6 months ago
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The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities have written to senior government ministers seeking their assurance that redundant British nuclear submarines will not be sent to Australia for disposal.
NFLA Spokesperson on Nuclear Submarine Decommissioning Councillor Brian Goodall, who represents the Rosyth Ward in Scotland where decommissioning is currently taking place, has written to the Foreign and Defence Secretaries asking for their confirmation that they will not be sending waste or decommissioning work overseas should a new Australian law be passed unamended.
The United Kingdom and United States have signed the AUKUS pact with Australia to build and operate a new fleet of nuclear submarines; this includes the provision of new conventionally armed, but nuclear powered, vessels for the Australian Navy.
To support the pact, Australian legislators have proposed a new Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Bill 2024, which appears to provide under Clauses 7 and 12 of the Bill for the disposal of high level radioactive waste from British and American submarines on Australian soil, and also for the storage of such materials in Australia from ‘a submarine that is not complete (for example, because it is being constructed or disposed of)’.
In response, members of the Australian Senate’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Standing Committee has recently recommended that ‘the Government consider amending the Bill so that a distinction is made between Australia’s acceptance of low-level nuclear waste from AUKUS partners, but non-acceptance of high-level nuclear waste’.[i]
In his letter to Lord Cameron and Grant Shapps, Councillor Goodall expresses his concerned that this could theoretically mean ‘permitting towing redundant UK boats from Rosyth and Devonport down under for disposal’. Councillor Goodall fears that, were this to become practice and not just theory, local expertise and the jobs of his constituents could be lost.
Councillor Goodall ends by an appeal for the maintenance of the status quo as surely ‘the UK Government should remain responsible for the storage of the resultant high-level waste (HLW) and for the safe decommissioning of British nuclear submarines in home ports.’
Ends…For more information please contact Richard Outram, NFLA Secretary, by email to richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
The letter sent to Lord Cameron and Grant Shapps on 17 May reads:
The Lord David Cameron, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs,
The Rt. Hon. Grant Shapps MP, Secretary of State for Defence
Dear Secretaries of State,
The future disposal of AUKUS submarine waste in Australia
As the Spokesperson on Nuclear Submarine Decommissioning for the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities, I am writing to you to seek your assurance that the United Kingdom would not avail itself of any facility provided by the Australian Government to dispose of any of its own radioactive waste resulting from the operation of British nuclear submarines.
For some inexplicable reason, the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Bill 2024, which has recently been subject of a Senate Inquiry, appears to provide within Clauses 7 and 12 of the Bill for the disposal of waste from UK and US operated submarines, in addition to that from Australian navy vessels. The legislation specifically references the ‘managing, storing or disposing of radioactive waste from an AUKUS submarine’ in a bespoke facility, with an AUKUS submarine being described as ‘an Australian submarine or a UK/US submarine’. Furthermore, it provides for the storage of such arisings from ‘a submarine that is not complete (for example, because it is being constructed or disposed of)’, which might even theoretically be read as permitting towing redundant UK boats from Rosyth and Devonport down under for disposal!
Secretaries of State, frankly this seems either a massive – and probably unintended – faux pax by Australian legislators, or an incredible gesture of largesse on the part of Britain’s AUKUS ally.
Opponents of the Bill are now seeking amendments to ensure that the revised Bill does not provide for the storage of High-Level Waste from UK and US submarines, nor provide for the storage of allied vessels during a prolonged process of construction or decommissioning.
Surely as the operators of our own submarines, the UK Government should remain responsible for the storage of the resultant HLW and for their safe decommissioning in home ports. Not only will this preserve the expertise in these matters that has developed after many years of trial and error, but, as a Ward Member for the Rosyth Dockyard, it will also preserve the jobs in my local community.
I am writing to seek your reassurance that this shall remain the case.
Thank you kindly for giving this letter your consideration. I very much look forward to your reply. Please respond by email to the NFLA Secretary Richard Outram at richard.outram@manchester.gov.uk
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Brian Goodall, Rosyth Ward, Fife Council
[i] https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/ANNPSBills23/Report Recommendation 3
