No radioactive contamination found at Kinloss base

Radioactive testing takes place at the former RAF base in Kinloss, Moray. Picture: Hemedia

• A former RAF base at Kinloss at the centre of an investigation has not been found to be contaminated with radioactive material or mustard gas

• Kinloss base was the site of the dismantling of over 1,000 aircraft after World War II

The investigation were ordered earlier this month after it was revealed that a stretch of duneland at Findhorn, close to the former Moray air base, was used to dismantle more than 1,000 aircraft following the Armistice.

Instruments in the cockpits, which were coated with “glow in the dark” luminous paint containing radium, were burned and buried at the site. It was also revealed last year that the site could be contaminated by mustard gas. A land quality assessment had identified potential sulphur mustard contamination in 2004 before construction work began on a pipeline for a water treatment project.

A spokesman for Moray Council confirmed today that the ground investigations at the site had “drawn a blank.”

But he stressed: “The results of laboratory tests are still awaited before the site can be given the all-clear.”

He explained: “Members of staff from Moray Council’s contaminated land unit spent several days on site, close to the former air base at Kinloss. They worked in tandem with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency whose experts were investigating the possible presence of radiation from cockpit instruments which it was believed may have been buried in the area.

“It is known that a large number of aircraft were dismantled on site at the end of the Second World War and geophysical surveys detected underground anomalies which both the council and SEPA believed were worthy of further investigation.

“However, the council has confirmed that the investigations which it carried out did not find any evidence of contamination from chemical weapons and, specifically, mustard gas.”

The spokesman continued: “It was important that these investigations were carried out given what was known about the history of the site and the potential for chemical agents to have been disposed of there,” said a Moray Council spokesman.

“Our investigations have not found anything to cause us concerns or to believe that there is any risk to human health. However, we are still waiting for the results of laboratory tests before we can be 100 per cent certain.”

Kinloss closed as an RAF base two years ago and is now home to the 39 Engineer (Air Support) Regiment.