Secret UK Uranium Plant Shutdown over Safety Fears

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A top-secret plant at Aldermaston that makes enriched uranium components for Britain's nuclear warheads and fuel for the Royal Navy's submarines has been shut down because corrosion has been discovered in its "structural steelwork", the Guardian can reveal.

The closure has been endorsed by safety regulators who feared the building did not conform to the appropriate standards. The nuclear safety watchdog demands that such critical buildings are capable of withstanding "extreme weather and seismic events", and the plant at Aldermaston failed this test.

It has set a deadline of the end of the year for the problems to be fixed.

Although the closed plant has not been officially named for national security reasons, the Guardian understands it is known as A45. It makes enriched uranium components for Trident nuclear warheads and has recently been helping to make the uranium fuel for the Astute generation of nuclear-powered submarines.

The Ministry of Defence insisted it had contingency plans to cover the loss of the plant, but prolonged closure could force the government to buy materials from the US to ensure there is no disruption to Britain's nuclear weapons programme.

The government's safety watchdog, the Office for Nuclear Regulation has taken legal enforcement action against AWE, the private consortium that runs the nuclear weapons complex at Aldermaston, Berkshire, ordering that the corroded steel be repaired.

Though the corrosion was first found last May and the enforcement notice served in November, the information only emerged via an ONR newsletter published online in the past few days. This has prompted critics to accuse AWE of not being forthcoming about a problem it detected eight months ago.

The ONR confirmed that inspections by AWE "discovered an unexpected area of corrosion on structural steelwork in one of their manufacturing facilities at Aldermaston".

The ONR launched an investigation that concluded AWE had breached a condition of its operating licence meant to ensure safe operation. "AWE had not fully complied with licence condition 28(1) in so far as its arrangements to examine, maintain and inspect the structure were not adequate to prevent the degradation of the structure, and the resulting challenge to its nuclear safety functions," said an ONR spokesman.

AWE is run for the Ministry of Defence by a group of three private companies: Lockheed Martin and Jacobs Engineering Group from the US and the British company Serco. It provides and maintains the nuclear warheads for Trident missiles carried by four Vanguard-class submarines based on the Clyde near Glasgow.

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Security of Pak Nukes beyond American Fabricated Report

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Overtly, US high officials state that they seek stability in Pakistan, but covertly, they continue to destabilise this country through multi-faceted subversive activities of the American CIA, Indian RAW and Israeli Mossad. With the assistance of these secret agencies, Indo-Israeli lobbies which are working in Europe, and especially, penetrated in the US administration including their media manipulate any major terror event of Pakistan in order to show to the international community that this country’s nuclear weapons are not safe as militants can possess them.

Although recent terrorists’ assault on Kamra Base was successfully foiled by the personnel of Pakistan Air Force, yet a baseless report, published in the New York Times on the same day said that suspected militants attacked a major Pakistani Air Force base where some of the country’s nuclear weapons were considered to be stored in the early hours of the militants’ attack. The report also presumed, “The base is part of Pakistan s nuclear stockpile, estimated to include at least 100 warheads.”

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta also stated on the same day, “There is a danger of nuclear weapons of Pakistan, falling into hands of terrorists.” Notably when militants had attacked on Pakistan’s Naval Airbase in Karachi on May 23, 2011, US-led some western countries including India and Israel, while exploiting the situation had accelerated their campaign against the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. Particularly, on May 25, last year, Indian Defence Minister AK Antony misperceived that India was concerned about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal after a group of terrorists laid siege to a heavily guarded naval air base.” He explained, “Naturally it is a concern not only for us but for everybody.”

In fact, US and other hostile countries which feel jealousy in relation to Pakistan’s atomic assets, should better have concerns about India’s nuclear weapons which are quite insecure.Indian past record proves various kinds of  security lapses regarding various nuclear plants and the related sensitive materials.

In July 1998, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seized eight Kg. of nuclear material from three engineers in Chennai. It was reported that the uranium was stolen from an atomic research center. On November 7, 2000, International Atomic Agency (IAEA) disclosed that Indian police had seized 57 pounds of uranium and arrested two men for illicit trafficking of radioactive material. IAEA had revealed that Indian civil nuclear facilities were vulnerable to thefts.

