Letter: Nuclear folly
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: The Government is to be congratulated for its prompt condemnation of the Indian nuclear tests. However the contradictions in our civil nuclear policy are now even more apparent.
While committed by treaty obligations to stopping proliferation, Britain extracts plutonium from spent nuclear fuel and stockpiles it at Sellafield. According to the Royal Society, by 2010 the UK stockpile will exceed 100,000 kilogrammes, approximately two-thirds of the global stockpile. British Nuclear Fuels' "solution" to this obvious security problem is to fabricate plutonium oxide with uranium oxide and create an international market for this MOX fuel. MOX is not a solution. Plutonium can be extracted from MOX fuel assemblies and used to make nuclear weapons. A bomb can be made with just 4 kilos of this most potent nuclear explosive.
The Indian tests show the failure of the dominant approach to controlling nuclear proliferation pursued by the US and UK. This is based on the idea that a large carrot (technical and economic aid) and a big stick (sanctions and military interventions) will stop aspiring nations acquiring nuclear weapons.
The result is folly on a grand scale. We show that we believe nuclear weapons give Great Power status by modernising our nuclear arsenals, yet expect countries with Great Power aspirations not to follow us. We build up the plutonium trade, yet expect this will not lead to nuclear proliferation.
The alternative is to show our commitment to the non-proliferation regime and stop sending contradictory signals. A first step would be to halt our contribution to the trade in highly enriched uranium and plutonium by ending reprocessing at Dounreay and at Sellafield.
DAVID CHAYTOR MP
(Bury North, Lab)
ROSEANNA CUNNINGHAM MP
(Perth, SNP)
CYNOG DAFIS MP
(Ceredigion, Plaid Cymru)
Dr PAD GREEN
Friends of the Earth
DAVE KNIGHT
Chair, CND
Dr DAVID LOWRY
UK Representative, Nuclear Control Institute, Washington DC
MARTIN HEMINGWAY
Chair Nuclear Free Local Authorities
JILL STALLARD
National Secretary, CND Cymru
London N1
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments