issue looks at ENSEC and their proposals for disposing of Intermediate Level come distastefully accustomed in That­ Waste in deep boreholes in the seabed off the Orkneys. All the Information about cher's Britain - that the area is impov­ the plan is derived from ENSEC documents. erished and the natives will do anything for jobs. They do not put it this crudely, ENSEC (Environmental Securities) pro­ which arise: geological considerations but they claim that employment will be pose to use standard oil production tech­ in general, and those specifically relating created; I am bound to say that, on the niques to drill deep boreholes in suitable to the ENSEC plan. doc11mentation available to me, I can submarine strata which would then be Geological Considerations see no reason to suppose that the project lined (with steel and concrete), filled will create any significant employment I deferred consideration of the ICSU with encapsulated Intermediate Level at all. Waste (ILW) and the top 500 feet sealed (International Council of Scientific Un­ lt is proposed to transport the whole with concrete. Whilst the containers are ions) findings on seabed disposal in my of the IL W generated in Britain by rail being emplaced the lining of the borehole previous article (SCRAM 47) because (they say) to Wick or Thurso, via Car·· will be extended upwards to align with they fitted more relevantly into this dis­ stairs, Stirling, Perth and Inverness (if the rig itself. Containers will thus be cussion. Their main criticism of the the shorter of the only two routes is able to be released one by one and, ENSEC borehole would be that it is not c.hosen), and thence by ship to Stormy guided beyond possibility of error, will nearly deep enough - Appropriate mining Bank for disposal. Three ships and 80 fall by gravity into the borehole itself. technology for depths up to 4km exists, storage transporters for the containers and the 500 to 1 OOOm depths commonly figure in the proposal. If road transport considered adequate require careful just­ is used, the waste will pass through the (fication because stress levels are more busy Forth-Ciyde neck with its comp.lex predictable and more regular at great of roadways. depths. Near the surface unusual or un­ How much, and how often? lt is not expected results are not uncommon clear from ENSEC's data, but the NIREX (Atom 338, p7). 2nd Annual Report estimates that six Various sea dumping proposals. trainloads or 70 lorries per week will TORPIEIDO (a) Unsealed discharge into the sea (Windscale). be required for the two sorts of ILW for (b) 'Dumping' sealed containen at · designated disposal either in a shallow or a deep sites on the seabed. (Subject to moratorium at repository (p23). ENSEC transportation present). volume must be similar. Therefore, Scot­ (c) Dumping sealed containen and unsealed con­ taminated debris, such as metalwork, in deep land, with three nuclear establishments (excluding Torness) will have nuclear ~1\J«:I!.!!~ml '(JIJ ~SYIE ocean trenches. (d) Deposition of sealed containers in boreholes waste from England and Wales 20+ facili­ TOm!~~@@ ~~@ S~~l!.@~@ driven into the seabed in deep water. ties moving north on its railways or roads ©@~Y ~0~1!00 (e) Driving self-propelled waste containers, 'tor­ at a rate of 1 trainload or 10 lorries per The provisional timetable is startling. pedoes', a few hundred feet into sediments rest­ day. ing on the seabed. ENSEC propose to drill, line, fill and seal (f) Under the seabed bl,lt close inshore, the re­ I shall be losing no sleep over this each borehole in approximately one positories being loaded by access from land. prospect because I think I can recognise month. Operating two rigs will give an (g) Deposition of $ealed containen into boreholes ·a non-starter when I see one. But this annual disposal capacity of 10,000 cubic driven into lhe seabed ig relatively shallow wa­ may serve to illustrate the futility of metres in 20 holes. ter. This is the ENSEC ll'llti9HI· . The latest ENSEC (April 1984) docu­ II»IIILLINQ !DII!UI~I<;Ir. Rock ·at great depths under such =~ ment proposes boreholes of 3000 feet enormous pressure has less freedom of deep, i.e. 2500 feet effective allowing movement and thus less opportunity to for the concrete sealing plug, (earlier fracture, thus requiring space for expan­ papers describe 10,000 feet holes). The sion. ICSU warned that drilling or ex­ 1984 document describes the containers cavation significantly disturbs surround­ as being 3 feet diameter cylinders, 5 ing rock, and also that fracture syste­ metres long and one inch thick (presum­ matics, and most other relevant phenom­ ably of steel, although this is not stated). ena, are not well understood and that Assuming each container has a loaded long-term research is needed: considera­ weight of 5 tons, the bottom one will tions as important for seabed as for land have a load of 760 tons resting on it. repositories. Furthermore it is obvious that the back­ Further than that I am not qualified fill material, designed to provide a fur­ to go except to point out that we have ther barrier against leakage, will be sea a problem for geologists to study and water - hardly a good choice for corro­ it might be wise to lose no time in start­ sion resistance. ing. 1t is such details, and many others, rather than the fundamental proposition, The ENSEC Proposal that raise doubts. For, if the oil industry The proposal under discussion might claims that holes can be drilled and ac­ almost have been calculated to maximise curately loaded in this fashion, it is hard­ the transport of radioactive waste. ly likely to be wrong, and if not ENSEC ENSEC have clearly located their opera­ then someone else will try it. We should tion with respect to Dounreay. Sixteen therefore be wise to treat the technigue miles due west of the Orkneys they claim seriously - so far as that goes. There are, to have located a rock formation in however, two fundamental objections which geological and marine conditions ~~®~~ ~~~~~©~~~~~ 14 SCRAM Journal June 185/ July '85 the policy of insisting, as the DoE still does, that all ILW arisings must be de­ Radwaste AI posited in two centralised repositories. However, Sir Waiter Marshal! has twice recently hinted that thermal re­ Poison for actor reprocessing, which is responsible for almost all of the radioactive wastes which trouble us, may be phased out. But the Fast Reactor project is designed the Pacific to breed more plutonium than it uses March was a month of action for a - a procedure involving reprocessing, Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific. a facility without which the whole pro­ During that month two women from the ject is nonsense so the Pacific - Chailang Palacios from Saipan DounrearStormy Bank proposal would SIIA fLOOII in the Mariana Islands and Titewhai involve no overland transport and only Harawira from Aotearoa (New Zealand) a short sea journey from an establish­ - travelled around Britain on a speaking ment situated on the coast provided with SOO FT. CEIIIENT PLUG tour, informing people of what is ~ its own shipping facilities. An ideal solu­ ing in the Pacific. On top of the appall­ tion, from the industry's point of view. ing health effects suffered by the ~ 1 therefore provisionally conclude pies of the Pacific as a consequence of that the ENSEC proposal is aiming at the atomic testing by the· US, France the Fast Reactor programme, at least and Britain. Japan is now planning to in the first instance. lt must be noted dump nuclear waste in the Marianas that ENSEC's ambitions may extend to trench. The following article is taken more than nuclear waste disposal: there from a leaflet produced by the Campaign Phase 1 - the announcement of the ori­ are several references in their Against Nuclear Waste Dumping in the ginal project (now concluded); documents to 'toxic and radioactive Pacific which is based in Japan. Phase 2 - obtaining Government appro­ waste', but the notion of transporting val, obtaining contracts for disposal, We, the people of the Pacific Islands, a variety of toxic waste the length of carrying out technical design work, have long been controlled by powerful