The UK Government approved an application from Devonport Management Ltd. to dump five times the amount of radioactive waste currently being dumped into the city's River Tamar from the Devonport naval dockyard in Plymouth. The Devonport nuclear naval shipyard is in the centre of the 300,000 population city and only 400 yards from the nearest primary school. The school is the only one in the UK with nuclear alarm buttons in every classroom.

Leukaemia rates in Plymouth were already 25-29% above the national average but calls for a public inquiry were rejected. Levels of radioactive tritium emissions into the River Tamar in Plymouth are prediced to rise five to sevenfold.

Independent nuclear experts believe that tritium poses a serious health threat. If it enters the human body it can mutate DNA at cellular level, leading to cancer and birth defects.