Defence committee to question Hammond on Vulcan

MPs are to question the UK government and Ministry of Defence's handling of an incident at the Vulcan submarine reactor test site.

A radioactive discharge discovered at a test reactor at the site adjacent to Dounreay in Caithness in 2012 was made public last week.

The House of Commons' defence committee will send its questions to Defence Secretary Philip Hammond.

The Scottish government has criticised UK ministers and the MoD.

It is now making plans to remove the MoD's powers for environmental regulation on radioactivity in Scotland.

Scottish ministers said the arrangement had been "abused" and the public had been misled over operations at Vulcan.

They said all Scotland's environmental regulation should in future be run from Scotland.

The UK government said there were no safety concerns following the incident two years ago.