Britain is too preposterous to be enter­ carrying out geological and countries under policies of colonisation tained, so I think not at Stormy Bank. oceanographic surveys, identifying suit­ and nuclearisation in spite of our However, it seems the Dounreay-Stormy able on-shore base, promotional public struggle for a Nuclear-Free and Indepen­ Bank link seems to have too much going relations work, consulting with owners dent Pacific. Recently we have been sub­ for it for us to ignore. of the waste and Government on the use jected to a new threat: our ocean may That being so we have to ask: are of the site, and detailed castings under be contaminated by nuclear waste dump­ the wastes retrievable, and what is the way); ing. time scale of the proposed development? Phase 3 - after simulation studies, waste Retrievable? will be deposited. For the whole of Phase 2 'up to four Storage is the term frequently used years' is being allowed. Nothing has been in ENSEC literature, implying retriev­ learned of the time-scale of such work, ability. Indeed, Dr Clarke MP for South so this is of course nonsense. But the Shields said in the House of Commons fact that a scheme is nonsense doesn't regarding ENSEC, 'I have had brief dis­ mean it won't be put into effect, espec­ cussions with the company, which ially when, in their promotional docu­ assured me that it would be posssible ments, ENSEC claim that it will do away. to retrieve these containers easily' with the need for a public inquiry and (Hansard 8.3.85). I must say categorically evade the sad nuisance of objections by that these wastes are not retrievable environmentalists, local authorities and from a 3000 foot borehole sealed with human beings in general. 500 feet of concrete on the top. ENSEC Mr Waldegrave (evidently not at his mentions no monitoring procedure which best on the 8th March) made a remark­ might indicate the need for retrieval. able statement: 'The trouble is that the more open one is about every tentative Time-scale investigation, the more the rumours Jim Wallace MP for Orkney and Shet­ spread and the easier it is for people to land, during the same debate, complained get up scareS' and make rational discus­ he had been assured by junior Ministers sion difficult.' Who starts the damned that under-seabed disposal is 'highly fu­ rumours anyway? When one thing is said turistic' yet when the Secretary of State in the House of Commons and the polar The Japanese Government in 1980 opposite by the company concerned what made his statement in January, he re­ announced a plan to dump nuclear waste plied, 'under-seabed disposal was many is to be expected but rumours? And what from their nuclear power plants into the years away'. William Waldegrave MP, are we supposed to do - other than hope Pacific Ocean about 600 miles north of indulging in admirable political figure­ for the best and prepare for the worst? the Mariana Islands and has been trying skating, replied that he did not know to implement its plan through a variety much about it himself; it was tentative; ENSEC (Environmental Securities) Ltd was formed about two years ago and appears to be of means despite intensified opposition and the Government had referred it to a subsidiary of Rig Design Services, 4 Great from the Pacific Island nations, the Jap­ R WMAC as one option to be studied fol­ Portland Street, London Wl N SAA (01 - 637 anese people themselves, and against lowing the Holliday Report. 8544). Sealion Shipping Ltd (7 St Helen's Place the international trend. Other countries However, ENSEC's own time-scale London EC 3A 6BL) appears to be responsible for are halting their ocean dumping plans. lists: the construction and operation of the ships which would form an essential part of the scheme. We now face the increasing prospect SCRAM Journal June '85/July '85 15 that Japan and other countries will force us to accept the dumping. This threat comes from the fact that: 'If it is safe, dump it in Tokyo, test it in Paris, *The Japanese Government intends store it in Washington, but keep my Pacific to vigorously promote their nuclear power policy and will produce mil­ nuclear-free.' Pacific Conference of Churc:IMs Poster lions of drums of nuclear waste. They do not want to store these on land mediately and unconditionally. We be­ waste dumping in our ocean nor on our in Japan because of the opposition lieve that nuclear waste dumping in the islands, but we do have the right and re­ of the Japanese people, but especially ocean is neither safe, nor right, nor just. sponsiblity to oppose such activities. because they consider ocean dumping Each country should follow the basic mo­ to be the most convenient and pro­ Not Safe ral imperative of not forcing others to fitable method for promoting their suffer the harmful consequences of its nuclear power policy. Nuclear wastes are extremely harm­ nuclear power policy. *Despite the international resolution, ful products and a safe method has not The Japanese Government is ignoring adopted at the London Dumping Con­ yet been found for their disposal. We widespread opposition and disregarding vention (LDC) in February 1983, the facts and evidence that indicate the calling for a moratorium, the Japan­ dang'ers of ocean dumping. lt has no right ese Government is trying to prove to do this and we accuse it of a serious the safety of their plan by participat­ injustice towards the world community ing in a review of ocean dumping by and a blatant irresponsibility towards an international scientific committee the global environment. under the LDC. The unwelcome testing of nuclear *Despite the moratorium, the Japan­ weapons, the construction of nuclear ese Government is trying to persuade power plants, the dumping of radioactive Pacific Island nations to accept ocean wastes and all other forms of continued dumping by offering them economic colonisation of the Pacific represent in­ aid. justice, not only the arrogance, greed *Other countries, especially the US, and broken relationships of individuals, are waiting to follow Japan's lead. insist that ocean dumping is the most but also the institutional sin of nations, Media reports indicate that the US harmful method to the environment and wants to dump low and high level an irresponsible way to solve the prob­ nuclear waste in the same area as lem. Scientific data and other evidence Japan. Japan and the US also have continue to accumulate, which show that a joint programme to store their high such dumping is not safe. This evidence level waste on some islands in the comes from: - Pacific. *Accidents and pollution resulting from nuclear waste dumping in the If we allow such plans, the Pacific Atlantic Ocean; Ocean will become a garbage dump for *Investigations in California Bay all the nuclear products of the super which revealed that dumping has powers. If we allow this, it will open the caused serious pollution from broken gates for the super powers to develop drums, which were corroded and dam­ groups and companies which puts the aged in the ocean, spreading radioac­ narrow national or corporate tive pollution, with no way to self-interest ahead of all other consid­ retrieve them. erations: Some of you are not satisfied with The deadly effect of this radioactive eating the best grass; you even waste will remain for millions of years, causing serious pollution by means of trample down what you do not eat. ocean currents and especially through You drink the clean water and muddy the food chains where radioactive con­ what you do not drink. My other sheep have to eat the grass you tamination concentrates and eventually trample down and drink the water enters our bodies through the food we you muddy. eat. (Ezekiel 24: 18; 19) We believe that our struggle against Not Right or Just the nuclear waste dumping plan is a pro­ phetic and symbolic act of solidarity Bikini Guam/~I , .. Neither Japan, the US, nor any other with all the concerned people who are ~--~ .. -----r-----+--- country has the right to dump their nuc- striving for a Nuclear-Free Pacific and ~ lear waste in oceans which belong to all Nuclear-Free World. We believe that Belau humankind. lt is especially unjust to pol- if we stop the plans, it will be a major (Palau)' lute the waters of the Pacific Islands step towards abandoning the nuclear po­ ---t------~T"· where people totally depend on the wer system. We hope that all people will ocean. We have a great responsibility therefore stand firmly with the

