Planned new Aldermaston nuclear bomb factory threatens local health, democracy and World peace , says Green MEP
17 June 2002
"Research has shown people living in the shadow of nuclear facilities in the Aldermaston area face a significantly higher risk of contracting leukaemia and other cancers," said Dr Lucas. "Under-25s south of Newbury were found to be almost four times more likely to suffer from leukaemia than the national average in one study. "In this context development of any new atomic weapons facility must be seen as a direct threat to local health and resisted."
Detailed plans to replace the nearby Burghfield site - where Britain's atomic warheads have been constructed since the 1950s - with a state-of-the-art bomb factory are expected to be submitted to West Berkshire planners later this month.
But if the recent trend that planning applications relating to the Aldermaston site are submitted by the Ministry of Defence continues the council will be powerless to prevent the development. A spokesman for West Berkshire Council said: "If the application was submitted by the MoD we would deal with the application in the normal way, but we would only have the power to oppose the plan, not to reject it." "Even if local people vigorously oppose the planned new bomb factory, the planning authority has no power to prevent it being built. This represents a clear democratic deficit, with decisions affecting local people's health being taken in secret by Whitehall defence chiefs."
The proposed new factory could be used to design and build a new generation of nuclear weapons for use against terrorists and 'rogue states', according to arms experts. But any new atomic weapons programme would breach Britain's obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and threaten the lives of millions.
Dr Lucas said: "Nuclear weapons pose an unacceptable threat to society. They are weapons of mass destruction which, if used, would result in the indiscriminate killing of millions of people. I believe they are illegal under international law and their very existence constitutes a breach of world peace."
