{"id":17260,"date":"2025-09-10T10:39:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T10:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/?p=17260"},"modified":"2025-10-07T13:44:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:44:22","slug":"ferreting-out-radioactive-leaks-from-trident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/09\/ferreting-out-radioactive-leaks-from-trident\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferreting out radioactive leaks from Trident"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last month, Scotland\u2019s crowd-funded investigative journalism outfit <\/strong>The Ferret<\/strong><\/em>, in partnership with The Guardian<\/em>, published documents <\/a>showing that radioactive water from the Royal Navy\u2019s Coulport armaments depot leaked into Loch Long after ageing pipes burst and flooded areas where nuclear warheads are handled.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Loch Long is a 20-mile-long seawater loch that flows into the Firth of Clyde. People fish there; they swim and paddleboard. They had a right to know about the leak – and we all had a right to know about sloppy work practices at the base, which is essentially a floating dock for the UK\u2019s Trident submarine fleet.<\/p>\n

I bumped into Edwards – whom I know because we are both members of the Edinburgh NUJ freelance branch – during the Edinburgh Book Festival and asked him about this; \u00a0he explained it had taken him six years to get the evidence released.<\/p>\n

\n

Edwards said the incident should have been disclosed in 2019 – instead, years of withholding and delay turned it into a major public\u2011interest story. Edwards was also – understandably – cross that some of the bigger media outfits that picked it up didn\u2019t even mention the Ferret.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Here is the story of the patient work behind this important scoop:<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The scoop<\/h2>\n

Files released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) cite \u201cshortfalls in maintenance<\/strong>\u201d across roughly 1,500<\/strong> ageing pipes and refer to the production of \u201cunnecessary radioactive waste<\/strong>\u201d reaching the loch via an open drain.<\/p>\n

The MoD<\/strong> maintains there were no unsafe releases<\/strong>; SEPA<\/strong> says measured levels were very low<\/strong> and points to subsequent improvements.<\/p>\n

\n

Edwards\u2019s view is: \u201cThis should not have happened. However low the levels, radioactive tritium doesn\u2019t belong in the loch.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n

Why Edwards went fishing<\/h2>\n

Edwards has worked this beat for decades. In 2008\u201309<\/strong>, assisted by campaigners, his FOI requests to SEPA unearthed documents about previously undisclosed submarine coolant leaks at Faslane \u2014 coverage that led new bulletins and front pages.<\/a> That experience, he says, \u201cestablished a pattern: the MoD is not as transparent as it should be on environmental issues\u201d, and SEPA can be a productive route for disclosure under FOI\/EIR.<\/p>\n

In 2019<\/strong>, Edwards sought fresh records of radioactive incidents at Faslane\/Coulport. Much was withheld on national\u2011security grounds.<\/p>\n

Then SEPA suffered a catastrophic cyber\u2011attack<\/strong>; amid the pandemic, his request \u2014 along with nearly 1,000 others \u2014 was quietly <\/a>abandoned<\/a><\/strong> without notice. Edwards re\u2011filed his requests for full coverage before and added on for after 2019. Again, much was withheld, and he appealed.<\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s Information Commissioner ruled this should be released<\/h2>\n
\n
Because the material concerned the environment, Edwards\u2019 case fell under Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs)<\/strong>. Here, Scottish law set the terms \u2014 and the threshold for secrecy \u2014 that proved decisive.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n