Shock and AWE as bomb factory goes up for sale

Posted by jossc — 16 January 2008 at 5:15pm - Comments

Razor wire fence surrounding AWE Aldermaston

Watch out world! Hot on the heels of the story that next-generation US designed Trident missiles may be too large to fit in the UK's submarine fleet comes news of another blow to the prestige of our very own nuclear deterrent - Aldermaston, aka 'Britain's Bomb Factory', is set to come under US control for the first time.

Set up in 1950, the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire is responsible for designing, manufacturing and decommissioning nuclear warheads for Britain's Trident submarine fleet. For many years it has been jointly managed by the government (through its stake in British Nuclear Fuels Ltd), US defence giant Lockheed Martin and UK support services group Serco.

Now the government's share in AWE is to be sold off as part of a plan to privatise all nuclear assets still in public ownership. Good plan - makes you wonder why they don't sell off the warheads to the highest bidder as well while they're about it. Since the only two companies remotely interested in buying - Fluor and Jacobs Engineering Group - are American, it follows that AWE is just about certain to end up under majority US control.

Big deal, I hear you cry. Well yes, it's true that the so-called 'independent' British nuclear deterrent has been largely US controlled and run since its inception, so not much change there. Except that, politically, this is a huge deal. When not only UK missiles are leased from the US, but warhead production is put under the control of American companies, the illusion that Trident is an independent system is shakier than ever.

What's more, the companies pegged as likely buyers (as well as existing shareholder Lockheed Martin) are heavily involved in US nuclear weapons production, running weapons sites and labs like Oak Ridge, Hanford, Sandia and the Nevada test site. It makes the spectre of further dodgy 'co-operation' between US and UK nuclear weapons labs loom even larger.

As usual, the government is being very cagey about discussing the sale, refusing even to confirm the identity of the bidders, although a spokesman insisted that: "Any bidder would need to satisfy MoD stringent security performance requirements."

Maybe they should heed the warning given by former US president Eisenhower in his famous departing speech. "In the councils of government," he said, "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."

About Joss

Bass player and backing vox in the four piece beat combo that is the UK Greenpeace Web Experience. In my 6 years here I've worked on almost every campaign and been fascinated by them all to varying degrees. Just now I'm working on Peace and Oceans - which means getting rid of our Trident nuclear weapons system and creating large marine reserves so that marine life can get some protection from overfishing.

Follow Greenpeace UK