CND Press Roundup Thursday 19th May 2022

War in Ukraine

• “There isn’t even interest (within NATO) to put nuclear weapons or bases in Finland,” the country’s prime minister has said. Sanna Marin made the comments in an interview during a trip to Rome on Thursday. “I think at this stage it is important to stay calm, to have discussions with Turkey and all other member countries, answering questions that may exist and correcting any misunderstandings,” she added, referring to NATO member Turkey’s opposition to their ascension. Marin’s comments come as Finland and Sweden made formal applications to join NAT) this week amid rising support for joining the bloc after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was fine with the two joining the bloc – as long as nuclear weapons or permanent NATO bases weren’t established in either country.  

Trident / US nukes in Britain

• Some nice local coverage of CND’s upcoming protest at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk Live and Cambridgeshire Live. Comments from CND’s Kate Hudson printed in full: “At a time when tensions in Europe are at their highest in over a generation, the news that US free-fall nuclear bombs are likely returning to Britain after fourteen years is an extremely worrying development. What’s more, the UK government has obfuscated attempts by Parliamentary CND to get answers on this issue – by saying it can neither confirm nor deny the reports. Whether they are British or US nuclear weapons, their presence here certainly doesn’t make us any safer. On the contrary, they make us a target and ensure that Britain will be at the forefront of any nuclear confrontation between the US and Russia. We are gathering at RAF Lakenheath to demand that the UK government stops the return of US nuclear bombs to Britain, and to send the message that we will not accept this country once again becoming a forward base for US nuclear weapons in Europe.”

• CounterPunch has published Kate’s recent blog on Lakenheath ahead of Saturday’s protest.

• “Scottish independence is a threat to the West,” screams the headline in Iain Martin’s latest column looking at SNP defence policy. Nicola Sturgeon’s long-running CND credentials gets a mention as Martin goes on to liken Scottish independence int he current climate as “geopolitical vandalism.” In reference to the SNP policy that an independent Scotland would stay in NATO while also ditching Britain’s nuclear weapons he says: “Having broken up Britain, the SNP says that it would then, no doubt with a cheeky wee smile, apply to join NATO. Having presumably removed Britain’s nuclear weapons from Scotland, it would apply to shelter under the nuclear umbrella provided by others.”

• An opinion in The Telegraph also looks at the SNP’s defence policy for an independent Scotland. It accuses Sturgeon and her party of hypocrisy in wanting the protection of the military alliance while ditching nuclear weapons: “An independent Scotland run by the SNP would continue to oppose nuclear weapons, even while sheltering under the alliance’s nuclear umbrella. But much worse would be that in “her” Scotland there would be no place for the UK’s deterrent, currently based on the Clyde. Her government would aim to expel one of NATO’s three nuclear arsenals, potentially leaving only the US and France’s forces fully effective.”

• The National reports on the Scottish Greens’ opposition to NATO and nuclear weapons, following an interview with BBC Scotland. Countering the BBC’s question that nuclear weapons are a deterrent, Green MSP Ross Greer said: “But it [first-strike] is a NATO policy. First strike is not about responding to an attack, first strike is about the right to launch, to actually start that war, to start the last world war, because it would be the war that ended the world as we know it.”

• The Telegraph has an obituary for Professor Sir Laurence Martin – one of Britain’s leading opponents of unilateral nuclear disarmament – who has died at 93. Martin was appointed head of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (AKA the think tank Chatham House) in 1990. His books include Peace without Victory (1958), Arms and Strategy (1973), Strategic Thought in the Nuclear Age (1979) and The Changing Face of Nuclear Warfare (1987). His main defence for keeping nuclear weapons was outlined in a series of BBC Reith lectures – released as “The Two-Edged Sword”, in 1981.

• Unearthed documents exclusively seen by The Mirror show that British Army personnel involved in nuclear testing were intentionally exposed to cancer-causing levels of radiation – otherwise “important records and observations should be lost.” One vessel, HMS Diana, was required to sail through the nuclear fallout of two atomic bombs, for a total of 16 hours. It was the first British operation where one of its vessels gained “first-hand experience about fallout and contamination” as part of experiments to see “what hazards if any” were posed “to engineering personnel are to be expected as a result of passage through fallout from atomic weapons.” One exposed veteran, Archie Hart, said the revelations proved that veterans were “guinea pigs, sent into danger by men who were sat safe behind a desk in Whitehall.”

UK Nuclear Energy

• Bloomberg asks if the future of Brexit Britain lies in nuclear power, in a feature looking at plans to build a new nuclear power plant on the Welsh island of Anglesey. “Bringing an SMR to the island would be a true reflection of how the levelling up agenda can bring benefits to disadvantaged areas,” Tory MP Virginia Crosbie told the network. However, local anti-nuclear campaigners are sceptical with campaigner Robat Idris saying: “When you have an area which has essentially been economically neglected for generations, centuries then in desperation, people will accept whatever’s going.”

• Rolls-Royce Submarines will open a nuclear skills academy that will train up to 200 apprentice engineers a year. The firm heralded the centre as part of a “nuclear renaissance” underway in the UK and will ensure a supply of engineers over the next decade. The project is supported by the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, the National College for Nuclear, the University of Derby and Derby City Council.

Global Nuclear Energy

• The idea of this ‘nuclear renaissance’ is taken to task in this piece in The Progressive: “Desperate atomic cultists including Bill Gates are now touting small modular reactors. But they’re unproven, can’t deploy for years to come, can’t be guarded against terrorists and can’t beat renewables in safety, speed to build, climate impacts, price or job creation. Our energy future should consist of modern solar, wind, battery and LED/efficiency technologies, not nuclear reactors. Let’s work to guarantee that none of them explode before we get there.”

• The head of France’s energy regulator told parliamentarians that fixing corrosion found in the French nuclear reactors could take years to fix. Reuters reported that Bernard Doroszczuk said that while nuclear energy firm EDF had checked 35 weldings for corrosion and would look at a further 105 by the end of June, the cause of the problem was still unknown. And while French President Emmanuel Macron has given his support for extending the lifetime of France’s older nuclear reactors, Doroszczuk said that extensions beyond 50 years was not guaranteed.

North Korea

• As US President Joe Biden prepares to start a trip to South Korea and Japan on Friday, his administration braced for a North Korean missile or nuclear test to coincide with the visit. “Our intelligence does reflect the genuine possibility that there will be either a further missile test, including long-range missile test, or a nuclear test, or frankly both in the days leading into, on or after the president’s trip to the region,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Wednesday. “We are preparing for all contingencies, including the possibility that such a provocation would occur while we are in Korea or in Japan.”