CND Press Round-Up - 11th March 2021
Posted: 11th March 2021
Please find today’s press round up below. Thank you for your continued useful feedback and support.
Nuclear Weapons
There has been follow-up reporting on French nuclear testing in the South Pacific and U.S. attempts to create a new GBSD have been criticised by scientists whilst efforts to negotiate nuclear deals between the U.S. and Iran and North Korea continue to face barriers.
Nuclear Weapons Testing in French Polynesia
There’s a brief item on the BBC website about the report into civilian radiation exposure during French nuclear tests in French Polynesia. The material seems to be largely cribbed from the agency reports yesterday but the coverage is still positive insofar as most mainstream British outlets don’t seem to have picked it up. Al Jazeera carries a more in-depth examination of the report.
U.S. Ground-based Nuclear Weapons
The Guardian through its U.S. office has a piece on a new report by the Federation of American Scientists which will argue that the development of the new Ground-based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) is grounded in ‘a set of flawed and outdated assumptions’. Current cost estimates suggest that the price of acquiring and bringing the new GBSD into operation are c.$100 billion dollars, whilst total projects costs could run to $264 billion dollars. The aim of the project is to replace the current system, based on the Minuteman Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile.
Iran-U.S. Diplomacy
The U.S. Special Representative for Iran Rob Malley, who is perceived to be on the dovish end of the American foreign policy establishment and who was the lead negotiator on the American side for the 2015 Joint Comprehensive, is quoted in Axios as saying that the timing of Iran’s June presidential election is not a factor in the U.S. approach to restarting the nuclear agreement with Iran. The remarks will further anger those who feel the U.S. has been foot-dragging, especially over the question of sanctions.
North Korea-U.S. Relations
The Biden administration’s review into U.S. policy towards North Korea is expected to be concluded within the next four weeks, according to U.S. News.There has been speculation that the review could move policy in the direction of pragmatic risk minimisation, as opposed to the current U.S. stated intention of the total denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Right-wing Republican critics have said any change in policy would simply be a reprise of the (in their view) failed ‘strategic patience’ approach of Barack Obama.
Anti-war
A UN investigator has set out why he thinks the failure of the Security Council to prevent crimes against humanity is a collective responsibility and the U.S. pushes onwards with efforts to more thoroughly militarise space.
North Korea and the U.N.
The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur for human rights in North Korea has told a UN committee that, in his view, the body’s ‘Security Council bears responsibility for its inaction against the continuation of crimes against humanity in the DPR Korea’, according to Reuters. Tomas Ojea Quintana said human rights violations in the country had been exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic.
The Militarisation of Space
The C4isrnet website has an article on ongoing efforts by the U.S. Department of Defense to militarise space, following on from Donald Trump’s decision to create a Space Force. In particular, it focuses on the creation of a National Defense Space Architecture, consisting of hundreds of Low Earth Orbit satellites. The full piece can be found here.
Nuclear Power
Two Scottish sites have been confirmed as bidding for the UK’s prototype fusion reactor project whilst Estonia has taken a step towards the development of a Small Modular Reactor.
Nuclear Power-UK
The Ferret investigative journalism website is reporting that two sites in Scotland, Dounreay in Caithness and Chapelcross in the south of Scotland are under consideration for the construction of a prototype nuclear fusion reactor. Both sites are currently being decommissioned from conventional nuclear power generation. The UK Atomic Energy Authority will close its binding process at the end of the month.
Nuclear Power-Estonia
A joint partnership has been announced between a Japanese and an Estonian energy company in order to examine the construction of a Small Modular Reactor in Estonia, according to Power Engineering International. The potential move comes in the context of both the vexed energy politics of the region, where the Baltic states want to reduce their dependency on Russia and its allies (and in particular, Belarus’ Astravets nuclear power plant) and of Estonia’s status an extremely high carbon emitter per capita.
With best wishes,
Michael Muir
Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament