Nuclear expansion

national | miscellaneous | news report Sunday June 16, 2002 22:56 by Channel4.com

The British Government will go ahead with a planning application next week to construct a massive new nuclear weapons facility at Aldermaston in Berkshire. Anti-nuclear campaigners fear it will be used to create a new generation of warheads when the Government is committed by treaty to eliminating our nuclear weapons.

One local Labour MP has criticised the secrecy surrounding the decision.

Victoria Macdonald reports:

A handful of protesters turned up at the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment base today - and at least two scaled the perimeter fence before being arrested.

They had hastily convened after it was revealed that plans are to be submitted to West Berkshire planning authorities within the next 10 days, to substantially expand the 700-acre headquarters.

Amid accusations that the site will be used to extend Britain's nuclear capability, questions are to be tabled in Parliament tomorrow.

A £15 million supercomputer to simulate the effects of atomic devices is to be installed and the production of Trident warheads will be moved from the nearby Burghfield site.

The Ministry of Defence said today this was part of its stream-lining policy. But anti-nuclear activists and arms experts claim that the plant will be used to test, design and build a new generation of smaller atomic warheads which could be used against terrorist groups.

Britain's current arsenal is a result of Labour's 1998 Strategic Defence Review.

Fifty-eight Trident D-5 missiles were purchased from the United States, which retains the maintenance contract; there are 'fewer than' 200 warheads; and four submarines, although only one can patrol at any given time.

The strategic warheads each have 100 kilotons of explosive power - the Hiroshima bomb had 15 kilotons.

This is, according to Greenpeace, like having a hammer to crack a walnut. But an arms analyst told Channel Four News that Government thinking seems to be that sub-sub strategic warheads are now needed - less power for dealing with smaller specific targets.

Because of international bans, the testing of nuclear weapons is prohibited. But the supercomputer and a new hydrodynamics research facility also to be built at Aldermaston will maintain the capability to design a successor to Trident.

Because Aldermaston no longer has crown immunity, the AWE has to go through the normal planning process - although planning officers do not have the power to refuse permission. However, if there are strong objections, the Environment Minister Michael Meacher will have to intervene.