The Cumbria and Lancashire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is calling for the end to the MOD transporting nuclear warheads along roads in Cumbria and elsewhere.
The group call for the end to the road transport of the nuclear weapons just as another report emerged that a Ministry of Defence convoy believed to be carrying nuclear warheads was spotted passing Penrith on the M6 at junction 40 on Monday at approximately 5pm.
In 2022 another convoy was filmed by motorists travelling around Kemplay Roundabout and the A66 towards junction 40 having driven across the A66 from the A1 before travelling North on the M6.
The Cumbria and Lancashire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament groups call for the end to the transporting of the nuclear weapons by road comes after the groups four-year battle to get government to release a report about a 2018 emergency exercise involving the convoys.
The report released earlier this year via a freedom of information request about the 2018 exercise, testing emergency responses to a nuclear weapons convoy crashing, exploding and spreading a cloud of radioactive contamination on the M6 at Carlisle was plagued with “errors” and “confusion”, according to reports of official assessments by the Ministry of Defence.
The exercise, codenamed Senator 2018, took place to simulate a “catastrophic” accident on the M6 near Carlisle involving a collision between a northbound nuclear weapons convoy and a southbound lorry imagined in the exercise to have lost control, crossing the central reservation of the M6 between junctions 42 and 43 of the M6 and crashing into a HGV transporting a nuclear warhead Northbound on the M6.
The exercise envisaged that the collision caused the “partial detonation” of conventional high explosive in the nuclear warhead been transported and a fire, which the exercise played out as resulting in a plume of radioactive material carried on an easterly wind towards Carlisle where the public would have been advised to stay indoors to avoid radioactive contamination.
The exercise took place over five days in October of 2018 at the MoD site at Longtown, and included the emergency services, Cumbria County council, other local councils and national government.
The Cumbria and Lancashire CND have said the practice of transporting the nuclear weapons by road if a frightening practice that they want the MOD to end.
The road transport of UK nuclear weapons is the responsibility of the Defence Nuclear Organisation - Warhead Transport Organisation.
The MOD and Defence Nuclear Organisation statements on the transport of nuclear weapons by road states:
The UK’s Nuclear weapons are transported in vehicles called Truck Cargo Heavy Duty. The cargo bodies of these vehicles are designed to provide a high degree of protection to a weapon container and its contents, even in the environments likely to be experienced in a very severe road traffic accident.
The Truck Cargo Heavy Duty’s containing the weapons are moved in a convoy of MOD vehicles with an escort provided by the Ministry of Defence police. The convoy is made up of a highly trained crew, including a first aid team, fire fighters, mechanics to enable roadside repairs and personnel equipped to monitor for radiological hazards.
There has never been an incident or emergency involving Defence Nuclear Material in the UK that has led to, or come anywhere near leading to, the release of radioactive material to the environment like the 2018 exercise simulated.
The MOD has a policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence or absence of nuclear weapons at any particular place or time.
However local Police forces are always notified in advance of a convoy being routed through their area, enabling them to provide advice to the convoy commander about any local traffic problems. Police forces may inform Fire and Rescue Services of the presence of the convoy if it is moving into the vicinity of a Fire and Rescue operation or shortly before it enters their area of responsibility.
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