There is "absolutely no evidence" to support suggestions that nuclear material missing from the Dounreay plant in Scotland ended up in the hands of terrorists or foreign governments, the British Prime Minister insisted yesterday.
As the Scottish National Party (SNP) and anti-nuclear campaigners attempted to make political capital out of reports that 170 kg of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium was unaccounted for at the plant, Mr Blair made a personal pledge in the Commons that no nuclear material had been sent from Dounreay to make nuclear weapons.
During Question Time, the prime minister blasted the SNP leader, Mr Alex Salmond, accusing him of alarming the public about safety levels at Dounreay in a way that was both "irresponsible, extreme, but I may say entirely typical".
For his part, Mr Salmond had goaded the Mr Blair with allegations that officials at Dounreay had "lost, mislaid or can't account for" the uranium, which he claimed, was enough to build 10 nuclear devices. The plant, which was recently used as a dumping ground for highly enriched uranium from the former Russian state of Georgia, was a safety risk, he said, He also alleged that the head of head of security at Dounreay had resigned because he could not guarantee the plant's integrity and that there had been a serious nuclear incident that caused the processing unit at the plant to be shut down.
Inviting the SNP leader to listen to what the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) had said about the uranium - that it "never existed" - Mr Blair accused his party of acting with "utter irresponsibility" over the issue. Mr Blair rejected outright Mr Salmond's allegation that a "nuclear accident" forced a shutdown and review of the plant by the health and safety executive. "It was not," he said, pointing to problems with electrical supply to a fuel cycle area in the plant. The allegations about the "supposedly" missing uranium were based on a "misinterpretation" of 30-year-old records at Dounreay. They were far from complete by modern standards, Mr Blair declared, citing the discrepancy in the recorded amount of uranium at the plant as due to "accounting and measurement uncertainties". Earlier, the row over the missing uranium threatened to cause the British government serious embarrassment as the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Jim Wallace, joined the SNP and antinuclear campaigners in calling for an independent inquiry into the matter.
The chief executive of UKAEA, Dr John McEwan, insisted that reports claiming the uranium was still at Dounreay were "preposterous". The disappearance of the nuclear material could be explained as a miscalculation.
"The question that you could have 170 kg still inside the processing plant is absolutely preposterous. The plant simply couldn't continue to operate. It would be detectable. I can assure you that there is no highly enriched uranium in that building. I can give you a categoric assurance that it was not transferred off the plant to any other location," he told BBC Radio Scotland.
The loss of the uranium, which is believed to have gone missing over a three-year period between 1965-1968 before Britain signed up to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, came to light during a study of one of the plant's waste shafts.
The missing nuclear material represented "nuclear GUBU", stated the Green Party MEP, Ms Nuala Ahern, who in a statement said the uranium "could be in the hands of terrorists". It was "one more nail in the coffin of an unacceptable and unaccountable industry", she added.