DOOMSDAY FILES
Revealed, how government prepared to deal with a Chernobyl-style disaster at Scottish nuclear plants
IT is a nightmare vision of a Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster.
Community centres would be turned into decontamination zones, hospital wards would await casualties and anti-radiation tablets would be handed out.
Shockingly, this doomsday scenario comes not from fiction, but from an official emergency plan kept under wraps for decades.
Classified documents showing the response to a full-scale atomic crisis have been placed in the National Archives at Kew, outlining the steps to be taken if lethal substances had leaked from Hunterston A and B nuclear plants in Ayrshire.
Scotland’s largest hospital was to be placed on standby to treat victims with burns and radiation sickness,
‘You are advised to move immediately’
while the strategy for a mass public evacuation involved police officers knocking on doors and politely advising residents to leave.
The documents date from 1976 to 1983, but with Hunterston B still operational, it seems likely a similar plan is in place today.
The plan reads: ‘If radioactive material is released from Hunterston A and B it may create a hazard. On the occurrence of an Emergency Alert the direction and activity of the radioactive plume will be ascertained and an estimate made of the number of persons at risk.’
The plan states that materials present a range of risks including: ‘combustion, asphyxiation, toxicity and exposure to ionising radiation’.
It adds: ‘Police officers will proceed to each house in the affected sectors and deliver potassium iodate tablets to each householder and a letter explaining the purpose of the tablets, transport arrangements and the location of the reception centre.
‘It is essential that evacuation of persons will commence not later than one hour after the police have been requested to begin operations.
‘If the evacuation takes place during school hours the police will contact headmasters.’ The letter, which would have been handed to thousands of terrified residents, states: ‘An incident at Hunterston nuclear power station has resulted in release of substances which could be harmful if breathed or eaten.
‘You are advised to move immediately to a reception centre at West Kilbride Community Centre. Keep your radio or TV tuned to the BBC for any special instructions.’ Each person arriving at the reception centre was to be examined to ‘establish the degree of external and internal contamination received’.
Those with lesser traces were to be decontaminated on site, while those with injuries or higher levels of radiation would go to a special ward at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
Efforts would then be taken to evaluate ‘the number of people affected by fumes, explosion, damage, burns or radioactivity’, to clean up affected areas and destroy contaminated food, milk and livestock.
Hunterston A was opened by the Queen in 1964, but stopped producing electricity in 1990 and is currently being decommissioned.
Hunterston B was opened in 1976 and is due to operate until 2023, well beyond its planned closure date.