CND Press Roundup Wednesday 25th May 2022

War in Ukraine

• The Express has picked up on the fact that Russian uranium is often required to fuel nuclear power plants – reporting on efforts by French nuclear firm EDF to find alternative suppliers to fuel the Sizewell B plant in Suffolk. “The company purchased uranium stocks prior to the Russian invasion launched back in mid-February, which the huge station is currently running off. It is also set to be refuelled with more Russian stocks bought before the war when these run out too. But once the two years-worth of uranium supply stocks run dry, EDF has said it could find ‘alternative options for future refuelling’,” the report said.

Chernobyl

• Channel 5 has a three-part series on the 1986 Chernobyl disaster with the final part airing on Thursday. Radio Times’ synopsis of part three: “With the reactor on fire and radiation spewing out into the atmosphere, firefighters battle to bring the blaze under control. A former Soviet helicopter pilot reveals what it was like flying over the core, while a historian who grew up in neighbouring Belarus reveals how her mother pulled her out of school and kept her inside when her father – a nuclear scientist – heard rumours of an explosion.” Previous episodes can be found here.

• The Daily Mail takes an interview from the above documentary with comments from a nuclear engineer who witnessed a major leak at the Chernobyl plant four years before the fateful disaster.

AUKUS

• Boris Johnson has floated the idea of expanding the AUKUS military pact beyond nuclear-powered submarines and hypersonic missiles, during a conversation with newly elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. A Downing Street spokesperson said Johnson had told Albanese that he thought the trilateral grouping – which also includes the US – could go “further together in other domains”, where both countries could “collaborate for the global good.”

• Japan will seek closer defence ties with Australia but is not at this time seeking to join the AUKUS military alliance, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said. Kishida made the comments during a meeting with his Australian counterpart in Tokyo on Tuesday – where both were attending the Quad summit alongside the US and India. “We are not thinking at all of joining AUKUS right now but our important partners in security and defence like Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States are members of AUKUS,” Kishida said. “We would like to further strengthen our close partnership with these countries.”

UK Nuclear Energy

• A delegation from Copeland Borough Council and Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership visited Westminster on Tuesday as part of efforts to secure the building of a prototype nuclear fusion reactor from STEP. The Moorside site next to Sellafield is one of five in the running for a UK Atomic Energy Authority competition to host the new type of reactor.

• A councillor in the Highlands has resigned from the authority’s independent group over the SNP’s opposition to nuclear power. Matthew Reiss, who was only re-elected to the council last month said: “Nuclear is the biggest employer in the county and I find it impossible to work in partnership or coalition with a party whose stated policies are anti-nuclear.”

Iran Nuclear Deal

• Analysis by Reuters assess the shifting attitudes among US officials towards reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – with many feeling that renewing the accord is better than the alternative options if Iran continues with its nuclear programme. Alternative options include more economic pressure or military action to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities. But analysts say “Washington now believes restoring some of the deal’s limits, such as its 3.67% cap on the purity to which Iran can enrich uranium and the a 202.8-kg limit on its enriched uranium stock, was better than the alternative.”

• The Jerusalem Post reports on comments made by Israeli intelligence sources who warn that the “absence of an Iran deal could spell more imminent nuclear danger for Israel and its allies,” concluding that a bad deal is better than no deal. It adds: “True, Iran has not yet mastered a number of weaponization issues relating to detonation and delivery of a nuclear bomb. However, members of the intelligence and defense establishment who are in favor of a bad deal as opposed to a no-deal scenario say the latter might embolden Iran to try to master those skills, even at the risk of a potential attack by Israel or the US.” Many Israeli political leaders – including current Prime Minister Neftali Bennett and his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu – have decried any new nuclear settlement between Western powers and Iran.

Nuclear Korea

• Russian and Chinese strategic nuclear-capable bombers conductedjoint patrol flights near South Korean and Japanese airspace on Tuesday – to mark the last day of US President Joe Biden’s trip to allies in the region. Biden had been visiting leaders in South Korea and Japan as well as attending a meeting of the Quad – leaders from Japan, India, Japan and Australia. Japan condemned the move as a provocation – scrambling fighters to meet the bombers. “China is not walking away from Russia. Instead, the exercise shows that China is ready to help Russia defend its east while Russia fights in its west,” one official told Reuters. Russia said the flight was carried out “strictly in accordance with the provisions of international law” and was not a provocation against any third countries.

• North Korea launched a salvo of three missiles on Wednesday, with one believed to be a long-range missile, the South Korean military has said. Officials in Seoul later said that Pyongyang had been conducting detonation experiments that could be in preparation for a nuclear test.