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Nuclear papers found on street

Paul Brown, Environment correspondent
Wednesday April 5, 2000

Papers found on a pavement near the Aldermaston nuclear weapons factory in Berkshire reveal secrets about the government's plans to develop new weapons.
The papers, dated March 10, will embarrass the Ministry of Defence because they give targets for nuclear weapons research, development and production, including collaboration with the French and Americans. The government's only official announcement is that it will "maintain a capability" for nuclear weapons.

The new weapons are to replace the 100 kilotonne warheads on Trident submarines. These are five times the size of the Hiroshima bomb and enough to wipe out the centre of Moscow. They are felt to be too big for modern precision warfare.

Smaller warheads with the punch to destroy enemy hardened bunkers are thought to be needed to make Trident more efficient.

The papers also give dates for the nearby Burghfield Trident warhead assembly plant to be closed - mixed up with memos detailing safety lapses.

There was also a handwritten draft explaining how British Nuclear Fuels privatisation plans helped to get it the contract to run Aldermaston, the controversial nuclear bomb making facility. This plan was postponed by the government last Wednesday, but the contract was confirmed on the same day.

The government hoped to raise £1.5bn from the sale of BNFL, which in turn offered to put money into upgrading the A45 building at Aldermaston which purifies highly enriched uranium for Trident nuclear warheads.

Using shareholders money to make a new generation of nuclear weapons was unlikely to make BNFL any more popular, but this promise would probably have been kept secret. The government's official position, given by Helen Liddell, the trade and industry minister, is that BNFL got the contract because of its expertise in clearing up nuclear waste and decommissioning.

The scheme to develop new nuclear weapons has not been announced by the government, which is under pressure to reduce weaponry under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Also among the papers is the programme "to ensure safe, secure and reliable stockpile" of nuclear weapons by next month.

The work plan details the need for new partnerships with universities and secondment and swaps of staff with French and American nuclear weapons laboratories.

The plan also involves assessing the skills of Aldermaston employees to make sure enough experts are retained who are capable of designing new nuclear weapons.

The documents make it clear that Aldermaston is still dismantling warheads from the now defunct Polaris fleet and hopes to develop a plan for dealing with them by next month.

The government's plans to save money on nuclear weapons partly involve cutting the workforce at Aldermaston and Burghfield by 1,400 from 4,500. This has included a plan for closing Burghfield, where the nuclear warheads manufactured at Aldermaston are put together with high explosive to make sure that they blow up correctly on reaching their targets.

Originally the two sites were kept nine miles apart because of the fears of what may go wrong in an accident, but now it has been decided to do the packing at Aldermaston. The work plan says this is supposed to happen in March 2001. This gives time for all the facilities, including safety devices, to be replicated at Aldermaston.
 
THIRD LAPTOP IS STOLEN

Vanished ... a laptop like this has been stolen from an Army officer

EXCLUSIVE

By JOHN KAY

A SENIOR Army officer has had a laptop computer stolen from under his nose - the THIRD theft of sensitive files in a month.

The £50,000-a-year lieutenant colonel fell victim to an opportunist thief at Heathrow Airport.

Military top brass admitted last night the incident was "incredibly embarrassing".

And they said that the soldier was facing an internal disciplinary probe. The robbery followed the loss of two security service laptops - one from an MI5 agent at a London Tube station and one from a drunken MI6 officer.

After those thefts were revealed exclusively by The Sun, all Government departments were ordered to tighten precautions against crooks out to snatch computers.

The Army laptop was pinched in almost exactly the same way as the MI5 man lost his.

The lieutenant colonel - attached to the personal services section of the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall - was at Heathrow to catch a flight to America on official business. He put the £2,000 laptop between his feet as he queued at the Terminal Three check-in on Monday. In a flash, a thief grabbed the machine and fled.

The computer contains confidential information about Army pay rates and pensions.

Target area ... officer was robbed in Heathrow Airport queue

The files are encrypted with a code which military chiefs believe cannot be broken. And they insisted the computer did not contain classified material.

"It appears to be an opportunist thief. But passengers queuing at railway stations and airports might now be deliberately targeted."

The MoD said: "The civilian police are investigating the theft."

Keep 'em chained on

THE Sun's military adviser, Major General Ken Perkins, last night blasted the way in which three government computers were allowed to go missing.

He said: "Why don't these people have their laptop chained to one hand when they leave their office?

"At least that wouldn't stop them using their other hand if they wanted to go drinking." The Sun told how a drunken MI6 agent lost his laptop after boozing at a tapas bar near his Thames-side HQ in London on March 3.

The machine was recovered after desperate intelligence chiefs placed a coded advert in the Evening Standard.

On March 4, an MI5 agent's laptop was stolen from between his legs as he waited to buy a Tube ticket at Paddington, West London. It is still missing.
 
If someone snatched a computer bag from between your legs, wouldn't your reaction be to turn around and pounce on the thief? But I suppose that's too "uncivilized" for the UK. Better stiffen up those upper lips, old chaps.
 
Remember, you are not allowed to defend yourself in Britain. So, I'm sure the officer, in due respect for Crown "law", stood there and watched the thief run away. Perhaps a Bobby or two blew a whistle at the thief as well...

[This message has been edited by Dennis Olson (edited April 06, 2000).]
 
"internal disciplinary probe"
Sounds a bit like the old brit navy!

[This message has been edited by jeffer (edited April 06, 2000).]
 
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