Nuclear Information Centre.
Neither Confirm Nor Deny (2022). (Duration 4m 33s)
NIC/NW/006
It is Ministry of Defence policy to neither confirm nor deny (NCND) the presence of nuclear weapons at any particular place or time. However, according to the publicly available (LAESI) document on the transport of nuclear materials, this policy may be set aside in the following circumstances (in the interests of public protection):
· Where not disclosing the presence of nuclear weapons would cause an unacceptable risk to the public or emergency services.
· To ensure the continued safety and/or security of any weapon present.
In their March 2021 integrated defence review, the UK Government underlined their continuing adherence to the doctrine of military nuclear ambiguity, stating:
“We will remain deliberately ambiguous about precisely when, how and at what scale we would contemplate the use of nuclear weapons. Given the changing security and technological environment, we will extend this long-standing policy of deliberate ambiguity and no longer give public figures for our operational stockpile, deployed warhead or deployed missile numbers”.
However, selected empirical information is made public and in the same review it was announced the maximum number of warheads held will not exceed 260 which represented the first increase to the limit on warhead numbers following decades of incremental reductions.
So, just to eliminate any questions of ambiguity regarding this piece, the Nuclear Information Centre can neither confirm nor deny Neither Confirm Nor Deny is both an audio and text-based exhibit comprising no more than 260 repetitions of the Neither Confirm Nor Deny abbreviation (NCND).
Perhaps the text version resembles a wordsearch. What hidden words can you find?
Additionally, each audio repetition has been engineered to be approximately 1 second in duration so the audio element also functions as a counter of sorts, counting up or perhaps counting down towards who knows what?
Information last updated: Fri 25 Aug 2023
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