CND press Roundup, Friday 11th March, 2022
Posted: 13th March 2022
War in Ukraine
Tribune has a piece from CND General Secretary Kate Hudson calling for nuclear disarmament in the wake of threats of nuclear war by Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Tabloid headlines scream of Putin’s nukes and World War Three, and on this occasion, they are not overstating the possibility. With Putin putting Russian nuclear forces on high alert and issuing scarcely veiled threats of nuclear use, global alarm bells are ringing.”
The Welsh Senedd voted on Wednesday to call for a global ban on nuclear weapons and for all nuclear-armed states to sign up to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The motion, put forward by Plaid Cymru, was part of a debate on the response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Welcoming the endorsement for a ban on nuclear weapons, CND Cymru Vice-Chair Brian Jones said: “As serious as the situation is in Ukraine, it will become infinitely worse if nuclear weapons are used. The only long-term way to prevent the use of nuclear weapons is through a worldwide ban on nuclear weapons.”
Linda Pentz Gunter from Beyond Nuclear writes in The Morning Star on a possible disaster of potentially “global proportions,” due to fighting at one of Ukraine’s power plants warning: “Never before in our history has a war broken out in a region where there are operating nuclear power plants.” On the US decision to omit uranium imports from Russia from the list of energy sanctions Gunter says: ”The lobbying power of nuclear corporations exercises a stranglehold over governments, placing profits even before ethics by, in this instance, continuing to do business with Russia while others boycott.”
A Guardian opinion piece by a former US Air Force nuclear missile operator recounts nuclear “near misses’’ ranging from a story from the 1980s believed to be a “scare tactic for rookies,” to the near 300 nuclear alerts he had during his career, to a sense of post-Cold War malaise in recent years. He warns that talking about nuclear warfare in terms of megaton bombs, nuclear yields, budgets and stockpiles, we run the risk of obfusticating and rendering the danger to an abstract concept: “Nuclear weapons turn the most important parts of life into nothing more than numbers – which is exactly the thought process needed for a society that believes that launching a nuclear missile is a viable solution to conflict. Because in the wake of a nuclear attack there will be no individuals, only numbers.”
The UN’s nuclear watchdog, The International Atomic Energy Agency (IEAA), has said it has lost contact with Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant, hours after it warned of a potential disaster at the closed Chernobyl nuclear plant. IAEA boss Rafael Grossi said the interruption of data flows from both sites to its headquarters in Vienna was a cause for concern “where large amounts of nuclear material are present in the form of spent or fresh nuclear fuel and other types of nuclear material.”
Dr Jim Green gives a detailed rundown of the problems facing Ukraine’s nuclear stations since the Russian invasion for Renew Economy.
Fukushima
AFP reports on 11th anniversary commemorations to the victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that led to the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. People carried out searches for the missing and offered prayers to those who died in the disaster. Sadao Kon, a fisherman who also acted as a local fire brigade leader said: “Not only were my relatives killed, but I also saw many victims during my duty…So I intentionally try not to think about that day in a special way. It is a painful memory that I would forget if I could.”
The Independent focuses on the “uncertain” clean up efforts at the Fukushima plant. It notes that despite the progress such as the clearing of radioactive debris scattered from the explosion, many outstanding issues remain. Nearly 900 tons of radioactive melted fuel remain inside the three damaged reactors and 1.3 million tons of radioactive water still needs to be removed from the site in order to make room for further decommissioning work.
The Asahi Shimbun also looks at the challenges facing Fukushima’s decommissioning in a lengthy editorial. It looks at the controversial plan to remove the contaminated water, the plight of those who are still unable to return to their homes, and the development of a convincing plan to decommission the remaining reactors.
North Korea
North Korea has resumed ballistic missile testing, according to US officials on Thursday, calling it a “serious escalation”. Pyongyang had previously said that two tests in late February and early March were for a new North Korean spy satellite. Now, Washington believes the tests are for a new Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile system that could deliver a nuclear warhead. However, the tests didn’t show full ICBM range or capability and are believed to be just evaluations of the system ahead of a full test launch.
UK Nuclear Energy
Some interesting letters from CND friends to the Guardian in rebuttalto George Monbiot’s recent column, where he called for a Manhattan Projectesque effort to develop “kinder” nuclear technologies as an antidote to European reliance on Russian gas. Dr Paul Dorfmann writes: “The Fukushima disaster made Monbiot pro-nuclear and now military attack on nuclear in Ukraine makes him even more so. Good luck with that.” While Rae Street asks: “What on earth does George Monbiot mean when he refers to small modular reactors as ‘kinder nuclear technologies’?...SMRs are still vulnerable to accidents and attack (think of what happened in Ukraine); they still produce more nuclear waste per unit of electricity than conventional reactors; and there is still no safe, long-term solution for radioactive waste.”
And Emma Duncan takes aim at ‘Nimbys’ opposed to all manner of energy projects in this Times piece. Opponents to nuclear power, wind turbines, solar farms, and even fracking are accused of “putting Britain’s future in peril.” She argues that the UK will be unable to have energy security “unless selfish locals stop blocking solar, wind and nuclear projects. Most people support the transition to net zero, so long as the necessary wind turbines, solar farms and nuclear power stations are not built in their backyards. Fracking to produce the gas that we still rely on, and which is less damaging than coal or oil, has been stopped before it started.”
With best wishes,
Pádraig McCarrick
Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament