MoD reveals 15 radioactive UK sites

Current and former air and naval bases have been contaminated by second world war hardware, but the risks are unclear.

New disclosures from the Ministry of Defence reveal that at least 15 sites across the UK have been contaminated with radiation from military equipment used in World War 2. The extent of the contamination is largely unknown yet the sites are still accessible by the public and are even being considered for the development of home and businesses.

The radioactive contamination is due to radium, which was used to coat the dials of aircraft so that they could be seen in the dark. When the aircraft were scrapped the radium seeped into the soil. Such contamination was not confined to one area of the country, but instead was found in several sites nationally. It is understood that the radiation poses a risk for thousands of years.

The contaminated sites were exposed as the result of a freedom of information request:

• HMS Daedalus, near Portsmouth: former naval air base
• Defence Aviation Repair Agency Gosport, Hampshire: former aircraft repair depot
• RAF Henlow, Bedfordshire: air base
• RAF Newton, Nottingham: former air base
• RAF Little Rissington, Gloucestershire: air base and former home to Red Arrows
• Stirling Lines, Hereford: former SAS headquarters
• RAF Shawbury, Shrewsbury, Shropshire: air training centre
• RNAS Anthorn, Cumbria: former naval air base
• RAF Machrihanish, Mull of Kintyre: former air base
• Defence Aviation Repair Agency Almondbank, Perth and Kinross: former aircraft repair depot
• RM Condor, Arbroath, Angus: Royal Marines base
• RAF Kinloss, Forres, Morayshire: air base
• Dalgety Bay, Fife: a former world war two aircraft base
• Forthside, Stirling: a former army luminising depot
• RAF Carlisle, Cumbria: a former military equipment deport
  

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