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US-Britain ‘developing new nuclear weapon’: report
LONDON: Britain has secretly been developing a new nuclear warhead in co-operation with the United States, a British newspaper revealed on Sunday. Work on the weapon has been underway since Prime Minister Tony Blair was re-elected in May last year, The Sunday Times reported, citing an anonymous “senior British source”. The government pushed ahead with the project, while at the same time claiming that no decision had been made on what –– if anything –– would succeed Britain’s current Trident nuclear deterrent, the weekly said. The research is being carried out at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, southern England, according to the report. Scientists want to produce a warhead using proven components to avoid breaching a ban on nuclear testing, according to the newspaper. The Reliable Replacement Warhead is being designed so that it can be tested in a laboratory rather than by detonation. “We’ve got to build something that we can never test and be absolutely confident that, when we use it, it will work,” the senior British source told The Sunday Times. The covert nuclear project will likely upset certain members of the governing Labour Party who oppose any replacement of the Trident programme. Developing a new nuclear weapon would also be a material breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the newspaper said, citing expert advice. - APP
LONDON: Britain has secretly been developing a new nuclear warhead in co-operation with the United States, a British newspaper revealed on Sunday. Work on the weapon has been underway since Prime Minister Tony Blair was re-elected in May last year, The Sunday Times reported, citing an anonymous “senior British source”. The government pushed ahead with the project, while at the same time claiming that no decision had been made on what –– if anything –– would succeed Britain’s current Trident nuclear deterrent, the weekly said. The research is being carried out at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, southern England, according to the report. Scientists want to produce a warhead using proven components to avoid breaching a ban on nuclear testing, according to the newspaper. The Reliable Replacement Warhead is being designed so that it can be tested in a laboratory rather than by detonation. “We’ve got to build something that we can never test and be absolutely confident that, when we use it, it will work,” the senior British source told The Sunday Times. The covert nuclear project will likely upset certain members of the governing Labour Party who oppose any replacement of the Trident programme. Developing a new nuclear weapon would also be a material breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the newspaper said, citing expert advice. - APP
