Filed for The Guardian, 15 May 1990
The Scottish Secretary Malcolm Rifkind was yesterday accused of flying in the face of democracy after he gave the go-ahead to the nuclear industry to test drill for a radioactive waste dump at Dounreay on the north coast of Scotland.
The Atomic Energy Authority, acting on behalf of the nuclear waste agency, NIREX, had appealed against Highland Regional Council's refusal to grant planning permission for two test bores designed to discover whether the geology of the nuclear site is suitable for the establishment of a deep underground UK waste repository.
Yesterday Rifkind announced that he was sustaining the AEA's appeal and rejecting the council's argument that permitting the test bores would make the eventual establishment of a repository more likely. If a decision is taken to make Dounreay the national repository, it will have to be the subject of a separate application and a public inquiry.
One test bore has already been sunk and another two are planned at the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria, the only present alternative to Dounreay. At Sellafield however the geology has turned out to be "complicated", whereas at Dounreay it is said to be "encouraging".
The vast majority of local, Highland and Scottish opinion, including all the opposition political parties, are opposed to the Dounreay test bores. In a referendum conducted by the local Caithness District Council last November, 74 per cent of voters rejected the industry's plans.
The Greens, who have just seen their first Scottish councillor elected in the Highlands, described Rifkind's decision as "dogmatic and dunderheaded". The Scottish National Party has begun drawing up lists of activists prepared to take direct action to prevent nuclear waste being dumped.
Councillor Peter Peacock, the architect of Highland Region's anti-dumping policy, stressed the need for constant vigilance. "We've got to be prepared to keep NIREX out of the Highlands at all costs", he said.
A coalition of Scottish anti-dumping groups, immediately the decision was announced yesterday, delivered a letter to Rifkind accusing him of "a travesty of democracy". They pointed out that the vast majority of Scotland's local authorities favoured on site storage of radioactive wastes instead of deep disposal at Dounreay.
"If the will of the people and their elected representatives is to have any meaning at all, we call on you to reverse today's decision immediately and tell Nirex to clear off", the letter says.
The only organisation to welcome yesterday's announcement was the Atomic Energy Authority. It said that work on the first borehole was expected to commence in July and take several months.