CND Press Roundup Tuesday 5th April 2022

War in Ukraine

• Russia has condemned a suggestion by Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister that Warsaw would be open to hosting US nuclear weapons in the country alongside a 50% increase in troops deployed there. Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dimitri Peskov said such a move would only heighten tensions further.

• The Morning Star has an editorial on Poland’s offer to host US nuclear weapons, arguing that such a move would only heighten tensions further and reinforce the policies that led to the war. “More militarism as a response to Russian aggression is a prescription that ignores longer trends: the start of the current war against an existing backdrop of increasing militarism. The cause of peace demands that we resist the new arms race and recognise the necessity of compromise, rather than stake Europe’s future in a game of bluff between the White House and the Kremlin.”

Trident

• Labour leader Keir Starmer has full confidence in his shadow peace and disarmament minister, Fabian Hamilton, over comments the latter made at a CND rally in 2019. A video of the rally released by the Mail on Sunday showed Hamilton say he’d be quite happy if Russian hackers were able to render the UK’s Trident nuclear system useless – as long as the UK could do the same to theirs. “It seems to me that now, more than any other time in our history, is the time to reconsider the weapons,” Hamilton added. Starmer said Hamilton “made some comments a number of years ago. I have confidence in him but the Labour Party position is absolutely clear,” reiterating the party’s support for NATO.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson has accused the US for holding up a new agreement on an Iran nuclear deal, a month after the talks were supposed to have concluded. “America is responsible for the halt of these talks…a deal is very much within reach,” Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday. He added that Tehran would also be willing to restart talks with regional rival Saudi Arabia, if the kingdom showed a willingness to resume a dialogue. Among the outstanding issues to a renewed Iran deal is the US removing the Revolutionary Guard Corp from its terrorism list, and guarantees that future US presidents won’t renege on the deal.

Military Spending

• A report by US firm Allied Market Research has found that the global market for nuclear missiles and bombs should surpass $126 billion (£96 billion) within ten years – a 73% increase on 2020 levels. The market in 2020 was around £73 billion, as governments diverted funds towards health spending amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Reuters said the report “predicted that demand for small nuclear warheads, which can be easily deployed through aircraft and land-based missiles, would fuel faster growth in these segments, although submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) accounted for a quarter of the market in 2020.”

North Korea

• Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has warned that South Korea’s military would be left “little short of total destruction and ruin” by Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities, if Seoul tried any pre-emptive attacks across the DMZ. Kim’s remarks were in response to comments made by the South’s Defence Minister Suh Wook – who said pre-emptive precision strikes could be made by South Korean forces if they believed the North was going to launch strikes against the country. It comes amid a period of heightened tensions on the peninsula as Pyongyang accelerates its nuclear and ballistic missile programme, and South Korea changes president from the dovish Moon Jae-in to the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol.

Fukushima

• The Financial Times writes on Japan’s energy shortages and a recent near-blackout. For the country’s pro-nuclear lobby: “The optimistic take is that, even as a near miss, the crisis means public opinion could now shift in favour of accelerating the restarts. That would be quite a shift. After the devastating 2011 quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan closed all 54 of its nuclear reactors, starving its power grid of 30 per cent of its electricity and forcing the country into an uncomfortably high reliance on imported fossil fuels. Just 10 reactors have since resumed operations, with a wider restart blocked by sustained public opposition and prohibitively complex regulation..” On the public’s opinion towards restarting the reactors, there seems to be a divide between those in big cities and those in coastal towns where the reactors are located: “A Nikkei poll taken after Tokyo narrowly avoided blackout, however, showed more than half of the Japanese public supported nuclear restarts for the first time since 2011. Some see a grand inflection point, others suspect the support could prove temporary and point out that public esteem for the utilities is low. Also, support in Tokyo and other cities is very different from support in coastal towns where the nuclear plants actually sit. The political momentum may also be fragile. There are deep divisions within the ruling Liberal Democratic party on the matter, and an election in July with too much at stake to risk putting nuclear at the head of the agenda.”

UK Nuclear Energy

• Scientists at a laboratory in England have shattered the record for the amount of energy produced during a controlled, sustained fusion reaction. Nuclear fusion start-up, First Light Fusion, has provided a proof of concept that its unusual approach to the technology, which involves firing a projectile at a pellet of fuel, is feasible. The experiment saw the projectile travel at 6.5 kilometres per second and for the smallest fraction of a second, these conditions came together to release 50 neutrons of energy. However the big if is that can this be scaled up, potentially providing a way of making almost limitless carbon-free electricity.

• Construction News looks at the UK government’s plan to build seven new nuclear reactors by 2050. Looking at the target to get a quarter of its energy needs from nuclear, it argues that the nuclear energy deficit “could get worse before it gets better” as current plants go offline. It also looks a t the costs of the plan – estimates at £13 billion – and a labour supply that is in high demand across the construction sector. For EDF’s Hinkley Point C project alone, the French energy firm said it needed up to 3,000 more workers to complete the project. It notes that while the total number of workers needed was expected to peak at 5,600, it is now estimated that 8,500 people will be needed to finish the project.

• The Western Telegraph reports on Wales Secretary’s Simon Hart’s trip to the US from April 5-9th. In addition to drumming up trade interest with US agriculture and meat bosses for Welsh lamb exports, Hart is also set to meet with US nuclear industry leaders as part of efforts to look for potential investment in nuclear energy in Wales.