Safety latest news
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Skills shortage threatens MoD nuclear programmes
A shortage of skilled nuclear personnel within the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Royal Navy is “the principal threat to the delivery of nuclear safety”, according to an internal MoD report.
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Astute class submarine HMS Ambush damaged in collision off Gibraltar
Image: Weapons being offloaded from HMS Ambush in Gibraltar following the collision. Credit: Gibraltar Chronicle One of the Royal Navy's newest nuclear-powered submarines has been damaged following a collision with a merchant ship during a training exercise in the Mediterranean Sea. Astute class submarine HMS Ambush was forced to return to Gibraltar following […]
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Regulators raise concerns over safety incident and tritium leak at Atomic Weapons Establishment
The Atomic Weapons Establishment “is a safe place, but could be a lot safer”, according to Iain Coucher, the new chief executive of the Establishment.
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Cuts to Ministry of Defence police raise Trident security concerns
Eamon Keating, the chairman of the Defence Police Federation, has warned that cuts to the Ministry of Defence Police could place the security of the UK's Trident nuclear weapons at risk.
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AWE Burghfield placed back in special measures as Aldermaston remains in them for the fourth year running
The Office for Nuclear Regulation has announced that both the Aldermaston and Burghfield Atomic Weapons Establishment sites will require 'enhanced regulatory attention' as a result of failures to improve nuclear safety performance at the two sites.
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Revealed: the 2012 Faslane safety incident which led to radiation exposure for twenty workers
Twenty workers repairing a Trident nuclear weapons submarine at the Faslane naval base received unplanned doses of radiation because of a “prolonged and repeated failure” by Royal Navy personnel according to formerly unpublished documents obtained by Nuclear Information Service. The documents, released under the Freedom of Information Act after a two year wait (available […]
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UK nuclear weapons ‘must be assumed to be vulnerable’ to cyber attack
Britain's nuclear weapons can never be made completely safe from cyber attack, raising “serious questions about the longer-term efficacy of the UK nuclear deterrent”, according to a new report from an international security think tank.
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Overstretched nuclear police force poses risk to security, warns report
Police guarding Britain’s nuclear weapons bases and other sensitive military facilities are so overstretched that officers are forced to work “huge amounts” of overtime to maintain security, a Ministry of Defence report has warned.
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Reactor safety figures for Navy’s Astute class submarines published
Nuclear reactors on board the Royal Navy's Astute class submarines have been involved in over twenty safety-related events over the last year, according to official figures released by the Ministry of Defence.
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MoD side-steps nuclear transport hazard warning regulations
A secret decision to exempt Ministry of Defence nuclear transport arrangements from hazard warning legislation has been revealed as a result of questioning by Members of Parliament.
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Nuclear safety event reported every fortnight at Atomic Weapons Establishment
An official record of nuclear incidents has revealed that over the last three years over eighty safety-related events were reported to government safety inspectors by the factory where Britain's nuclear weapons are designed and built – an average of more than two every month.