Turkey coup attempt raises fears over safety of US nuclear stockpile

The attempted coup in Turkey last week and the subsequent closure of the Incirlik air base in the south of the country have raised fresh questions about the wisdom of the US stationing the biggest stockpile of nuclear weapons in Europe at such a vulnerable site.

Even before the abortive putsch, the potential terrorist threat to the base, 110km from the Syrian border, led to a significant upgrade in the security perimeter around the designated Nato area, where 50 B61 nuclear bombs are stored in 21 vaults.

Last Friday’s events have increased concerns over whether any security enhancements can mitigate the risks of holding such a dangerous arsenal in a volatile location.

Coup plotters

The Turkish government claimed some of the coup plotters were based at Incirlik and flew aircraft out of the shared base. It consequently closed air traffic out of the base and cut off its power supply, temporarily stopping US air operations against Islamic State extremists in

Syria

.

"I think the key lesson is that the benefits of storing nuclear weapons in Turkey are minimal but the risks have increased significantly over the past five years," Hans Kristensen, a nuclear weapons expert at the Federation of American Scientists, said.

"I would say that the security situation in Turkey and in the base area no longer meet the safety requirements that the United States should have for storage of nuclear weapons. You only get so many warnings before something goes terribly wrong. It's time to withdraw the weapons."

There are thought to be 180 B61 bombs in Europe – in Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands as well as Turkey. The tactical weapons are legacies of the cold war. – (Guardian service)