U.K. Nuclear Weapons Left Unguarded

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Shock in the U.K. Police officers of the U.K. Ministry of Defense police, assigned to guard Britain’s nuclear weapons, are under investigation after it has been reported that they had slept on the job and failed to complete routine patrols at a nuclear weapons facility.

The Guardian reports that seven officers at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Burghfield, Berkshire, have already resigned without facing disciplinary charges. AWE is the location of the complex final assembly of nuclear weapons, and also where the U.K. nuclear warheads are maintained and decommissioned. The Ministry of Defense has created a 2,700-strong police unit specifically for guarding the AWE facility.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

An MoD spokesman said that disciplinary action was initiated immediately after the infractions were discovered, and that several officers had been removed from the site and reassigned to other duties pending the conclusion of investigations. The MoD insists, though, that there had been no threat to the security of the facility or the safety of the nuclear warhead stored there.