The MoD made no contact with the responsible local authority but wrote to advise Argyll & Bute MP, Alan Reid, that ‘one or more’ unspecified sites ‘in your locality’ are under consideration to host irradiated material removed from redundant nuclear submarines.

Mr Reid is reported as saying that he will vigorously oppose this – and any – proposal to site nuclear waste of any kind in Argyll & Bute. He has also been in touch with us to say that he has written to Secretary of State for Defence, Bob Ainsworth suggesting that he confirm the sites under consideration. rather than leave the matter open to speculation. (On this, For Argyll can confirm that, as we have said in our main feature and on authority, the 5 sites under consideration in Scotland are: Doonreay, Hunterston, Rosyth, Coulport and Faslane.)

Mike Mackenzie, the  SNP candidate challenging Mr Reid at the next General Election said: ‘I can tell you with assurance that SNP will vigorously oppose the dumping of nuclear waste in Argyll and Bute at all levels; in Argyll and Bute Council, in the Scottish Parliament, in Brussels and in Westminster.

As an individual, as a Parliamentary Candidate and, if I am elected, as MP for Argyll and Bute, I will work with colleagues at every level and using all legal means at our disposal to oppose the dumping of nuclear waste in Argyll and Bute.

We in SNP have been clear and unequivocal in our policies about the long term hazards of nuclear waste from power stations and about submarines carrying nuclear missiles.

Politicians from those Parties which support nuclear power generation and Trident should be careful that they are not dismissed and labelled as ‘nimbys’ because, in supporting these technologies, it necessarily follows that eventually  nuclear material has to be disposed of and such disposal has to be in someone’s back yard’.

Gary Mulvaney, the Scottish Conservative candidate also challenging Mr Reid’s tenancy of the Argyll & But seat, said: ‘At the moment we are dealing with a leaked report which may  or may not give the full story. In the first instance, I will be seeking sight of the full report. (Mr Mulvaney is referring to the leaking to journalists of a report commissioned by the MoD from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. This examined the feasibility of its Scottish storage sites for irradiated waste from redundant nuclear submarines – and covered in our main feature on this matter.)

‘The potential sites for the UK’s  long term nuclear waste depository have been under discussion for many years, so its not news that of course, Faslane and Coulport in Argyll , and Rosyth in Fife have been looked at. That doesn’t mean that they are necessarily being actively considered – so much work, such as geological surveys need to be done.

‘My view is that when a decision needs to be made, and that is still some way off, for a whole variety of reasons, Sellafield will finish up as the preferred, rational and considered option for the UK’s nuclear waste depository.

‘If I’m an MP for Argyll & Bute, that is what I will be pressing an incoming Conservative government to do.  So let’s not start fighting phoney wars just so politicians can be seen to be doing something’.

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