Orford nuclear burial

SIR – I was the contractors’ site engineer in constructing the “pagodas” on Orford Ness. They were mounded on all sides with shingle and, as David Pelly (Letters, August 31) says, the roofs were constructed like giant swimming pools, filled and piled up with more shingle, supported on very slender columns.

The theory, as explained by the client’s engineers, was different from the hypothesis of flying pebbles using up energy from an explosion. They said that in the event of an unplanned explosion, which might leave radioactive debris, the slender columns would be blown out and the huge roof slab would come down in one piece on to the very thick concrete walls within the side mounding, thus totally enclosing the radiation.

Oakley, Bedford

SIR – In 1959 I headed the radar section of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Aberporth. There were RAF bombing trials at Orford, where inert bombs were aimed at the immediate ground around the pagodas. The pagodas gave bombproof shelter to the observers, whose job was to pinpoint the impact spot and facilitate bomb recovery (with the aid of a GPO telephone pole digger). The bomb was then de-assembled to examine the fusing system for correct operation.

The Atomic Weapons Research Establishment use perhaps came later.

Leigh on Sea, Essex