By IRNA,
London : More than 30 people have been arrested during one of the biggest anti-nuclear protests at Britain’s Atomic Weapons Establishment for 10 years.
The protests, at Aldermaston, south England, was directed against the government’s controversial decision to upgrade the country’s nuclear missiles in defiance of the UK commitment to disarm under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The gates of the site, which develops nuclear warheads, were blocked by hundreds of campaigners at the start of UN World Disarmament Week on Monday in an attempt to halt work at the weapons factory.
“The government does not seem to take notice of anything else other than direct action,” said Daniel Viesnik, spokesman for Trident Ploughshare, organizing the protest said.
“We are opposed to the development of a new generation of warheads and protesters feel more extreme measures like [these on Monday] have to be used to get attention,” Viesnik said.
Trident Ploughshares, which pledges to disarm the UK Trident nuclear weapons system in a non-violent, open, peaceful, safe and fully accountable manner, warned that new bombs being built “will scupper nuclear disarmament for another 50 years.”
The British government is planning to spend nearly Pnds 6 billion on Aldermaston over the next three years, but insists that although the submarine-based Trident missile system is being replaced, no decision has yet been made to develop new nuclear warheads.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), said the protest entitled ‘The Big Blockade’ also highlighted the “shocking implications” of last year’s floods that caused work to be suspended at the nuclear arms plants.
Alarm systems were knocked out by the flooding and despite being ‘within 2 to 3 hours’ of potentially radioactive water being released into the Berkshire countryside, no site emergency was declared, CND warned.
CND chair Kate Hudson described the biggest blockade of the plant in more than a decade as a “great success,” showing a “renewed commitment that Britain’s security should be based on peace and justice, not war and nukes.”
“At a time of economic crisis, our government is prioritizing nuclear bombs over healthcare, job creation and investment in sustainable energy production,” Hudson said.
“The majority of British taxpayers do not want their money sent on Trident replacement and the new generation of nuclear weapons that will be made here at Aldermaston,” she said.