127 NUKE JET ALERTS; Fears terrorists will kill millions.Byline: Ian DowNUCLEAR bosses fear a terror attack that could kill millions after more than 100 planes breached no-fly zones around installations. At least 127 planes have flown too near power stations and nuclear weapons centres in the past five years. A leaked Parliamentary report suggests a plane flying into one of the targets like in the September 11 atrocities could cause a disaster similar to Chernobyl. An aircraft flown into waste tanks at Sellafield could cause 'at worst, several million fatalities', it said. The report obtained by New Scientist magazine said the Faslane nuclear submarine base and Torness power plant have both had problems. The incidents included one on April 24, 2002, when a jet flew so close to the Torness reactors in East Lothian that it set off three intruder alarms on the perimeter fence. Since the attacks in New York and Washington DC, the size of the no-fly zone around UK nuclear sites has been doubled. Aircraft are now banned from flying within 3.7 kilometre radius of a facility, and must also stay above a certain height. But these restrictions have been ignored again and again. Declassified de·clas·si·fy tr.v. de·clas·si·fied, de·clas·si·fy·ing, de·clas·si·fies To remove official security classification from (a document). de·clas reports from the Ministry of Defence revealed 56 breaches by military aircraft between 2000 and 2003. Four complaints came from the MoD's own nuclear weapons sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire, and Faslane on the Firth of Clyde Noun 1. Firth of Clyde - a firth on the southwestern coast of Scotland emptying into the North Channel Scotland - one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; located on the northern part of the island of Great . Other complaints about military planes were made by operators of civilian sites. Seventy-one civilian aircraft have strayed into no-fly zones since the beginning of 1999. The Civil Aviation Authority Civil Aviation Authority civil (Brit) n → Behörde f für Zivilluftfahrt had sufficient evidence to launch formal investigations in just 12 cases. Four investigations were continuing, and there had been two successful prosecutions. The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology POST is the in-house source of independent analysis of public policy issues related to science and technology for the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its aim is to inform parliamentary debate on these issues by a variety of means: CAPTION(S): COMPLAINTS: A jet set off intruder alarms at Torness |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion