SHELL SHOCKER

On the outskirts of Reading lies the sleepy suburb of Earley. And, in the heart of Earley, is the seemingly innocuous housing estate of Amber Close. With their freshly turfed lawns and carefully maintained exteriors, the 37 Persimmon-built homes are the epitome of suburban living. But beyond the gloss paint and brickwork lies a guilty secret; and a mystery which has taken years to unravel. It is a mystery to which the authorities have turned a blind eye, and which evidence now suggests they may have conspired to suppress. By Chris Grimshaw.

Amber Close is built on a large rectangle of land. Until 1988 it was in use as a petrochemicals depot, owned by Shell UK Oil Ltd, and at one time shared with British Petroleum. Immediately to the south of one corner of the site is a house and garden, number 337 Wokingham Road. It is the most radioactive private residence in the UK.
Raymond Fox, the owner of the house, became dangerously ill in the mid 1990’s, investigating suspected pollution in his garden. He found a drain leading off the oil depot and into his garden where it intersected with a rain water drain. When he entered the drain he came into contact with oily sludge that caused him to become critically ill. He suffered agonising pains, convulsions and blackouts, his feet would bleed, and his hair fell out in clumps. Now, after years of investigation, his house is at the centre of what must be one of the worst nuclear scandals in British history.

A RADIOACTIVE RESIDENCE
As previously reported in our Newsletter (Issue 11), the house at 337 Wokingham Road, Earley, was found to be polluted, but not only with heavy metals and petrochemicals, as might be expected in a property next to an old oil depot. It was also polluted with dangerous levels of plutonium and uranium. Dr Karta Badsha, the environmental expert who tested the property on behalf of insurers Royal Sun Alliance, said “nobody should enter that house until such time as detailed remedial work is undertaken”.
According to recent research carried out by Southampton University the average levels of plutonium in Berkshire are .85 Bq/kg. The highest recorded was 10 Bq/kg at the perimeter fence of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston. The dust in Raymond Fox’s house contained 54.9 Bq/kg. Dr Badsha concluded that “constant exposure at these levels would in my opinion cause a longer-term irreversible health damage, which may become terminal or even lethal if occupants are not moved and or no remedial action is taken.”
Under pressure from Dr Chris Busby (Low-Level Radiation Campaign) and Green MEP Caroline Lucas, Stephen Kaiser of the European Commission is now investigating the case. He has met with British government representatives who are not denying the contamination of Fox’s land, instead they claim that the radioactivity in Ray’s garden is simply the result of fallout from weapons testing, concentrated by heavy rainfall. According to Busby this is “simply absurd... there is a huge excess of plutonium and the isotope ratios are completely wrong. They are far more indicative of reactor fuel or even nuclear bomb material”
Shell remains the prime suspect for the petrochemical contamination of Ray Fox’s residence. There are no other credible sources. Until recently, however, the origin of the radioactive materials found in his blood stream, and on his property, remained a mystery. It had previously been thought that they might have come from a rail car that caught fire on the siding on the north side of the depot in 1986. Busby speculated that the car might have carried radioactive materials from Aldermaston. Now a far more disturbing theory has emerged: that the site once housed an unlicensed nuclear reactor.
Corporate Watch has learned that a barrister, the late Derek Willmott, had also been investigating the Earley case, on behalf of clients who claimed to have been made ill as a result of pollution originating in the old Shell site. Willmott’s report alleges that the old Shell depot, on which Amber Close is now built, concealed a subterranean facility which housed a nuclear test reactor. His report is based in part on testimony from Dr David Geenwood, a scientist from the medical physics department of University College Hospital, London, who used to visit the site regularly during the 1960s and 70s, to purchase ‘special oils’ for use in mass spectrometers. It was during this time that Greenwood and two other scientists were invited to conduct an inspection of the complex. Greenwood has testified that a graphite test reactor was installed in a large lead-lined chamber along with a neutron generator and large quantities of plutonium, uranium, cobalt 60, and other radioactive substances. The scientists discovered that the reactor was not listed on the international register held by the International Atomic Energy Authority.

GENERAL ATOMIC
Shell categorically denies that there was a reactor or any other nuclear materials at the Earley site. “Shell is an oil company,” said spokesman Justin Everard. This is disingenuous. It is not common knowledge, but Shell did once have nuclear power interests: General Atomic (in the USA) and General Atomic International (elsewhere): joint ventures with Gulf Oil that operated between 1973 and 1982. Ultimately Shell pulled out due to spiralling losses. The fate of its nuclear programme remains unclear.
Shockingly, Shell was unable to say how many reactors it once operated, where any of them were located, or when and how they were disposed of. “It was a long time ago,” said a Shell spokeswoman.
Whilst the testimony of a single witness does not conclusively prove the existence of a reactor, there is a growing body of evidence, in addition to Badsha’s tests, to support the theory that the radioactive contamination originated in the depot.

