There are fears a former police station in Inverness is a target for terrorists – because it is now the nerve centre for a hush-hush nuclear waste programme.
Locals have been left furious no one told them the Culloden building is being used as a base to co-ordinate flights between the Dounreay reactor site in Caithness and the US.
Highly-enriched uranium is being sent to America in exchange for other radioactive material which can be used to produce medical isotopes.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority refuses to publicly acknowledge the flights between Scotland and the US are happening and declined to comment on the Culloden revelation.
A police spokeswoman said the Culloden station had “been closed to the public for a number of years, with a 24-hour counter service provided at Burnett Road police station”, which is several miles away.
She added: “Culloden station is used for a variety of corporate functions.”
Tor Justad, chairman of campaign group Highlands Against Nuclear Transport (Hant), said he was concerned that the police station and other sites involved in the removal of radioactive material would be a target for “terrorists and others of ill intent”.
He said: “It seems more and more information is trickling out and the need for this kind of command centre indicates this is a much bigger operation than we were initially led to believe.
“There is an obvious security risk if direct police involvement is needed like this.
“Hant believes the public has a right to know rather than information coming out in small doses like this latest example.”
SNP Caithness MP Paul Monaghan claimed earlier this month that planes taking the waste to the US were unable to take off safely from Wick because the runway is about 1,600ft too short for the US Air Force C17 Globemaster aircraft involved.
He believes inbound and outbound flights have been routed through RAF Lossiemouth to be drained of some of their fuel to reduce weight and allow them to land at Wick, before refuelling at Lossiemouth prior to heading back across the Atlantic.
Local Green Party supporter Isla Macleod-O’Reilly said the news about the former Culloden police station was “incredibly worrying”.
She said: “The community wasn’t consulted or even told about this.
“It’s much more important for people to have an active police station rather than having it used for purposes such as this.
“People have been very concerned about the closure of their police station.”
Cradlehall and Westhill Community Council chairman, Duncan Macpherson, said: “It’s a scandal the community was not consulted. I was horrified to find out it had gone under the radar.
“And, here’s the reality that will shock the public – this former police station had its signs silently removed.
“It’s like Police Scotland arming its officers with handguns. Nobody knew anything about it until somebody saw them walking into a restaurant with guns in their holsters.”
David McGrath, the chairman of Smithton and Culloden Community Council, said: “I’m concerned on two fronts. These flights are highly dangerous. A plane could drop out of the sky. They tell you these nuclear flasks are indestructible but there’s no such thing.
“I believe low-level crime in this area has increased, incidents such as vandalism, fly-tipping and cars being abandoned.
“If we hadn’t had a noticeably decreased police presence we might have considerably reduced such crime.”
Local Highland councillor Roddy Balfour said: “This is a community of 8,000 people. The police station closure was a serious loss.
“And it’s going to expand phenomenally in the next few years if present plans go ahead.”
