CND Press Roundup Tuesday 24th May 2022

War in Ukraine

• Russia’s dominance in the nuclear industry features in this article by CNBC, citing a recent report by Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. While there has been much discussion on Russian oil and gas in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, the rush by Western nations to find alternative energy sources has led to some backing renewed investment in nuclear energy. But to sidestep reliance on Russia for materials like uranium, the report said that more “investment in mining, conversion, and enrichment facilities may be necessary to fully extricate Western nuclear fuel chains from Russian involvement.” But with that comes great expense and “adding sufficient new conversion capacity and enrichment capacity will take years to accomplish.”

Trident / US nukes in Britain

• More coverage in the Morning Star of the demonstration at RAF Lakenheath. Ken Livingstone also had a piece in the Star at the weekend on how US nuclear weapons being stationed in Britain could bring about armageddon.

• Counterfire also has a write up of the demonstration with lots of comments from the variety of speakers.

• Bella Caledonia looks at SNP Defence Spokesperson Stewart MacDonald’s recent comments suggesting that an independent Scotland could temporarily host a third country’s nuclear weapons.

AUKUS

• The Bulletin assesses the Australian Labor Party’s win in last weekend’s election and what it means for the AUKUS military pact: “[New Prime Minister Antony] Albanese supports the general idea of AUKUS to counter-balance China, but not necessarily its most controversial aspect, which is that the eight submarines would be fueled with tons of nuclear weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium (HEU)—enough to produce up to 1,000 nuclear warheads if diverted—setting a precedent that would foster proliferation.”

UK Nuclear Energy

• Unite reports on the delays impacting the construction of the Hinkley Point C reactor – with workers striking over pay and conditions. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Darchem Engineering is making millions from the UK taxpayer so it has no right denying workers on a UK project a fair rate of pay. It needs to get a grip or their actions will cause further problems to the Hinckley site. Unite will be giving our members at Darchem Engineering our total support until the unfair pay disparities are fully resolved.”

• The Times looks at the offer by the US consortium of reactor maker Westinghouse and engineering firm Bechtel, who “hope to win government support and potential taxpayer investment for their plan to build two reactors at Wylfa on Anglesey.” The group say the project would cost £17 billion but would “be quicker and cheaper to build than EDF’s Hinkley Point C.”

• Meanwhile, the government has started discussions with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on developing a new nuclear plant in Wales. The body is working with Welsh development firm Cwmni Egino on proposals for the siting of the nuclear plant at NDA’s site in Trawsfynydd, north Wales, home to a Magnox station which is being decommissioned.

Nuclear Korea

• South Korea’s minister in charge of inter-Korean affairs has said an offer by President Yoon Suk-yeol to help economically develop its northern neighbour will be tied to Pyongyang’s denuclearisation efforts. In his inauguration speech last week, Yoon announced an “audacious plan” to help develop North Korea’s economy – in a softening of the more hard-line rhetoric towards North Korea espoused during the election campaign.  

Global Abolition

• A group of Japanese atomic bombs survivors have called on Japan to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – ahead of the first meeting of states parties in Vienna in June. In a visit to the Foreign Ministry, survivors presented the government with 900,000 signatures collected from around the country over the last year, which called for Japan to sign up to the treaty. Tokyo has long-maintained that it will not join the TPNW.

• Arms Control looks at the upcoming 10th Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in the shadow of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It writes: “Putin’s war has derailed for now US-Russian talks on further cuts in their bloated strategic arsenals and new agreements to limit short- and intermediate-range nuclear weapons, but the United States and Russia, as well as other NPT states-parties, are still bound by their disarmament obligations. The last remaining US-Russian arms reduction agreement, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), expires in early 2026. Without common sense arms control guardrails, the dangers of unconstrained global nuclear arms racing will only grow.”

• IDN reports on efforts by ICAN to raise awareness about and adherence to the TPNW in Africa. Congo’s recent signing of the TPNW – the first in central Africa to do so – is “considered a testimony of Africa’s firm stance that multilateral action on nuclear disarmament…and that it is the responsibility of all states to lead towards the elimination of these horrific weapons.”

Fukushima

• CND Vice-President Dr Ian Fairlie writes on the dangers facing Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water from the defunct Fukushima nuclear plant: “At the present time, over a million tonnes of tritium-contaminated water are being held in about a thousand tanks at the site of the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power station in Japan. This is being added to at the rate of ~300 tonnes a day from the water being pumped to keep cool the melted nuclear fuels from the three destroyed reactors at Fukushima. Therefore new tanks are having to be built each week to cope with the influx. These problems constitute a sharp reminder to the world’s media that the nuclear disaster at Fukushima did not end in 2011 and is continuing with no end in sight.”