

Well into the late 1990's, arming one of Britain's nuclear weapons required no special knowledge, and no special hardware. All that was needed was a single key, like the kind you use to open a bicycle lock.

There are no codes," former nuclear engineer Brian Burnell explains to a BBC reporter, as they stand around a "training version" of a WE.177 nuclear bomb. "You need access to the arming panel, and for that, just a strong fingernail or screwdriver would do.

Once you've opened the panel up, you only need "one key – rather similar to a bicycle lock key...Turn it 90 degrees to the right, and the bomb's armed."

Thankfully, that's been fixed. But an even-more unnerving fact remains. The BBC alleges that British Trident nuclear submarine skippers can still launch their missiles – without any code being sent from their commanders. According to the BBC, the Ministry of Defence said that "the safeguards that other countries built in... were not relevant to British submarines."

(High five: RW)