CND's Press Round-Up - 11th May 2021
Posted: 11th May 2021
Dear all,
Please find today’s press round up below. Thank you to all for their continued help and support.
Nuclear Weapons
Talks in Vienna continue on the JCPoA with all parties making positive noises, whilst a new German report focuses on states’ strategies for acquiring nuclear technology.
Iran Nuclear Deal Talks
Iranian President Hasan Rouhani has said he is ‘optimistic’ that the talks in Vienna would ultimately be successful according to Reuters. Some will see the President’s declaration that only details have to be sorted and that the U.S. has conceded it will lift a wide range of sanctions might be designed to bolster his position in domestic political terms, as his ministry races against time to secure a deal before the June presidential election in which he is not a candidate.
Meanwhile, the German Foreign Minister has said the fourth round of talks are taking place ‘in a constructive atmosphere’ but that time was running out to secure an agreement.
German Intelligence Report on Iran
A report from a regional department of German intelligence says that Iran engages in covert behaviour in order to acquire material for its nuclear programme, according to Israeli press. Iran is accused of importing materials through third party states and the creation of shell companies and fronts. In Hamburg in 2013, four men were convicted for violating Germany’s exports laws in relation to the export of special valves to Iran.
Nuclear Weapons and Civilians
The Just Security website carries a long piece on analysing the U.S’s stated nuclear doctrines in relation to international humanitarian law. The authors argue that the U.S. must admit that the targeting of civilians by nuclear weapons during any retaliatory strike would be illegal under international law. They point to the Biden administration’s nuclear posture review.
Anti-war
The U.S. has began its final round of chemical weapon destructions, with the aim of having completed them by the end of 2023.
U.S. Chemical Weapons
The U.S. is in the process of destroying the last of its nerve agent-carrying artillery shells. Since 2019, the U.S. has destroyed around 133 tons of the VX nerve agent. The U.S. publicly confirms the existence of two chemical weapons bases in Kentucky and Colorado. As part of its efforts to comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention, the U.S. is working to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile by the end of 2023, with around 90% of its peak stockpile already having been destroyed.
Nuclear Power
The business magazine Forbes has a piece on nuclear waste disposal and argues for the expansion of deep geological disposal.
Nuclear Waste-USA
Forbes magazine carries an article on the U.S’s seemingly intractable difficulties when dealing with its nuclear waste. Whilst the scientific consensus seems still to be deep geological disposal, in the past decade and a half, two sites in Nevada and New Mexico ran into entrenched political opposition. A test site, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, does operate in New Mexico but attempts to expand it have foundered so far.
With best wishes,
Michael Muir
Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament