Author: Peter

Cargoes of highly radioactive military nuclear materials are being transported along British roads in ageing Ministry of Defence (MoD) trucks which are regularly experiencing breakdowns and safety shortfalls because of delays in arranging for new vehicles to take over their duties.

Papers released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that MoD is continuing to use special High Security Vehicles which are over 20 years old to transport military special nuclear materials to and from the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire, where the UK’s nuclear weapons and fuel for nuclear powered submarines are manufactured, even though the vehicles were scheduled to have been replaced in 2010.

A log of safety incidents provided to Nukewatch by the Ministry of Defence in response to a Freedom of Information request reveals that the vehicles have suffered a series of breakdowns and faults since 2010.

In November 2010 a special nuclear materials convoy was forced to return to AWE Aldermaston after setting out because the clutch of the High Security Vehicle in the convoy kept slipping as a result of “wear and tear”. The convoy set out again later the same day with a replacement truck substituting for the defective vehicle.

On another convoy run in November 2012 the alternator on one of the vehicles failed. The convoy was diverted to a nearby Ministry of Defence establishment for repairs, resulting in a 50 minute delay to the journey.

Other faults were experienced in December 2010 when a tail lift failed to operate, in November 2011 when a vehicle suffered a minor fuel leak while on the road, and in June 2012 when a flat battery required a vehicle to be slave started. Each of the faults resulted in a “minor delay” to convoy journeys.

The problems have occurred despite “comprehensive HSV servicing and maintenance routines” which, according to a monthly status brief on the project to replace the vehicles, are now necessary “to minimise risk of breakdown / malfunction”.

The MoD fleet of two High Security Vehicles for the transport of special nuclear materials consists of two H-registered Seddon Atkinson vehicles which entered into service in 1991.

An assessment undertaken by MoD in 2006 indicated that the vehicles would reach the end of their operating life in 2009 – itself an extension of an out of service date previously estimated as 2003. The assessment stated that the vehicles would become “increasingly unsupportable” if operated beyond 2009.

A year later the MoD’s Nuclear Movements Integrated Project Team decided to adopt a new solution for the transport of special nuclear material containers: shipment on special pallets in another fleet of specialized vehicles built to carry nuclear warheads. The new arrangements were scheduled for “full operating capability” by October 2010, allowing the High Security Vehicles to be withdrawn from service soon afterwards.

The decision to use warhead transporters in the new role was taken despite a warning in the 2006 assessment that “the combined vehicle approach does not provide a practicable solution for a replacement HSV” because of access issues at military bases, practicalities of materials movement timetables, and MoD policy that the two types of convoy should appear different.

Delays in the programme to withdraw the High Security Vehicles from service appear to have resulted from setbacks in the preparation and approval of safety cases required to allow new vehicles designed to carry nuclear warheads to take over the transport of special nuclear material cargoes.

The Ministry of Defence has stated that the out of service date for the High Security Vehicle “depends on a number of factors” and is current;y expected to be “around late 2014 to early 2015”.

The two High Security Vehicles regularly transport special nuclear materials – plutonium, tritium, and highly enriched uranium – and nuclear warhead components between the two Atomic Weapons Establishment sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire. They also transport highly enriched uranium pellets for use in submarine reactor fuel from Aldermaston to a factory operated by Rolls-Royce Marine Power Operations Ltd in Derby where fuel modules for Astute class nuclear powered submarines are manufactured.

The vehicles are also used to deliver radioactive materials and components provided by the USA to Aldermaston from RAF Brize Norton – the airhead to which they are flown across the Atlantic.

Jane Tallents of Nukewatch, which monitors nuclear warhead convoys and campaigns against their risks, said: “It’s very clear that, as a result of bureaucracy and incompetence in the Ministry of Defence, deadly cargoes of highly radioactive materials are being driven round the country in unreliable, antiquated vehicles which cannot be guaranteed to deliver them safely to their destination.

“The military regularly tell the public that their nuclear programmes operate to the highest safety standards, but the evidence here shows that this is far from being the case”.