I to keep the ocean clean for all human concerned opponents of these plans. beings and for future generations. We Steve Martin their nuclear power systems which could also have a responsibility not to harm For more information and messages of support destroy everything including our future. the living creatures that share the earth contact: campaign Against Nuclear Waste We therefore need to unite again more with us. Dumping in the Pacific, Japanese Catholic Coun- strongly to urge the Japanese Govern­ We, the people of the Pacific Islands, cil for Justice aild Peace. 10-1 Rokubancho, ment to abandon the dumping plan im- have no obligation to accept the nuclear Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 102, Japan. 16 SCRAM Journal June f85/July •as Computerised Coal Mines Following the two national mining strikes of the 1970's, the National Coal Board (NCB) decided to introduce equipment which would take power away from the wor­ ke~ in the.indust'!. They dev?loped MINOS (Mine Operating System) -a highly cen­ tralised, h1erarch1cally organised computer monitoring and control system. In this nology Agreement, which the NCB has artiC::Ie Pete R~he points out that the aim of the system is to reduce manpower, so far refused to discuss. The agreement ~sk1ll and t? mcrease managerial control. In the light of present policy in the coal Industry, Umon recognition of the implications of MINOS is essential. The article seeks to substitute shorter working time proposes an alternative strategy for coal. and earlier retirement for the job losses There are four subsystems of MINOS, each of which deserves particular consider­ that will otherwise result from increased ation. labour productivity. lt also seeks to pre­ vent worker surveillance, maintain auto­ FIDO (Face Information Digester On­ nomy and improve working conditions. line) is designed to remove the so-called In countries like Norway and Sweden 'avoidable man-made delays'. If success­ MINOS Hierarchy which have Work Environment Acts, ful it can double production per shift, worker surveillance through computer and in a static market this implies that monitoring systems is illegal, because the number of working faces will be re­ it is an infringement of personal liberty duced. Moreover FIDO operates like a and damaging to workers' health. tacttograph subjecting face workers to Present policies being pursued by the management surveillance that was form­ NCB and the Government represent a erly impossible. denial of our reponsibility to future gen­ IMPACT On-built Machine Performance erations that cannot be justified on mor­ and Condition Testing) is aimed at re­ al or economic grounds. An alternative moving the operational and ancillary de­ strategy for coal should entail four ele­ lays by monitoring 'machine health'. This COAL AUTOMATED ments:- will reduce the number of craftsmen re­ CLEARANCE COAL PREPARATION 1) Harbour coal resources through limit­ quired and simplify the task of machine maintenance. ing the rate of introduction and ex­ MIDAS (Machine Information Display ploitation of new capacity to the rate Autonomous mierocomputeJ of exhaustion of high cost pits. and Automation System) has both a control systems at the f•c• 2) A new technology agreement to re­ monitoring and control function. lt moni- duce working time and eliminate tors the condition of the coal shearer computer-based work monitoring. and passes the information to the MINOS will be achi!S!ved by 1989. 3) Consolidation of incentive pay into control computer. As with IMPACT, de­ There are two major technical weak­ basic rate to eradicate inequities be­ skilling is the objective. Face workers nesses of the concentration of production tween effort and reward. will be exposed to more dust as machine into pit-complexes. The first is that all 4) Expansion of coal demand through running time is increased. highly centralised operations are more Combined Heat and Power (CHP) and MIS (Management Information Sys­ vulnerable to disruption than decentral­ substitution of coal for imported tem) links the subsystems together into ised ones. The second stems from the fuels. the overall system; the colliery MIS nature of the industry itself. Automated feeds its information into a national manufacturing systems require a consist­ Energy Strategy computer that will allow the NCB to ency and uniformity of inputs, particu­ An alternative energy strategy could compare performance over time, larly raw materials. The working con­ provide district heating for 86-90% of between collieries, between shifts, be­ ditions in mines are notoriously unpre­ households through coal-fired CH P sta­ tween faces and between areas. Plan­ dictable, and it is only through the skills tions. If the CH P systems were built in ning and control can thus be exercised and experience of the workforce that such a way that they could eventually production continues unhindered. An in­ rapidly. So-called 'uneconomic pits' can be converted to solar energy, as they be identified according to the criteria dustry with a reduced and unskilled are now doing in Sweden, we could begin in force at any particular time. workforce and automated machinery is to phase out coal during the middle of The present exercise is aimed at eli­ likely to run into serious problems in next century. Provided that this is done minating 'high cost' pits and concentrat­ maintaining production. in the context of shorter working weeks ing production on the 'super pits•. As Coal Strategy and a greater distribution of wealth, it more pit complexes are opened with could gain the support of the NUM. After their enormous productive capacity, There are currently reserves of about 300 years supply of coal through all of all, many miners say they would prefer more pits are defined as uneconomic and it if their sons didn't have to go down as surplus capacity. the coalfields. Once mining operations have ceased and the so-called the pits. However, this has to be done Job Losses •uneconomic pits' have been closed, the gradually, and with guarantees for the communities involved. Now the main The plans will entail massive job reserves have effectively been 'sterilised' priority is to keep our options open. Ster­ losses. The NCB has achieved a rate of because it is impossible to return to areas where the geology has been ilising coal reserves, sacking skilled min­ implementation of new technology un­ ers and introducing expensive, inappro­ paralleled in any other industry. Between affected by the collapse of workings. Thus the reserves of coal may be reduced priate and authoritarian technology is 74% and 83% of jobs are at risk. Taking not the way to do it. the mid point of the two estimates sug­ by giving precedence to short term pro­ gests that the restructuring programme fitability. The above article we culled from an article by will enable present output to be main­ A Miners' Plan for Coal must Jonathon Winterton in the Socialist Society Bul­ tained with only 49,000 jobs. Assuming confront the restructuring programme letin, You can join the Socialist Society by send­ ing £7 (£2 unwaged) to 9 Poland Street London the present rate of progress is and recognise the central role of techno­ Wl. A similar article by Jonathon Winterton maintained, the programme to reduce logy. The NUM's policy on new techno­ appears in Digging Deeper ed. Huw Beynon re­ employment from the present 180,000 logy now centres on the draft New Tech- viewed in this issue. SCRAM Journal June 185/ July 185 17 Tidal Power a Reply In SCRAM 114 (October/November 1984) we carried an article on the Severn bar­ rage by Jane Roberts and Janet Rowe. lt provoked a reply from Or Tom Shaw of McAipine's, a company 'heavily involved' with the barrage. We offered Or Shaw space in the Journal to put his case. The following is his reply - the ital­ ics are statements from the original ar­ ticle.

