What does the MDA permit?
The MDA permits the transfer of: • nuclear warhead components, fissile material (plutonium and highly enriched uranium) and tritium; • delivery systems (missiles); and • submarine design specifications, nuclear propulsion plants and HEU to fuel them, which amount to aid in the building of the platforms. Thus, all three aspects of a deployable nuclear weapon – warhead, delivery system and platform – are put together, collaboratively, under the auspices of the MDA. In fact, it would be much easier to say what is not permitted under the MDA: the transfer of a complete nuclear warhead. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) website describes this collaboration as follows: Based around a series of Joint Working Groups, each concentrating on a specific area of physics, engineering and material science, Aldermaston’s specialists have for more than forty years been able to exchange and develop ideas with their counterparts from the American Laboratories to the benefit of the nuclear weapons pr
