FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
7 APRIL 2006
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Blockades at AWE continue amidst increasing concern at Trident replacement plans
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ACTION
In what is becoming a regular monthly event, campaigners are making good on their promise to "block the builders" working on the controversial Orion laser facility and - over the coming years - on other facilities which will enable the design and build of nuclear weapons.

SPECULATION
During March there was increased speculation about government plans to replace/upgrade Trident as a Defence Select Committee inquiry opened to take evidence on the issue.

At the end of February, scientists from Aldermaston and the US Los Alamos labs carried out a joint subcritical test - "Krakatau" - at the Nevada test site, further fuelling speculation about the development of nuclear weapons. In June the US is scheduled to perform another test, codenamed "Divine Strike" it is reportedly a "low-yield nuclear weapon ground shock simulation against an
underground target".

POLICING
In recent months Block the Builders have carried out several successful blockades of the site. One response to this has been a dramatic increase in policing - with March's blockade seeing mounted police deployed and arrestees being asked to turn informer during interviews at the police station.

A BtB spokesperson said "We are pushing for a wider public debate on the whole issue of the future of Britain's nuclear weapons policy and programme. While John Reid keeps coming out with bland statements about no decision being made yet, we can see what's happening on the ground at AWE - and it is a massive
investment in new facilities and scientists. The two things just don't add up".

Campaigners have vowed to continue with their practical objection to Britain's WMD programme.


ENDS
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NOTES:

1 Planning notice: DOE Circular 18/84 Laser research facility (Orion) 05/02003/RESMAJ was passed on 26 January 2006. Work on the site is ongoing. The planning committee has no power to refuse a NoPD, but under the relevant legislation they could have referred the application back to the Secretary of State leading to a public inquiry. The planning Officer's report can be found at
 http://www.westberks.gov.uk/WestBerkshire/minutes.nsf/25bab977b4822206802568e40062db27/2bb80c
07aa75c0b1802570ab0042e68c/$FILE/0502003.doc

The Orion laser is just the first of a series of planned developments at AWE which will enable AWE Aldermaston to build the next generation of nuclear weapons. Any new nuclear weapons would be immoral – and unlawful. They are indiscriminate weapons which cannot distinguish between military and civilian targets, and which have a deadly legacy for generations. Nuclear weapons violate
international law. New weapons would mean that the UK would continue to break its international obligations under the Nuclear Non–Proliferation Treaty (NPT) – to make progress, in good faith, towards disarmament. The new facilities at AWE will also undermine the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (signed and ratified by the UK, but not yet in force), as they would enable research on nuclear weapons to continue without underground testing.


2 During March a Defence Select Committee took evidence at an inquiry into the future of the UK’s strategic nuclear deterrent. The first inquiry focused on the strategic context and considered the threats which the strategic nuclear deterrent is currently intended to combat and how this context might change over the next two decades. It considered what other states or organisations could develop nuclear weapons capabilities by 2025, and how this might affect the strategic context in which decisions on the UK deterrent will be made. And it considered the timetable in which these decisions will have to be taken and implemented.
 http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/defence_committee/def060308___no__25.cfm

3 The "Krakatau" test reportedly used a plutonium trigger from a British Trident warhead. Writing in the Times today (7/4/6) Tim Reid, who visisted the Los Alamos labs recently, said that "Jacob Perea, project manager at Los Alamos, told The Times that data from Krakatau, a British-US test, was being used to help the US to work out how to build its new generation of weapons. Although he
said that the project was American, he added: 'It would be pretty surprising if they (the British) weren’t watching this pretty closely.'"
[source:  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2122600,00.html]

"Divine Strake" test - see  http://www.nukestrat.com/us/stratcom/gs-divinestrake.htm


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High resolution images of previous blockades are available free of charge (with credit), please contact  info@aldermaston.net

Contact number for blockade: 07969 739 812
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