A GROWING BODY OF EVIDENCE
Ray Fox’s tissue samples and blood tests provided the initial evidence of radioactive contamination. The tests, carried out in Germany, show dangerous levels of various toxins, including uranium and plutonium. It was immediately after Mr Fox came into contact with sludge in the interceptor pipe that he became critically ill.
Shell maintains that environmental tests carried out in the 1990’s exonerate it of any responsibility for the pollution on Ray Fox’s property. Closer examinations of those reports gives a different picture.
Clayton Environmental’s survey, paid for by Shell in response to Fox’s original complaints, found that the pipe connecting to the rainwater drain was cracked and leaking into the surrounding soil. In 1997 Persimmon Homes commissioned a report by STATS Geotechnical, before building Amber Close. While STATS did not test for radioactive substances, they did find that the sludge samples from the interceptor pipe contained arsenic, cadmium, and petrochemical pollutants. The same chemicals were also found in Ray’s tissue samples, on his property and (by previous environmental testing) on the Shell site.
Further independent testing has now been carried out in the area and has found raised levels of radioactivity in Lambourne Gardens, another housing development immediately to the west of the site. Trace quantities of uranium and plutonium were also found in the outlet of the rain water drain where it empties into the nearby River Loddon. Analysis of these traces showed the same isotope ratios as on Fox’s property.
The depot was officially closed in 1988, but rumours circulate that routine operations stopped in 1986 following the railway fire. The fire is said to have started when a petroleum tanker on the railway siding caught fire, and is maintained to have been a minor incident. However local residents reported that a huge sheet of flame erupted into the air and that the ground shook. Manhole covers are said to have been blown off. The report into the fire, like so many documents associated with this case, seems to have been lost.

COVER UP
Evidence is now emerging of a systematic campaign to cover up the Earley scandal and to try to silence Raymond Fox. Seven years after becoming critically ill and five years after receiving treatment in Germany he has yet to receive proper treatment from a UK doctor. Fox claims that he has been continually refused treatment by the medical authorities. “I expect they were hoping I would just die, and the problem would go away,” he says.
After Ray Fox made his initial complaints to Wokingham District Council, Dr Muhammed Abid, consultant in Communicable Disease Control, called in Virginia Murray of the Chemical Incident Response Service. He also arranged appointments for Fox at Guy’s Hospital Medical Toxicology Unit. These appointments were, however, made for times whilst Fox was in Germany receiving treatment.

In April 98, Josef Kees, the German doctor who treated Ray Fox, wrote to Dr Abid outlining his analysis of Fox’s condition and urging him to ensure that Fox received treatment. Dr Kees diagnosed “definite toxic allergic reaction resulting from a mixture of toxic substances... a severe toxic poisoning... [including, inter alia] lindane, uranium, DDT and DDE,” and commented, “this demands actions to prove the contamination and then decontaminate the land around his house and the surrounding area.” He made recommendations for treatment and further testing. Despite Fox’s requests to the medical authorities, none of these tests or treatments have yet been conducted.

MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE?
In June 1998, Dr Abid attended a meeting of council officers, Health Authority and Environment Agency representatives. According to minutes of the meeting Dr Abid said that “it is essential to establish whether he is ill or not.” Despite having Dr Kees’ report, he also told the meeting that the levels of toxins in Fox’s tissue samples were “within normal limits”.
Steve Kingston, Head of Public Protection at Wokingham District Council, also at the meeting, claimed that Fox had provided “no medical evidence to prove he is ill and has not made use of UK expertise. Therefore we are unable to consider his medical situation in respect of its possible cause.” According to Abid, everyone at the meeting had access to Kees’ report.
The meeting concluded: “no further investigation in terms of sampling is needed off-site around the Shell site... there is no evidence to suggest a health risk to local residents.” They took as justification previous environmental reports including those of Clayton Environmental.
Dr Abid told Corporate Watch that “we have no responsibility for [Fox’s] treatment”. It is for Fox’s GP to arrange testing and treatment and refer him to consultants, “that is how the NHS works,” he said.
In late ’98, however, Fox’s GP removed him from his list of patients. No reason was given. Successive GPs failed to conduct testing and treatment as recommended by Dr Kees, or to refer Fox to a consultant, forcing him to look elsewhere for treatment. His most recent GP cut him off in 2002, privately admitting that he was being harassed.
Fox alleges he has been continually denied treatment at the local Royal Berkshire Hospital. Suffering from severe pain in one of his legs, only a month ago, Mr Fox was unable to get treatment at the Royal Berkshire. Eventually he sought treatment at the Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot. When the doctor there heard that he was from Reading, he went to phone the Royal Berkshire. Shortly thereafter Fox was approached by the hospital psychiatrist, who refused to examine his leg. Fox left in disgust. He was later treated by retired GP Dick Van Steenis, who found that Fox had been suffering a thrombo-phlebitis, a severe vein complaint. “Any competent doctor should easily be able to diagnose and treat this condition,” Van Steenis told Corporate Watch. CEO of the hospital, Professor Anne Sheen, refused to comment on Mr Fox’s case, citing confidentiality rules.

