Detected leaks of radioactive water from the British nuclear base

• Leaks of radioactive water occurred due to damaged pipes.
• The base in Culport stores nuclear warheads for submarines.
• Documents about the leaks were disclosed after a detention by the government.

At the base, where nuclear warheads are stored in Great Britain, leaks of radioactive water were detected in the sea due to the damage of old pipes, as confirmed by official documents. The leaks occurred in Loch Long, a marine inlet near Glasgow, due to unrelated insulation failure with 1,500 water sources at the base, which revealed a regulator.

The arms depot in Culport at Loch Long is one of the largest secret military facilities in Great Britain. Here, nuclear warheads are stored for four submarines of the Trident class, which are based in the non-political area.

Documents collected by the Scottish environmental agency show that close to the field components at the base exceeded their projected operational term, when the leaks occurred. SEPA indicated that the leaks occurred due to "insufficient insulation," which led to the release of "unnecessary radioactive waste" in the form of low-level tritium, which is used in nuclear warheads.

In a 2022 report, the agency accused military forces of repeated negligence in insulating equipment in the zone of storage of warheads. It was indicated that plans to replace old pipes were "not optimal."

Information about the leaks appeared in confidential reports from inspections and electronic letters that were provided to the investigative web-site Ferret and published in the Guardian. SEPA and the Ministry of Defence attempted to retrieve these documents, but they were disclosed after the decision of the information commissioner of Scotland, David Hamilton, who regulates compliance with information freedom laws.

The government of Great Britain is accused of foreign secrecy of documents with regard to national security, but in a recent Hamilton decision, it was determined that most of them should be disclosed.

The documents were published in September after a request from the Ministry of Defence for additional time for their review.

Tags: Europe/Ecology