The leader-in-waiting reportedly already told us what he thinks about Trident earlier this year. [1] It was even old news then - the government's commitment to the continuing possession of nuclear weapons was made in the 1998 Strategic Defence review.

The real story - if you look behind the smoke and mirrors - is that behind the fence at AWE Aldermaston, work has already started on laying the foundations for the Orion laser.

Constructing and kitting out Orion is a £183 million project, [2] including a laser hall 1,000 times more powerful than AWE's existing Helen laser, which will allow AWE to test materials under laboratory conditions replicating a nuclear explosion.

The laser facility is only one of the new developments outlined in AWE's site development strategy plan - published in August 2002 [3] - which includes a supercomputer (parts of which are already in place), a hydrodynamics facility (for which "A number of options are under consideration" [4]). In parallel, Britain's AWE's are also in the process of recruiting 350 new scientists - many of whom will work as warhead and nuclear materials specialists. A massive injection of funding, from £363 million in 2004-05 to £493 million in 2005-06, is also in place.[4]

If the decision to build any type of successor to Trident has already been made, (as the evidence at AWE Aldermaston suggests), then the government's failure to hold the public debate as promised in September 2005 by John Reid (then Minister of Defence)is quite understandable.

Aldermaston Women's Peace Campaign and Block the Builders are not waiting for a public debate that will never happen, but will continue to voice their protests at the site where any successor to the Trident warhead would be built, and where the facilities which could build it are under construction.

The next big blockade - which aims to nonviolently stop construction traffic entering Aldermaston - is planned for Monday 10 July, 2006.

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CONTACT
For immediate information, ring 07887 802879
email  info@aldermaston.net

For Block the Builders, see  http://www.block the builders.org.uk/action

NOTES
[1] No more fantasy diplomacy: cut a deal with the mullahs
Polly Toynbee, Tuesday February 7, 2006
The Guardian: " http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1703884,00.html

[2] Des Browne providing a written answer on 16 June 2006 to a PQ from Nick Harvey.
See  http://tinyurl.com/lgx75

[3] The 2005 update to the original publication can be found here:
 http://tinyurl.com/jj3x8

[4] Des Browne providing written answer to PQ from Alan Simpson on 6 June 2006.
See  http://tinyurl.com/j9oja