THE Royal Navy says that an alleged "serious radiation leak" at the Coulport armaments depot on Loch Long, raised in the House of Commons this week, did not take place.
Neale Hanvey, the Alba Party MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, raised the allegations during an exchange with defence secretary Ben Wallace in the chamber at Westminster on Monday.
Mr Hanvey, who said the allegations came from a "whistleblower", told the Commons that the incident took place “recently”, but neither he nor Mr Wallace shed further light on when the incident happened, the scale of seriousness of the alleged breach, or how many staff had to be moved.
But the Royal Navy has denied there was any recent incident of the type described by Mr Hanvey at Coulport, where the UK's Trident nuclear deterrent missile systems are stored.
During oral questions to Mr Wallace and the MoD's junior ministers on Monday, Mr Hanvey asked for more information on any similar incidents to have taken place since 2019.
Mr Hanvey said: “A whistleblower has alleged that HMNB Clyde staff were recently moved from building 201 in Coulport, where warheads are managed, to a building 41, elsewhere, due to a serious radiation breach.
“Can the minister advise me of the following: how many such events have been registered in the past three years; how many such incidents have been reported to the public; and if not, can the minister please set out why the people of Scotland, who are overwhelmingly opposed to weapons of mass destruction, are ignored by the Westminster parties, including his?”
Mr Wallace replied: “The honourable member has read out a list of claims; I’ll be happy to write to him to answer those claims.
“I suspect the people of Scotland now are rather thankful they have a nuclear deterrent in the face of a very provocative Putin.”
A Royal Navy spokesperson said: “The alleged radiation incident referred to during Defence Orals did not occur.
"We have robust safety measures in place at all MoD nuclear sites and we take safety incidents very seriously.
"Our nuclear programmes are subject to regular independent scrutiny and reviews.”
RNAD Coulport is responsible for the storage, processing, maintenance and issue of key elements of the UK's Trident deterrent missile system and the ammunitioning of all submarine embarked weapons.
Responding to the Royal Navy's statement, Mr Hanvey said: “This asserted denial does little to answer the concerns I set out on Monday.
"The MoD will have to do better than this, there needs to be full disclosure about any and all radiation events at HMNB Clyde.
"I will await the response I was promised by the minister before I comment further."
