Big guns on Scottish Independence
Experts on both sides of the pond are getting excited about the prospects for Scotland, for various reasons. Jim McCluskey, author of The Nuclear Threat, is of course horrified by the Westminster government’s plans to spend £100 billion on renewing its nuclear arsenal, blowing £2.5 billion on new jet fighters, £6.2 billion in two new mega aircraft carriers, and £32.4 billion for ‘normal’ military spending in 2015. Writing for the American site, Truth-out, he tells US citizens about Dounreay, the ‘fast breeder’ reactor built as far away from Westminster as possible because of its obvious danger. Decommissioning it in 1994 was so dangerous that a robot had to be used, and irradiated fuel particles still infest the seabed and the beach. The total cost of cleanup will be around £2.9 billion, and the site will remain ‘hot’ for at least 300 years. McCluskey salutes the intention of a Scottish government to cut this expenditure and use it instead for health, education and welfare.