”TREMENDOUS INTERFERENCE”
Dr Badsha, also believes that he has received “tremendous interference from government agencies.” When he tried to have his original samples from Wokingham Road analysed, the lab he sent them to said they were receiving complaints from unspecified agencies. Such was the severity of these complaints that they refused to analyse the samples. Dr Badsha sent samples to a second lab, which later claimed to have lost them before analysis could be conducted. Finally he sent a third set of samples to the government-owned labs, LGC at Teddington, but he labelled them as being from a site elsewhere in the country. It was only then that the samples were analysed and he was able to make his report.
Raymond Fox has tried to establish independently whether Shell ever operated a test reactor at the old depot. Last December, after a long correspondence, then Environment Secretary, Michael Meacher, informed Fox that the only permission issued to a company on the site under the Radioactive Substances Act was to Formica Ltd. Previously the Environment Agency had denied that any radioactive substances licenses had ever been issued to any company on the site. There is only one problem with this. Formica Ltd has never had any operations in the Reading area.

BANKRUPTCY
In addition to being stonewalled by the local council, and medical authorities, Raymond Fox has also fallen victim to a highly dubious bankruptcy proceeding. His company, Fox Building, went into receivership in January 1997, when his illness had rendered him unable to work. Then in 2001 Ray was made personally bankrupt over an alleged personal guarantee for one of Fox Building’s debts. Ray maintains that the guarantee produced at his bankruptcy hearing was a forgery. He even offered to pay the debt in 1999 in order to be rid of the unwanted hassle. His offer was turned down, essentially forcing him into bankruptcy.
The trustees of his estate, Baker Tilly Solicitors, have been trying to take possession of Fox’s second home in Selsey, Sussex, in order to settle the alleged debt. Fox has so far prevented them from doing so. In June this year the trustees applied to the court to have Fox committed to prison.
His case has now been taken on by legal case worker, Patrick Cullinane, recently made famous after a four-year investigation by the Guardian newspaper proved that the Inland Revenue had conspired to bankrupt him. Mr Cullinane commented on Fox’s case: “the whole thing is illegal. He is the victim of a conspiracy.”
”Fox’s trustees were incorrectly appointed...[and] Mr Justice Lawrence Collins [who presided over Fox’s recent committal hearing] has accepted forged documents”. The case has been characterised by “extremely irregular” proceedings. Neither the Court Service nor Baker Tilly Solicitors, who are trustees for Fox’s assets, have been able to provide Fox with the documentation of his bankruptcy although they are required by law to do so. Then, at the committal hearing (of which Mr Fox was only informed two days in advance) the documents were suddenly found. The trustees did not show up at the appointed time, and had to be telephoned by the judge. Cullinane pointed out clear inconsistencies in the trustees’ case which the judge simply ignored, and Fox was injuncted to stay away from the Selsey property. The court will not even supply Cullinane with a transcript of the hearing.

JUSTICE?
It remains a fact that the only environmental testing conducted on the property at 337 Wokingham Road found dangerous levels of radioactive and chemical pollutants. The Environment Agency claims to have tested in the surrounding area and found no evidence of radioactivity or any significant chemical pollution. Embarrassingly, further independent tests in the area have found evidence of raised radioactivity in nearby Lambourne Gardens. They have not tested Fox’s property though. He will not allow the Environment Agency to test it for fear that they will produce faked results.
Throughout this extraordinary case Fox has presented compelling evidence to his local authority, to Berkshire Health Authority, to his doctors, the Environment Agency, local MPs (John Redwood and Martin Salter) the police and the courts. He has been blocked at every turn, and denied the help that he needs. Still, his quest for justice continues. It is surely now time for a full public inquiry to determine the source of the pollution at 337 Wokingham Road and the perpetrators of the cover up.