The article contained a number of misleading and incorrect statements. The debate on the Severn Barrage is en­ SEVERN BARRAGE tering a new phase and could be wide­ spread during the next few years. Rea­ ders of se RAM who may wish to con­ tribute to this, or at least keep abreast of it, should know of the facts as others understand them. These are listed below with reference to the original SCRAM article, numbered by paragraph. If any reader is aware of information which occurs in most U.K. estuaries. Is it in­ less. Assessment of the scheme is better either contradicts or adjusts any of my ferred that they are 'seriously based on a critique of them rather than observations I will be pleased to hear imbalanced'? those they displaced. from them. There is still plenty of room Sa •• • enormous amounts of fill and fac­ for learning by everyone, otherwise my ing will be transported into the area. 8a • • .a barrage will help increase the reply would not be necessary. My understanding is that most of the coal-bum and accelerate• • •pit closures. structure would be constructed in caisson The Bondi Committee convincingly The future of the Severn Bridge is units formed in dry-docks around the showed that the most economic prospect unconnected with the viability of any coastline and floated into the Severn for tidal power Jay in its complementa­ barrage. Estuary. The only 'fill' which they need tion of coal-fired stations. Capital spent 2 The tide range in the Severn Estuary is most obviously provided by minestone on that would reduce the need for Invest­ can exceed 14m, not 8.8m. waste products. ment in other new plant. Any swing in 3 Any changes to [the Bristol Channel's Sb The contrast between 21,000 and the balance between coal and nuclear complex habitats] could seriously reduce 1S,OOO workers (employees?) for schemes will not hinge on which renewables are the bird population. Why should it follow which differ in estimated cost by a fac­ utilised and to what extent. That will that the present extraordinarily severe tor of seven is curious. Do the authors only determine the total coal plus nuc­ regime encourages maximum bird num­ wish to see more or less employment? lear requirement. bers? Se Because of the transient nature of 8b •• • two-basin scheme could be used such workforces. • .a temporary boom as a pump storage system in conjunction 4a • • • water velocity would be reduced in the local economy will leave the area with nuclear power. The two-basin and flow pattems would change, shifting worse off, as. • •[with other large pro­ scheme which I proposed in 1966 was the mud flats up to five metres in depth. jects]. The proposed method of construc­ intended to make the best use of this -Surely the mud flats will be more stable? tion (by caissons) requires that the work­ valuable and significantly large renew­ 4b Already highly polluted, a barrage force will be distributed according to able energy source in the situation in could adversely affect dispersal [of pol­ the choice of construction sites. Largely which nuclear power was predominant. lutants] creating a serious imbalance indigenous labour would in present cir­ As it happens, this was then forecast in the ecosystem. Why? The post-barrage cumstances be possible. to occur by 198S, as it has in France. situation would resemble that which now Sd During the construction phase ••• road The fact that tidal power stations and sea traffic will greatly increase. • remain an attractive option simply • Because of this dispersal of the work­ underlines their intrinsic flexibility, like load, general traffic flows are unlikely conventional hydro plant which they in to 'greatly increase'. In contrast, sea essence are, in being able to operate ef­ traffic probably would, but the main rea­ ficiently to suit the rest of the system. son for that is that in this very large es­ Their seemingly indefinite lifetime un­ tuary there is little at present. derlines the importance of this charac­ teristic. 6 A motorway••• will also lead to sub­ stantial development changes. Yes, if 9 Tidal power is probably the cheapest the Cardiff-Weston barrage is of all the renewables available in the constructed. Need that be bad? U.K. at present and able to supply a 7 Nothing in the first six paragraphs meaningful amount of electricity to the demonstrates to me that the national grid. The argument that it would environmental impact. • • will be severe. cost less to add desulphurisation equip­ Agreed that it could be if sensible pre­ ment to fossil-fuel power stations to caustions are not taken. The many rea­ overcome an implied deficiency in exist­ sons which have encouraged the search ing power station practice implies dis­ for better solutions have not been fruit- missal of the argument for the renew- 18 SCRAM Journal June '85/ July '85 abies. 1Ob Any over-capacity in generating changes in fossil and nuclear fuel cycle lt also suggests that more fossil plant plant which exists now will not be there costs, etc. should be constructed to make up for by the time a significant number of new 12 • • • industrial action or even incom­ the reduced efficiency of that power stations are constructed. petence could hold up construction. • so-equipped, and that new coal plant Incidentally, how true is it to infer that • Construction delays could certainly must always replace old. lt also assumes investment in conservation reduces the occur, not only with the barrage but with that sulphur-removal from fossil plant need for electricity? any station constructed as part of the emissions is all that is needed to over­ 10c Research should be concentrated on-going replacement programme for come the 'acid rain problem'; that is not on the real alternatives - wind, wave generating plant. An important feature so. and. • .solar. • • The authors should state of the barrage, however, is that it lOa The cost• • •{diverted to energy con­ why, in their view, wind, wave and solar involves essentially repetitive servation} could save more energy than energy are 'real' alternatives, whereas operations. Quantity production the barrage could produce. The argument the tides are not. I have worked on an encourages efficiency. The relative sim­ as to whether £1 spent in conservation of them for a number of years and have plicity of the operations and their de­ is more cost-effective than on power noticed only two primary differences, pendence on comparatively low techno­ generation is irrelevant. Both are necess­ namely that each is best suited to logy means a shift in investment towards ary. If aJI we ever do is invest in conser­ meeting a particular form of energy labour rather than materials. vation, all will be wasted because noth­ demand, and that technically and 13 'The Case Against Tidal Power' made ing will be generated to conserve. economically some are much closer to in the authors' article does not justify The argument about the barrage, be realised than others. their conclusion that 'The attractions. etc., hinges on the most sensible invest­ • .are superficial and far outweighed by ment option when new stations are 11 According to Bondi the (1982) cost. the detrimental effects.' The case in fa­ needed to replace old. The 30-40 year •• will be 3.lp/kw, compared with 2p for vour is, in fact, relatively strong. lt is lifetime of the thermal plant on which, nuclear and over 3p for coal. The authors too soon to say how strong and how sig­ in the absence of substantial hydro, we should read the Bondi report more care­ nificant is the 'case against'. All I know largely depend at present makes this an fully before quoting the generating cost is that the suggestions made by the au­ on-going commitment in its own right. (in 1980, not 1982) of nuclear, coal and thors have little relevance to the debate 'Conservation' only determines how much the Severn Barrage. The data given then which will take place in the second half is needed. are, of course, superceded now by of the 1980's. IEnergyPor Tidal Ail The Labour Party has a new energy con­ A tidal power system based on now, and has been in the US for a few servation policy in the process of being underwater turbines not unlike wind ma­ years. One such turbine, a 30kw proto­ drafted. lt is expected to include a re­ chines has immense possibilities in the type, is already being tested, suspended commendation to spend £1500 million Channel Islands. from a bridge in New York's East River. on conservation and CHP, as well as to The idea has several advantages Or Cave is trying to form a consort­ set up an independent Conservation Ag­ (apart from being safe, clean, cheap and ium of