Nuclear firm passes to US control

Ian Johnston
The Guardian, Saturday 20 December 2008

British control of the plant where the UK's nuclear warheads are produced has been relinquished, with the sale of a third stake in the Aldermaston facility to an American company.
Opposition politicians voiced concern that the manufacture of warheads for the Trident weapons system and its planned replacement would now be out of British hands after California-based Jacobs Engineering bought British Nuclear Fuels' stake in AWE Management, which runs the Berkshire site, for an undisclosed fee. The other two shares in AWE are owned by US defence giant Lockheed Martin and the British firm Serco
Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said: "The whole argument used for Britain having a ­separate weapons establishment is that this is required by the non-proliferation treaty, as technology sharing is not allowed. We must therefore query the rationale of a US company having a majority shareholding in AWE. How does this all square?"
Gerald Howarth, the Tory defence spokesman, called on ministers to explain the move, adding: "The Atomic ­Weapons Establishment is critical to Britain's nuclear deterrent capability."
But the Ministry of Defence said the "safe operation of AWE" would remain unaffected by the sale. "It is the UK government, not AWE, that sets the UK's nuclear policy," it said.