New Nuclear Bomb Factory

The government are about to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on a new facility to make nuclear bombs.

The proposals is included in the annual report for the Atomic Weapons Establishment. This refers to the closure of the old site at Burghfield and the transfer of this work to new facilities at the main Aldermaston site. Burghfield at the moment carries out the assembly and disassembly of all Britain's nuclear weapons.

AWE also plans to build a new hydrodynamics research facility to help design and develop nuclear weapons and a supercomputer, worth £15 million, to simulate the effects of atomic explosions.

A spokesman for AWE said that they planned to "maintain the capability to design a successor to Trident".

Under the Non Proliferation Treaty Britain is obliged to be making progress towards nuclear disarmament. Instead this new development will maintain for decades to come Britain's ability to keep hold of the bomb. It will also provide the basis for extending the life of the Trident system and for designing and building a replacement for it.

Planning applications for the new development are expected to be submitted to the local council. The council cannot reject the proposals but could demand that they be examined by the Environment Minister.