On January 26, 2003, CNN pointed out that Indian company, NEC Engineers Private Ltd. shipped 10 consignments to Iraq, containing highly sensitive equipments entailing titanium vessels and centrifugal pumps. In February 2004, India’s Ambassador to Libya, Dinkar Srivastava disclosed that New Delhi was investigating that retired Indian scientists could possibly be engaged in “high technology programs” for financial gains during employment in the Libyan government.

In December 2005, US imposed sanctions on two Indian firms for selling missile goods and chemical arms material to Iran in violation of India’s commitment to prevent proliferation. In the same year, Indian scientists, Dr. Surendar and Y. S. R Prasad had been blacklisted by Washington due to their involvement in nuclear theft.

In December 2006, a container packed with radioactive material had been stolen from an Indian fortified research atomic facility near Mumbai. In June 2009, India’s nuclear scientist, Lokanathan Mahalingam missed from the scenario and after a couple of days; his dead body was recovered from the Kali River. Indian police concocted a story that Mahalingam had committed suicide by jumping into the river. It is a big joke to hide some real facts behind his death because wisdom proves that if an educated person decides to commit suicide, he will definitely adopt a soft way to eliminate his life. Afterwards, Dr. Haleema Saadia said that death of the scientist is a conspiracy.

However, events of nuclear theft, smuggling and killing have become a regular feature of Indian atomic plants which still continue in one or the other way.
It is regrettable that by setting aside the Indian irresponsible record of proliferation, the US signed defence agreement with India on July 20, 2009 as part of the deal about civil nuclear technology, agreed upon by the two countries in 2008.

Thus, New Delhi is officially allowed to obtain the US sophisticated arms and nuclear weapons for its armed forces. In this regard, America had also pressurised IAEA to sign an accord of specific safeguards with India. It permits New Delhi a broad atomic cooperation, while superseding the IAEA in relation to transfer of nuclear equipments and technologies. These arrangements also entail enrichment and reprocessing items under the so-called cover of IAEA. For this purpose, Washington also contacted the Nuclear Suppliers Group in order to grant a waiver to India for starting civil nuclear trade on larger scale, while New Delhi has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). And India has already been getting nuclear material and arms of all kinds from Israel, Russia, and other European countries.

It is mentionable that while acting upon their unilateral approach, US-led west is displaying pin-drop silence over the continued wave of separatism and insurgency in India’s more than seven states including terror acts at other places. In case of Maoist insurgency, it has increased to a greater extent. On September 21, 2009, even Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had admitted that the Maoist “insurgency is the single biggest threat to India’s security.

On the other side, despite the repeated assurances of Pakistan’s military and civil leadership that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are well-protected and are under tight security arrangements, having well-coordinated command and control system, a deliberate propaganda campaign against the safety of these weapons keeps on going particularly by the US and India. Besides, some European countries also make much hue and cry regarding the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear assets by ignoring Indian illegal proliferation. It indicates their double standards in the Sub-continent. Nonetheless, Pak ‘nukes’ are more secure than those of India.

By Sajjad Shaukat
He writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

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Yoam-e-Takbeer: The resolve continues!

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This day, fourteen year ago, emotionally charged voices of the team of nuclear scientists’ conducting the nuclear test in Chagi chanted ‘Naara-e- Takbeer, Allah-o- Akbar’. This was a declaration that hence forth Pakistan is a declared nuclear weapon capable state. Resource starved Pakistan had no ambition to go nuclear, but was compelled to do so.

India exploded its first nuclear device in 1974 under the guise of ‘Peaceful Nuclear Explosion. Thenceforth, India was a defacto nuclear power. Explosion was made possible through illegitimate diversion of fissile material from a civilian nuclear power plant provided to India by Canada. Event occurred shortly after the fall of Dhaka. It triggered survival instinct amongst the strategist community of Pakistan. Already faced with India’s overwhelming conventional military superiority, Pakistan was indeed pushed against the wall, left with no other choice but to develop a matching nuclear deterrent to ward off future Indian threats. Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared: “Pakistanis will eat grass but make a nuclear bomb”. Pakistan’s need for nuclearization was essentially security driven. Nation joyfully ate grass, and gleefully made the bomb.

Possession of nuclear weapons served the intended purpose; India has ever since been kept at bay despite temptations for military adventurism. Western attitude towards Pakistan’s nuclear programme was out rightly discriminatory; it attached religious shade to Pakistan’s bomb by calling it an ‘Islamic bomb’. Earlier, one had never heard of a Christian, a Communist, a Jewish or a Hindu bomb. The approach was myopic; rhetoric was a smoke screen to portray Islam as a synonym of aggression and mobilize support from vested interests to demonize Pakistan’s legitimate necessity. And then came the God-sent opportunity.

On 11 May 1998, Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee stunned the world by announcing that India had conducted three nuclear tests. Two days later, two additional tests were carried out. Dr. Samar Mubarakmand gave a technical assessment of India’s tests on behalf of the PAEC. He opined that there had been only one successful test on 11 May, and if a thermonuclear device had been fired then it had been a failure. Assessment was resoundingly accurate; India nuclear fraternity has conceded the reality after a decade.

On 28 May 1998, at 3:16 pm Pakistan conducted its first nuclear test. The time has been termed as “Pakistan’s Finest Hour”. Moments between 11 to 28 May witnessed interesting events. Prime Minister of that time, Mian Nawaz Sharif, recently narrated that during this period he consulted almost everybody for opinion and in the process when he sought Mr Majid Nizami’s views, the reply he received was stunning for him. Mr Majid Nizami had told him point blank that if he did not go ahead for a matching response, the people of Pakistan would shred him into mince. Former PM Benazir Bhutto advocated not only an immediate nuclear test by Pakistan, but also asserted that India should be disarmed by a preemptive attack. On 18 May 1998, the Chairman of the PAEC was given a go ahead. “Dhamaka kar dein” (Conduct the explosion) were the exact words used by the Prime Minister to inform him of the decision.

During this period Indian approach was mixed with arrogance, confusion and foolhardiness. At one time there arose a high probability of Indian air strikes over Chagi to destroy the site prior to test. Pakistan Air Force (PAF) reacted with lightening speed and created a protective umbrella over the test site. Dr Samar Mubarakmand, who was the team leader at the testing site, once narrated that while the PAF was in the process of doing its rapid deployments, the then Air Chief’s request was conveyed to him that the scientists should suspend the preparations for a couple of hours and vacate the test site for their personal safety till the PAF’s protective air cover was effectively in place. The entire team unanimously declined to leave the site and volunteered to continue the preparations.

They indeed deserve national salute for their courage. The extreme tension prevailing at the time of the tests is confirmed by the fact that five hours after prime Minister’s announcement of the tests, Pakistan summoned the Indian high commissioner to the foreign office and informed him that “credible information” had been received that an attack was to be mounted before dawn on Pakistan’s nuclear installations by India, and that “swift and massive retaliation” would result. The ambassador was asked to convey to New Delhi that Islamabad “expected the Indian government to desist from any irresponsible act.”

Excerpts from Prime Minister’s speech on 28 May 1998 amply explain the circumstances leading to Pakistan’s nuclearization.

He said: “Pakistan today successfully conducted five nuclear tests…I congratulate all Pakistani scientists, engineers and technicians for their dedicated team work and expertise in mastering complex and advanced technologies…Our security, and the peace and stability of the entire region, was gravely threatened. As any self-respecting nation, we had no choice left for us. Our hand was forced by the present Indian leadership’s reckless actions. We could not ignore the magnitude of the threat… Our decision to exercise the nuclear option has been taken in the interest of national self-defence… “

American led lobby has not yet reconciled with Pakistan’s nuclear status. Pakistan continues to face nuclear apartheid. America has signed Agreement 123 with India and has opened the flood gates of fissile material for India while it continues to pressure Pakistan to sign a Fissile Material Treaty that would freeze strategic asymmetry to Pakistan’s peril. Post 9/11 setting has provided yet another channel for Indo-Israeli-US nexus to malign Pakistan’s strategic assets. This time the strategy is to project the possibility of Pakistan’s nuclear assets falling in the hands of terrorists. Suggestions are often aired that Pakistan is at risk of succumbing to extremists, therefore, its nuclear assets should be disabled, seized or forcibly taken out.

The struggle is not yet over. However, as ever before, the nation stands united to defend its nuclear assets at all cost. Pakistan has made it clear that it would act decisively against any attempt by any quarter to harm its nuclear assets.


