nuclear-news

Opposition to privatisation of UK’s nuclear weapons management

Faslane and Coulport nuclear weapons maintenance to be privatised – Polaris?
For Argyll.com  July 28, 2012   “….Privatisation of maintenance of nuclear weapons – no new notion The privatisation of security which produced the inglorious G4S failure, undermined public confidence in the organisation of the ongoing 2012 Olympic Games in London. One would therefore have expected some gesture of consultation with the Scottish government and the Scottish people on any plan to privatise the maintenance of nuclear weapons here.

The plan appears to be to transfer MoD staff to the private sector consortium, along with the contract. The corporate members of the consortium are already defence contractors, so Lockheed Martin is going to have an extended overall influence on direction – AWE, Babcock and Lockheed Martin.

AWE plc (Atomic Weapons Establishment) plc – a former public sector operation – is owned by a consortium of Jacobs Engineering Group, Lockheed Martin UK and Serco, an arrnagemnt which will see Lockheed Martin overall with an extended influence.

AWE is also an establishment with a poor safety record. Back in May 2008 we published an article on a situation where the MoD was forced to close Burghfield, following the establishment’s six year failure to come to terms with 1,000 safety shortfalls identified by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII). (

The shut down of AWE Burghfield left warheads backing up at Coulport that were overdue to be taken to Burghfield to be ‘serviced’ (dismantled and rebuilt) in its highly controversial ‘gravel gerties’. (Safety ban on crucial maintenance at-Berkshire’s Burghfield nuclear weapon factory stops transportation of trident warheads to and from Faslane and Coulport.)

At the end of that year, in December 2008, the UK governement sold its remaining stake in AWE to American company, Jacobs, without troubling properly to inform parliament – a matter on which we also published. (Argyll concerns as UK government sells last stake in-Britain’s UK based nuclear warhead production to America.)

The UK government plan to hive off responsibility for nuclear weapons maintenance to the private sector and to AWE is not new. They tried this at the end of 2010, a move we reported on in early November then. (Argyll’s Coulport nuclear warhead base to be sold to USA private sector.)

Secen months after this, on 29th May 2011, we reported on the unequivocal opposition to this proposition from Argyll and Bute’s MSP, Michael Russell. (UK Government intend to privatise handling of nuclear weapons at Coulport: Michael Russell MSP says No.)

We are asking Mr Russell to establish if the UK government has consulted the Scottish Government on this current variation of its long standing intention; and to establish what the view of the Scottish Government is on the matter. http://forargyll.com/2012/07/faslane-and-coulport-nuclear-weapons-maintenance-to-be-privatised-polaris/

July 30, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, weapons and war