UK Government’s Atomic Weapons Establishment in Chaos

That the Parliament notes with concern reports that the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), which is responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the UK's nuclear weapons, is in serious financial trouble; considers that Pegasus, a £623 million plan to replace a building that handles and stores enriched uranium at the AWE site at Aldermaston, has been suspended with no confirmation as to when work will restart; understands that the costs of Mensa, a new facility under construction at Burghfield to assemble and dismantle nuclear warheads, has risen from £734 million to £1.8 billion, while the opening has been delayed from 2017 to 2023; is concerned that the Office for Nuclear Regulation has, it believes, kept AWE under “enhanced” scrutiny over the last six years as it considers that the AWE Aldermaston and Burghfield sites continually rely too heavily on the use of ageing production facilities; understands that further concerns were raised in November 2018 when AWE was fined £1 million for failing to ensure the safety of its staff, and calls on the UK Government to plan an end to what it considers the waste of public funds on AWE and make progress towards a non-nuclear defence policy.