The withering review by Wakefield ends with the sentence “Disappointing journalism, though.” In this connection, it is indeed disappointing to note that the author neglected to declare that he is Dr Richard Wakefield, Principle Research Scientist of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd – the expert often trotted out by BNF in the case of actual or potential claims against BNF and its predecessor, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, which as we reveal, was a partner of Royal Dutch Shell in secret nuclear projects.
RELATED RADIOACTIVITY SURVEY AT AND NEAR RAY FOX’S HOUSE, 337 WOKINGHAM RD, EARLEY, READING ON 17 JUNE 2003 FOR BBC RADIO 4 :17 June 2003
Published in 2006
EXTRACTS FROM PAGES 434 to 443 INCLUSIVE – THESE COMPLETE PAGES ARE ACCESSIBLE VIA ABOVE LINK
The nuclear project, however, has left behind some dark secrets. And without sophisticated radiation measuring equipment, the exposures are invisible.
The most bizarre example is the buried Shell reactor in Reading, a large town in Berkshire. All the evidence points to the existence, several metres underneath a normal, quiet suburban housing estate, of a buried nuclear reactor, corroded and leaching its contents into the groundwater. The locals say that there is a high level of childhood leukaemia in the area; but no one really knows, as the health authority and the cancer registry will not release data to examine the assertions.
First some background. The area around Reading has a statistically significant excess of childhood leukaemia, first flagged up by the local paediatric specialist at the Reading Royal Infirmary, Dr Carol Barton.
Because of the strange influences on child leukaemia, we called this area, between Newbury, Reading and Oxford, the ‘Leukaemia Triangle’. I sent a letter to the British Medical Journal and they published it! 1t was picked up by all the major newspapers and became a cause célèbre.
Enter Ray Fox
Ray Fox wrote to me sometime around 1997 to ask my advice. He sent me photographs of his body, which showed large areas of red rashes and blistering. ‘Could it have been caused by radiation?’ he asked, and told me his story. Ray is a short, tough-looking, but also unwell-looking character with a cockney accent, a tenacious attitude (as well he might have, given his experiences) and a kind of desperate angry energy. He lived, until recently, in Earley, near Reading, Berkshire at 337 Wokingham Road. In the mid 1990s he dug up a drain at the bottom of his garden to clear a blockage that was flooding his garden. The land drain crossing the corner of his property was blocked with some tarry black material, which Ray cleared away. Shortly after this he became seriously ill. His body became covered in what appeared to be bums and blisters. The symptoms (including other symptoms which he recounted) appeared to be those of radiation poisoning. He had urine analysis done in Germany where slightly increased levels of Uranium and Plutonium were detected. Following Ray’s complaint about the drain, the plutonium and his illness, Shell immediately arranged for contractors to visit the property and dig up the drain, water jet the remaining sewer and close the system up, replacing all the material they removed with fresh soil.There began several years of struggle to obtain an explanation for his illness and its origin, a struggle that has slowly revealed elements of what appear to be a most extraordinary cover-up – a secret underground atomic research site operated in Reading in the 1960s by the Shell Oil Company as part of a research effort into the development of atom bombs. As a result of the energy Ray put into investigating the cause of his illness, he managed to get all the evidence he had collected and all the results of the measurements that were made to the media.
Quite a few programmes were made, including prime time documentaries on TV and a BBC Radio 4 piece called ‘In The Bunker’, which was a highlight of the week it was broadcast and was repeated by popular demand. In this documentary, I went down a sewer behind Ray’s house (where the trouble had begun) with radiation monitoring equipment, the echoing commentary as I crawled underground, kitted up in gas mask and all the measuring gear, was reminiscent of a science fiction movie sound track.
The drain Ray had unblocked was an illegal connection to the public land drain to the River Loddon draining material from the Shell ‘oil depot’. I first visited he house and garden and employed our gamma spectrometer to make radiation measurements of Ray’s house and garden as part of the Mark Thomas investigation on Channel 4 TV. Beta and alpha scintillation counting showed very slightly raised levels and there were slightly elevated levels of radiation, mainly gamma signals from natural Thorium 234. The house itself had slightly high levels of radiation, particularly the lower block work in some rooms, but none were high enough to be considered a health risk in themselves. Samples were taken on behalf of Ray’s insurance company and sent by their advisor, Dr Karta Badsha, to be analysed by LGC in Teddington. Results showed the presence of various toxic organic chemicals and heavy metals, as would be expected from groundwater near an oil depot, but there were also some very interesting radiochemical results which connect us with the Greenham fire and the leukaemia triangle. These are shown in Table 17.2.1.
