Nicola Sturgeon has added to growing calls for the Ministry of Defence to tackle radiation at a Fife beach.
The Deputy First Minister, who was standing in for Alex Salmond at First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood on Thursday, branded the lack of action over the health hazard at Dalgety Bay ”entirely unacceptable”.
”SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) have made clear that the MoD is responsible for radioactive material present at Dalgety Bay,” she said.
”The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, Richard Lochhead, has twice written to the Secretary of State for defence urging the MoD to take immediate action.
”No reply has yet been received and it is vital that the MoD respond without any further delay with a credible plan for how they will act to address this situation.”
The bay was the site of the old Donibristle military airfield, where a large number of aircraft were dismantled after the end of the Second World War.
The dials in the planes were painted with radium so they could be read at night.
They were incinerated and the clinker dumped as landfill to help reclaim part of the headland on the bay.
The presence of radiation has been known since 1990, but the issue gained added urgency in recent weeks after particles ten times more radioactive than those found previously were located.
Experts from SEPA believe the particles are being swept ashore from the headland by sea currents.
Local MP Gordon Brown raised the issue at Westminster last week in a rare appearance at the House of Commons since standing down as prime minister last year.
Annabelle Ewing, the SNP MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife, who raised the issued at Holyrood, said: ”This is real head-in-the-sand stuff from the MoD. Getting to the root of this hazard must be the first priority.
”The MoD must take responsibility for its role in this and accept its obligation to deliver a new plan now to remove all sources of contamination.”