Britain has covertly built up its nuclear arsenal in what anti-nuclear campaigners claim is a clear breach of its obligations under international peace treaties. An official government report obtained by The Observer details how since 1978 British governments have made more than 500 transfers of 'civilian' nuclear material to the Ministry of Defence. In 1968 Britain was one of 62 countries which signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which was aimed at stopping such transfers.
Nations with nuclear weapons, such as the UK and the United States, have led international criticism of other countries for trying to develop atomic bombs by using nuclear material from civilian sources.
The imposition of international inspectors on Iraq was based on alleged breaches of the NPT.
The report, released by the Department of Trade and Industry, describes how in 1992 five tons of low-enriched uranium from British Nuclear Fuels' Capenhurst reactor in Cheshire was used to produce tritium, an important component of nuclear weapons manufactured at Aldermaston in Berkshire.
In 1983 almost 100 tons of low-enriched uranium from Capenhurst was used for nuclear weapons material.
The report also gives details of a previously undisclosed incident in 1986 when more than 800 grams of weapons-grade plutonium from BNFL's nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield in Cumbria was 'inadvertently' sent to another reactor.
In addition large amounts of depleted uranium from civilian reactors were used for conventional military purposes in making depleted uranium shells and armour for tanks.
Dr David Lowry, an environment consultant who has campaigned for years for the information to be released, said: 'It appears to be a case of one rule for us and another for other countries.'
A Department of Trade and Industry spokesman denied Britain had been guilty of any such breach.
