Much is said about the fact that Trident is based 25 miles from Glasgow and most worst case scenarios use this distance to determine the blast zone and how many people would instantly die. What this analysis always fails to think about is geography. Let’s look at this map of the Gare Loch, Greenock and Glasgow. These WMD must sail down the Gare Loch towards Greenock and Glasgow. At its shortest point, this puts these WMD’s that the MOD say are too dangerous for England because 11’000 English people may die in the event of a worst case scenario, just under 20 miles from Glasgow city centre (population 598.8K) and right on top of Greenock (1.8 miles, population 45.5K).
Then there is also the small fact that the MOD are quite happy to take live Nuclear Warheads through the centre of Glasgow, whilst being quite happy to ignore high wind warnings and travel across the Erskine bridge in such conditions.
Oh well, it’s not like they have ever had an accident that could well have led to a loss of life. Oh wait they’ve had several!
Well at least we can trust them too tell us about it and not cover it up. Oh they don’t tell us.
At least there has been no radioactive leaks/spills. Shit that too, and it’s been more than once!
Oh well it’s not like they have ever crashed a truck in dangerous conditions off the road,
Oh well at least we know they are prepared to deal with the aftermath should this happen. Oh they aren’t!
As a side note. American planes carrying warheads never have accidents on UK soil. Oh they’re just as bad.
Well at least the blast radius isn’t huge.
The above image shows what would happen if just one warhead had a surface explosion at Greenock. Detonate Nukes
Each Trident missile is designed to carry up to 12 nuclear warheads, but the Royal Navy’s are armed with three per missile after the 1998 Strategic Defence Review imposed a limit of 48 per submarine.
Remember the above image represents 1 warhead going off. If we had an accident where one detonated, what do you think would happen to the other 47 on the boat?
Let’s go back to Glasgow. What if we had a truck crash on the M8 in Glasgow city centre which resulted in a detonation. 1 warhead only.
The MOD don’t ever confirm if a Nuclear Weapon Truck is carrying a warhead, nor do they say how many each carries, but with 4 submarines, each carrying 48 warheads and the requirement for regular maintenance of those warheads, it would be safe to assume that more than one warhead is transported on our roads at a time.
So forgetting the moral argument for not having them, forgetting the cost argument of $100B in a time of austerity, forgetting the UK’s treaty obligations to be rid of them. It looks like purely for safety reasons, before our own MOD does some catastrophic, the sooner they are gone the better.
Remember the MOD thinks 11’000 dead is too high a price to pay in England. Why are Scots lives more expendable? It’s time to disarm. After all, didn’t Tony Bliar take the UK to war with Iraq to rid them of non-existent WMD’s. What right does the UK have to keep its WMD’s then or are the lives that war cost also valueless?
If the content of this article has made you think, then it’s probably worth your time following these links as well.
Forever Yes 
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