“Members of the public driving on Britain’s roads are being placed at unnecessary risk because of the irresponsibility of the admirals and civil servants responsible for running the MoD’s nuclear programme properly”.

Brake failures, vehicle breakdowns, false alarms, and map-reading errors are among dozens of safety incidents which have plagued convoys carrying nuclear weapons and military special nuclear materials on Britain’s roads over the last seven years, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

70 individual safety incidents involving the convoy were recorded by the Ministry of Defence over the period between July 2007 to December 2012, according to records provided to Nukewatch by the Ministry following the request. 56 of these were classed as ‘engineering incidents’ and the remaining 14 as ‘operational incidents’.

Convoys of Trident nuclear warheads travel by road several times each year between the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire, where they are manufactured and maintained, and the Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport on Loch Long in the west of Scotland, where they are stored and loaded onto Trident submarines. Special nuclear materials – plutonium, tritium, and highly enriched uranium and components fabricated from these materials for use in the UK’s nuclear weapons and submarine programmes – are also transported less frequently to and from the Atomic Weapons Establishment.

The most visible of the incidents recorded occurred on Monday 25 July 2011, when a convoy command vehicle broke down near Junction 20 of the M6 motorway in Cheshire late in the afternoon.

According to the convoy commander’s report, the vehicle “suffered a sudden and dramatic loss of power and was forced to pull onto the hard shoulder of the motorway together with the rest of the convoy assets”. The convoy pulled onto the hard shoulder of the motorway for repairs “causing a minor obstruction of the near-side lane”. Although the FOI papers state that the fault took just twenty minutes to repair, a post on the ‘Trucknet‘ chat forum by a trucker who witnessed the breakdown observes that two lanes of the motorway were coned off while the repairs were underway, which “caused about 10 miles of queues”.

The cause of the incident “proved to be somewhat of a mystery” because, although a fuel system failure was suspected as having caused the problem, “the vehicle had been filled prior to the operation and there was no sign of leakage”. Following the incident fuel systems across the vehicle fleet were checked and rectified.

In July 2010 a convoy strayed “unintentionally off route” as the result of an error by the escort commander. Stopping the convoy and rejoining the correct route resulted in a delay of 45 minutes to the journey time. Convoys were regularly re-routed or delayed to avoid road traffic accidents, severe weather, or heavy congestion on the route ahead, and on one occasion in March 2012 a convoy was re-routed “due to proximity of low flying” at a MoD establishment.

On another occasion a fuse box failure left the tractor unit of one warhead carrier truck unusable, requiring a spare unit to be used to complete the journey, and on another occasion the spare tractor itself broke down.

Recurring problems with warhead carrier trailer heat monitor alarms, which were triggered four times on false alerts between September 2011 and December 2012, resulted in the alarm system software needing an upgrade, and problems with ageing vehicle location systems on the warhead carriers also required installation of a replacement system.

As well as trucks carrying the warheads themselves, vehicles in the convoy security escort also suffered problems. In June 2012 a convoy was halted to investigate a “suspension system defect” in one of the armoured escort vehicles which accompany the warhead carriers. During the unplanned stop a manhole cover collapsed underneath a second escort vehicle, requiring a vehicle safety check. During a convoy run in January 2012 a gun port flap on a convoy escort vehicle “opened inadvertently”, and during the same operation a “brake fault” was discovered on a fire tender accompanying the convoy.

Jane Tallents of Nukewatch, which monitors nuclear warhead convoys and campaigns against their risks, said: “Some of the safety incidents on the list provided by the Ministry of Defence were relatively serious and, had bad luck caused events to play out in a different way, could have resulted in harm to motorists or the convoy crew or damage to the deadly cargo being carried by the convoy.

“It only takes a moment’s though to see that, far from being a benign ‘insurance policy’ which keeps the public safe, nuclear weapons actually increase the risks that we all face.
“The Ministry of Defence should not be moving nuclear weapons around the country if it can’t guarantee to do so safely.”