CND Press Roundup, Tuesday 1st March, 2022

War in Ukraine

• On Monday, veteran peace campaigner and CND Vice-President Bruce Kent delivered a letter to the Russian ambassador, condemning the ongoing invasion of Ukraine and calling for the rights of Russians protesting the war to be respected. “We are dismayed by President Putin’s public warning of ‘consequences greater than any you have faced in history,’ which is widely interpreted to be a reference to the use of nuclear weapons. If this was indeed the case, we condemn it in the strongest terms, and are also disturbed to hear more recent reports that Russian nuclear forces are being placed on high alert. President Putin’s order to invade Ukraine and the statement referred to above has tilted the world towards potential disaster. These actions put all of us in peril: the risk of nuclear war looms,” he said.

• The Telegraph writes on the “new nuclear war games” and attempts to understand Vladimir Putin’s nuclear strategy at a time when the idea of Mutually Assured Destruction seems not to matter. Quoting Adam Mount, director of the Defence Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists: “Putin’s standard procedure now is to inject nuclear weapons into non-nuclear crises…Putin wants to transform every crisis into nuclear crises to generate leverage by shifting a competition from an area where he’s relatively weak (economics, the streets of Kyiv) to one where he’s relatively stronger (nuclear weapons). We don’t have to acquiesce.” According to Mount, the likely Western response is that they “won’t want to alert because then it would certainly be a nuclear crisis…The dominant strategy is to do what we can to impose costs in the areas where Putin is weak rather than agreeing to compete where Putin is stronger.”

•  A former head of the British Army, General Lord Dannatt, has suggested that Vladimir Putin could fire a nuclear warhead into the desert or sea in order to show how serious he is. Speaking to ITV News Anglia, Dannatt said Putin was unlikely to use a nuclear weapon on a population centre but could “use a nuclear weapon in a demonstrative way – fire it into the sea, fire it into the desert – just to show that he’s serious. But even that is unthinkable and just shouldn’t be happening in the 21st century.”

• Hackers have claimed to have breached the security of the website of Russia’s nuclear energy company, Rosatom. Founded by Vladimir Putin in 2007, the company is responsible for the building and maintenance of nuclear power plants. It remains unclear if the day-to-day running of the organisation will be affected by the hack, undertaken by a group called AgainstTheWest (ATW).

Trident

• Concerns over the decision by Vladimir Putin to ready nuclear forces has led to several stories on the UK’s own nuclear capabilities. The i newspaper gives a run down of the UK-Russian tensions during the invasion and a short explainer of the UK’s Trident system and who the other nuclear-armed nations are. The Non-Proliferation Treaty also gets a mention, noting that 191 countries have signed up their intention to never use nuclear weapons.

• The Birmingham Mail also looks at the UK’s nuclear system along with details on the history of the UK’s nuclear arsenal and the decision by the UK government to increase the ceiling for the number of nuclear warheads it can possess.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• A US State Department spokesperson has warned that Washington is prepared to walk away from talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal if Tehran appears to display “intransigence to making progress.” Ned Price made the comments during the regular press conference on the talks currently being held in Vienna. Last week it was reported that a breakthrough on a new deal was close, however, Iran has also said that several outstanding issues still need to be resolved with Western negotiators.

Nuclear Energy

• As Germany cuts away from the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, The Telegraph reports on discussions around extending its nuclear power infrastructure in order to supply its energy needs. The Green Party, currently in the coalition government, haven’t outright opposed the idea, with Vice-chancellor and Green politician Robert Habeck saying the question was a “relevant one” and wouldn’t be dismissed ideologically. Germany’s reliance on nuclear energy has more than halved from 13% to 6% since 2000.

• Power Magazine has a piece by members of the Club of Rome, arguing that gas and nuclear energy are not ‘green investments’. The piece looks at the European Commission’s thinking behind what industries it labels as environmentally sustainable. On nuclear energy it writes: “Regarding nuclear power, the performance threshold to substantially contribute to the EU’s 2030 and 2050 climate goals can be met. However, the extensive time it takes to bring new nuclear power generation facilities online risks that they will not be present in time to substantially contribute. There is also no empirical evidence that demonstrates the management of high-level waste without causing significant harm to the environment.”
  
  Power Magazine has a piece by members of the Club of Rome, arguing that gas and nuclear energy are not ‘green investments’. The piece looks at the European Commission’s thinking behind what industries it labels as environmentally sustainable. On

• Greece and Bulgaria are in talks on the construction of a new nuclear power plant. The site would be located in Bulgaria but would contribute towards some of Greece’s energy needs as part of a 20-year agreement. The report also notes Romania is also seeking to construct a new nuclear site. . 

With best wishes,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament