CND's Press Round-Up - 22nd March 2021

Posted: 22nd March 2021

Please find today’s press round up below. A continued thanks to all for your help and support.

Nuclear Weapons

UK Warhead Increase-National Reaction

The Shadow Foreign Secretary, Lisa Nandy, has said that Labour will not support the Government’s plans to increase the number of nuclear warheads possessed by the UK. Ms Nandy told the Andrew Marr Show that ‘We are absolutely baffled, as many Tory MPs are as well, about why the Government has chosen this moment – at the point at which the United States has stepped forward to try to deal with nuclear proliferation, signing a new treaty with Russia, at the point we face a growing threat from Iran from nuclear weapons – to do it.’ The I online papers reports that Labour will either abstain or vote against the plans when they come to the House of Commons.
 
 
UK Warhead Increase-International Reaction
 
The Russian ambassador to the UK gave an interview on LBC yesterday in which he said the decision to lift the cap on the UK’s number of nuclear warheads constitutes a violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Evening Standard reports that Andrei Kelin also commented that the announcement was ‘a big surprise’ and that there no grounds for the claim in the Integrated Review that Russia was an ‘acute threat’.
 
The German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has also criticised the decision, in an interview given to Deutsche Welle. Whilst Maas appeared reluctant to challenge the UK government directly, he warned that there existed the potential for escalation from other nuclear states following the move, saying that ‘the past has shown that if one side has more nuclear weapons, the other side will try to catch up. And that is the disastrous arms race we have been in for decades’. The Minister also said that retaining faith in existing international treaties was crucial.

Nuclear Power
 
Nuclear Power-Japan
 
A district court in Japan has suspended the right of the Tokai No.2 Power Station to operate until its surrounding municipalities in place proper evacuation procedures, according to the Mainichi Shimbun. Around one million people live within a thirty kilometre radius of the plant, owned by the Japan Atomic Power Company, which is the only nuclear one in the greater Tokyo area. It is the eight ruling from Japanese courts removing the right of a nuclear power plant to operate since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
 
Nuclear Power-Pakistan
Pakistan has successfully connected its first Chinese-designed and produced nuclear reactor to its national electricity grid, according to World Nuclear News. The power plant, near Karachi, was constructed through a $9 billion dollar deal agreed between Chinese and Pakistani state nuclear bodies in 2013.  The Hualong One reactor, which is the model used at the site, has also been proposed for use at a new Bradwell nuclear plant  by a Chinese-French joint venture
 
Nuclear Power-Iran
 
The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran has said that it will ‘cold test’ its Arak nuclear power facility, with the aim of having it online by the end of the year, a report from Reuters says. Under the terms of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), Iran had agreed to shutter the facility, which is located about a hundred and fifty miles south of Tehran.
 

With best wishes,

Michael Muir

Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament