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A multi-million pound regeneration at the Atomic Weapons Establishment moved a step closer this week.
West Berkshire council has approved planning permission for Project Pegasus – aimed at replacing existing facilities for the storage and safe handling of enriched uranium.
AWE spokeswoman Rachel Whybrow, said: “The decision of West Berkshire council’s eastern area planning committee on Wednesday, February 10 enables us to take the Pegasus project to the next stage.
“As part of the Government’s programme of investment in the AWE sites, the proposed replacement facility will provide long-term capability for the safe handling and storage of enriched uranium at AWE Aldermaston.
“Pegasus will be a replacement facility; replacing and consolidating the existing ageing buildings which will subsequently be decommissioned and demolished.”
But anti-nuclear campaigners believe the decision adds further weight to their cause.
Trident Ploughshares activist Daniel Viesnik, from London, commented: “I was in prison last week for peacefully saying no to a future of nuclear holocaust.
“I feel it is my civic, moral and legal duty to help stop the next generation of nuclear weapons and prevent nuclear crimes against humanity and the planet.”
Fellow campaigner Sarah Lasenby, from Oxford, said: “Local people are rightly concerned about the production of additional level nuclear waste on their doorstep and the lack of consultation and information provided about the new facility.
“But the majority of the British public is also increasingly concerned about our government wasting billions of pounds on useless and illegal new nuclear weapons. We must get rid of them.”
