The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been told to clean up Dalgety Bay after being found responsible for radioactive contamination on the Fife coast.
Local MP Gordon Brown and residents demanded immediate action from the MoD after the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) released a report confirming what many have long suspected that the MoD is solely to blame for radioactive radium-226 found on the shore at Dalgety Bay.
But the MoD has questioned Sepa’s findings, to the dismay of Dalgety Bay Community Council.
In a statement, the MoD said: “The MoD will consider the report findings in detail and respond to Sepa in due course, but (it) has concerns over the adequacy and validity of both Sepa’s risk assessment and its approach to the Appropriate Persons Report.
“We will seek an early meeting with Sepa at senior official level to raise these concerns and discuss the way forward.
“The department continues to work with Sepa to identify the likelihood and scale of the residual risks and the requirement for remedial action. MoD continues to fund at its own cost monitoring arrangements at Dalgety Bay, in line with previous commitments.
“We remain committed to a collaborative engagement with Sepa, and once satisfied as to the validity of their findings will comply voluntarily with the regulator’s requirements.”
Colin McPhail, chairman of Dalgety Bay and Hillend Community Council, said: “This is not out of the blue for the MoD, when all those meetings have taken place at a high level.
“The MoD has to accept the findings and carry out, on a voluntary basis, remedial or management measures. They can’t delay this any more from the community’s point of view.
“It’s going to cost them money, but they have to find that money and sort it out once and for all.”
Sepa’s report confirms radium-226 found at the shore originated from paint used to make aircraft dials luminous.
Studies of the coastline suggest incinerated radioactive waste was dumped prior to 1959, when the nearby airbase HMS Merlin was decommissioned.
The Appropriate Persons document states that neither Dalgety Bay Sailing Club nor developers involved in building up the new town bear any responsibility for the contamination, which has been released as the headland erodes and was first detected in 1990.
Mr Brown said: “It is a scandal if the MoD refuses to accept responsibility for cleaning up Dalgety Bay once and for all.
“Sepa’s report makes clear the MoD accepted as long ago as 1990 that as many as 800 radiation contaminated aircraft were dumped at the site.
“The residents of Dalgety Bay have waited too long the clean-up must begin immediately.”