Nuclear Substances leaked into the Sea again at Britain's Faslane Submarine Base in Scotland

A number of serious breaches of safety regulations, including leaking of radioactive waste, has been reported from the main submarine base of Britain's Royal Navy (RN).

In a confidential report, which had to be released under the British Freedom of Information Act, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) described safety failings at HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane, on the Gare Loch near Glasgow (photo), as "a recurring theme".

The worst breaches include three leaks of radioactive coolant from nuclear submarines into the Firth of Clyde, which happened in 2004, 2007 and 2008 .

A spokesman for the UK MoD said: "The discharges into the Gare Loch had no environmental consequences. The MoD is a responsible nuclear operator, and we have informed the appropriate regulatory authorities. We commissioned an independent study into the facilities and practices at HM Naval Base Clyde. An improvement plan is under way to ensure modern standards and best practice at the base."

How responsible as a nuclear operator the UK MoD really is has come to light last year, when a radioactive waste plant manager at the base had to be replaced, because it emerged that he had no qualifications at all in radioactive waste management!

This is not the only case of total mismanagement under the roof of the UK MoD. For the past three centuries the armed forces of England and Britain have always - and constantly - been hampered by underfunding, wrong or bad equipment, incompetent leadership and permanent mismanagement on all levels. And the nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed Royal Navy of today is still the same barely working conglomerate of excellence and failure it was under Nelson more than two centuries ago.

The documents, which were released to Channel 4 News, show that the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) warned that it would consider closing the Faslane base if it had the power to do so.

Civil radioactive safety regulations do not apply to MoD sites, but the department has previously said it would "volunteer to uphold them at the base".

The documents also suggest that Faslane will be the UK's only nuclear submarine base by 2015. Three RN submarines currently based at Devonport in Plymouth (in the Southwest of England) are earmarked for transfer to Scotland.

From an Irish perspective the ongoing series of accidents at the Faslane base, and in particular the leaking of radioactive substances into the water, are reasons for concern. Sooner or later these substances end up in the Irish Sea, whose coastline is shared by Britain and Ireland.

In the past there have been more than enough cases of accidentally released radioactivity from British sites which then caused pollution and serious problems on the East coast of Ireland. This has to stop!

If the Royal Navy cannot keep their nuclear submarines safe, they should decommission them. In fact, there is quite a strong lobby in Britain to do exactly that.
The currently used 'Trident' system is soon due to be replaced with the next generation of submarine-based intercontinental missiles, and ever since this was first debated in the British House of Commons, there has been a growing opposition to it, with people from all political parties arguing against the replacement of 'Trident'.

18 years after the end of the 'Cold War' the world has changed completely, and Britain's potential enemies of today are not big states with nuclear weapons against whom one would need to have the option of nuclear retaliation.
Today's potential enemies are groups of low-level insurgents and irregular forces in the 'third world', people armed with nothing more than AK-47 Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Against them a nuclear deterrent is neither necessary nor in any way useful.

Would the UK end her submarine-based nuclear weapons programme instead of commissioning a replacement system, it could save the British tax payer more than £ 200 billion, a vast amount of money, especially in the current times of global recession.
It is still possible that the British government might see the light and follow the advice to abolish nuclear submarines. But going by past experience, it is rather unlikely. And this means that the accidental leaking of radioactive material into the waters around these island, especially into the Irish Sea, will continue for a long time.

The Irish government, and in particular Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, should make strong representation about this in London and explain Ireland's position as clear as possible. No Irish civilian should suffer or die because Britain wants to play in the big league, but is incapable of keeping her equipment safe.

The Emerald Islander

Remembering Admiral George Rooke

There is an old saying that one can take a man out of the Navy, but never the Navy out of the man (who served in it for years). This is quite true, and I freely admit that even many years after my retirement from active sea service I have still a very strong interest in all matters maritime.

Besides my work as editor of the encyclopaedia of ships and my involvement with the international Tall Ships' Races I also do a lot of research into maritime history. And from this area I want to give you a little piece today, remembering a man who is nowadays widely forgotten.

This man is George Rooke, a distinguished English naval officer from the 17th century, who died on this day exactly 300 years ago.

Rooke was born in 1650 (the exact date is uncertain and disputed) at St. Lawrence, his family's estate near Canterbury in Kent.
He entered the Royal Navy as a young volunteer and served in the wars against the Dutch with great courage and distinction.
In 1673, at the very young age of 23, he was made a post captain. Over the following 17 years he became one of the most successful and best known English naval officers of his time, commanding several frigates and ships of the line in war and peace.

In 1690, aged 40, George Rooke was appointed Rear Admiral and shortly after he fought against the French in the crucial Battle of Beachy Head (also known as the Battle of Bévéziers), which ended with a heavy defeat for the Royal Navy and their Dutch allies and gave the French Navy control of the Channel for a considerable time.

Two years later, in May 1692, Rooke served under Admiral Russell in the Battle of Barfleur and greatly distinguished himself in a night attack on the French fleet at La Hogue, where he burned six of their ships. For this action he was knighted and received a reward of £ 1000 (which was an enormous sum of money at the time).

Until the peace of Rijswijk in 1697 Sir George Rooke continued to serve in both the Channel and the Mediterranean.
He then commanded the Anglo-Dutch Squadron that attacked Copenhagen in conjunction with the Swedish fleet under Admiral General Hans Wachtmeister in 1700, which facilitated the landing of King Charles XII of Sweden and his army in Denmark in the opening phase of the Great Northern War.

But the deeds for which Rooke is best remembered by historians were yet to come. When the War of the Spanish Succession began in 1702, he commanded an unsuccessful allied expedition against Cádiz, but on the passage home he spotted and destroyed the Spanish treasure fleet in Vigo Bay. The spoils taken from the Spanish were so substantial that Parliament passed a special vote of thanks for Rooke, an honour very rarely awarded to anyone.

As the overall commander Admiral Sir George Rooke then led the allied forces in the capture of Gibraltar on July 21st, 1704, the most lasting of his many military achievements.

After a brief spell as military governor of Gibraltar from July 24th to August 4th, the Admiral returned to sea and attacked the French fleet off Málaga on August 13th, 1704. This battle ended with a tactical draw, but was a strategic success for England, as it secured the newly won position at Gibraltar.
305 years later the rocky outcrop at the southern tip of Spain is still in British hands and a major naval base that controls the western entry to the Mediterranean. And five years ago, during the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of British rule over Gibraltar, a fine statue of Admiral Sir George Rooke was errected there in his memory.

The battle against the French off Málaga was to be George Rooke's last active engagement at sea and he retired - due to ill health - in February 1705 after more than four decades of service in the Royal Navy. He spent the last four years of his life quietly at his estate at St. Lawrence in Kent, where he died on January 24th, 1709 aged 58.

Even though he is widely forgotten these days, George Rooke deserves to be remembered, as his fearless and determined actions at sea set the standard for two centuries of English maritime leadership. Without him and his equally famous colleague Sir Cloudesley Shovell the great British naval heroes like Nelson, Collingwood and Pellew, who fought with distinction a century later, might never have emerged.
And without Rooke's capture of Gibraltar England - and later Britain - would have never been able to establish the great influence it had in and around the Mediterranean for three centuries (and still has today, even though on a much lower level).

The Emerald Islander
(wearing the old tricorn naval hat for a while today)