LAKES-based campaigners against nuclear energy have hailed an inquest verdict into a soldier’s death as ‘highly significant’.

Last week a coroner’s jury in the West Midlands found that depleted uranium caused the fatal colon cancer of Lance Corporal Stuart Dyson, who served in Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War.

Marianne Birkby, for Radiation Free Lakeland, described it as an ‘important verdict’ for Cumbria, where new nuclear power plants are proposed.

"It calls into doubt the validity of the argument of the International Committee on Radiological Protection that there is a ‘safe dose’ of radiation.

"This has implications for the future of the nuclear industry as a whole,” said Ms Birkby.

Calling for the Compensation Scheme for Radiation Linked Diseases to be extended to the wider population, she went on: "The new nuclear plants proposed for Cumbria are planning to use ‘high burn-up’ fuel which burns substantially more of the uranium.

"High burn-up spent fuel is twice as hot and twice as radioactive as 'legacy' spent fuel . It emits ten times as many neutrons per second as 'legacy' spent fuel and requires many more years in cooling ponds."

At the inquest, Professor Chris Busby, scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, said Mr Dyson's cancer was '’more likely than not'’ caused by ingestion and inhalation of radiation during his service in the Gulf.

Prof Busby, a visiting professor at the University of Ulster, added: ''The interesting thing about My Dyson's cancer is that he was extremely young - the chances of him acquiring the cancer were something like six per million per year.''

The MoD was unrepresented at the hearing and failed to send an expert witness.

The jury determined that Mr. Dyson's exposure to uranium had probably caused or contributed to his death.

Black Country coroner Robin Balmain said because the verdict had important implications for the well-being of other people he was obliged to write to the Secretary of State for Defence.