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:''"Coulport" redirects here; for the neighbouring village, see Coulport (village).'' RNAD Coulport in Argyll, Scotland, is the storage and loading facility for the United Kingdom's stock of Trident nuclear warheads. The base, which is near the village of Coulport, has up to 16 reinforced concrete bunkers built into the hillside on the eastern shore of Loch Long. Coulport is the last depot in the UK to retain the "RNAD" designation indicating a Royal Naval Armaments Depot. The depot was established during the Cold War as the storage and loading facility for the UK's Polaris nuclear weapons system. Today Coulport is primarily used for handling the Trident system. It also stores and handles conventional weapons, for example the Spearfish torpedo. Two docks for Vanguard nuclear submarines lie beneath the bunkers. These are used to load and unload submarines before they go on patrol. The older jetty is known as the Polaris Jetty, while the newer, covered Explosive Handling Jetty (EHJ) is used for handling Trident warheads. ==History== Coulport had originally been best known as a summer holiday retreat for wealthy Glaswegians, with its most notable feature being Kibble Palace, now relocated to the Glasgow Botanic Gardens. The Nassau Agreement was signed in December 1962, and the Polaris Sales Agreement was signed in April 1963. Construction of Coulport, on the site of the farm of Duchlage (historically spelt Duchlass), began in 1963, and was completed in 1968. The Trident Works Programme at Coulport and Faslane, co-ordinated by the Property Services Agency, took 13 years to complete. Planning work at Coulport began in 1982, and the estimated final cost for the entire programme, at 1994 prices, was approximately £1.9 billion. This made it the second most expensive procurement project in the UK after the Channel Tunnel project. Prior to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, the implications of a potential vote for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom for the Coulport and Faslane bases were extensively discussed in the media, as it was unclear if any submarine base in England, Wales or Northern Ireland could house the Coulport silos.〔(RUSI paper on relocation of Coulport facility )〕 However, since the Scottish electorate voted against independence, the area along with the rest of Scotland remained UK territory and so the bases, and the equipment housed there, were unaffected.〔http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-29270441〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「RNAD Coulport」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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