Radiation tests for nuclear sub crew

(First Edition)

A POLARIS nuclear submarine's crew has been given radiation tests following reports of a defect on board.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said yesterday that they were a routine precaution and all the results were normal. The submarine, HMS Renown, had suffered a 'minor defect' but he declined to say whether it was in the vessel's reactor.

The submarine, one of Britain's three remaining Polaris missile boats, re-entered service last year after a five-year refit at Rosyth. She is at the Faslane submarine base on the Clyde, where she returned on 16 June from a routine patrol. The ministry said the radioactivity tests - urine tests on a representative sample of the crew - all showed negative, and were taken to provide 'reassurance' for crewmen and their families.

But Scottish CND demanded yesterday that Renown and her two sister boats, Repulse and Resolution, be kept in port pending a full inquiry. John Ainslie, its administrator, said: 'The only thing that would make the MoD sit up and take notice would be if there was a Chernobyl-type accident on a nuclear submarine. All nuclear submarines are inherently dangerous and should be scrapped now.'