Trident nuclear systems near misses, costs and debate

This week the UK made a hefty commitment to renew its Trident nuclear weapons system.

For some MPs that renewal is all about protecting jobs.

At Wednesday's PMQs the UK's new unelected Prime Minster Theresa May was thanked by a self-satisfied and self-indulgent Labour MP Jamie Reed for holding the unnecessary Trident debate and vote Monday.

Reed once again showed he is not trustworthy, has no real Labour Party loyalty and is too busy working at humiliating the party leader Jeremy Corbyn to fufil his elected political role.

Theresa May was given an easy ride in the mainstream media post PMQs but for those of us old enough to have experienced the Thatcher years she is nothing new.

She is just another Tory though in her case one who was elected Tory party leader and movd into the PM role by a minority. The vote did not go out to party members let alone the country.

For those who oppose the Renewal of Trident the above meme tells it as it is.

But how safe is Trident?

This week one of our nuclear subs got into difficulty off Gibraltar and below is an image and part of a report published by the Daily Mail:

This is Britain's newest and most advanced £1.1billion nuclear submarine lying damaged in its Gibraltar port today after she crashed into a merchant ship during a training exercise.

HMS Ambush was submerged when it suffered a 'glancing' collision with a tanker as it surfaced at around 1.30pm yesterday, the Ministry of Defence confirmed.

Yesterday submariners looked grim and had their heads bowed as they stood next to its badly dented turret as it limped into Britain's key Mediterranean port on Wednesday afternoon.

And today its heavily gashed main tower was covered by tarpaulin and surrounded by armed guards as Royal Navy chiefs consider whether it can be fixed in Gibraltar or sent back to its base at Faslane on the Clyde.

The Royal Navy says its newest 7,400 tonne high-tech hunter-killer submarine has 'world leading sensors to detect other submarines and surface ships' - yet it still smashed into the merchant vessel, which escaped undamaged.

Ambush's experienced skipper is Commander Alan Daveney, who has served on three other of Britain's top submarines, but the Ministry of Defence has refused to say who was in charge of the £1.1bn vessel when it crashed. ​

​http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3700175/British-nuclear-submarine-forced-dock-Gibraltar-crashing-merchant-vessel-training-mission-Med.html

But that is not the first incident and is unlikely to be the last.

That may mean that a disaster is inevitable.

Check out the report below from CND Scotland. The year is unclear but it remains relevant:

​HMS VANGUARD NEAR MISS

Submariners terrified as submarine plunges out of control

In July the Trident submarine HMS Vanguard came close to a major nuclear accident when a training exercise went wrong. The vessel was in the "Celtic Deep", to the South of the Irish Sea. According to a report in the Sunday Mail there was a power failure and the vessel went into an uncontrolled dive.

The paper quoted a member of the crew as saying "The boat was shuddering and shaking. We were on our knees praying.

Everyone was scared out of their wits because we had never experienced anything like this." A former Royal Navy submarine commander said "Apart from a fire on board, I cannot think of anything more horrific than this. If it had not pulled out of its dive, it would have headed down and probably imploded, killing the crew and spreading radioactivity over a massive area."

Apparently the nuclear reactor which powers the Trident submarine shut down.

The crew tried to get a back up system going, to provide electricity, but it failed to work.

By this time the submarine was descending rapidly in a deep dive. The vessel was eventually brought back under control when the reactor started up again.

John Large, a nuclear engineer, said "This is an extremely serious problem for this class of submarine. It’s horrific - the worst nightmare."

The Royal Navy admitted that HMS Vanguard had been forced to make "an unscheduled surface during a training exercise", but they denied that there was any cause for concern.
​
Scottish CND Magazine

http://www.newtekjournalismukworld.com/eileen-kersey/trident-will-be-renewed-at-cost-of-billions
​http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/nuclear-british-french-nuclear-submarines-collide-atlantic-article-1.392720