In a 7th April ’25 email, CND has reported on their discovery that successive UK governments have exempted US armed forces from the “Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017” (ref https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/1075/contents ). This means that US forces are exempt from any UK enforcement of safety standards, including the safety of their radioactive materials and weapons. It also means that local authorities, and hence the general public, would not even be told if nuclear weapons were being stored in their area. The exemption applies across all of the United Kingdom, not just RAF Lakenheath which is a de facto US military base hosting only US forces.
This exemption shamefully puts the UK population at an increased risk of harm from a US nuclear safety incident, whilst also shielding those activities from public scrutiny. Successive UK governments appear to have a continuous policy of hiding the truth about nuclear weapons from the general population. In the case of this exemption, it is probably cynically designed to conceal the presence of US nukes on British soil, given that a majority of the population do not support them being based here.
Shame on Ben Wallace for signing this exemption in March ’21, and shame on Keir Starmer’s subsequent Labour government for not rescinding it.
Source: CND email dated 7/4/25 on file.
The co-reported story by CND and “The Daily Mirror” newspaper can be found behind this paywall: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/nuclear-missile-cover-up-fears-34997771
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