London - There were reports yesterday that 40,000 part-time soldiers from the Territorial Army (TA) could be deployed to provide extra security at Britain's 33 operational nuclear sites and other sensitive installations, Rachel Donnelly reports.
The threat to nuclear installations was reinforced by the International Atomic Energy Agency at a conference in Vienna last week and in his speech to the Labour Party conference last month, the Defence Secretary, Mr Geoff Hoon, indicated that Britain's military capabilities would be "rebalanced" to take account of the new terrorist threat.
In an interview with the London Independent on Sunday, Mr Hoon said: "I certainly think there may emerge from this review a greater role for a military presence within the UK. I would not want to use regular forces for that purpose. I can see the TA may be involved in that. I recognise as a result of September 11th we are in a very different situation and we have to take appropriate measures."