CND Press Roundup Wednesday 13th July 2022

War in Ukraine / NATO

• Asia Times looks at the recent delivery of Russia’s newest – and the world’s largest – nuclear-powered submarine, the K-329 Belgorod. Designed to tackle scientific problems and conduct search and rescue operations, the sub is also capable of carrying deep-sea rescue vehicle and underwater drones such as the Poseidon – a “nuclear-armed underwater drone, which can deliver a retaliatory nuclear second strike at population centers, major cities and industrial centers near the coast by triggering devastating radioactive tsunamis.”

• Tests of Russia’s new hypersonic, nuclear-capable Sarmat missile are imminent, according to the Kremlin’s space chief. Images released of Dimitri Rogozin show inspecting the missile – dubbed Satan-2 in NATO parlance – as it was taken into a forest by rail. “The world’s most powerful global-range nuclear-tipped missile is being prepared for new tests and serial production,” said Rogozin.

• Sweden’s state broadcaster STV released on Monday, a copy of a letter from the country’s foreign minister to NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, where Stockholm “accepts” the bloc’s “approach to security and defence, including the essential role of nuclear weapons.” In response, ICAN executive director Beatrice Fihn said: “In other words, Sweden is now prepared to take part in the use of nuclear weapons.”

Global Abolition

• Patrick O’Neill has a piece in the National Catholic Reporter, arguing that global nuclear disarmament is our only hope to avoid a global catastrophe. “Every day, there are stories published addressing heretofore unmentioned topics such as “World War III” and the possible “limited” use of “tactical” nuclear weapons by the Russians. Such considerations should be unthinkable in a rational world, but with emotions high, and most Americans supporting our proxy war with Russia, there is the absence of rational thinking here at home and in Russia and Ukraine.” Read the full column here.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• Joe Biden has kicked off his tour of Middle East allies with a three-day visit to Israel, including a tour of the country’s new Iron Beam missile defence system. The US President is tasked with assuring Israel and Saudi Arabia that Washington is committed to ensuring regional rival Iran does not become a nuclear weapons power. In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Biden said there was still a sliver of hope that a renewed deal with Tehran could be reached – but laid the blame for the collapse of the initial 2015 agreement at the door of his predecessor, Donald Trump.

• However, Biden’s trip comes as Iranian officials announced they have begun “enriching uranium up to 20% using sophisticated centrifuges at its underground Fordo nuclear plant.” Iran informed the UN’s atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, about the escalation two weeks ago with the 20 percent enriched uranium collected for the first time on Saturday. According to Reuters, “Iran is already enriching to up to 60% elsewhere, well above the up to 20% it produced before its 2015 deal with major powers that capped its enrichment level at 3.67% but still below the roughly 90% of weapons grade.”

• Meanwhile, France’s new Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, warned there is a limited window to revive the Iranian deal. “There is still a window of opportunity …for Iran to finally decide to accept an accord which it worked to build, but time is passing,” Colonna told French lawmakers on Tuesday. Warning that Tehran was on the cusp of becoming a nuclear-armed state: “Time is passing. Tehran must realise this…The window of opportunity will close in a few weeks. There will not be a better accord to the one which is on the table.”

UK Nuclear Energy

• BBC news picks up on demands by anti-nuclear campaigners to have a vote on planned seismic testing in the Irish Sea – a precursor for an underwater nuclear dumping site. The report notes: Marianne Birkby, from Lakes Against Nuclear Waste Dump, said seismic testing was “very invasive” and “damaging”, and claimed it harmed marine wildlife. She added that the group’s petition was to ask that the full council is given a vote on an entry into a community partnership and argued that councillors were never given a full debate on seismic testing.

Nuclear Energy

• Germany’s vice chancellor said Tuesday that nuclear power would do little to ease the country’s gas shortages. “Nuclear power doesn’t help us there at all,” Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, who is also the economy and climate minister and is responsible for energy, said at a news conference in Vienna. “We have a heating problem or an industry problem, but not an electricity problem — at least not generally throughout the country.”

• The Telegraph reports that the nationalisation of nuclear firm EDF by the French government will cost £10 billion.

Fukushima

• Reuters looks at the Japanese election and how a surge in support for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party could give Prime Minister Fumio Kishida the mandate he needs to restart the country’s mothballed nuclear plants.

Nuclear History

• The Times reports on the 60th anniversary of the US detonation of a thermonuclear warhead in space: “The explosion blasted the Earth’s magnetosphere with huge amounts of radiation, turning into electrons that rained down on the upper atmosphere. The electrons also smashed into satellites, scrambling their electronics. The effects of the bomb blast lingered even longer. The electrons were trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field, creating an artificial radiation belt around the Earth.”

• The Guardian’s book of the day is Stalking the Atomic City: Life Among the Decadent and Depraved of Chernobyl, by Markiyan Kamysh. Read the review here.