by Keith Richmond
THE Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has hit out at the Government’s decision to sell its one-third stake in the company that runs the Atomic Weapons Establishment to the American firm Jacobs Engineering.
The AWE, which has two big sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire, has been, as it puts it, “central to the defence of the United Kingdom for more than 50 years”. It provides and maintains the warheads for Britain’s nuclear deterrent Trident.
The company will now be owned one-third by the US arms giant Lockheed Martin, one third by the US firm Jacobs, a share previously under Government control through British Nuclear Fuels, and one third by the British services group Serco.
CND fears that by giving the Americans a controlling two-thirds interest, the Government is effectively handing over control of British defence and foreign policy to Washington.
CND chair Kate Hudson said: “It is outrageous that control of Britain’s so-called ‘independent’ nuclear weapons is being handed over to American corporations.
“Not only does this increase the slice of the £76 billion to be spent replacing Trident that
will go to the US, it more significantly gives the US government even more strings to pull to control British foreign policy. The sale raises serious questions about the claimed independence of Britain’s nuclear weapons programme.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “It is the UK Government, not the Atomic Weapons Establishment, which sets the UK’s nuclear policy.”
