Letter: Beware, falling rockets

Sir: So Caithness may become Britain's Cape Canaveral (report, 3 December). Nick Parsons, the government spokesman who waxed lyrical about the unbroken vista of sea and ice from the Pentland Firth to the North Pole must have been there in grim weather, or he would have been less certain that bits of his rockets could not fall on human heads. The Orcadians, whose islands are normally visible from the Caithness shore of the Pentland Firth, may have a less optimistic view. Shetlanders, Faroese and Icelanders may also prove small- minded about the prospect of passing away courtesy of Mr Parsons' 'fall away' rocket stages. Or is 'everyone's a polar bear past Caithness' the official view? It looks rather like the assumption that radiation from Dounreay could do no harm as 'nobody' lives there. I suggest the Isle of Dogs as an alternative location for the rockets.

Yours faithfully,

IAN DUFFIELD

Edinburgh