By IRNA,
London : The annual expenditure for capital and running costs of Britain’s nuclear weapons has escalated by in real terms by more than 20 percent in the past two years, according to the latest official figures.
Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth said that the Ministry of Defence had spending on the UK nuclear deterrent programme, including the government’s Atomic Weapons Establishment, rose to Pnds 1.7 billion (Dlrs 3.4 bn) in the last year.
This compared with Pnds 1.6 bn in 2006-07 but from Pnds 1.3 bn in the previous year, Ainsworth disclosed in a written parliamentary answer published Wednesday.
His figures, all quoted in terms 2008-09 prices, showed that the previous cost from 1998 up to 2005 always varied between Pnds 1.1 bn and Pnds 1.2 bn.
The sudden increase coincides with Britain planning to upgrade the country’s submarine-based Trident nuclear deterrent despite criticisms that it is in breach of the UK’s commitment to disarm under the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Ainsworth revealed in April that the number of staff employed at Britain’s nuclear arms plant had increased by almost one-third in the past.
His figures showed an increase from 3,640 staff employed at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston and adjacent Burghfield in southern England in 2005 to over 4,600 this year.
In addition, some 2,000 staff were employed by contractors.
A decision to replace Trident was only formally approved by the government last year, but anti-war campaigners have raised questions about advance work being carried out at the plants.
Under Article IV of the NPT, the UK is committed to work towards eliminating its nuclear weapons capability along with the other four permanent members of the UN Secretary Council, the US, Russia, France and China.
The British government has maintained that it will reduce its nuclear arsenal to “160 operationally available warheads,” but it has yet to decide what new warheads will be developed.