CND Press Roundup Friday 17th June 2022

Bruce Kent

• More tributes to Bruce Kent can be found by World Beyond War, The Tablet, and by fellow CND vice-president Canon Paul Oestreicher OBE in The Church Times.

War in Ukraine

• Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dimitri Peskov said Russia and the US must discuss the extension of the START nuclear arms reduction treaty, the RIA news agency reported on Thursday. Peskov added that the matter was important for global security and that the war in Ukraine was no reason to avoid the discussion.

Trident

• The National reports on the Scottish Greens call for an independent Scotland to sign up the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). MSP Lorna Slater said: “The Scottish Greens believe that acceding to this treaty is one of the first things Scotland could do as an independent country, instantly rendering the nuclear weapons kept here illegal, and leading a new move to global nuclear disarmament.” The comments come after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced plans to hold Indie Ref 2 in 2023.

• The Telegraph has a story on how a Royal Navy submarine commander discussed nuclear secrets about Trident with a “clandestine lover” which put national security at risk. A court martial heard that Lt Cdr Nicholas Stone, 37, and Lt Sophie Brook, 30, shared details about classified submarine movements in a Yahoo email, which “could have been intercepted by an enemy.” Messages included details about speed, depth, and direction of travel of Vanguard-class submarine HMS Victorious. The pair had been engaged in a secret sexual relationship despite Stone being married with two children.

• Hamish de Bretton-Gordon calls for Britain to develop a new nuclear strategy in this Telegraph article. Fearing that Russia has taken radioactive material from the Chernobyl plant for use in a false flag event, or Israeli claims that Iran is close to finalising its nuclear weapons programme he writes: “There needs to be a national strategy that delivers a coherent response to a nuclear event, with national and local action seamlessly interlinked. The local resilience forums proved their worth during Covid, and should be strengthened to cover nuclear eventualities.” He also is a fan of more nuclear power arguing: “In order to realise the planet-saving opportunities nuclear power can provide, we must develop a comprehensive resilience structure across the UK and internationally.” Imagine thinking Britain’s Covid response is something worth emulating when £4 billion worth of PPE was unusable?

• Some letters to The Herald on the Faslane peace camp’s 40th anniversary as well as a letter about Bruce.

AUKUS

• An Australian think tank has warned that Australia must plug its conventional submarine capability gap before upgrading to nuclear-powered subs – or risk the whole programme failing. The report by the Australian Industry and Defence Network will heap pressure on the new Labor government to make a decision on replacing its ageing Collin-class fleet – which which will be obsolete before the nuclear subs are launched.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Bad news for Boris Johnson’s nuclear energy strategy in Alistair Osborne’s column in The Times. As the government gears up to take a 20 percent stake in the Sizewell C nuclear project by using its Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model, Osborne compares it to the “contracts for difference” model used to fund EDF’s pricey Hinkley Point C. While Hinkley Point required EDF to “fund construction upfront, only receiving income when the nuke starts to generate electricity,” RAB will see the developer get paid during construction by a levy on consumer bills. “The problem with that?,” asks Osborne – “It leaves consumers on the hook for the vast cost overruns in which the nuclear industry specialises: the latest proof being Hinkley itself, up from £18 billion to about £26 billion and running a decade late.”

Global Disarmament

• The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has a recap of last month’s Amnesia Atómica event in New York.