CND Press Roundup Tuesday 12th July 2022

War in Ukraine / NATO

• Kate has a new blog post on last month’s NATO summit and the release of their new Strategic Concept document – which does nothing to limit the chances of a nuclear confrontation. You can read on the website here.

• The Wall Street Journal reports that the Russian army is “transforming Europe’s largest nuclear power plant” at Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine “into a military base overlooking an active front, intensifying a months-long safety crisis for the vast facility and its thousands of staff.” The site has been occupied since March.

• Meanwhile, The Guardian reports on calls by Ukrainian authorities for people to leave the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions as its troops prepare for a counteroffensive to retake the territories.

• That’s as The Express cites unconfirmed reports that Russian troops are “ attempting to drain the cooling ponds” at Zaporizhzhia in order to “conduct weapons searches.” First reported by the Kiev Independent, it quotes the mayor of the city of Enerhodar – the city closest to the plant – who accuses Russian soldiers of beating a diver to death for refusing to dive into one of the pools located at the plant. Professor Paul Dorfman said: “Draining spent nuclear fuel ponds would be utter madness, as cascading problems could lead to very significant radioactive release – and depending on which way the wind is blowing, the radioactive pollution could either go to Europe or Russia.”

• Matthew Syed has a new mini-series on BBC Radio 4 calling for a nuclear awakening in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – arguing that in the years since the end of the Cold War, we have slipped into a form of nuclear amnesia. You can check out the trailer on BBC Sounds. Series starts tomorrow but I’ll post the episodes in the press roundups in case you miss them.

Nuclear War

• The Telegraph reports on findings by researchers on the “globally catastrophic” consequences of a nuclear war ranging from plummeting temperatures to crop failures. “Researchers estimated that even the smaller war would see between 11 billion and 103 billion pounds of smoke and soot ejected into the upper atmosphere, blocking out the light from the sun. A war between superpowers could see three times that level.” Leader author, Professor Cheryl Harrison said: “It doesn’t matter who is bombing whom, it can be India and Pakistan or Nato and Russia. Once the smoke is released into the upper atmosphere, it spreads globally and affects everyone. We must do everything we can to avoid nuclear war. The effects are too likely to be globally catastrophic.”

• New York City’s Emergency Management Department released a Public Service Announcement on Monday – advising residents on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. The city’s advice? Get inside, stay inside and tune into the media for updates.

AUKUS

• Sea Power magazine picks up on comments made by Australia’s new defence minister, on the challenges posed to implementing the AUKUS submarine project, during a visit to meet his US counterpart in Washington.

Nuclear Energy

• Renew Economy covers a recent report by Australia’s leading research institute, the CSIRO – which gave a damning verdict on the cost, speed, and effectiveness of building nuclear plants to meet the country’s climate change targets: “The latest CSIRO GenCost report – which says that wind, solar and storage is clearly the cheapest option in Australia – points out that the intense pressure it received to lower its cost estimates for nuclear comes almost exclusively from ambitious vendors, and their proxies, who have nothing to show for their claims. There are no SMRs in operation, and none are expected until 2029 at the earliest. CSIRO economist Paul Graham, the lead author of the report, says until the first SMRs are deployed it is not possible to find good evidence about the claims of the industry.”

• Shares in French nuclear firm EDF surged by over 9 percent after the French government announced it would re-nationalise the indebted outfit completely by purchasing the 16 percent of shares it doesn’t already own. The move is also likely to see EDF pull away from new international nuclear projects in order to focus on the domestic energy market. While the firm will stay on board the Hinkley Point and planned Sizewell C nuclear projects in England, it is unlikely to be involved in fresh reactor projects dreamed up by Whitehall.

UK Nuclear Energy

• The Telegraph looks at the nationalisation of EDF and what it means for both Britain and France: “The company has a massive role in the UK’s energy sector, as owner of the UK’s nuclear fleet and only developer currently forging ahead with the country’s nuclear renaissance. Yet ballooning debts, outages and delays have raised doubts about its abilities on both sides of the Channel. Will nationalisation in France be enough to fix its problems? ‘We see the move as a positive,’ says Antonio Totaro, senior director at Fitch Ratings, the credit rating agency. ‘First of all, it is a clear sign of commitment, which can be seen in parallel with President Macron’s call for a ‘nuclear renaissance’ in France. We also believe it’s also going to make decision-making smoother.’”

• The paper also reveals how EDF has been placed under special monitoring measures by the Office for Nuclear Regulation over security threats to the Hinkley Point C plant. In a blog post last week, Dr Marsha Quallo-Wright, deputy director for Private Sector Critical National Infrastructure at the National Cyber Security Centre, said “now is not the time for complacency” despite no significant cyber attacks on UK organisations since Russia’s invasion. “The absence of successful cyber attacks doesn’t equate to a change in adversary capability or intent; indeed it may be evidence that our additional cyber defences are working effectively,” she said.

• Britain’s nuclear regulator has said that the Sizewell C nuclear plant has almost met all the requirements for a successful application – with the two outstanding issues needed to be resolved before one was issued. In a statement on Monday the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) said plans were in place to solve the issues “involving ownership of the land and a shareholder agreement about a company in charge of safety and security of the site,” according to Reuters.

• The Engineer looks at a £3 million funding award to a consortium led by Sizewell C for an Direct Air Capture project that “could be powered by heat” generated from the proposed facility.

• Nuclear Free Local Authorities has issued a statement against the new Energy Security Bill, arguing that it waters down rules on fusion energy. Chair of the NFLA Steering Committee, Councillor David Blackburn, said: “The NFLA’s view is that the government’s decision is misguided. It seems blasé to treat a fusion plant for regulatory purposes in the same way as a factory making chemical products. Fusion presents some of the same hazards and challenges as fission, but some are new; surely then fusion is nuclear and so a plant utilizing this technology must be a ‘nuclear installation’.

• The National reports on the refusal by the Scottish government to “rethink” its position on nuclear energy amid pleas from Westminster’s Energy Minister Greg Hands. The Tory minister made the comments to Scottish journalists during a roundtable in London.

Right to Protest

• Popular Resistance has a post on how the government’s National Security Bill could have serious ramifications for journalists and publishers – but also activists engaged in direct action. It notes that: “Under Section 4, entering a ‘prohibited place’ could result in a life sentence, if the person knew or “ought reasonably to know” it is prejudicial to the safety or interests of the U.K. This includes if someone ‘accesses, enters, inspects [including films], passes over or under, approaches or is in the vicinity of a prohibited place.’ Conceivably, direct action activists such as members of Palestine Action who have successfully shut down factories belonging to Israeli weapons manufacture Elbit Systems Ltd, would be caught by such provisions, The same goes for journalists filming them or entering a premises designated ‘prohibited.’