By Air Cdre Khalid Iqbal (R)

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Indian NUDE Nuclear Arsenal - A matter of 'MORE' CONCERN than Pakistan's Nukes

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Seems like the Zionist Barbaric state of India has been obsessed to her very beloved neighbor ever since her creation. Time and again India keeps raising "serious concerns" over several matters pertaining to Pakistan on official level and keep declaring Pakistan as a threat to her existence whereas on the other hand the very hollow claims  of "Aman Ki Asha" run rampant and echo loud when it comes to Hindi dancing.

The back stabber India has just recently questioned Pakistan's ability to secure its nuclear assets from terrorists (again). Indians have been expressing paranoia over “inside threats” that Pakistan’s nuclear facilities face for almost the past 2 years now. But in reality the facts happen to be the other way round.

One argument that the Indians (along with the Americans) give is that if OBL can hide so close to the Pakistan Military Academy, then his men can also get close to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. However, they are yet to prove the presence of Osama Bin Laden anywhere around PMA or even Abbotabad and give concrete evidence of his killing for the 8th time since the last decade.

This so called claim of concern over Pakistani nuclear arsenal only reflects the hypocrisy of India. The truth is that since the existence of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, there has not been a single incident of successful theft or penetration inside the nuclear facility by the foreign elements. Whereas in India, there have been more than a hundred recorded cases of uranium theft.

Many Indian nuclear scientists were found having contacts with the Naxal insurgency; an insurgency which has been active in India longer than the TTP in Pakistan. There are reports that most top Indian nuclear facilities are located in areas which come inside the “Red Corridor”. The Red Corridor is an area in India that has been labeled unsafe and ungovernable because of it being under heavy influence of insurgencies and rebels. According  to the “Red Corridor” map, there are some 51 districts that are very badly hit by the rebels while the total number of rebel struck districts remains around 164, ranging from Dehradhun to Kerala. The following  are a few nuclear facilities located in Naxal affected areas of Andra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal:

• Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research(AMD),

• Ceramatic Fuel Fabrication Facility(CFFF),

• Electronics Corporation of India Limited(ECIL),

• Mishra Dhalu Nigam Limited(MIDHANI)

• National Centre for Compositional Characterization of Materials(NCCCM)

• New Zirconium Sponge Plant(New ZSP)

• Nuclear Fuel Complex(NFC),

• Special Materials Plant,

• Uranium Fuel Assembly Plant and Zirconium Fabrication Plant

• Seha Institute of Nuclear Physics and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre(VECC)

Not only this, but there are many other nuclear related facilities that are located in areas which come under immense and direct influence of Hindu extremist groups like Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal, who are known for their hard line policies against the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It should be noted that these groups are fully capable of penetrating in the Indian nuclear facilities.

The storage sight for Prithvi 1- Ballistic Missile is located in the troubled and disputed area of Jammu, where Muslim insurgents have been fighting for separation, and engaging with the Indian Army for a long time. It should also be critically noted that around 90% of the Red Corridor areas are just a "No Go Zone" for the Indian troops and Air Force. Not only this, but the Naxal occupied "Red Corridor" area inhabitants are hostile towards the Indian Armed Forces and continue carrying out assassinations against the Indian armed personnel time and again. 

The Daily Mail constituted a team of freelance reporters and photographers, based in different parts of India and embarked them on the investigative mission under the command of their  Delhi Bureau Chief Christina Palmer. The team was given the test task of exploring the state of affairs at Jharkand which is considered to be hub of India’s nuclear energy programme. What they discovered was as follows:

EAST Singhbhum district in Jharkhand, bordering West Bengal and Orissa, is the capital of India’s nuclear energy programme. It is rich in uranium that is mined by the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) and converted later into nuclear fuel for the reactors. East Singhbhum is also rich in Naxalites who are active in the area and well aware of the mines that produce uranium. Little to no security separates the uranium ore or the processed yellowcake from the Naxalites, who are currently extending their control, with the local administration officials admitting that it is just a matter of time before they strike the mines.

According to Superintendent of police Navin Kumar Singh, “This district is on the list of Naxalite-affected areas. They are making full efforts to gain control over the Jadugoda region. They already have a very strong presence in the adjoining areas of Potka, Dumaria, Dalbhumgarh and Ghatshila.”

