AWE denies that proposed new bomb-assembly complex to replace aging "gravel gert

18th December 2008
By Liam Sloan
Newbury Today
 

PLANS for a new bomb-making facility at the Atomic Weapons Establishment's Burghfield plant have been submitted to the district council.

If approved, the final assembly of nuclear warheads ready to be installed in Britain's Trident submarines will be moved to a new complex to replace the Cold War "gravel gertie" bunkers hit by floods last July.

AWE bosses insist that the replacement facility, named Project Mensa, will be built on higher ground on a different part of the site safe from flooding.

And the new design will be a "state of the art" new facility, very different from the 50-year-old gravel gerties, designed to let tonnes of gravel smother any potential explosion to stop a radioactive cloud spreading over the local area.

AWE would not give any details of the design of the new facilities. But anti-nuke campaigner Di McDonald, of the Nuclear Information Service said that she feared that global warming would lead to floods across the Burghfield site.

The risk of disaster was high enough to warrant a full public inquiry into the application, she said.

"Obviously, the MoD and AWE want to give a good gloss on what happened in the 2007 floods, but a it was very, very serious," she said.

"Unfortunately all the predictions, even the best case scenario, of climate change is not good. Now they're building something to last 50 years. In that time, it's going to be flooded. How many times, with what outcomes, we don't know."

But AWE spokesman Alan Price said: "Since July 2007, extensive work has been undertaken to improve protection at AWE Burghfield. However, the area of the site on which the Mensa facility will be constructed is not vulnerable to flooding, even at the level of the most extreme events."

An Environment Agency briefing note about Project Mensa says: "If Government policy requires nuclear warheads to be manufactured and assembled then we want to see this work take place in modern facilities that can provide the best protection for the environment and the public.

"We will need to be reassured that the proposed development is not in an area of flood risk and does not increase flood risk for others."

The agency is already working with AWE to ensure designs meet the highest environmental standards, it says.

And district councillor Geoff Findlay (Con, Cold Ash), who sits on the local liaison committee between the local residents and AWE bosses, said that he was confident there was no risk at all from the proposed development

He said: "Whatever measures are necessary to put in place to make it 100 per cent protected will be there. In 2007, they reacted to some minor local flooding. The integrity of building was never in any doubt.

"I have no worries at all about it, quite honestly. The safety standards are extremely high at AWE, and the HSE and Environment Agency regularly crawl all over that site as well as the nuclear inspectors.

"I get back feedback very regularly, and there is no cause for public concern at all. If there was, I would be jumping up and down about it."

If the facility is given planning permission, building work on the 130 metre by 112 metre Mensa facility would start in 2009, employing some 700 people. The facility would be commissioned during 2014 and 2015, but no new jobs would be created at AWE.

 
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