Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Nuclear warhead plant application on Burghfield flood plain – Latest news

Jacobs Engineering, Lockheed Martin, Serco | 28.02.2009 10:43 | Anti-militarism | Ecology | Oxford

A planning committee meeting on Wednesday is set to approve plans for a new nuclear warhead facility on a flood plain at Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) Burghfield, near Reading, Berkshire. The proposal has received a record number of objections from the public, drawing the attention of mainstream media.


West Berkshire planning applications online public access states that it will be down for maintenance all weekend, and for part of Monday [see note 1], raising suspicions of foul play. The controversial application for a new nuclear warhead assembly / disassembly facility at a site heavily flooded in July 2007 is due to be approved at the planning committee meeting in Newbury next Wednesday [see note 2 for details.]

Around a thousand objections have been lodged to the application, a record for the council [see note 3 for recent articles]. Objectors have been granted a TOTAL of FIVE MINUTES to voice their concerns before the planning committee.

Despite massive opposition to the plan, the local council looks set to once again roll over in the face of pressure from the Ministry of Defence and corporate nuclear weapons profiteers Serco (UK), Jacobs Engineering (US) and Lockheed Martin (US), who jointly manage AWE on behalf of the British Government and, as recently revealed in The Guardian, the US Government [see note 4], all at UK taxpayers’ expense.

Anti-nuclear campaigners acknowledge the need for a new facility, considering the grave safety concerns regarding the current facility, but say that it should be solely for the purpose of safely disassembling existing warheads and be built at a location not prone to flooding or other serious hazards.

The campaigners are also calling for a full and independent public inquiry into both the current application and the multi-billion pound developments currently underway and planned at the AWE sites at both Burghfield and nearby Aldermaston, which include the Orion laser, Core Punch facility, hydronamics and materials science laboratories, a new supercomputer and the Gemini office complex, designed to house the many hundreds of new staff, including warhead designers, that have been recruited over the past few years, as well as a uranium enrichment plant planned for 2009. The new facilities are designed to allow the development of a new generation of nuclear warheads, already considered to be underway in spite of repeated official denials, in collaboration with the United States and in contravention of the UK and US’s obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Police are said to be fearful that thousands, perhaps even millions of rabid, bloodthirsty rioting hordes of peace and environmental campaigners wielding machetes and rocket propelled grenades will descend upon the council offices and/or the Atomic Weapons Establishment on Wednesday. While the police were not prepared to disclose details of their operations, they are thought to be putting in place an ‘appropriate and proportionate’ response. This will reportedly include the deployment of helicopters, mounted officers and tanks, strip searches and cavity searches of passers-by (especially anyone looking slightly unkempt or aloof), taking DNA samples from anyone coming within ten miles of Newbury, Burghfield or Aldermaston (one can never be too careful), and a fleet of armoured vans packed with officers from the Territorial Support Group sporting black balaclavas and helmets, wearing no shoulder numbers and carrying no warrant badge, ready to baton charge anything that moves, including grandmothers and photographers. The whole operation is expected to cost the taxpayer in the region of eight hundred thousand pounds. [See note 5]

Notes

1. On Friday 27 February, the following text appeared on the West Berkshire Council website:  http://www.westberks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=15199

“ *** PLEASE NOTE: Public Access for Planning Applications: Due to the need for essential maintenance Public Access will be unavailable over the weekend of 28 February and 1 March and part of Monday 2 March 2009. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. *** ”


2. Details of meeting: Eastern Area Planning Committee, Wednesday, 4th March, 6.30pm.
Council Chamber, Council Offices, Market Street, Newbury, Berkshire. RG14 5LD
(10 minutes walk from Newbury train station)
Map:  http://tinyurl.com/Newbury-Council-Map


3. Recent articles on AWE Burghfield planning application:

Newbury Today - Record objections against nuclear warhead facility – 25 Feb
 http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=9367

Get Reading - Flood risk fear over AWE warhead plant – 27 Feb
 http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/s/2045997_flood_risk_fear_over_awe_warhead_plant_

BBC - Safety concerns over nuclear plan – 25 Feb
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/7911098.stm

BBC - Nuclear plan sees 1,000 responses – 20 Feb
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/7901361.stm


4. US using British atomic weapons factory for its nuclear programme
Matthew Taylor and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, 9 Feb 2009
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/09/us-uk-atomic-weapons-nuclear-power


5. No responsibility can be taken for any inaccuracies in this paragraph.



Jacobs Engineering, Lockheed Martin, Serco
- e-mail: letsbuildmorenukes@AWErulesOK.com

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech