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Atomic Weapons Establishment
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===Private management=== In 1993 the government awarded a contract to Hunting-BRAE, a consortium of [[Hunting Engineering]], [[Brown and Root]] and [[AEA Technology]]. During Hunting-BRAE's management AWE decommissioned the [[Royal Air Force|RAFs]] [[WE177]] freefall nuclear bomb. In 1998 the company suffered two prosecutions for safety breaches, one for discharge of [[tritium]] into a nearby stream<ref>[http://cndyorks.gn.apc.org/news/articles/awe2.htm AWE Aldermaston in Newbury Magistrates Court: 13 December 1999] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060619074938/http://cndyorks.gn.apc.org/news/articles/awe2.htm |date=19 June 2006 }}. Cndyorks.gn.apc.org. Retrieved on 17 July 2013.</ref> and another for an incident where two workers inhaled [[plutonium]].<ref>[http://www.ecology.at/nni/index.php?p=site&s=4 No Nukes Inforesource: Site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120126230811/http://www.ecology.at/nni/index.php?p=site&s=4 |date=26 January 2012 }}. Ecology.at (15 December 1997). Retrieved on 17 July 2013.</ref> In 1999 Hunting-BRAE lost the contract to '''AWE Management Ltd''' (AWE ML), a consortium of [[BNFL]], [[Lockheed Martin]] and [[Serco]]. AWE ML's subsidiary, '''AWE plc''', assumed responsibility for the operation of all AWE sites on 1 April 2000. This was not full privatisation as the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]] continued to own all the AWE sites as well as a [[golden share]] in AWE plc. Critics pointed out that BNFL and Lockheed Martin did not have perfect safety records either. BNFL suffered embarrassing revelations of falsified quality checks in nuclear fuels and Lockheed was the subject of scathing reports on the operation of US nuclear facilities. Lockheed's failings included safety concerns at the [[Y-12 National Security Complex|Y-12 facility]] at [[Oak Ridge, Tennessee]], an American weapons plant similar in certain ways to Aldermaston. During the [[2007 United Kingdom floods]], the flood waters affected the Atomic Weapons Establishment, which handles the United Kingdom's nuclear warheads, resulting in a suspension of work for almost a year.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/may/25/nuclear.defence?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront |title=Trident plant shut down in safety alert|first=Jamie |last=Doward|work=The Observer|date=25 May 2008|access-date=25 May 2008 | location=London}}</ref> In December 2008, the BNFL share in AWE Management Ltd was sold to [[Jacobs Engineering Group]], an American engineering services company.<ref>[http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Jacobs-Agrees-Acquire-Share-AWE/story.aspx?guid={8AE973B9-8D5A-42F5-97E0-7EAAF2D5643F} MarketWatch.com]. MarketWatch.com (18 October 2011). Retrieved on 17 July 2013.</ref> Since about 2013 the [[Office for Nuclear Regulation]] (ONR) has given both AWE sites enhanced regulatory attention due to "safety and compliance concerns, and the continued undertaking of operations in ageing facilities due to delays to the delivery of modern standard replacement facilities." The ONR anticipated AWE would move back to normal regulatory attention in 2021 after the new facilities are completed.<ref name=bbc-20191018>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-50099579 |title=Safety concerns over Berkshire nuclear weapons factories |publisher=BBC News |date=18 October 2019 |access-date=4 November 2019}}</ref> Scientists at AWE were involved in testing for radioactive poison after the [[poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko#Poison|poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko]]. No gamma rays were detected; however, the [[BBC]] reported that a scientist at AWE, who had worked on Britain's [[Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom#Historical weapons programmes|early atomic bomb programme]] decades before, recognised a small spike at an energy of 803 kilo-electron volts (keV) as the gamma ray signal from polonium-210, a critical component of early nuclear bombs, which led to the correct diagnosis. Further tests using spectroscopy designed to detect alpha radiation confirmed the result.<ref name=BBC20150728>{{cite news|title=Litvinenko: A deadly trail of polonium|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33678717|access-date=21 January 2016|publisher=BBC|date=28 July 2015}}</ref> In July 2015 the [[Office for Nuclear Regulation]] issued an improvement notice to AWE demanding that it demonstrate that it has a long-term strategy for managing Higher Active radioactive Waste in order to reduce the risk to the public and its employees.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.onr.org.uk/2015/07/improvement-notice-served-on-awe-2/|title=Improvement Notice served on AWE|date=13 July 2015|access-date=19 August 2020}}</ref> In 2011 a project named MENSA to construct a new warhead assembly and disassembly facility at Burghfield had been approved, to be completed in 2017 at a cost Β£734 million. In 2020, a [[National Audit Office (United Kingdom)|National Audit Office]] report found that costs had increased by Β£1.07 billion to Β£1.8 billion and completion date had slipped to 2023. Construction was begun before design had been finalised and risk was not shared with contractors, so they were not incentivised to control costs.<ref name=dn-20200512>{{cite news |url=https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/05/12/three-british-nuclear-programs-are-167-billion-over-budget/ |title=Three British nuclear programs are $1.67 billion over budget |last=Chuter |first=Andrew |publisher=Gannett |work=DefenseNews |date=12 May 2020 |access-date=17 October 2022}}</ref><ref name=nuclearinfo-20200729>{{cite web |url=https://www.nuclearinfo.org/blog/david-cullen/2020/07/reports-highlight-repeated-failures-mod-over-four-decades |title=Reports highlight repeated failures by MOD over four decades |last=Cullen |first=David |website=Nuclear Information Service |date=29 July 2020 |access-date=17 October 2022}}</ref>
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