CND's Press Round-Up - 15th April 2021

Posted: 15th April 2021

Dear all,

Please find today’s press round up below. Thank you to all for their continued help and support.

Nuclear Weapons

Ukraine has ramped up bellicose rhetoric by invoking the idea that Russian nuclear weapons could be stored in the Crimea whilst Iranian reaction to the Natanz attack continues to be felt.

Ukraine Nuclear Rhetoric
 
Ukraine has struck an aggressive tone in regard to the continuing crisis in the country’s east, saying that Russia could be preparing to store nuclear weapons in the Crimean Peninsula. Reuters reports that Andrii Taran, the Ukrainian defence minister, told a press conference immediately before an emergency NATO meeting of foreign and defence ministers that ‘Crimea’s infrastructure is being prepared for potentially storing nuclear weapons. The very presence of nuclear munitions in the peninsula may spark a whole array of complex political, legal and moral problems.’ A direct phone call between Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin told place on Tuesday.
 
Iran
 
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have visited the Natanz facility, according to Reuters. Whilst inspectors did not offer comment on the weekend’s cyber-attack, a report will be presented to the IAEA’s Board of Governors.
The Associated Press reports that the Ayatollah Khamenei said that the initial offers put to the country at the Vienna talks were ‘not worth looking at’.  Meanwhile, President Rouhani has said that the centrifuges damaged in Sunday’s attack would be replaced by more advanced models. The talks in Vienna are expected to resume today.
 
North Korea
 
The U. S’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence has published a report in which it suggests that North Korea could resume nuclear testing this year, according to the South China Morning Post. The report argues that such a move would have the aim of producing renewed negotiations between the North Korean leadership and the Biden administration. North Korea has not tested a long-range missile for three years.


Nuclear Power

Nuclear Power-General
 
The Electrical Review carries an editorial on the problems of disposing of nuclear waste. It focuses in particular on how the lack of stable geological formations for waste disposal present intractable problems. The most recently proposed site at Sellafield has been rejected on these grounds.  As the paper argues, ‘To those in power, the solution to the waste problem is always just around the corner, to be resolved just beyond their term of office. But the history of nuclear over the last six decades, across the globe, is of dozens of failed schemes.’

Nuclear Power-UK
 
The public consultation on the development and installation of new nuclear reactors at the Bradwell B site in Essex, according to local press. The UK HPR1000 is expected to be installed at the site by the end of 2022.  


With best wishes,

Michael Muir

Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament