HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

Oxford Indymedia

Nuclear weapon convoy at A34 Botley interchange, 9 November

Nigel Day/Irene Gill (published by eileen) | 30.11.2005 11:29 | Anti-militarism | Ecology | Oxford

More photos of this will be uploaded shortly

Trident nuclear weapon warhead carrier at Botley interchange
Trident nuclear weapon warhead carrier at Botley interchange



Contacts: Nigel Day, Oxford CND - 248357
Irene Gill, Oxford CND - 242919
___________________________________________________

The attached photo shows a Trident nuclear weapon warhead carrier travelling North on the A34 at Botley, at 1.15pm on Wednesday 9th November 2005.

___________________________________________________

A convoy of nuclear weapons passed between Botley and Oxford on the A34 at I.15 on Wednesday 9th November. Some of the convoy vehicles were photographed as they travelled North past the ‘Botley Interchange’ road sign by Irene Gill, a member of Oxford CND, the local Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament group.

This follows a 23:1 vote of the full Oxford City Council on 3rd October in favour of writing a letter to the Ministry of Defence protesting that a nuclear convoy passed close to Oxford (on exactly the same route) on the morning of 20th July.
Another letter was sent to John Kelly, County Emergency Planning Officer, saying the City Council believes he should be informed when these convoys pass through or near Oxford. Lastly, another letter was sent to the two local MPs asking them what can be done nationally to respect Oxford’s status as a Nuclear Free Authority.

Andrew Smith MP has acknowledged the letter, but replies are still awaited from the others.

Convoys of nuclear weapons travel to, and return about six times a year between the Atomic weapons Establishment at Burghfield, Berkshire and the Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport, where the warheads are prepared for the submarine launched Trident missile system.

The warheads in the carriers contain plutonium and other deadly radioactive materials. The safety of the convoys has been assessed by the MOD’s directorate of nuclear movements and nuclear accident response group.(Sunday Herald 17th July) In a report dated December 16th 2004, it said there is a risk of an “inadvertent yield “ from a nuclear explosion in certain circumstances in an accident.

The MOD regularly runs exercises to evaluate how the armed forces, emergency services and local authorities would respond to accidents en route. In response to a request from New Scientist magazine (12th November 2005) under the Freedom of Information Act the MOD released post–mortems of four exercises conducted during the past decade. They reveal that delays in issuing public warnings, poor monitoring of radiation and breakdown in communications could all have increased the public’s exposure to radiation.


Nigel Day
24.11.05




Nigel Day/Irene Gill (published by eileen)

Publish your news
-->

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Oxford 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

IMCs


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