The raw uranium from the mines is processed by the UCIL in Jadugoda, a small town located at a distance of 30 km from district headquarters Jamshedpur. This entire region is India’s only source of natural uranium to feed the country’s heavy-water nuclear reactors. According to local officials, of India’s annual requirement of 300 tonnes of yellowcake, at present, UCIL in East Singhbhum produces 220 tonnes. Massive expansion is underway in the area to increase the production to the required 300 tonnes.

East Singhbhum has seven uranium mines and two processing mills that function under the UCIL. The UCIL campus serves as the headquarters for the mines, and itself has a processing unit and the oldest mines in the region. The Bhatin and Narwapahar mines are 2 km and 10 km respectively from Jadugoda. Turamdih, which has a mine as well as a processing mill, is 20 km from Jadugoda. The Mohuldih and Banduhurang mines are 5 km away from Turamdih. Bagjata is around 30 km from Jadugoda.

In the words of India’s widely circulated fortnightly magazine The Covert’s correspondent Appu Esthose Suresh “This correspondent travelled on the same route used to ferry uranium ore from the mines to the processing plants in Jadugoda and Turamdih. The absence of policemen along the entire route was striking. There was not a single police picket or post. In Jharia, on the way from Narwapahar to Jadugoda, a large warehouse that is used to store explosives had no guard worth the name. This so-called restricted area located on a small hilltop and surrounded by mountains and dense forests, is guarded by just four policemen in two bunkers. The sole watchtower at the warehouse did not have a single guard on duty. This scribe visited the sport several times on different days, but the watchtower remained vacant, always. This road is routinely used by the trucks that transport uranium ore mined at Narwapahar and Bhatin to the UCIL mill at Jadugoda, and is therefore a vital link to the mines”. [1]

The investigation team further learnt that the radiation was a big problem in the area, yet it was unaddressed by the government. According to their findings, on Aug. 16, 2008, a new tailing pipeline burst near Jaduguda caused a uranium mill tailing spill that reached nearby homes and caused serious hazards for the human and the wild life.

Recently a rumor cum very possible news had been running rampant that on 15th March, an Indian nuclear scientist lost his laptop which had critical data of the Indian nuclear program. The scientist lost the laptop in a train, and he worked for Kaiga atomic power plant in Karnataka, India. This is the height of the safety of the Indian Nuclear Arsenal and the critical data related to the Nuclear safety.

As mentioned before, there hasn’t been a single incident that would create any doubt about the security arrangement for the nuclear installations. It is obvious that these “concerns” that India and US raise through their media are all part of the propaganda to eventually destabilize and denuclearize Pakistan to secure the existence of Israel.

Through covert agents like Raymond Davis, CIA has tried to penetrate in Pakistani nuclear installations to get hold of uranium, which can then be used for false flag attacks that can be blamed on Pakistan. And after blaming Pakistan for these attacks, the US can come in, and “rescue the world” from “nuclear terrorism”. However, the CIA has always faced defeat at the hands of ISI in such operations. More over it should be critically mentioned that the attack on PNS Mehran to which Indians have made the argument of concern was plainly US/India sponsored terrorism against the armed forces of Pakistan.

Their prime agenda for exploiting the Pakistani nuclear program is plain and simple. In fact it is the very first step through which they want to disintegrate Pakistan into tiny pieces based on the Yugoslavia doctrine. They aim at ridiculing and creating a hype over the defense arsenals owned by Pakistan, telling blatant lies to the masses that the Pakistani nukes are unsafe. They would then enter as the "savior of  humanity" and "de-nuclearize" Pakistan for the betterment of the entire humanity. This is exactly what they did with Iraq and later on after destructing Iraq into pieces filled with blood of innocent Iraqis, they came to discover that there were NO "weapons of mass destruction" in reality!

The serious 'concerns' that the extreme hostile and treacherous neighbor keeps raising, should not make her eyes shut down from her own 'concerns' which are far more valid, more vulnerable and more hazardous to her own self rather than the concerns of Pakistan. Time and again India's nuclear safety has caused serious issues for the state itself, yet alone the entire humanity. The barbaric Zionist ruling elite of India should either take assistance from the master Tel Aviv in this regard too or either simply restrain herself to  moronic dances of Bollywood as handling nuclear arsenal is not a few steps of gayish dancing.

[1] Report by Makhdoom Babar in Islamabad & Christina Palmer in New Delhi

Compiled by: Danyal Khan and Xharaf Vsm

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