CND Press Roundup Thursday 28th April 2022

War in Ukraine

• Russian President Vladimir Putin again warned against any further intervention in Ukraine by NATO members – suggesting a confrontation with Moscow could lead to a nuclear exchange. Speaking in St. Petersburg, Putin said “if anyone sets out to intervene in the current events from the outside and creates unacceptable threats for us that are strategic in nature, they should know that our response…will be lightning-fast.”

• Allister Heath writes for The Telegraph on our proximity to World War III – and our unwillingness to admit how close we are to it: “A fundamental disconnect is staring us in the face: science and technology keep on improving, making war ever-more dangerous, destructive and easy, but the West’s statecraft has atrophied, together with our political institutions, our understanding of history, our diplomacy and our ability to think clearly about risk. Unless Britain, America and others dramatically up their game, the outlook for world peace is looking ever grimmer.”

• A recent Guardian editorial looks at the rising stakes over Russia’s war in Ukraine, following the latest round of nuclear threats made by Moscow. It says that if the UK government wishes to increase its level of intervention in Ukraine any further “it should only be after the fullest consultation with parliament and an honest public debate about the dilemmas and uncertainties involved. Russia’s nuclear threats are a sign of the Kremlin’s desperation, but they also illustrate the frighteningly high stakes in the most serious conflict on European soil since the second world war.”

• The Financial Times talks to US political scientist Graham Allison on Putin’s recent nuclear threats. Allison stresses the need for a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine: “I think the painful fact about Ukraine is that we have to hope to get to some resolution or some ceasefire or some place where it stops before we give him that [using nuclear missiles] option. Because I think, unfortunately, in that option, there’s no reason to believe he wouldn’t conduct a nuclear strike. And if that were to happen, we will all be back into the world of thinking about the unthinkable and which is not very good choices.”

Trident / Nukes in the UK

• CND has a news item on the website, covering the Ministry of Defence’s refusal to answer questions on the return of US nuclear weapons to RAF Lakenheath. CND General Secretary Kate Hudson said: “Despite Parliamentary CND’s best efforts to hold the UK government to account, the MoD consistently side steps on the issue of nuclear weapons in the most disgraceful way. The people of this country deserve to know whether a foreign nation’s nuclear stockpile is being warehoused on their doorstep. Nuclear weapons don’t make the people of this country any safer but they do make them a target. The fact the government tries to avoid scrutiny by using an ‘I can neither confirm not deny’ argument is deeply shameful. The US nuclear presence at Lakenheath ended in 2008 after a sustained campaign by CND and the Lakenheath Action Group. We are again opposing US nukes in Britain in a national demonstration at RAF Lakenheath on 21st May.”

• The upcoming issue of the New Statesman has a cover feature on SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, asking if the party’s stance on Trident could be its undoing. Fresh from the constraints of the BBC’s editorial policy, Andrew Marr argues that the war in Ukraine has made the party’s arguments for independence – and against Trident – “increasingly obsolete.” He writes the following as if it’s a bad thing: “Nicola Sturgeon joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament even before she joined the SNP. Hostility to Trident is woven into the modern history of the party. Go online to check out its defence policy and the first words you meet are: ‘The SNP has never and will never support the retention or renewal of Trident. We believe that nuclear weapons are immoral, ineffective and expensive.’”

Global Abolition

• Lancashire Live reports on efforts by councillors on Lancaster City Council to have the authority join become part of the the international Mayors for Peace network. Green Party councillor Mandy Bannon said the network “calls for closer cooperation among towns and cities, strives to raise public awareness regarding the need to abolish nuclear weapons and contributes to the realisation of genuine and lasting world peace by working to eliminate starvation and poverty, assist refugees fleeing local conflict, support human rights, protect the environment, and solve the other problems that threaten peaceful co-existence.”

North Korea

• Reuters has some analysis from foreign policy experts on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme and leader Kim Jong-un’s nuclear ambitions. It follows comments by Kim during a military parade on Monday where he said nuclear weapons would be used not just in the event of an invasion, but against any country who violates the North’s “fundamental interests.” Quoting analysts, the news agency said “Kim’s latest speech builds on previous statements and policies by North Korea, and appears to mirror language used by the United States’ latest Nuclear Posture Review, which says it will use nuclear weapons to defend its ‘vital interests’ or those of its allies.” They added that this “doesn’t necessarily mean North Korea is more likely to use its weapons, the vague threats are not unlike those of the United States and the Soviet Union in the Cuban Missile Crisis and can lead to dangerous misunderstandings.”

Nuclear Energy

• The New York Times weighs up the prospect of nuclear energy being a solution to European dependence on Russian oil and gas – but notes that the timescales mean this is not an immediate solution to the ongoing energy crisis: “Across the channel, Britain recently announced ambitions for as many as eight new nuclear plants, but the reality is more sobering. Five of the six existing British reactors are expected to be retired within a decade because of age, while only one new nuclear station, a long-delayed, French-led giant costing 20 billion pounds at Hinkley Point in southwest England, is under construction. Its first part is expected to come online in 2026. Others being considered in Eastern Europe aren’t expected to come online before 2030.”

• The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has ordered a review of documents that could lead to a probe into a recently approved small modular reactor (SMR) – over fears the design is flawed against withstanding earthquakes. It follows a complaint from an engineer at the agency, who expressed concern about the SMR design submitted by energy firm NuScale, who plan to build a fleet of reactors at the Idaho National Laboratory.

• Activists from Cyprus’ Turkish and Greek communities gathered on Tuesday to voice their concerns over plans to build a Russian-owned nuclear power plant on Turkey’s southern coast – just 60 miles from the island’s northern coastline. “The war in Ukraine has demonstrated that nuclear power plants are a source of great uncertainty for public safety,” said George Perdikis, former leader of the Cyprus Greens Party. The activists are also concerned that the plant is being built near a seismic fault which could lead to radioactive leaks in the event of an earthquake.