Nuclear weapons crime in the UK has been reported to Thames Valley Police.
The lay person’s guide to REPPIR (Radiation Emergency Preparedness and Public Information Regulations), relating to AWE Aldermaston and Burghfield
The principal radioactive materials utilised in the current design of UK nuclear warheads
are Plutonium-239 (Pu-239) and highly enriched Uranium-235 (HEU-235).
A single nuclear weapon produced by AWE is reckoned to contain several kilograms of Pu-239. At
any time some part of the UK’s unsafeguarded stockpile of around 3.5 tonnes of weaponsgrade
Pu-239 will be held on the Aldermaston/Burghfield sites either in storage, undergoing
processing, and/or in the fissile pits of the tens of nuclear warheads being dismantled, assembled
or refurbished at any one time.
Current nuclear warhead designs incorporate about 10 to 20kg of highly enriched uranium (HEU). Most designs also have a tritium/deuterium booster with a few grams of radioactive tritium, and also include non-radioactive but highly toxic materials such as beryllium.
Release of just a fraction of the fissile materials of a single nuclear warhead would be more than
sufficient to trigger a REPPIR defined Radiation Emergency.
Read or download full PDF guide to REPPIR
