CND Press Roundup Friday 27th May 2022

War in Ukraine

• Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has warned that the war in Ukraine could spill over into a third world war – which must be avoided at all costs. Soros made the comments during his dinner speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “Other issues that concern all of humanity – fighting pandemics and climate change, avoiding nuclear war, maintaining global institutions – have had to take a back seat to that struggle and that’s why I say civilisation may not survive,” Soros added.

• France 24 looks at the issue of nuclear security in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Petro Kotin, president of Ukraine’s nuclear energy body Energoatom, said the Russians have little idea of how to handle the Zaporizhzhia plant it is now in control of: “Today, they are using it as a military base because the perimeter is well protected by walls and video surveillance. They also use the cafeteria and the canteen to better the daily life of their soldiers…We have the impression that they themselves don’t understand the objective of occupying the plant. They came, they occupied and they didn’t really know what to do with it.”

Trident / US nukes in Britain

• Church Times has a short report on last week’s demonstration at RAF Lakenheath, mentioning the faith groups that were in attendance: “MEMBERS of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship (APF) were among the 200 demonstrators who gathered at RAF Lakenheath, in Suffolk, on Saturday, after reports that US nuclear weapons would be returned to the base, 14 years after they were first removed. The Christian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Quakers were also represented. A message was read out from the Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, who said: “The return of nuclear weapons on British soil represents a very dangerous development; one that must not go without challenge or protest.”

• The Mirror’s coverage of the campaign to get recognition for Britain’s nuclear test veterans has put it in the running for this year’s Paul Foot Award – an annual investigative journalism prize given by Private Eye. Mirror reporter and columnist Susie Boniface, has covered the campaign since 2002, building a website in 2018 so nuclear test veterans could tell their stories.

• “We can’t be sure that there are no nuclear weapons in the Malvinas now. The UK hasn’t been transparent,” Guillermo Carmona, Argentina’s foreign minister in charge of the South Atlantic, said in an interview with Declassified. Carmona’s comments come after investigations by Declassified found that the UK sent nuclear submarines to the South Atlantic during the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War.

UK Nuclear Energy

• MPs on the Welsh Affairs committee are to scrutinise plans to build a new nuclear power plant in Wylfa. Welsh Affairs Committee Chair, and Conservative MP for Pembrokeshire, Stephen Crabb said: “For many years, there has been back and forth over a new nuclear power station at Wylfa. Now that the Government has made clear in its Energy Security Strategy that nuclear is back on the table, Wylfa Newydd appears top of the list…Our Committee is keen to scrutinise the Government’s plans to revive nuclear energy generation in Wales, and support for nuclear technologies like small modular reactors. I invite anyone with views to submit evidence to our Committee.”

• Paul Brown writes in The Guardian on the climate crisis and Boris Johnson’s plan to rapidly build nuclear power plants: “On the campaign trail in ‘red wall’ seats before the May elections, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, repeatedly promised building nuclear reactors “one a year for eight years”. Last week at the Conservative conference in Wales he was at it again – this time promising one on Anglesey and another at Trawsfynydd in Mid Wales. Anyone who knows a little about nuclear reactors (current designs 10 years late and £10bn over budget) or about the prime minister’s other mega-projects – bridges across the Thames and Irish Sea, and an airport in the Thames estuary – is confident that this won’t happen.”

Iran Nuclear Deal

• “We do not have a deal…and prospects for reaching one are, at best, tenuous,” the US’ top envoy to Iran told lawmakers in Washington – referring to talks to reach an agreement with Iran on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal. US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Biden Administration was also ready to tighten sanctions on Iran and act with Israel to counter a ramping up of Iran’s nuclear programme.

• A worker at an Iranian military complex in Parchin, has died in what Iranian news agencies referred to as an “industrial accident.” The site, located 30kms outside of the capital Tehran, is alleged to have been used as a testing ground for conventional explosives that could be used to detonate a nuclear weapon. The UN’s nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency – had previously criticised Iran for denying the body access to the site.

Fukushima

• A lawsuit brought forward by Fukushima residents who were children at the time of the 2011 nuclear disaster – and later developed thyroid cancer - begun in Tokyo on Thursday. The group of six people are seeking damages worth nearly $5 million from the operator of the plant – Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco).

• Meanwhile, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has vowed to start the country’s reactors that were idled after the Fukushima disaster. “With priority in safety, we will take concrete steps to restart (plants), while the government is not considering to replace existing nuclear power plants with newer facilities,” Kishida told lawmakers on Friday.

Nuclear Korea

• China and Russia have vetoed a UN resolution to slap additional sanctions on North Korea for its recent spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches. The 15 member UN Security Council vote voted 13-2 in favour but shows one of the first times the 5 permanent members of the council have massively diverged on a North Korean sanctions resolution.