Four decades ago, the US army installed military depots in Luxembourg, known as the Warehouse Service Agency or WSA in short. The Bettembourg site closed in 2006, but the Sanem site remains open.
In a parliamentary question, Baum wanted to know more about the actual goings on in Sanem and specifically asked whether the WSA stocks nuclear weapons.
The Minister of Defence Francois Bausch had a definite answer for the MP, which was a firm "no." He explained that this is due to the fact that the memorandum signed by both the USA and the Grand Duchy in 1978 clearly states that no ammunition is to be stored on the site in question. Whether this refers to nuclear weapons or any other kind of weaponry is of no consequence, according to Bausch.
Moreover, he provided additional information on the management of the depot. The US air force does not manage the military depot, which is instead managed by a Luxembourgish limited liability company. ArcelorMittal and the Luxembourgish government own three-quarters of the shares, and according to Luxembourgish labour law, the site is home to 163 employees.
The US air force is the main client in Sanem and carries out, amongst other things, warehouse and maintenance work for the Luxembourgish Army and legal authorities.
In terms of its own needs, the US air force carries out the storing, securing, repair and maintenance of inventory and spare material, such as power generators, machines and rescue vehicles.
The WSA site has long been said to work in close collaboration with the European headquarters of the Air Force in Ramstein (DE). The cooperation concerns the aforementioned activities, according to Bausch.
