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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.
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Jump To Comment: 1Pax Christi have organized a seminar on NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT for
WEDNESDAY, 19 JUNE in the SHELBOURNE HOTEL, DUBLIN with an impressive
list of speakers from around the world. This is an event not to be
missed! Programme and background below.
Trident Ploughshares nuclear disarmament camps coming up include:
13 to 18 Jun - TP Aldermaston International Disarmament Camp
4 to 19 Aug - TP Disarmament Camp at Coulport and BLOCKADE 5th AUGUST
6 Oct - Action at USAF Lakenheath, Suffolk
(see http://www.tridentploughshares.org/ or mail me)
Hope to see you there!
Best wishes,
Eoin
*** PROGRAMME ********************************************************
A Pax Christi Seminar
NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
Towards Securing a Global Future for Humanity
Speakers:
Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs* (*awaiting confirmation)
Jayantha Dhanapala
Under-Secretary-General, Disarmament Affairs.
United Nations, New York
Senator Douglas Roche, O.C.
Former Diplomat and Academic
Scilla Elworthy
Oxford Research Group, UK
Bruce Kent
Pax Christi British Section & CND
Jonathan Granoff
Global Security Institute, USA
Chair: Bryan Dobson, RTE
Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin
Wednesday, 19 June : 9.30 am - 1 pm
(registration 9.15 am)
Admission Free
(Donation requested)
R.S.V.P. Pax Christi 01-4965293 or email [email protected]
*** BACKGROUND ******************************************************
Background information
Re: Seminar on Nuclear Disarmament & Global Security
With the Demise of the Cold War the serious concern for nuclear
disarmament has weakened considerably as the threat of mutual assured
destruction is not perceived to exist. But nuclear weapons are of
serious concern in the final analysis in the context of global security.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists recently have moved the minute
hand of the 'Doomsday clock' forward to seven minutes to midnight, the
same position when the clock began its life in 1947. According to some,
the situation is more dangerous now than it had been during the cold
war.
At the review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2000, the
Nuclear Weapons States gave an unequivocal commitment to nuclear
disarmament. Now according to the nuclear posture review of the US, the
intention of the US to develp usable nuclear weapons goes against their
own commitment made at the review conference. It is a major shift in the
concept of the use of these weapons. They will become from weapons of
last resort to more usable ones. The bilateral agreement with Russia to
reduce the numnber of deployed strategic nuclear weapons does not mean
total dismantling of these weapons systems in the new post cold war
environment.
The weaponisation of space is of major concern to us. The Pentagon want
to achieve "full spectrum dominance" in air, land sea and space. In this
context, the new development in the field of missle defence is of
serious concern.
We are at a very critical juncture when the unprecedented opportunity to
global peace and security can be totally disregarded, divering the
course of history leading to absolute subjugation of the people of the
world by only a few.