Nukes in Europe: Secrecy Under Siege - by Hans M. Kristensen

Nuclear Explosion Destructive Power

While US President Obama proposed further nuclear disarmament between Russia and the US  two former Dutch prime ministers publicly confirmed the presence of nuclear weapons at Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands, one of six bases in NATO that still host US nuclear weapons.

The first confirmation came in the program How Time Flies on the Dutch National Geographic channel where former prime minister Ruud Lubbers confirmed that there are nuclear weapons at Volkel Air Base. “I would never have thought those silly things would still be there in 2013,” Lubbers said, who was prime minister in 1982-1994. He even mentioned a specific number: 22 bombs.

In the second confirmation Lubbers was joined by another former Dutch prime minister, Dries van Agt, who also said that the weapons are there. “They are there and its crazy they still are,” said va Agt, who was prime minister in 1977-1982.

It is not a formal Dutch break with NATO nuclear secrecy norms but it is certainly a big crack in the dike that makes the Dutch government’s continued refusal to confirm or deny nuclear weapons at Volkel AB look rater, well, silly.

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