interested parties to develop a ency. The Agency would have respons­ limitless, i.e. not nuclear). Or Peter prototype and locate it 200m off a chan­ ibility for: - Cave, a mechanical engineer from Ply­ nel island, moored or built on a structure *Supervision and provision of the neces­ mouth Polytechnic working on the study on the sea bed. sary finance for a full programme of says that the sea turbines could provide However, the Channel Islands' pri­ council house insulation. reliable power for about 20 hours out vately owned electricity company has *Increasing the level of grant aid to of 24 hours, as the turbines would turn just signed a 15 year contract with the other households and widening its scope. on both the flow and ebb of the strong French Electricity Utility, EdF, to re­ *Raising the standard of building insula­ tidal currents. Where two tidal races ceive 90% of their electricity needs from tion regulations. are out of sync with each other as in a newly-laid, 27 km long electricity *Development of a locally based system some islands, constant power could be cable, mainly during the summer months. of home energy audits. tapped. Jersey Electricity say they will generate *A new, comprehensive system of fuel Environmentally it is much more at­ most of their own power in the winter allowances. tractive than a tidal barrage scheme; from the present oil-fired power *Handling the public funding of research also it would do away with the need for stations, or so they say. One of the two into conservation. big tidal ranges, and capacity could be power stations is due to shut down this *Implementation of recommendations increased simply by adding turbines. summer. of the 5th Report of the Select Commit­ The technology for this is available Electrical Review 17.5.85 tee on Energy, such as the revision of accounting procedures and the inclusion levels as a condition for mortgages. Energy Manager May 1985

Labour's energy policy may be improving move too fast on controlling acid rain. about conservation and CHP we wouldn't on* the *conservation * * front, * but * it still* With all these power stations being need to build any more power stations has a long way to go on other fronts. OK, planned by Labour along with their plans until sometime next century. So when so Labour disagrees with almost every- for conservation, it's not surprising that they get into government they'll soon thing the Tories have done, and are corn- he rules out a major programme of new discover that something has to go. Let's mitted to stopping the PWR at Sizewell, energy sources, but he says: 'Some of hope it's the AGR. Now's the time for but they want to stick to AGR's instead! these ideas could be worthwhile in the all those Labour Party members out Labour's energy spokesman, Stan distant future and we are not opposed there to start thinking about a motion Orme, would like all nine of the best to experimentation.' to the national conference in 1986. A CHP schemes to go ahead. He would also lt makes you wonder where Stan low level of AGR ordering is too high! like to see more ordinary coal-fired po- Orme thinks that all this energy demand - we want a negative one. wer stations. But he is not inclined to is going to come from. If they are serious New Technology 20.5.85 SCRAM J01rnal June '85/ July '85 19 1CHP ppropriate Technotog

The outgoing chairperson of the Com­ bined Heat and Power Association (CHPA), William Orchard, described the recent award of £750,000 for three lead city CHP studies as 'insignificant'. lt represents a very meagre Government Newcastle and Sheffield have both done conversion using circulating fluidised commitment compared with its commit­ a considerable amount of groundwork bed technology, already proven in ment to nuclear power. The CHPA sug­ since the Atkins report was published. Germany. gests that the Government is virtually This led to the suggestion that choosing 3) Conversion of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar ignoring the significant potential bene­ Leicester had more to do with lobbying power station situated 22km north fits of CH P for the nation as a whole, by Conservative MP's in marginal of Leicester. and feels that they have a vital role in Leicester seats than with technical feas­ Belfast also has three options: the con­ furthering it. ibility. version of Kilroot oil-fired station, con­ There is a great deal of ignorance However, since January both New­ version of the Belfast West coal-fired about CHP, despite its success in the castle and Sheffield have announced that station, and the construction of a rest of Europe. lt accounts for about 40% they will carry on regardless. The purpose-built station at Crumlin. of Denmark's heating needs, 25% of Swe­ Government have now promised to sup­ Edinburgh intends to look at a £500m den's and 8% of West Germany's. Some port Sheffield if they apply for financial scheme based on Cockenzie coal-fired 3,000 schemes exist in Europe including help from the EEC, provided that there station, whose future is threatened by those in Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen, Vi­ is substantial private sector participa­ Torness. There is als~ a possibility of enna and Warsaw. tion. a new refuse incjnerator being built in The Government insisted that any The Leicester consortium is under­ the City, which could be incorporated. proposed scheme would have to demon­ standably delighted to have been chosen When all five studies are completed strate significant private sector interest. as a lead city. lt will study three one major obstacle will remain- the lack Despite this, consortia comprising pri­ options:- of funding. The prospects for raising vate sector companies, local government enough private sector investment are and regional electricity boards were 1) A 'build-up' scheme involving the ex­ limited. Until we have a change in the formed in all nine of the cities studied tension of existing district heating complexion of the Government we may by Atkins. and the construction of a purpose­ have to plump for small scale schemes. The announcement in January that built CHP station on the site of a Nevertheless, the five studies will hope­ Leicester, Edinburgh and Belfast were former power station. fully draw all the problems into the open to receive £250,000 from the 2) A 'core-scheme' involving the conver­ and begin to wear down the institutional Department of Energy to carry out de­ sion of the oil-fired Leicester Gas barriers. tailed studies, bitterly disappointed the Turbine Power Station, to gas or Electrical Review consortia in Newcastle and Sheffield. coalfiring. GEC has proposed a coal 26.4 - 3.5.85 lACE CHP The third in a series of six reports en­ in order to cut bills later. According to a local engineer, John titled 'Lessons from America' prepared The report was commissioned by the Kapp, Brighton power station, if by the Association for the Conservation Department of Energy to find out what converted into a combined heat and po­ of Energy, describes a new way of fund­ other countries are doing, so that Britain wer system, could save £27m a year in ing the installation of energy-saving can be dragged out from the grain of fuel bills and create hundreds of jobs. measures which makes it much easier the wood in the bottom of the barrel of The 300Mw power station apparently for people to afford it without the usual would-be energy conservation. Just loses SOOMw of heat at full steam, expensive capital costs. think, another 10 reports, another 10 enough to heat 50,000 homes, 40% of This scheme involves a third party, years, and we'll have so many PWR's we the entire Brighton area. usually an energy saving service or an won't need conservation. Doubtless, the economics of such a electricity board, who put up the initial scheme are enhanced by the possibility money. The contractor conducts a free of using rubbish as well as coal, avoiding energy audit of the building. If the build­ the need to transport rubbish to the ing offers a scope for savings, the owner countryside, a necessity in five years of the building is offered a contract un­ time when the local dumps become full. der which the energy service company 1~ 1~.·~ The conversion would create 1,000 both installs and maintains suitable en­ "·~ ~.~ construction jobs for 10 years, costing ergy conservation equipment. Then the 1 £200m, half the cost ot a new station. company and the building owner share Token gesture These revelations were made at a the resulting savings at an agreed rate, CHP Association meeting and it was a­ e.g. 50/50 over 5 years. If the equipment The government's latest token gesture, greed to set up a local group in Sussex does not perform by saving energy as one in a long line of evasive policy, is to promote a detailed feasibility study predicted, the contractors will not be the new appointment of a Minister for of the scheme. paid. Waste. Being responsible for Electrical Review 10.5.85 Andrew Warren, Director of ACE co-ordinating efforts to recycle house­ said, 'Under this scheme, the building hold and industrial waste and identifying owner no longer has to find the capital, problems, and deviations from govern­ the expertise to judge which conserva­ ment policy will of course be an Hastmgs, chairman of the Trade and In­ tions measures are appropriate, and as­ extremely easy job. Anyone could do it, dustry Select Committee who proposed sumes no risk should savings not occur.' so he has been given no staff of his own the idea, said the committee was unani­ This overcomes the problem, experi­ to work with and sufficient power to mous in describing the appointment as enced by many people, especially Local maybe appear on Blue Peter sometime. a 'major advance'. Authorities, of finding the finance now Needless to say the Tory MP for FT 16.4.85 20 SCRAM Journal June '85/ July '8!» I Advice Wind Appropriate Technologyl

The Energy Advice Unit, run by Newcastle City Council since April 1979, has expanded its services and changed its name. From the end of May, the 'En­ ergy Information Centre' will provide advice for businesses as well as domestic energy users from its new shopfront pre­ mises in Grainger Street, Newcastle. The shop is in premises converted to be an example of the energy-efficiency which the Information Centre exists to promote. The Information Centre will continue to provide advice for domestic households on their energy problems: referring them to specialists where nec­ essary. In this it is the only centre of its type in Britain which does not exist to promote one of the energy supply in­ The growth in the wind energy industry The answer to the problem is storage. dustries. is encouraging. New ideas and innova­ Energy produced during a time of low Being answerable to Newcastle City's tions are cropping up all the time, yet demand can be stored in several ways. Economic Development committee, the it is beset by that great catch-all prob­ For example, batteries or pumping water Energy Information Centre is justified lem- economics (don't mention Trident). up a hill to drive turbines on its way back by the jobs that the committee hopes Economically speaking the prospects down. However, this requires expensive will be generated in manufacturing and for wind energy lie in its application in technology, l.imiting these prospects. installing insulation, and in small and remote areas not connected to the na­ A possible breakthrough by Peter medium sized businesses which it hopes tional grid. Many remote areas like the Musgrave from the Department of En­ will reinvest in Newcastle the money Western Isles in Scotland obtain energy gineering at Reading University may saved from their budgets by energy con­ from diesel generators, which are very change all this. He reckons that excess servation. To achieve this, it will work expensive, often six times mainland energy can be used to compress gas in in conjunction with the organisations prices. A combination of wind and diesel a special chamber with high-pressure which already exist to help smaller busi­ doesn't help because diesel generators oil, creating energy when reversed. He nessses: rather as the Energy Advice U­ are inefficient to run at part load. If the tested the system with a 'wind turbine nit initially worked through the welfare proportion of wind energy meets demand simulator', and from a computer model rights advice centres in Newcastle. then the diesel can be used as a back­ estimates that the number of times the While any organisation which up, but fluctuations in wind speed may diesel set is brought in as a back-up can promotes efficient energy use is to be be frequent and the diesel sets cutting be reduced as much as 80%. Musgrave supported, it remains to be seen whether in and out increase wear and tear, re­ plans to test the theory on a 50 kw wind there is a net gain in jobs in Newcastle ducing efficiency. machine. as a result of the efforts of the Energy New Scientist 14.11.85 Information Centre or whether some of the monetary gains from energy conser­ vation simply line the pockets of the entrepreneurs and landlords owning· busi­ ness premises. I Sola

Europe's largest solar panel factory has A project aimed at showing the captains SAAB, the Swedish car company, has opened in Bridgend, Wales, providing of industry that solar power is a viable revealed an innovation on its new 900 50-100 jobs immediately. The UK sub­ alternative is proving a great success Turbo EV-1 car. lt is fitted with a re­ sidiary of American Chronar Corporation in a government building in the US. movable glass roof to the underside of who run the $9.5m plant say they will Solar panels on the roof of Annex which has been fitted 66 solar cells. The produce up to 1Mw of solar power an­ No 2 of the House of Representatives, 'sun roor is designed to produce about nually. completed in 1982, provide most of the 60W, enough to drive a small electric Using a new process of depositing hot water needed by some 3,000 staff. fan which will keep the inside of the car thin film solar cells on plain glass, pro­ The system, which is claimed to supply down to the ambient air temperature. duction will be cheaper and should get 220Mwh/year, generates annual savings In extreme conditions the temperature cheaper still as the method is developed of $13,700 and Ellen Nagle, the mechan­ inside a car can be 20°-30° higher than further. ical engineer who designed it, says it outside. Electrical Review 26.4.85 will pay for itself in fifteen years. If trials are successful the company The system comprises 224 flat plate hopes to incorporate the solar cells with­ collectors, each 2.4m2 and an existing 3 in the glass of the roof and offer the sun I Saving 33m water tank. roof· as a production option. lt will have British Steel's engineering works in Cum­ In the autumn of 1983 the building's the advantage of cooling the car without bria saved £100,000 in the last 12 months conventional steam converter was inop­ sapping power from the car's battery. in fuel bills. They decided to insulate erative for five weeks. The solar system Maybe they could fit a heating sys­ and weather-proof the roof of the fac­ worked flat out to provide the extra hot tem which could be powered by the solar tory at a cost of £235,000. water and no-one in the building even cells on clear winter days? realised there was a problem. Energy Manager April 1985 New Technology 13.5.85 BSEE, May 85 SCRAM Journal June '85/July '85 21 1Revi

Countdown to Space War by Bhupendra or circumvented. Jasani and Christopher Lee (SIPRI, £4.95, However, the Union of Concerned 101tpp), Space Weapons The Arms Con­ Scientists book is more readable, and trol Dilemma eeL Bhupendra Jasani has the bonus of a substantial section (SIPRI £1LOO, 255pp), The Fallatcy of on ASA T weapons. They reeommend that Star Wars by the Union of Concerned America should seek to negotiate a Trea­ Scientists (VIntage $4.95, 293pp), The ty banning ASA T weapons. At present Reagan Strategic Defense Initiative: A both superpowers have a relatively crude Technical, Political and Arms Control ASAT capability against satellites in low Assessment by Siclney D. Drell, Phillip orbits; and so the most crucial US mili­ J. Farley and David Holloway (Stanford tary satellites (early-warning and com­ Univwsity, $1.00, 147pp), Star Wars - munications) are still safely out of range. Self-Destruct Incorporated by E. P. Since America is more dependent on mil­ Tbompson and Ben Tbompson (Merlin. itary satellites than the Soviet Union £1.00, 67pp). it is a matter of self-interest to main­ ing in that they provide early warning tain space as a sanctuary, as any tech­ The continuing development of military of attack and verification of arms con­ nological advantages they might gain technology for use in space looks set to trol agreements. The general conclusion, will surely be short-lived. usher in a new phase of the arms race, though, is that an agreement to ban the Finally Star Wars - Self-Destruct probably more dangerous and certainly development and possession of ASA T Incorporated is the first British spin-off, more expensive than the last. This tech­ weapons is urgently required. BMD, and clearly basing its technical arguments nology is geared towards two distinct, its important technical connection with on the analysis done by the UCS and but interrelated spheres of military ac­ ASA T developments, is covered, though other America sceptics. The technical tivity. One is the use of satellites, and somewhat patchily, and with undue op­ section is done quite well, though it is the corollary development of timism about Its technical feasibility surely incorrect to say that: 'All previous anti-satellite (ASA T) weapons, the other and strategic desirablity. ABM systems relied upon. •• physically is the hope of buildil)g a system which Certainly the very sceptical analysis destroying the attacking ballistic mis­ would afford protection from strategic of Reagan's 'Star Wars' or Strategic De­ siles.