TRIDENT PLOUGHSHARES
Press release: 12th May 2016
June AWE Protesters Claim Trident Renewal By No Means Certain
Campaigners who will gather in June for a month of peaceful disruption of the UK’s nuclear bomb assembly plant at AWE Burghfield claim that the completion of the Trident renewal programme is not as certain as has been conventionally assumed.
They base their view on the new and meticulously researched Trident Shambles report by Scottish CND’s John Ainslie which shows how the project programme has got itself into chaos with planning timescale over-runs, ballooning costs, a shortage of engineers and an increased system dependence on the Pentagon.[1]
A spokesperson said:
“The mechanism of the renewal programme involves a strange contrast. On the one hand the major player in AWE Aldermaston/Burghfield is the hugely profitable US defence giant Lockheed Martin which recently had a huge hike in its revenues [2], and on the other there is the complete disorder around the programme itself. Add to that the fundamental ambivalence within UK defence circles about Trident, the eye-watering opportunity costs and the fact that a continued commitment to renewal may be a trigger factor for a second Scottish independence referendum. In this setting our plans for peaceful disruption are not only entirely legitimate but timely. We may well be pushing on a door ready to burst open.”
Trident Ploughshares is being joined by a number of groups and the aim is to make it as difficult as possible for the plant to continue its ongoing work – the assembly, refurbishment and upgrading of the atomic warheads for Britain’s submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The thirteen groups so far committed[3] are area-based (Bristol, Scotland, Mainland European, etc.) or based on role or interest (Women, Academics, Students etc.). Many of those taking part have considerable experience of peaceful intervention at the UK nuclear weapon sites, including AWE Burghfield.
Contact: Angie Zelter 074-565-88943 tridentploughshares.org
[1]http://www.banthebomb.org/index.php/publications/reports/1867-trident-shambles. John is also noted for his Trident: Nowhere to Goreport which demonstrated that there is no feasible non-Scottish location for Trident delivery. This position is now accepted by the Ministry of Defence.
[2] http://tinyurl.com/j2ozmug
[3] Monday 6th June – Trident Ploughshares
Tuesday 7th June – Scottish groups
Wednesday 8th June – European mainland groups
Thursday 9th June – Yorkshire and North of England
Monday 13th June – Students
Tuesday 14th June – Southern Region
Wednesday 15th June – Wales
Thursday 16th June – Academics
Monday 20th June – Women
Monday 27th June – Religious and Faith based groups
Tuesday 28th June – Legislators
Wednesday 29th June – London
Thursday 30th June – Bristol
Press release Word doc: Burghfield 2