§ Ms. RuddockTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on an incident which occurred at the Aldermaston weapons research establishment on Friday 28 October involving a radiation alert, showing in which building the alarm occurred, if it was triggered automatically or through human error and which outside emergency services were notified.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonAn automatic alarm system triggered falsely at the atomic weapons establishment at Aldermaston on Friday 28 October. Personnel were evacuated from the building as a sensible precautionary measure, but it was quickly established to be a false alarm and there was no need to notify the emergency services.
We are still investigating the cause of the false alarm, but for reasons of security it is not our practice to disclose the specific identity of buildings at tha atomic weapons establishment.