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Back to Proliferation in Parliament, Spring 2009
Asked by Lord Morris of Manchester
To ask Her Majesty's Government what legal and other costs the Ministry of Defence has already incurred and is prepared to incur in contesting the claim to the High Court for compensation of British servicemen who have suffered illnesses (including cancers, skin defects and fertility problems) due to exposure to radiation from the testing of atomic and thermo-nuclear weapons on the Australian mainland, on Christmas Island and elsewhere in the South Pacific.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Baroness
Taylor of Bolton): Legal and other costs incurred up to 16 January 2009
(the latest available) were £1,599,640.43. Additional costs will be billed following
the conclusion of the High Court trial on 6 February 2009. Costs thereafter
will depend on the outcome of the trial.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldhansrd/
text/90223w0001.htm#0902235000783
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how long the 2005 decontamination exercise on Kiritimati took; and how much the exercise cost, broken down by category of expenditure.
Mr. Kevan Jones: The contract works on the island commenced during January 2005 and the last package of waste left the Island in May 2008, although most of the scrap metal had been removed by November 2006.
13 Jan 2009 : Column 559W
The costs of removing the waste (not necessarily decontamination) currently amount to £7.0 million broken down as follows (figures are rounded):
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what reason his Department commissioned an exercise to decontaminate the atomic test sites on Kiritimati in 2005. [246872]
Mr. Kevan Jones: Work on Kiritimati Island was commissioned in response to a request from the Government of Kiribati for the removal of the military waste (not necessarily decontamination) resulting from military activity during the 1950s and 1960s.
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what levels of radioactivity were recorded during the 2005 decontamination exercise on Kiritimati; what materials were recovered during the exercise; what types of contamination were removed from the island; and at what levels. [246874]
Mr. Kevan Jones: Removal of waste arising from the UK nuclear weapons test programme on the island of Kiritimati was undertaken between 2005 and 2008. Previous survey work had identified elevated levels of radioactivity associated with the presence of radium-226, commonly used to luminise vehicle instruments at the time of the test programme, but no other elevated levels of radioactivity substances were identified during the 2005 and 2008 programme.
The materials (including non-radioactive) comprised approximately:
| Cubic metres/kg | |
|
Bitumen |
15,000 cubic metres |
|
Metal items |
25,000 cubic metres |
|
Rubber |
150 cubic metres |
|
Asbestos |
150 cubic metres |
|
Radium luminised dials |
175 kg |
A total of 111 individual locations were identified where elevated levels of radioactivity associated with radium-226 were present. Removal of the radium required both the actual instrument and a small quantity of soil to be taken from the site.
The highest radioactive material fell into the low level waste category.
All of the sites were extremely localised with radium-226 restricted to an
area of no more than a few square metres.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/
cm090112/text/90112w0024.htm#09011234000073
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