CND Press Roundup, Tuesday 8th March, 2022

Posted: 8th March 2022

Happy International Women’s Day. Please find our daily press round up below. Thank you to all for their continued help and support.

War in Ukraine

More coverage from CND’s co-organised global day of action found in the Belfast Telegraph. Quotes from Jeremy Corbyn, Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard, and Victoria Brittain. Other actions such as the Freedom from Torture banner drop and the protest at Parliament Square also get a mention.
The Derbyshire Times covers the Chesterfield CND action on Sunday, where 60 people turned up to give their solidarity with the people of Ukraine. Quoting CND member Mick Wall: “CND is calling for the withdrawal of all troops and a return to the negotiating table. Further escalation could be disastrous for us all.”
Stoke Sentinel covers the protest in Stoke with CND also quoted. “With the escalating threat of nuclear war, we are doing everything we can to raise awareness of the catastrophe that nuclear weapons’ use would unleash. We are at a life-or-death moment for humanity and we urge you to do everything you can to oppose this war and to oppose the use of nuclear weapons,” the CND spokesperson said.
Workers at the Chernobyl nuclear facility have been unable to leave the plant and are living on one meal of bread and porridge a day, according to reports. The site, which is not adapted for on-site living, has resulted in staff sleeping on floors since Russian forces gained control almost two weeks ago. Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, has called for staff to be allowed to rest properly and has offered to visit the site.
Britain must dust off its Cold War plans and prepare for a nuclear strike from Russia, says one Cambridge researcher, Paul Ingram. Speaking to the Telegraph, Ingram suggests there is a “one-in-eighty chance” that the Russian invasion of Ukraine will escalate into a nuclear conflict. “We are going to need to dust off some of the plans from the past…I assume that somebody inside government is doing exactly that.”
The Bulletin for Atomic Scientists looks at how international law applies to attacks on nuclear energy sites, following a fire at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant due to Russian shelling last week.

Trident

Former assistant chief of defence staff, Rear Admiral John Gower, gives an interview to the Sunday Times on the issue of an independent Scotland expelling British Navy nuclear submarines from its waters. Gower said the expulsion of the four nuclear submarines from Faslane would leave the UK dangerously exposed and put all of Europe in peril. The comments come amid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to put his nuclear forces on high alert.
Gower’s interview comes as the SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, reiterated the party’s commitment to ditching the Trident nuclear programme. In addition to the Scottish press, The Morning Star also quotes Blackford as calling the weapons “immoral, ineffective and expensive.”

AUKUS

Australia has announced that its new nuclear submarine base will be located in the east of the country, with Brisbane, Newcastle, and Port Kembla the most likely locations. Announcing the plan as part of a national security speech, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the far-reaching consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine would “inevitably stretch to the Indo-Pacific”. Morrison added that a decision on whether Australia would pursue a UK or US design would be made in partnership with both governments, but wouldn’t be made until after elections in May.

UK Nuclear Energy

The High Court will hear evidence today against proposals to dump contaminated mud into the Severn Estuary, as part of dredging work for the construction of the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant. Energy group EDF say the plan to dispose of the mud at a new disposal site in North Somerset poses no risk. However, campaigners warn the process could churn up deposits of nuclear waste from the old Hinkley A and B reactors, which previously stood on the site. The new dumping ground is also located near an area of scientific research, Portbury Wharf Salt Marsh, while the dredging and dumping sites are located within the Severn Estuary Special Area of Conservation.
The government has asked regulators to assess Rolls Royce’s designs for mini nuclear power stations, the latest step in giving the project the green light. The Office for Nuclear Regulation, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, will now assess the designs for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), which promoters say will provide nuclear energy at only a twelfth of the cost of nuclear plants like Hinkley Point.
Lincolnshire Live reports on efforts by Nottinghamshire County Council, EDF, and other groups, to host the UK’s first commercial nuclear fusion plant, the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP). If selected the site would be at West Burton A, a 50 hectare site located near the UKAEA’s Fusion Technology Facility.

Iran Nuclear Deal

The Independent writes that a revived Iran nuclear deal could be in sight after the country’s top diplomat returned to Tehran from Vienna on Monday night. Iranian state media said the return of Ali Bagheri Kani was in line with the negotiations framework but EU negotiators involved in the talks said the success or failure of the negotiations now lies with Iran. If successful, Iran will again agree to abandon its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
The Financial Times leads with the comments from EU diplomats involved in the talks, and the mounting pressure on Iran to sign the deal. Quoting the EU’s envoy Enrique Mora: “There are no longer ‘expert level talks’. Nor ‘formal meetings’. It is time, in the next few days, for political decisions to end the Vienna Talks. The rest is noise.”
Reuters reports on a three-month plan agreed between the UN’s nuclear watchdog and Iran, on resolving the issue of uranium particles discovered at three old but previously undeclared nuclear sites. The IAEA has previously been unsatisfied with Iranian answers to this issue, but an agreement on Saturday has opened up a series of exchanges between Iranian officials and the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi. If Grossi gives a positive outcome from the exchanges, it would pave the way for the easing of sanctions.

CND History

To mark International Women’s Day, The Spitalfield’s Life blog has a selection of photos from an anti-war action in east London in 1983. The pictures include members of Tower Hamlets Women for Peace and Tower Hamlets CND.

With best wishes,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament