Unnecessary and unwanted: a replacement for the Trident missile system
It sounds like a bad 70s science-fiction film, a giant laser, unlike anything else found on Earth, will be used to develop more useable nuclear weapons for deployment in a world already overrun with nuclear warheads that could easily destroy the planet several times over. But this isn't the psychedelic nightmare of a budding film student, it is Tony Blair's latest idea of a legacy for the British people.
The Orion laser which replicates the conditions of a nuclear explosion will be used to develop a new nuclear weapon - very possibly a new generation of smaller, so-called 'battlefield' nuclear weapons that are more likely to be used.
These weapons are being developed to find a way around the public's opposition to using nuclear weapons. If the weapons designers can convince people that they have accomplished the impossible task of making small nuclear weapons that can be used without killing civilians, these nuclear weapons could be used to threaten a state to comply with our wishes and could actually be used in warfare.
As many in the military acknowledge, the idea of a usable nuclear weapon makes no sense. Since the World War II the idea that even conventional bombs can be used without killing civilians has been discredited, and in the nuclear case the enormous blast and radiation makes this utterly impossible.
Such aggressive use of nuclear weapons would surely reignite the global nuclear arms race. A new generation of more 'usable' nuclear weapons will place enormous pressure on other states to modernise their nuclear arsenal or to acquire their own atomic bomb - if they do not already have one.
Yet the government is pushing forward with construction of this laser without public consultation, forcing the country to adopt a new generation of nuclear weapons. The West Berkshire Council planning committee could have asked the government for a public inquiry. This is likely the only point that anyone could have made an objection to the government's new nuclear project. But the council gave planning consent to the project, removing the last bureaucratic obstacle to construction of the laser.
The construction of the laser is part of a £1 billion upgrade of Aldermaston's facilities - the first step in the government's plan to develop new nuclear weapons to replace the UK's current Trident nuclear weapons system.
The development of Aldermaston is described by the Atomic Weapons Establishment as "similar in scale to the Terminal 5 project at Heathrow." The plan involves the hiring of hundreds of new scientists and other staff, increased meetings with US scientists, and the commitment of over a billion pounds to the project during the next three years.
Construction of the laser also undercuts the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty - at a time when both these treaties are in peril. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned that the collapse of these treaties is possible - a development that would lead to the runaway proliferation of nuclear weapons and a new arms race.
Defence Secretary John Reid promised a national debate on whether we should replace Trident, but by building the Orion laser the government will have made the decision already. By proceeding with plans for new nuclear weapons without even asking if we need them, or if the billions they will cost could better be spent on fighting terrorism, New Labour has put the cart before the horse.
The UK government should be reinforcing respect for international law, multilateral treaties and promoting peace and security, not undermining it by breaking our international commitments to disarm our nuclear forces.
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Write to your MP to demand a nation-wide debate on the replacement of the current nuclear weapons system
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