Sinister Goings-on
I missed the New Scientist last week (the local Sainsbury’s stocks it because there is a higher density of atomic weapons engineers per square metre in this town than anywhere else in the UK).
Never fear, The Advertiser—one of the many freesheets that drop into our letterbox in a steady trickle because we’re living on the ‘desirable’ side of the brook—led with a news item about an article in New Scientist that I might otherwise have overlooked. The feature, written by Robert Rowlands, stated that the author of the NS article has spent two years wrangling with the MoD over his Freedom of Information request, ‘ “the most tortuous and probably the most important” FoI request he had ever made.’.
Having read the article, I can see why.
This from New Scientist:
‘Between 1983 and 1991, the US stationed 96 nuclear-tipped cruise missiles at Greenham Common in Berkshire[…]
[…]the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston had estimated that 10 million people, including the population of London, could have been exposed to an “inhalation hazard” from plutonium if warheads exploded or caught fire.
[…]The report said a fire in one storage cell, fed from fuel from the missiles, could result in the plutonium from eight warheads being blown across a large swathe of southern England. Still, the risk was considered “acceptable”.’
Small wonder that both the MoD and the Pentagon wanted to keep this quiet.
‘The MoD’s response is that it “does not confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons at any particular place at any particular time”. It added, “There has never been an accident involving nuclear weapons in the UK that has put the public at risk.’—interesting to see that, apparently, there have been accidents involving nuclear weapons that have not put the public at risk (they don’t always blow up).
Well, it only takes one.
It’s reassuring to know that, to my knowledge, only a couple of warheads are stored in our Friendly Neighbourhood Atomic Weapons Establishment at any one time.
Tags: Tadley Times, Travel, UK, USA, Tag Index
Denni