The Diplomat
The British nuclear-powered submarine HMS Audacious (S122) of the Astute class arrived last weekend in the port of Gibraltar, according to Verdemar Ecologistas en Acción.
The Royal Navy submarine arrived at the Rock only a few days after the USS Georgia (SSBN-729/SSGN-729), the fourth submarine of the Ohio class, belonging to the US Navy.
As The Diplomat reported, the Spanish government protested to the US authorities about the presence of a nuclear-powered submarine in the Port of Gibraltar, despite having adequate facilities a short distance away at the Rota naval base.
Verdemar Ecologistas en Acción demand in their note that the submarines leave Gibraltar and “stop putting the region at nuclear risk”.
For the ecologists, the Port of Gibraltar has been the “nuclear beacon” since the landfall of HMS Tireless (S88). “We continue with the seal of nuclear risk in the Campo de Gibraltar”, they affirm.
The platform stresses that “since HMS Tireless was repaired more than fifteen years ago, more than 100 nuclear-powered submarines have passed through Gibraltar”. “We continue to insist that they are floating bombs” and put our families and our environment at risk,” they say.
They also state that they do not accept submarine operations in the Mediterranean” and add: “We are committed to denouncing these entries in all countries bordering the Mediterranean by pressure groups”.
Ecologists in Action state that they do not want nuclear-powered submarines “neither in Gibraltar nor in Rota nor in any part of the world because of the problem they can cause with the reactor and nuclear weapons”. They conclude: “We have no choice but to warn cruise ships of the risk they run in Gibraltar with these nuclear devices”.
