Nerve gas base to be cleaned up

Nancekuke was closed in 1980

A clean-up has been ordered at a redundant nerve gas plant in west Cornwall.

But the Royal Air Force said work would not begin for another year at the former chemical research establishment at Nancekuke, near Portreath.

It insisted there were no sinister substances on the site, which was linked to the Porton Down chemical weapons establishment.

The announcement by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Tuesday made no reference to alleged links to health problems suffered by Nancekuke workers.

The Falmouth and Camborne MP Candy Atherton has been campaigning for a clean-up at the site, where the nerve gas sarin was produced.

There are no chemicals on the site that you would not find in an A-level science lab

RAF spokesman

In August she was told in a Commons written answer that more than a tonne of complex chemicals was dumped in the sea when the base closed.

Junior defence minister Lewis Moonie told her there had been no monitoring of the sea in the 21 years since.

In the latest announcement, at the offices of Kerrier District Council, reporters were told the RAF had been investigating the surrounding environment for a few years.

Its inquiry was expected to last another year.

Then the clean-up could begin.

Health allegations

An RAF spokesman said: "There are no chemicals on the site that you would not find in an A-level science lab.

"But the site does have to be cleaned."

Before the announcement, Ms Atherton said: "I don't think the way people cleaned up chemicals just a few years ago was anything like as stringent as the rules we have today."

The base supplied the nerve gas sarin

The MP has also been pressing ministers to conduct an inquiry in allegations that nerve gas leaked from the base, affecting workers' health.

She has claimed that 41 deaths were recorded over a period of 19 years, with more than 300 cases of bronchial and respiratory problems reported.

Nancekuke was used by the MoD to supply the nerve gas sarin to the defence research establishment at Porton Down, Wiltshire.

Production of nerve gas at Nancekuke was thought to have ended in the mid-1960s.

The base was closed in 1980 and became RAF Portreath.

Gas contamination

The MoD responded that a 1970 report showed no health threat.

Local mortality rates among workers were lower than the national average, it said.

During a Commons debate last year, Ms Atherton cited the case of a constituent, Tom Griffiths, of Illogan.

She said he suffered ill-health from an accident at the base in 1958.

Swimmers' claim

This week Mr Griffiths told BBC Radio Cornwall: "For 10 years, different doctors have said I am still suffering from the effect of nerve-gas contamination and will do so for life.

"The MoD refuses to accept that."

Two men claim discharges from Nancekuke caused their long-term health problems, after they swam in the sea at Trevone, near Padstow, in 1975.