CND Press roundup 3.3.21

Posted: 3rd March 2021

Nuclear weapons in Britain 
 

New House of Commons Research on Trident
 
The House of Commons Library published yesterday a very useful set of research briefing on the cost of Britain’s nuclear weapon programme, the forthcoming US-backed warhead programme and the Dreadnought-class of submarines.
 

American Warheads for Trident
BBC Newsnight ran a feature last night on the British government’s lobbying in Washington D.C. for a renewed commitment to funding the W93 warhead, which forms part of a $19 billion dollar package. One UK government official is quoted as saying that it ‘takes the nuclear special relationship to new heights’. This comes in the context of the new administration and its Nuclear Posture Review. The Chair of the House of Representative Armed Services Committee has said that the UK is one of the main forces driving for a faster time-table for the W93. The in-depth write up of the report can be found here.
 
The history of nuclear weapons in Scotland
The BBC website is carrying a feature today about the American Polaris base at the Holy Loch on the west coast of Scotland over its thirty-year history. In the main, it offers a soft-soaped portrayal of social and economic interactions between the local and American service personnel (the latter over-pay for their taxis, apparently) but it does feature some recollections from Isabel Lindsay from Scottish CND and some brilliant of photographs from some protests of the first wave of CND. The feature can be found here


NATO 
 
The Latvian television station LSM.LV is publicising a webinar being run by the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (STRATCOMCOE) this evening, on the relationship between Russian military exercises and the Baltic countries. This serves as a preview to a NATO report on Russian military exercises, which will be published this month.
 
U.S-Russian Sanctions
 
The American State Department has announced sanctions against more Russian government officials, whom it suspects of complicity in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. The restrictions on the assets and movement of the officials were undertaken under the provisions of the U.S. 1991 Chemical and Biological Weapons Act. More concerningly, the briefing surrounding the sanctions is concerned with contrasting the tough new line of the Biden administration with that of Trump’s.


Nuclear Power
 
The local press in Nottinghamshire is reporting on attempts by local government and private businesses to prepare a bid for the Ratcliffe on Soar site to be the location for the UK’s nuclear fusion programme, as part of the attempt to find such locations by the Atomic Energy Authority.
 
Polish Minister of Energy and Climate has given an interview in which he outlines his government’s view that nuclear power will form a core part of the country’s contribution to fighting climate change, according to Nuclear Engineering International. Poland does not currently have any nuclear power plants-the intention is to construct and open six between 2033 and 2043.
 
Lituania has renewed attempts to come to an agreement with the other Baltic countries on imposing a blockade on the energy from the Astavyets Nuclear Power Plant in Belarus. This is in the context of the countries’ attempts to decrease energy dependency on Russia and countries in its sphere of influence.

With best wishes,

Michael Muir

Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament