nuclear-news

Europeans want NATO’s dangerous old nuclear weapons OUT!

how safe and secure they are. For one thing, al-Qaida terrorists have already targeted this Belgian air base, 84km northeast of Brussels.

US nuclear garbage « Niqnaq  Outdated, unwanted, US nukes hang on in Europe Charles J Hanley, AP, May 9 2010 Unseen beyond the grazing Holsteins and rolling pastures of Kleine Brogel, eastern Belgium, the 12ft-long tapered metal cylinders sit in their underground vaults, waiting for the doomsday call that never came. Each packs the power of many Hiroshimas.

The US’s oldest nuclear weapons, unwanted, outdated, a legacy of the 20th century, are now the focus of a political struggle that could shake the NATO alliance in the 21st.

The questions hanging over the B-61 bombs, an estimated 200 of them on six air bases across Europe, relate not just to why they’re still here, but to how safe and secure they are. For one thing, al-Qaida terrorists have already targeted this Belgian air base, 84km northeast of Brussels.

For another, USAF inspectors found inadequate security at most of the six sites. And three months ago a “bombspotter” team, anti-nuclear activists, penetrated nearly 1km inside Kleine Brogel, reaching its innermost bunkers. Theo Kelchtermans, mayor of the neighboring town of Peer, said of the protesters’ infiltration, which went unchallenged for an hour:

US nuclear garbage « Niqnaq

May 10, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, politics international | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons