CND Press Roundup Wednesday 15th June 2022

CND

• Peace in Kurdistan has a tribute to Bruce Kent on its website: “Bruce was a man of immense compassion with an unshakeable faith in the essential goodness of human beings and one who retained his hope in humanity even throughout the most dangerous years of Cold War confrontation when the administrations of US President Reagan and PM Margaret Thatcher were ratcheting up the arms race in the 1980s.” Read the full piece here.

Trident

• Some coverage of Monday’s protest outside the gates of the Coulport nuclear storage base by activists from Trident Ploughshares, Greenham Women, XR Peace, SCND, and others. Three people were arrested including 84-year old Brain Quail. The action was part of a series of actions to coincide with the Faslane Action for Bomb Ban peace camp.

• On Tuesday, Ginnie Herbet used a canoe to access the nuclear base at Coulport. She was accompanied by three other activists in separate canoes and a number of photographers. Ginnie landed the canoe, stepped on the base’s soil and planted a CND flag. “I came here in sorrow that the UK refused to keep its promises made in the NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty) to disarm its weapons of mass destruction. The UK should be in Vienna with the majority of the world’s nations to attend the 1st CoP of the TPNW (UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons). This Treaty offers hope and safety. Continuing to expand our nuclear forces makes Scotland a target and threatens the whole planet with catastrophe. We need to rid ourselves of our nuclear addiction and put the wasted resources into renewable non nuclear energy production, relieve poverty and tackle climate change,” she said.

UK Nuclear Energy

• The UK government has bought an option to take a 20% stake in the Sizewell C nuclear power plant, in a move that could see Chinese investment sidelined from the project. Whitehall announced a £100 million investment in the country in January which they say can be converted into equity if the project gets the final go-ahead. Alison Downes, of the Stop Sizewell C campaign, said: “It’s outrageous that ministers are hiding the cost to electricity bill payers and the public purse of Sizewell C, while claiming to be transparent. By redacting the finances, it is impossible to know if the secretary of state’s judgement on value for money is sound.”

• The Telegraph also reports on the Sizewell C announcement, calling it a snub to the Chinese. According to documents published by the Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, the government’s stake in Sizewell C will be “complementary” to the takeover rules that allow ministers to block acquisitions from hostile states. The document adds: “The rights attached to the special share are subject to approval by the Secretary of State but will likely be limited to protecting national security interests with respect to the proposed nuclear project.”

Iran Nuclear Deal

• Two Iranian nuclear scientists have died in suspicious circumstances in two separate incidents with suspected Israeli involvement. Ayoob Entezari, 35, died of suspected food poisoning while attending a dinner party – the host of which has now disappeared. Mystery also surrounds the death of Kamran Aghamolaei, who died after suffering from diarrhoea and organ failure. Both men are said to have been involved in Iran’s nuclear programme but this has not been confirmed.

• Washington is awaiting a “constructive” response from Iran on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal. “We await a constructive response from the Iranians, a response that leaves behind issues that are extraneous to the JCPOA,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, referring to the deal formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The “extraneous” issue in question is believed to be an Iranian request to have a section of its Revolutionary Guards Corp – the Quds Force – removed from Washington’s terrorism list.

China

• The National Interest has a piece on China’s modernisation of its nuclear arsenal and how it violates the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). While Beijing has not ratified the treaty, the article calls on the US to enter good-faith talks to promote nuclear non-proliferation. It notes: “China’s build-up presents a serious challenge to strategic stability. For nuclear strategists in the United States and allied countries, the immediate question that China’s build-up raises is the pragmatic one of how best to maintain the credibility of our long-standing nuclear deterrent in a strategic environment that China seeks to dominate.”