Anti-Trident protestors blockaded all entrances at one of Britain’s nuclear weapons factories, AWE Burghfield in West Berkshire, yesterday.

The direct action halted traffic to and from the site in the morning. The protest is highlighting the role AWE Burghfield plays in the maintenance and replacement of Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons system.

The Burghfield bomb factory, administered by the Atomic Weapons Establishment, builds and maintains nuclear warheads.

Increasing groundswell 

The Trident Ploughshares activists have blocked access to the site with a car with two people locked to it at one point and with a line of people with their arms in lock-on tubes at another.

Separately, campaigners from local CND group Hereford Peace Council will today travel to Parliament on a ‘peace train’, bringing with them petitions from thousands of supporters who want the government to get rid of its nuclear weapons and join the UN’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Kate Hudson, CND general secretary, said: “I congratulate all of the protestors for drawing attention to the fact that people from across the country object to the government’s plans to spend billions of pounds on a new nuclear weapons system.

“These actions are part of an increasing groundswell of activity against these weapons of mass destruction which do nothing to keep us safe. Economists, defence experts and anyone with common sense are all coming to a consensus that these weapons are expensive, useless and irrelevant in the face of today’s security threats.

“Most of the world don’t have nuclear weapons and indeed 122 countries voted for a UN treaty which would ban all nuclear weapons. It’s time for the government to side with this majority of countries who want a safer and more peaceful world, rather than the small number – led by a dangerous President Trump – who are recklessly pursuing nuclear Armageddon.”

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Marianne Brooker is a contributing editor for The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.