A road accident involving a nuclear weapons convoy vehicle risks “flattening” large parts of Scotland and killing thousands of people, an SNP MP has claimed. Owen Thompson told the House of Commons that nuclear convoys frequently travel through his constituency of Midlothian and he said they pose “more of a risk” to people in the UK than terrorism. Nuclear warheads are transported on UK roads around once every two months between nuclear bases in Scotland to arms factories in Berkshire for general maintenance. The MP has called on the Ministry of Defence to bring an end to convoys in residential areas or risk a nuclear disaster which could see a “substantial loss of life”. However, an expert in nuclear security, Dr Robert Downes, told BuzzFeed News the risk of the kind of accident Thompson is fearful of is so small that it’s “hardly worth considering” and that only the “extremely unlikely” event of an aircraft crashing into a convoy could potentially set off a warhead.
Buzzfeed 20th Jan 2016 read more »
Edinburgh Evening News 20th Jan 2016 read more »