Overview

The Colonel's Plute is set in the 1970s and 1980s, when plutonium was thought to be vital to the UK's nuclear energy programme. The book includes short but important appearances by famous people, such as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, President Ronald Reagan, Tony Benn, and Arthur Scargill, as well as members of the IRA, and Greenpeace, the leading environmentalist group at the time. The story centres, however, upon ordinary people: a family with working links to Sellafield, where much of the UK's plutonium is still stored (until some use is found for it). The head of the family is Sergeant Len Stanton, a policeman, who left the West Midlands with his family for a better paid job with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary; a healthier lifestyle for all of them in the Lake District. Len's wife, Rita, died of cancer, and Len is becoming an increasingly embittered man. Len's son-in-law, Tony Miles, is a process worker working with radioactive materials and married to Jenny. They have a seven-year-old son, Jamie. The boy has leukaemia and is being treated at the world-famous Christie Hospital in Manchester. Jenny is convinced that Jamie's condition has been caused by her husband's work. Len begins to think this may be true, persuaded by a local doctor, who has pointed the finger at Sellafield as the cause of a cancer cluster he claims to have identified in a small village close to the sprawling Sellafield site. The doctor's claims are picked up by the national press, causing panic among those with children, or expecting them. All of this is of little interest to Gaddafi who is desperate to obtain plutonium, convinced that it will give him more authority at home and the status abroad to help him become a major international, respected figure. He has tried to obtain plutonium from several countries but without success. He turns his attention to Sellafield, which is known to have the biggest stockpile of plutonium in the world. He approaches the IRA for assistance, reminding its leaders that he has provided them with finance and weapons for decades. ""Now it is payback time,"" he tells the IRA representative attending the colonel's 25th anniversary celebration of his coup in Libya. Eventually, after a lot of soul searching, a deal is reached. Many of the cases of plute held in the Sellafield plutonium store have been there for decades, and potentially explosive nitrogen gas has built up in them. If this happened, plutonium, in powder form, could spread over the countryside, the government deciding that all the cans must be repackaged. It is not going to be easy. It will involve moving the cans around the Sellafield site and in and out of makeshift storage facilities, providing an obvious opportunity for theft. Len Stanton sees what's going on but turns a blind eye to it. The IRA succeeds in stealing a small amount of plute for the colonel. It is shipped to Libya and promptly impounded as soon as the ship arrives in Libya. The source of the information about its movements is Michael Quinn, thought by Greenpeace to be one of their most enthusiastic supporters (and by the IRA as one of their own silent members). He is in fact employed by America's Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA. His main contact in Libya is Captain Hassan al-Rida, the colonel's aide-de-camp, the leader of a group of young Libyan officers who want Gaddafi removed, dead or alive. They believe he has dissipated his nation's oil wealth supporting other countries rather than improving the conditions of his own people. President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher have been kept informed of events by the CIA and it is they who tell my readers how my book ends and what happens to those who made an appearance in it.

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9781836154471

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Reviews

Harold Bolter has clearly been busy in his advanced retirement. 'The Colonel's Plute' is an enthralling work of historical fiction, set in the dark and sinister world of nuclear power and weaponry. Given his intimate knowledge of Sellafield and international nuclear matters there can be few writers more qualified to explore and expose such a worrying plot line."" - Ray Dafter, Author and former Energy Editor of the Financial Times.

Author Information

Harold Bolter was born in 1937, the tenth child born into an impoverished family. Despite this challenging start he has had a remarkably successful career. His working life began at 17 as an apprentice journalist with The Birmingham Post. There he progressed from general reporter to industrial editor before joining The Financial Times in 1967 in a similar role. In 1975 Bolter was recruited by the newly formed British Nuclear Fuels as its director of information. He rose to the main Board position of Company Secretary and Director of Corporate Affairs and director of five of BNFL's subsidiaries and associates and chairman of two of them. In addition to his formal role as the BNFL group's Company Secretary Harold Bolter was responsible for it extensive public information programme, political liaison, community relations, human resources, the legal directorate and safeguards. The safeguards group is responsible for ensuring that nuclear weapons material and sensitive information are kept out of the hands of terrorists and proscribed governments such as that of Colonel Gaddafi's Libya. In 1992 he was awarded the CBE for services to nuclear energy.

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