CND Press Roundup Thursday 24th March 2022
Posted: 29th March 2022
War in Ukraine
NATO bosses will meet in Brussels on Thursday for an emergency summit on the alliance’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They are expected to back a plan to give additional supplies to Ukraine to defend against chemical, biological, and nuclear attacks.
Simulations run by experts writing for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, warn that an attack on a Ukrainian nuclear power facility could lead to a disaster worse than the one at Chernobyl in 1986. It found that “a meltdown and/or spent fuel pool fire could force large population relocations in up to five countries, depending on the type of nuclear incident and weather patterns.” One scenario predicted that as many as 6.7 million people in Ukraine could be displaced by a hypothetical nuclear accident at the Zaporozhye 1 nuclear reactor, with 1.4 million in Russia, and 1.9 million in Belarus also facing displacement.
An interesting piece in Responsible Statecraft about the recent “loose talk” of using low-yield nuclear weapons in the Ukraine Russia conflict. Joe Cirincione writes that exploding a nuclear bomb would break a 77-year taboo but: “Unfortunately, as evidenced in a New York Times article this week, many experts are engaging in cavalier armchair strategies that normalize, or could even encourage, a nuclear war should Putin break this taboo. Former Defense Department official Frank Miller casually suggestsresponding to Russian nuclear use by firing a “low-yield” nuclear warhead from a submarine “into the wilds of Siberia or at a military base inside Russia.” This would be a signal, he claims, that “this is serious.”
Politico writes on how the war in Ukraine could go nuclear. It notes the limitations in current nuclear treaties and the lack of international agreements covering smaller nuclear weapons.
The UK has no early warning alert system in the event of a Russian nuclear attack, writes the i newspaper. Civil defences and air raid sirens were dismantled after the Cold War, and a new smartphone mobile alert system is being held up “due to rows over which Government department would pay for it.”
France has deployed three of its nuclear-armed submarines in response to “Russian nuclear sabre-rattling.” It’s the first time Paris has deployed three nuclear subs since the 1980s. Each vessel carries16 French-made M51 intercontinental missiles with ranges of several thousand kilometres.
North Korea
North Korea has tested an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), theoretically capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the US, for the first time since 2017. Japan said the missile flew 1,100 kms before landing in Japanese waters. South Korean President Moon Jae-In accused North Korea of violating a moratorium on ICBM launches and the country’s military responded with a series of live-fire missile tests of their own.
Trident
Transport for London has agreed to reconsider an application for advertising space from CND after a threat of legal action by the Public Interest Law Centre. The initial request for advertising space was made in late 2021, but TFL rejected the request on the grounds that advertising against nuclear weapons was seen as “party political.”
UK Nuclear Energy
A good letter in the Guardian on Boris Johnson’s aim to have a quarter of the UK’s energy mix coming from nuclear power. A summary of the arguments against it are: you can’t turn off nuclear energy on the days cheaper renewable energy is providing 100% of our requirements; what do we do with the toxic waste?; nuclear facilities are open to attacks by hostile actors; the fact it is becoming cheaper to invest in research and development of electricity storage; and the nuclear industry’s track record in not finishing projects on time or on budget.
- The Chair of the British Energy Efficiency Federation, Andrew Warren writes to the Financial Times on Boris Johnson’s plan to grow nuclear energy: “Right now, UK electricity consumption has in fact gone down by over 15 per cent since 2006. In other words, all that expectation of demand growth which was used to justify new nuclear power stations was grossly exaggerated, in practice by over 30 per cent.”
With best wishes,
Pádraig McCarrick
Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament