HIGHLAND Council's emergency planning officer yesterday told councillors of his genuine suspicion that the UK's security services were behind Dounreay's persistent failure to inform the civil authorities of movements of nuclear material through the Highlands.
Mr Brian Downie was speaking at a meeting of the council's protective services committee in Inverness, which was also addressed by senior management of Dounreay on current issues facing the plant.
When asked for his contribution, Mr Downie said: ''One area I would like to touch on is the movement of radioactive material into and from the Dounreay site. At this point in time, this council's emergency planning office is not notified of any of these movements.
''I can put this into context. When nuclear warships anchor on our west coast, warships which carry a number of missiles with warheads, we are notified. We are told the date and the time they will arrive, how long they will be staying, the date and the time that they depart. If there is a change in these timings by as much as two hours, we are notified of these changes.
''It is not being paranoid, it is simple common sense and operational procedure. I am not going to line the route with local authority workers, firemen or policemen, it is a question of being two steps ahead. However remote the possibility of an accident, the fact that you are these two steps ahead improves your chances of reacting efficiently, speedily in being able to protect the public which is my prime function.''
Mr Downie continued: ''The regulations which cover the movement of nuclear material are produced by the International Atomic Energy Authority who are based in Switzerland. Nowhere in those regulations does it say 'thou shalt not tell.'
''My personal view, and it is only a personal view because I can't back it up with fact, is that senior management at Dounreay would be quite happy to pass on that information but they are stopped from doing so by somebody, or some organisation, much higher up the chain, which suggests a large input from the security service.''
Dounreay's director Dr Nelson was present and he said in response: ''Certainly I will take that issue up with our security people, I do however know that the local police are told about all the movements.''
Dounreay's fiercest critic Mrs Lorraine Mann, said afterwards: ''The emergency planning officer's comments were extremely pertinent, but yet the Highland councillors have never seen fit to criticise Dounreay for the lack of this information but that is the disdain with which Dounreay treats Highland Council.''
Council convener Peter Peacock, meanwhile reported yesterday that the Government's watchdog the Radioactive Waste Management Committee is coming north, in July, and is seeking to consult the council on Dounreay's openness and its relationship with the public.
Before that, Dounreay managers will run two high-profile open days over the weekend June 21 and 22 for the public.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article