Nuclear Weapons Hide in Pandora’s Box as Scots Seek to Quit U.K.

By Peter Woodifield - Mar 21, 2013
For 44 years, the U.K. has stored its nuclear weapons in western Scotland. It now could be faced with finding the Trident missiles in a foreign country should Scottish nationalists win their bid for independence.

A vote for full sovereignty in the referendum set yesterday for Sept. 18, 2014, will lead to a demand for the removal of the four submarines and dozens of warheads, according to the Scottish National Party. The base at Faslane was picked during the Cold War for its deep water and secure location.

Questions over Scotland so far centered on the economics of going it alone: North Sea oil, the budget deficit, currency and debt. Opponents are now turning to the SNP’s policies on the military, with U.K. Defense Secretary Philip Hammond saying last week Scotland’s plan to remain part of NATO might be in jeopardy if it got rid of the nuclear arsenal. The U.K. government said this month it has made no plans to relocate the weapons.

“There has been a fear in London of even discussing Scotland and related military issues because of the Pandora’s Box complex,” Hew Strachan, the Chichele professor of history of war at Oxford University and a strategic adviser to the armed forces, said in an interview. “There is concern in the Ministry of Defence that public opinion could stop Trident being relocated south of the border.”

MORE...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-22/nuclear-weapons-hide-in-pandora-s-box-as-scots-seek-to-quit-u-k-.html