CND Press Round-Up - 5th March 2021
Posted: 5th March 2021
Please find today’s press round up below. Thank you once again to everyone for their useful feedback.
Nuclear Weapons
Faslane
Unite the Union has strongly criticised the decision by the private contractor Capita to cut the number of specialist firefighting staff assigned to the Faslane and Coulport facilities, which it says is ‘reckless and dangerous’. The Ministry of Defence has claimed the issue is the responsibility of the private company.
North Korea
The Associated Press is reporting that satellite imagery shows North Korea is potentially attempting to extract plutonium. Pictures show smoke rising from the chimney of the Yongbyon nuclear site. The Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency had expressed concern earlier this week that the country continued to develop its nuclear programme. Some American commentary has placed such moves as part of a strategy to open renewed negotiations on sanctions relief for the country.
In related news, a speech given by the new U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has sparked speculation that there may be a change of approach in regards to U.S. strategy towards North Korea, from one of ‘complete denuclearization’ to one of ‘threat reduction’. Whilst such a change is as yet conjunctural, it has attracted criticism from Republican foreign policy elements.
Iran Negotiations
The U.S.A. and the so-called ‘E3 Powers’ (Britain, Germany and France) have withdrawn a mooted censure motion at the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), after Iran promised to hold discussions in April with international inspectors’ access in relation to sites where uranium particles were detected, according to Al Jazeera.
The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he wants to see U.S. sanctions lifted as part of an attempted to save the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) with Iran over its nuclear programme. The new U.S. administration has not yet lifted the sanctions put in place by Donald Trump as part of his ‘maximum pressure’ campaign.
French Nuclear Testing in Algeria
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists carries a piece today on the Stora Reportinto the painful relationship between France and the Algerian people during the War of Independence and its long aftermath. Between 1960 and 1966, the French military detonated 16 nuclear explosives in the Algerian desert. Local Berber people were exposed to radiation in the Hoggar Mountains in 1967. French nuclear testing was later expanded to island atolls in the South Pacific. No compensations has yet been paid to Algeria or its people, despite a 2010 French Law providing compensations to those exposed to radiation.
Labour and Nuclear Weapons
CND activist Dr David Lowry had a letter published in the Guardian this week in response to Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey’s speech last Friday, where the latter claimed Labour’s commitment to nuclear weapons was ‘non-negotiable’. Dr Lowry pointed to the long record of Labour politicians paying at least lip-service to multilateral nuclear disarmament, correctly stating that ‘something cannot be both non- negotiable and negotiable in multilateral negotiations at once’. The full letter can be found on his blog here.
U.S. Nuclear Policy
Kingston Reif, Director of Disarmament & Threat Reduction Policy at the Arms Control Association has an opinion piece in Defense News today, where he sets out what the Biden administration can do to give substance to its claims during the presidential election about the USA’s ‘excessive expenditure on nuclear weapons’. Of particular interest to British activists will be his argument that funding should not be provided for the new W93 warhead programme, which Britain needs to maintain its nuclear-armed submarine fleet.
Missile Defence
Russia
The Russian government is planning on conducting test-fire of Tsirkon hypersonic from nuclear-powered submarines for the first time this summer, according to TASS. Previously, such missiles would be fired from surface-vessel. The Tsirkon missile has a range of 1,500km with the Russian military aiming to introduce it to service by 2023.
U.S. Missile Defence
The U.S. Military is studying how it might adopt the SkyCeptor interceptor missile, which at the moment forms part of Israel’s ‘David’s Sling’ system, in a move motivated by the high contest of their existing missiles. A test has been scheduled for later this year, according to the Breaking Defense website.Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland are also reportedly considering the system.
With best wishes,
Michael Muir
Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament