Sputnik: Whitehall's spending watchdog has found that the storage of obsolete nuclear submarines has cost the UK taxpayer £500m because of "dismal" failings in the government's nuclear-decommissioning program. How significant are these findings?
Sputnik: What effect will this have on efforts for nuclear disarmament both in the public and political consciousness?
Arthur West: Yes, I think one of the main reasons for getting rid of nuclear weapons is not only the cost of maintaining but then the cost of disposing of them, the submarines and the nuclear waste material left over. So I do actually think this will emphasize to the public the cost and that I think might see most people questioning whether we actually need to renew the current range of nuclear weapons that we've got that the government seem intent on doing.
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Arthur West: Yeah, I think that could be the case. Obviously, it's very much an issue for ourselves because 25 miles down the road from our biggest city we have these nuclear weapons, these weapons of mass destruction, and it's an astonishing and sad fact of life but that obviously helps to galvanize in the majority and the evidence is there. A majority of Scottish public opinion is opposed to these nuclear weapons. I think these revelations over the cost and the difficulties of disposing of the waste will bring further people to our position across the UK. It certainly encourages us to double our efforts to stop the replacement of the current nuclear weapons and get rid of them completely.
The views expressed in this article are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