• In fact, they were designed to dis­ nuclear weapons - ballistic missile de­ fense Initiative (SDI) presented in The able the warheads with the pulse of ra­ fence (BMD), as it is usually known. Fallacy of Star Wars is more convincing. diation produced from their own nuclear Countdown to Space War is one of This really is an excellent book, which warhead, and thus had a much larger 'kill SIPRI's 'popular' paperbacks, and provides presents a devastating critique of the radius' than could be attained by blast an historical overview of the increasing 'Star Wars' idea with great clarity, but and heat destruction alone. The main militirisation of space over the last quar­ without resort to oversimplification. The interest of the booklet, however, lies ter of a century. lt contains a good gen­ impression given is that such a defence in the first and last sections where E. eral introduction to the military uses against nuclear missile attack is probably P. Thompson seems to be the predomin­ of satellites - currently about 75% of technically infeasible, will certainly be ant influence. Suffice to say that if you all satellites have some military purpose extraordinarily expensive, could anyway find his style amusing and illuminating, - but unfortunately it is written in a ra­ be overcome by relatively cheap coun­ you'll not be disappointed here. Actually ther breathless, chatty style which termeasures, and is likely to spur on the he pieces together the arguments very makes it less, not more, readable. More arms race and preclude any prospect of well and provides a better explanation importantly, the authors provide only successful arms control negotiations. for the origins of Reagan's 'Star Wars' the barest outline of President Reagan's The Stanford University report covers than the other books. 'Star Wars' BMD programme. The blurb similar ground, and is also convincingly Quite a selection to choose from on the back of the book sounds promis­ and expertly argue. More academic in then, but no doubt wtiich is the best buy. ing: 'President Reagan has offered a vi­ style, it not only casts many doubts on For in-depth information on space wea­ sion of new inventions that could stop the 'Star Wars' concept, but also consi­ pons, lucidly presented, and especially nuclear missile attack. But will they ders the problem of upholding and for a damning analysis of the Star Wars work? Can lasers make nuclear weapons strengthening the ABM Treaty, which idea, The Fallacy of Star Wars is obsolete? Or would they merely be used is now in danger of being either broken cutstanding value. to wage Star Wars?' This is not only stu­ Graham Spinardi pid, but also misleading, as these ques­ tions are barely addressed, never mind answered here. Not the Same Cold Story by Scottish be cheap. Condensation, dampness, The other SIPRI book, Space Weapons Fuel Poverty Action Group. (£2.50 plus higher unemployment rates and the large - The Arms Control Dilemma, is a col­ 25p p&p from First of May Bookshop, number of tenements with high ceilings lection of papers given in Stockholm in 43 Candlemaker Row, Edinburgh;) all combine to make matters worse. September 1983, prefaced by a substant­ The pamphlet does not dwell only ial introductory overview from This pamphlet is basically an update on on the bad news. The Convention of Bhupendra Jasani. This is more academic the fuel poverty situation, which is noth­ Scottish Local Authorities have, at least, in tone than Countdown to Space War, ing new, but in Scotland it is much more recognised fuel poverty as a serious and although the quality of the papers acute. The Scottish climate is signifi­ problem. Scottish Neighbourhood Energy varies, they are generally quite good, cantly different to the rest of the UK. Action have helped to set up a dozen despite some rather wordy repitition lt costs about 20% more to heat a house community insulation projects and an­ where contributions overlap. Again, the in Glasgow than it does to heat an ident­ other t 9 are in the pipeline, but these main focus is on military satellites and ical house in Bristol. Yet DHSS heating can only really scratch at the surface. ASAT weaponry, and the arms control additions are the same throughout Bri­ A comprehensive national energy problems they pose. The dilemma of the tain. Many Scottish post-war peripheral conservation programme is needed, along title is that not only do many satellites housing schemes were built in exposed with an increased fuel subsidy which have useful civil functions, but also that locations, with poor quality construction, takes account of colder weather in Scot­ military satellites can be both destabilis- on the assumption that heating would land. The dictatorial power of the Fuel 22 SCRAM J01r11al June '85/July '85 •ews•

The Plutonium Blalness ..ct the Spread slstently push for and get enormous funds problem, lt was definitely the respons­ of the Bomb by Waltw hHenon. for the development of various branches Ibility of the politlc:.ians. • • (Pal.clln, £2.95, 24Spp) of nuc:lev energy. This Implies a con­ By 1984, FBR's still look like a dis­ spiracy almost, but never does he explain tant prospect. Super Phenlx In France This is the story that we all know: - the how they maintained their grip so power­ produces electricity at twice the cost creation of plutonium in 1941, the rapid fully In the face of ever-Increasing odds, of conventional nuclear plants, Germany uptake In the American war machine, as reprocessing especially, proved Is still building one at Kalkar due for the resulting nationalistic: competition Intransigent. lt took Carter to break completion In '87. International to develop t he technology In Europe and out, and soon he was back safely In the co-operation has become the new life Britain, Atoms for 'Peace', the pursuit nuclear fold. Under what pressures was saver. And FBRs' spent fuel, he of the fast breeder reactor and repro­ he forc:.ed to renege his common sense? concludes, provides plutonium in a form c:euing, the Nuclear Proliferation Trea­ There is a gap In the long list presented Ideal for weapons. ty, all the way to 1982's putative total here of falling technology, escalating He ends with a what you can do sec­ of 44 tonnes of 'c:ommerc:lal' plutonium. budgets and yet undlmmed enthusiasm tion, but as he notes, If plutonium pro­ However, In Wait Patterson's usual tho­ for the plutonium age. duction stopped tomorrow, there would rough style, lt Is detailed and carefully Despite the repeated warnings from still be a huge problem In tracking it all documented so that for me, anyway, various sources of the proliferation dan­ down, storing it and guaranteeing that many hazy gaps were filled. ger, the steamroller pressed on. The it was never reused. The electricity companies have al­ fairy tare that there could be a 'purely He sticks to a fairly narrow remit; most always recognised the economic: civil' nuclear programme that Included the economic: and technological aspects nightmare of FBR's and reprocessing and the separation and use of plutonium held of the plutonium affair. A little detail have rarely supported them financ:lally. sway. FBRs struggled and failed except on the exact dangers of plutonium and Governments, however, have happily In small pilot plants such as Dounreay; the whole fuel cycle, especially waste, funded them at exorbitant rates. 'More these were always funded by would be valuable and help to bring home taxpayers' money has been devoted to government. Finally In the 70's India ex­ the reality, for me a little submerged, research and development for the use ploded the bubble that civil and military of all the technology and political deal­ of plutonium fuel than to any other en­ were separate. The nuclear club, finally Ings. He assumes quite a lot of basic: ergy research.' Early on he coins the forced to come up with an answer to the knowledge on thl.s topic:. However, this term 'the plutonium people'; those In proliferation problem, came out in 1980 book is definitely a valuable addition power or very close to power who con- with a classic: default - it wasn't their to our (non-violent) arsenal! Carol Youngson

