Press Releases & Updates 2005

Drake’s island occupation

The Drake’s Island settlers, including local trades people, parents, council employees, and seafarers, are raising the alarm about the threat that the Trident nuclear missile system poses to global peace and security.

”This Nuclear Free State demands the British government scrap Trident and comply with the NPT, which the UK has signed. The Trident missile system contributes to global insecurity and local pollution” said a Tamarian spokesperson.

The settlers are also concerned with the tritium being discharged from the nuclear fuelled Vanguard-class submarines at the Devonport Dockyard into the River Tamar.

”Tritium is a known carcinogenic and this practice of discharging these amounts of it into the river is illegal under European law, for all but the military. For us, who live here, this concession to the military poses a risk to our health” said an anti-nuclear campaigner on Drake’s Island.

Drake’s island occupation

Visitors to the island will undergo a ”security check” for radiation contamination before they can enter the nuclear free state. If cleared they will be issued a ”visa” which will allow them to stay. Banners saying ”Ban the Bomb” and ”Scrap Trident” have been carefully displayed as the settlers are ensuring no damage will be caused to the island.

A candle-light vigil will be held tomorrow Saturday at 9 p.m. on Drake’s Island and people can gather in West Hoe, Plymouth, to show their support.

Drake’s island occupation

Notes:

1. Tamarians are the Plymouth-based Trident Ploughshares group. Trident Ploughshares are a group of people who have pledged to disarm the Trident nuclear missile system by nonviolent direct action. For more information, please visit: www.tridentploughshares.org/devonport

2. The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty became international law in 1970. For a while now, there have been five nuclear weapon states: USA, UK, Russia, France and China. Since then, India, Israel and Pakistan have developed nuclear weapons, and they remain the only countries outside the treaty. The 188 governments that have ratified this treaty, meet every five years at the Review Conference to assess the implementation of the treaty. The NPT contains the only binding commitment to nuclear disarmament in a multilateral treaty on the part of the Nuclear Weapon States. For more information, please visit http://www.un.org/events/npt2005 or www.reachingcriticalwill.org

3. Trident is the UK’s submarine-launched ballistic missile system consisting of four nuclear submarines. At any one time three of these submarines are operational. There are a total of 42 operational missiles and it is assumed that there are 14 missiles on each submarine. One Trident nuclear warhead is 8 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.

4. Tritium is radio-active. It gives off a weak beta particle, but the resulting nucleus recoils violently and can damage human cells if it happens inside us. This is especially hazardous to growing cells (such as foetal tissue, genetic materials of blood-forming organs) which may not be able to recover. Tritium is flushed into the river from the nuclear fuelled submarines at Devonport. For more information: www.tritium.org.uk->http://www.tritium.org.uk]

5. The Vanguard-class submarines are being refitted and refuelled in the Devonport Royal Dockyard, by Devonport Management Limited (DML) which is linked to the American company Halliburton. HMS Vanguard left the dockyard in December 2004 after a 3-year refit. HMS Victorious arrived at Devonport in January 2005 and is currently being refitted.

Printer friendly version

Home | Top