(Table is displayed on page 439 of the featured pages accessible via above link)
These measurements indicate the presence of material from a nuclear reactor for the following reasons. With regard to the Plutonium, prior to 1945 the background level of Plutonium would have been zero. Since global weapons testing the background level in soil and grassland should be about 0.02 to 0.7 Bq/kg, as measured by Cawse and Horrill in the 1970s. Since then, the sea to land transfer of plutonium from Sellafield has increased these values to about 1-2 Bq/kg and in the area near Aldermaston readings as high as 5-10Bq/kg were found in a few samples near the perimeter fence. However, in the largest analytical exercise run in the area of Berkshire, the Newbury survey of 1997, very few samples gave levels higher than 2Bq/kg. Thus the house dust sample of 4.9Bq/kg shows a level 100 to 500 times higher than expected on the basis of weapons fallout. Plutonium 239 comes from the fission of Uranium 235 in a reactor or a bomb, or from reprocessing of spent fuel.
Here is my own interpretation of it all. Having met many of the people who knew and read all the documents that have been unearthed, this Earley story is part of a larger one, which is about the cold war research into bombs.
Leukaemia clusters, cancer clusters and the Cold war
When the first research into nuclear weapons and nuclear power, and the uses of radiation generally, was being undertaken, Shell was a big player. At Earley, they were examining the possibilities associated with radiation, radioactive materials and organic solvents. This would be almost impossible for them not to have done.
The Shell site undertook research into the reactions between organic solvents and Uranium and Plutonium, to see if they could develop liquid nuclear fuels, creating organometallic compounds, chemical adducts of U-235 and hydrocarbons or ethers, solubilising the radioactive elements so that they would be movable by pumping through tubes.
The buried reactor story is only one of similar Cold War inheritances. For example, a Mr John Dwyer contacted me some years ago about another research reactor operated by Shell on the Wirral near Birkenhead (where Shell have a big refinery and research setup and where I worked many years ago for a short time). Dwyer has evidence that Shell made a chemical reactor using strontium-90 to beta irradiate solvents to see if there was any mileage in using radiation for chemical production. Mr Dwyer told me that the reactor had to be broken up in the 1980s and a team from Harwell turned up to advise. No one knew what to do. The whole affair was a nightmare of radioactivity. Dwyer alleges that it was taken away by private operators and buried in parts of North Wales. There are leukaemia clusters in parts of North Wales. The authorities say they are chance clusters.
Related impressive CV of Dr Chris Busby published in same book, “Wolves of Water” (also back cover page with reference to “buried nuclear reactors under housing estates…”)
Extract:
1. Background
I was asked by the BBC to investigate the levels of radioactivity in a land water drain at the end of the garden of 337 Wokingham Rd on 17th June 2003. This was further to some earlier evidence that there had been contamination of the garden and house at this address by isotopes from a nuclear reactor or bomb, specifically Uranium-235 and Plutonium 239. There had also been evidence brought forward that suggested that the site to the north of the property, previously owned by Shell Ltd, had been the location of an underground nuclear reactor and experimental nuclear laboratory which had suffered some accident in the 1980s and had been abandoned. Therefore I also made a brief survey of radioactivity in the vicinity of the property to see if there was any gamma or other evidence for the existence of this reactor.Conclusion
This exercise and its results support the conclusion that there is a source of material from a nuclear reactor or a nuclear bomb in the vicinity of the property. The absolute levels of the material remaining in the drain do not allow us to conclude that the drain itself was the main source of this contamination. However, since the drain has been cleaned and water-jetted in the early 1990s it is unlikely that much material would have remained and so the Caesium to Plutonium ratios are consistent with the conclusion that highly concentrated material containing Plutonium-239 was at one time in the drain and that we are measuring the small amount that has remained after cleaning and the passage of more than 10 years.
New Information relevant to the reputation and credibility of Professor Busby added March 2012
Post-Fukushima ‘anti-radiation’ pills condemned by scientists: Guardian Newspaper 21 November 2011
Christopher Busby’s wild claims hurt green movement and Green party: Guardian Newspaper 22 November 2011
nuclear-contamination-cover-up 