And they call it an "independent" nuclear deterrent

AWE Aldermaston now in US hands
Posted by jossc on 19 December 2008



Trident - costs and 'independence' are both spinning out of control

The management of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, the 'bomb factory' which makes and maintains the UK's nuclear warheads, is now controlled by private US companies following the sale of the government's 33 per cent holding yesterday.

The news, a further nail in the coffin of the flimsy pretence that Britain has an independent nuclear deterent, only came to light in a three line press statement released by BNFL, the state-owned group which officially 'owned' the government's stake.

The government itself made no official announcement, either in Parliament, through the Ministry of Defence, or the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR), which oversaw the sale. Since it still owns the land on which AWE sits, plus a 'golden share' in holding company AWE plc, it thinks that it can maintain the fiction that this development doesn't indicate a further merging of the UK and US weapons programmes.

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/peace/awe-aldermaston-now-us-hands-20081219

The whole argument used for Britain having a separate weapons establishment is that this is required by the [nuclear] non-proliferation treaty, as technology-sharing is not allowed.