Nuclear Information Service

All governments agree that nuclear disarmament will make the world a safer place. What is at issue is how and when it will be achieved. NIS informs the debate and reports on governmental, non-governmental and lobbying groups who seek to further disarmament. The terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty are clear : that the nuclear states must disarm in return for the non-nuclear states’ commitment not to aquire nuclear weapons. But the nuclear states have consistently failed in their part of this bargain. International Humanitarian law is clear : noncombatant citizens have the right to life. The 1996 Judgment of the International Court of Justice also points unequivocally towards disarmament. Thousands of Peace and Justice groups around the world are clear that nuclear weapons do not add to personal, national or international security. NIS is a link between nuclear disarmament research NGOs and grassroots and local groups. Citizen Verification and Citizens Inspections can inform national organisations and the wider public on disarmament progress or otherwise. Grassroots groups that publicise, educate and protest about nuclear weapons are part of the disarmament process.

Flood map for AWE Burghfield. Shaded areas represent areas at significant risk of flooding, where the chance of flooding each year is greater than 1.3% (1 in 75).

events notice

NEW NIS Submission to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY CONSULTATION

Global Security: Non-Proliferation

NIS argues that the risks posed by British nuclear weapons production and road transport of warheads threaten each individual citizen and our way of life. Additionally, the risk of a criticality event at the substandard warhead assembly/disassembly facilities at AWE Burghfield is also unacceptable and unjustifiable.

Read the NIS submission to the FCO.

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MOD Stops Live Nuclear Work at AWE due to preasure from NII over safety risks..
2007 Annual Report released by NIS.
A New Film Exposes Deadly Cargo on British Roads..

White Paper Answers

2007-01-30 00:00

White Paper on the Replacement of Trident 4 December 2007
Answers to Questions posed in the Foreword to the White Paper
Question 1: Why disarmament in the UK would help our security?
Answer: Our security needs are threatened by climate change, unsustainable increasing energy needs, potential pandemics, HIV/Aids, global poverty, the competition for basic resources and the growing gap between rich and poor internationally and domestically. None of these threats are addressed by nuclear weapons but the resources released by disarmament could be available to directly tackle them.
Question 2: How to change the minds of hardliners and extremists in countries that are developing these nuclear capabilities?
Answer: Not by threatening to attack them with nuclear weapons but by recognising that responsible governments must seek to lower international tensions not escalate them. Nuclear disarmament is the only action that will remove the justification for countries to waste $billions to develop, produce and maintain such weapons. This cannot be proved, as demanded, any more than the corollary, that replacing Trident will cause hardliners and extremists to desist from using them should they succeed in developing or acquiring nuclear weapons.
Question 3: Would terrorists be less likely to conspire against us with hostile governments because we give up nuclear weapons?
Answer: No. Nuclear weapons are irrelevant to terrorists. Nuclear weapons based in the UK are the easier target and pose a real risk of terrorist attack that should be eliminated if we are serious about the security of citizens in the UK.
Question 4: Would we be safer by giving up nuclear weapons?
Answer: Yes we would be safer by not being a potential threat of starting a nuclear war.
Question 5: Would our capacity to act be constrained by nuclear blackmailers?
Answer: At present Britain is a nuclear blackmailer, but Trident does not constrain any current identifiable threat. If Britain were to so antagonise a nuclear state in the distant future, that a nuclear attack was threatened, our best defence would be to negotiate and listen to their grievance rather than to threaten to join in any nuclear exchange.