FionaK |
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| www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/04/m..._medium=twitterDespite assurances that should Scotland vote for independence the nuclear submarines would move to Devonport, it seems that is not true. This is because it is not safe. Apparently if there were a "worst case" accident it would kill 11,000 people in Plymouth if the subs were based at Devonport and that is not acceptable Apparently there are "tolerability criteria" which are used to make those calculations: Devonport exceeds those because of the number of people who would die. Faslane does not, because of the much lower population. According to the report there are 166,000 people living within 5 kilometers of Devonport and only 5,100 at the same distance from Faslane. It occurs to me to wonder why 5 kilometers is significant, though. The article says that if there were a light wind blowing at the time there would be far fewer deaths at Plymouth than if the air were still. But it does not say what the death toll would be if there was a wind at Faslane at the time of an accident: and Faslane is 25 miles from Glasgow: greater Glasgow has a population of 1, 200,000..... But there is no problem because Scotland is not going to vote for independence, anyway.
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