Digging Deeper eeL Huw Beynon. (Vwso the same quantity of coal. Dave Feickert £3. 95) sketches some possibilities for a new 'Plan for Coal', with local authorities With the miners' strike over, now Is the spearheading a conversion to coal. La­ time for writing and analysing this, the bour councils should join forces with con­ most Important strike since 1926. struction, steel, boiler-makers', transport Diggtn.g Deeper makes a good start. unions and the NUM to develop a wide­ The Tories have been planning this ranging movement for CHP as an altern­ strike meticulously since 1978: - coal ative to the environmental threat posed stocks built up in Britain and abroad; by nuclear power. power stations converted to use oil as lt Is both an Infuriating and optimist­ well as coal; transport companies Ic book. A story of disappearing civil encouraged to use non- unionised labour; liberties, a powerful and uncaring state ard tan Mc:Gregor, an industrial hatchet stamping on some of the most traditional man, brought in to head the NCB. communities to be found In Britain. Yet The book covers many relevant sub­ it Is also a story of the development of jects, written by a collection of authors, new alliances to combat the power of mostly from universities and Polytech­ the New Right. The repercussions of the Boards to disconnect still causes great nics: - the rise of the New Right In the strike are going to continue for a long hardship, and must be ended as soon as Conservative Party, Trade Unions In cri­ time yet, and although Thatcher may possible. sis and how all the various arms of the have won the battle, she may find that lt Is a sad thing to say, but I think state were used against the miners, from she has planted the seeds for her own that this pamphlet has dwelt too much the Police to the DHSS. On a more op­ downfall. on a few of the more promising develop­ timistic note, one section talks about Pete Roche ments which have occurred over the past how Miners' Support Groups have year or two. I would have preferred to changed the face of left politics In Bri­ see more about the huge task facing tain - permanently. The same can be All these books are available by mall Scotland In tackling the dampness prob­ said of the Miners• Wives Support Groups. · order from: - lems, and a few suggestions as to how Colin Sweet puts the strike into a best to organise a comprehensive energy wider energy perspective, and shows how Fint of May conservation programme. lt has fewer nuclear power dominates the Energy Es­ statistics, and Is more anecdotal than tablishment. Jonathon Wlnterton shows Candlemalt•Row previous pamphlets, which might make how new technology In the mines is being Edinburgh Tel: 031 225 2612 it appeal to a wider audience, but unfor­ used to restruc:tLW"e the industry, so that tunately I think the price Is likely to put a much smaller number of miners, under people off. Pete Roche greater managerial control, can produce SCRAM Jownal J .... '15/July '15 23 • Diary June 1 YCND March in Glasgow. Assemble side, Lydney, Glos. Tel: Blakney IJ45. George Square. 21- 23 RAF Bishopscourt, Ballyhoran, 1/2 Scottish Peace Festival, Kelvin Hall Co. Down. Midsummer Festival. lnfo: Glasgow. SCND OIJl 331 2878. Belfast 647- 106. 5 BNFL to appear in Carlisle Crown 2 1- 23 CND Midsummer Festival at Glas­ Court on charges arising from Nov 83's tonbury. leak. 22- 23 S.E. London Green Fair, Fordham 14 Public meeting on arms conversion. Park, New Cross. lnfo: 01 318 6628. Speaker: Mary Kaldor of the Science Pol­ 25- 27 The future of the electricity sup­ icy Research Unit, University of Sussex. ply industry 3 day conference. Contact: George Square Lecture Theatre, George Ms Chris Richards, Centre for Energy Square, Edinburgh. 8 p.m. Studies, Polytechnic of the South Bank, 15 Day school on defence industry in Borough Road, London SE 1. Tel: 01 928 and around Edinburgh. George Square 8989 ex. 2399. lec ture theatre, George Square, Edin­ burgh. July lives· in Cheshire, is rather concerned 15 March assembles town square Falk­ 3-6 IJth Convention for European Nuc­ about the distorted view that the local land, Fife, to proceed to US communica­ lear Disarmament at the Free Univer­ MP has of the situation In southern A f­ tions base nearby. sity. Amsterdam, Nether lands. Contacts: rica, partic ularly the role of South Af­ 15/16 Leamington Festival of Interna­ Fiona Weir.fFred Hasson END, Southbank rica in Namibia. tional Understanding and Peace. lnfo: House, Black Prince Road. London SE 1 As most people must know by now, 18 Ll llington Road, Leamington Spa, or Stephen Brown, CND, 11 Goodwin South Africa is illegally occupying Na­ Warks (0926) 27773. Street, London, Nil 3HQ. mibia in contravention of United Nations 15- 16 Severnside campaign against Ra­ 14 Festival for Life '85. Swords Castle, Decree Number 1, which states: 'No per­ diation Conference. Contact: Sue Co. Dublin. lnfo: 47 Lesson Park, Dub­ son or entity. . . may. • . extract, Haverley. Hillside Cottage, Liney Wood­ lin 6. Tel: (Dublin) 602427. mine, process, refine. • • any natural DEAR SUPPORTER resource ••• situated within the terri­ We woJJid like to take this opportumty to thank all our torial limits of Namibia without conse nt subscribers and regular readers for the support we've been of the United Nations Council for Na­ given over the years. We hope you agree that the quality of mibia ..•• ' the SCRAM Journal has improved. With your support, supply­ Howe ver, Mrs Ann Winterton, Con­ ing us with copy. criticism and cash, we strive to keep up the servative MP for Congleton In Cheshire, standard we've set. presumably misunderstands the meaning With the expected appointment of a second paid wOf'kt:r of the Decree. Whilst corresponding soon we will be able to produce the Journal more efficiently with Mrs Winterton re her signature on and keep up the administration of the office. BUT WE NEED an Early Day Motion condemning the MORE. MONEY FOR WAGES. Our present wages pool is not over- fishing of Namibian waters by East­ very deep and the tap is filling it up slightly slower than lt Is ern bloc fishing vessels, Little Black emptying through the plug hole. The occasional bucket thrown Rabbit's cousin asked If her concern ex­ in helps! With two wages to pay what we really need is tended to the export of uranium from Namibia. She replied: another tap! We therefore appeal for more money. If you can afford a I cannot at t.he moment answer the points which you raise regular donation ple ase fill out the standing order form below in connection with the export of othe,. products - we need at least another £.200 per month - and help us turn -thanks from Namibia . .. but since you clear­ on another tap. Alternatively, please send a one-off donation ly lolow so much more about t.he sub­ 'bucket' - every little helps. SC R ~M li ... . ject t.han 1, you may consider letting me have any information you possess ·PAY OUR so 1 can utilise it to make representa­ SUBSCRIBE tions to our Government concerning t.he excellent way in which South Af­ t. NOW~ ~WAGES! ~ - rica, which is currently giving consid­ erable aid to Namibia, is stimulating Namibian trade, industry and employ­ r--t><- -=------.,.. ------Your Name: ...... ·-- I. SUBSCRIPTION FORM : I ment. Address: ...... Mrs Winterton's Government also SCRAM Journal Uli>U&I eubl<'tiptlon ,. ~ I Sub Cor sb IUU<'I ...... £1 I claims to be stimulating trade, industry o,.,.....,,...... £9 monr.- order I and employment in this country when lnotllutlone ...... £11 · To the Manager ...... : ...... Bank, it clearly is not, so we can't fault her Suppor11na sub ...... ( 10 rttum to I Ltr~ ~ u b ...... £50 SCRAM , 11 For1h St.l Address on her trust in South Africa, can we? HouM-hold sub ...... 00 EDINBURGH I JLE l SCRAM has sent some information I ..A I C No ...... to Lillle Black Rabbit's cousin so hope­ YES , I/ We wish to subscribe · I Please pay on ...... (1st p aymen t) to fully Mrs Winterton MP will be better N I P.oyal Ba n k of Scotland, 142 Princes informed in future. une ...... !.Street, Ed i nburgh (83-51-00) the sudl Address ...... 1or • ... . . :tor the credi t or SCRAAI no. 2 l account 258597 and make similar pay- I ...... , rnents monthly/ yearly until cancelled . 1 1 L...... Te i No ...... J s i gned...... Date ...... ------_,_ ------.. I L