Nuclear Information Service report on nuclear weapons accidents

‘Playing With Fire: Nuclear Weapons Incidents & Accidents in the UK’ is a new report by the Nuclear Information Service that discusses the accident record of the UK’s nuclear weapons programme over its 65 year history, looking across the full scope of the programme and describing the most significant incidents in detail. It includes 22 incidents that have taken place during the road transport of nuclear weapons, including vehicles overturning, road traffic accidents, and breakdowns. For more information and to download the full report see here.

NIS has also released a video telling the story of one of the case studies in the report. This is the story of when a truck containing two nuclear warheads skidded off an icy road and overturned, told by people who were there at the time and featuring news footage from the following day.

Nukewatch Policy

We think that it is very important that Nukewatch continues to monitor the safety of UK nuclear warhead convoys, and that convoy dangers are highlighted to the general public and those along its routes.

But we think it’s important that Nukewatch does not add to the risks associated with these convoys so we do not publish detailed technical information which might conceivably result in harm to a convoy. We advise trusted members of our own network in advance about convoy movements but do not broadcast information about convoy locations when it is on the road using social media or via the internet in ‘real time’, although we may do so later on the same day.