{"id":790440,"date":"2026-10-03T07:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T07:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/790440\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T07:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T07:06:17","slug":"nuclear-waste-armed-guards-face-axe-under-cost-cutting-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/790440\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear waste armed guards face axe under cost-cutting plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Armed guards on some of Britain\u2019s nuclear waste<\/a> shipments could be removed under new proposals designed to save millions of pounds.<\/p>\n

Nuclear waste \u2013 from high-grade material such as enriched uranium to lower-grade items such as clothes and gloves \u2013 is regularly transported around the UK.<\/p>\n

It is carried on special trains<\/a> ,which use the normal rail network, by road, and on ships which return waste processed at Sellafield in Cumbria to its country of origin.<\/p>\n

For example, in June this year seven flasks \u2013 highly resilient large containers \u2013 of nuclear waste were transported by rail from Sellafield<\/a> to Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, and there loaded onto a specialist ship that sailed to Germany.<\/p>\n

The most dangerous material is escorted by armed guards. But now the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority<\/a> (NDA) is proposing to reduce that number \u2013 sparking fears over security as warnings intensify over Russia\u2019s grey-war activities.<\/p>\n

\u2018Consequences of failing are too great\u2019<\/p>\n

The Civil Nuclear Constabulary<\/a> (CNC), which is responsible for the security, said any changes must \u201cin no way compromise safety\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesman said: \u201cThe consequences of failing in this area are too great.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CNC is the armed force that guards Britain\u2019s nuclear sites and the material moving between them.<\/p>\n

The NDA says the proposed shake-up carries no risk and could save millions of pounds for the Treasury, which is struggling to find spare cash to help with the cost of living and defence in next month\u2019s Budget.<\/p>\n

Nuclear chiefs are calling for security to be more bespoke and based on risk. This could involve removing mandatory CNC armed escorts \u201cwhere they do not provide a proportionate security benefit\u201d.<\/p>\n

The NDA group says existing security requirements for some nuclear transports can be excessive. <\/p>\n

Warnings over Russia \u2018grey war\u2019<\/p>\n

The material at the centre of the proposal includes plutonium and enriched uranium \u2013 highly sensitive nuclear matter that would pose a danger to public health, or in a worst-case scenario, be used in a \u201cdirty bomb\u201d- in which the material would be dispersed with conventional explosives.<\/p>\n

The proposals are likely to reignite debate over nuclear security at a time when intelligence chiefs have warned repeatedly of growing Russian activity targeting critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Experts have told The i Paper the plan could place Britain at further risk of nuclear material falling into the wrong hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a bad idea, it really is,\u201d said Matt Okuhara, who served with the CNC from 2006 to 2012. \u201cThe reason you\u2019ve got to guard this stuff in the first place is because of how dangerous it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who gets hold of this material can use it for anything they want, they can use it for a dirty bomb, they can use it for a poisoning device.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why you need to have a strong deterrence force around the material in transit.\u201d<\/p>\n

In May, GCHQ director Anne Keast-Butler told an audience at Bletchley Park that Russia was \u201cscaling up its daily hybrid activity against the UK and Europe, stretching from the seabed to cyberspace\u201d.<\/p>\n

Russia is, she said, \u201crelentlessly targeting critical infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

She described the present moment as \u201ca space between peace and war\u201d and said the risk of miscalculation was \u201cas high as I\u2019ve ever seen it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nuclear plans will be \u2018safe\u2019 and save cash<\/p>\n

The proposals are contained in a 57-page document endorsed by six chief executives in the nuclear industry, including the heads of Sellafield and Nuclear Transport Solutions, the state-owned company responsible for moving the materials.<\/p>\n

It was produced followed a request from former chancellor Rachel Reeves for savings and efficiency improvements in the industry, following a review of regulation last year.<\/p>\n

The report states that the changes could cut the cost of some nuclear shipments by 10 to 20 per cent and save weeks of security planning and regulatory work.<\/p>\n

Nuclear Transport Solutions says the proposals would allow it to \u201creduce cost and complexity of transport whilst maintaining robust safety and security outcomes and avoiding being priced out of the market.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The nuclear chiefs also want to change the way the Government assesses threats to material being moved.<\/p>\n

They argue that the current system was largely designed around fixed nuclear sites and does not work as well when it is applied to ships and other transport operations.<\/p>\n

The existing approach is \u201cunrealistic against a maritime setting\u201d, the report says, and can lead to security measures that are \u201cimpractical or disproportionate\u201d<\/p>\n

Nuclear chiefs insist they are not calling for security standards to be weakened. Instead, they want security measures to be matched more closely to the actual risks involved in each shipment.<\/p>\n

\u2018Legitimate to have concerns\u2019<\/p>\n

Rob Jordan, director of proliferation and nuclear policy at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said the risk of \u201chybrid\u201d or \u201cgrey-zone\u201d warfare from Russia and other hostile states is \u201cparticularly high\u201d.<\/p>\n

This could mean the kind of Kremlin-sponsored, \u201cviolence for hire\u201d as was witnessed with the firebomb attack on Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

\u201cDamaging a truck on a nuclear convoy, or even blocking the route of a convoy causing serious delay, could cause embarrassment to the Government rather than it causing any kind of significant risk,\u201d said Jordan.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we shouldn\u2019t underestimate Russia\u2019s desire to destabilise through embarrassment, through a sense of the British government\u2019s inability to do things properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordan \u2013 a former civil servant who previously worked on a range of national security issues, including understanding terror threats \u2013 believes cutting back on armed escorts will not necessarily increase risk.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s legitimate to have concerns over security, if details of what waste will be excluded from mandatory guarding aren\u2019t clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be incumbent on government to make sure that whatever detail it releases on these proposals instils appropriate confidence to the public, and demonstrates to our adversaries out there that our nuclear material is safe and secure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018This must in no way compromise safety\u2019<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the CNC said: \u201cThe Civil Nuclear Constabulary exists to provide the highest levels of protection to civil nuclear sites and to nuclear material in transit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe welcome the recent Taskforce Review, which challenges all involved in both the civil and defence nuclear sectors to do more to realise the opportunity that investment, growth and innovation in nuclear can bring, together with more proportionate regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the review is also clear that this must in no way compromise safety. The consequences of failing in this area are too great.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk to our civil nuclear sector and to our wider critical national infrastructure is at the highest it has been for many years. We will match our protection to that threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

An NDA spokesperson said it supported the review \u201cand the opportunity it presents for more proportionate and efficient regulation, while maintaining the highest standards of safety, security and environmental protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cNuclear Transport Solutions uses a range of robust security measures when transporting materials by sea. This proposal would enable NTS to employ measures tailored to the specific circumstances of each shipment on a proportionate basis and in line with regulatory requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny changes to transport arrangements would be carried out in collaboration with Government and regulators without compromising on safety or security.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Government spokesperson said: \u201cWe are reversing a legacy of no new nuclear power being delivered, to unlock a golden age of nuclear, securing thousands of skilled jobs and billions in investment, while maintaining a high standard of safety.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Armed guards on some of Britain\u2019s nuclear waste shipments could be removed under new proposals designed to save…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[458,1397,10721,12554,11853,14354,154,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-790440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-budget","tag-environment","tag-national-security","tag-nuclear-power","tag-politics-exclusive","tag-politics-long-read","tag-russia","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}