CND Press Roundup Monday 18th July 2022

• BBC West Midlands has some photographs taken by Alan Van Wijgerden in his native Coventry, including CND marches and other protests.

Hiroshima & Nagasaki

• The Salisbury Journal previews the upcoming candle float commemorations for Hiroshima and Nagasaki anniversaries. Peter Gloyn said: “We were not able to run the event during the pandemic as we could not encourage groups of people so recorded the event. But this time, people can come and watch the candle float which will take place as light fades so about 8.45pm. It will take about 45 minutes.”

War in Ukraine / NATO

• Greenpeace has sent an investigation team of radiation experts to Chernobyl in Ukraine, to assess the impact left by Russian troops previously stationed there, as well as data released by the UN’s nuclear watchdog in April. Shaun Burnie, a nuclear expert with Greenpeace Germany said: “We want to know what really happened on the ground. The IAEA’s information so far is insufficient. The Ukrainian authorities are enabling the Greenpeace Germany research team to gather independent information about radiation safety in the region. This includes investigating the radioactive contamination that deposited in the Exclusion Zone when the Chernobyl reactor exploded in 1986. Between seven and nine tonnes of nuclear fuel were pulverized and ejected into the atmosphere in the 1986 explosion.”

Trident

• The National reports on a planned anti-nuclear march on July 30th to the Faslane military complex. Organised by independence campaigners All Under One Banner, the group is calling for an independent Scotland to remain nuclear free. Convener Bill Ramsay said: “That elements within the British establishment are punting the idea of renting Faslane from an independent Scotland as a nuclear base for decades to come suggests that some within that establishment are seeing the prospect of Scottish independence as inevitable. SNP policy on this issue is crystal clear. Last August, by a vote of over 400 to 14 the SNP committed itself to the safe removal of nuclear weapons from Scotland within three years of a sovereign Scottish government coming into existence. Moreover, the new UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons would give the new Scottish Government access to UN organisations like the International Atomic Energy Agency to facilitate the safe, orderly removal of these nuclear weapons.”

UK Nuclear Energy

• A former councillor who recently resigned from her council, has claimed that residents and some members of the council were “being conned” with lies and false promises from Nuclear Waste Services and some members of the local South Copeland GDF Community Partnership. Jan Bridget, a former member of Millom Town Council, also set up the campaign group, Millom and District against the Nuclear Dump, as a voice for locals opposed to a proposal to locate a nuclear waste dump in the South-West of Cumbria. On leaving her council position she said: “Clearly in raising a few home truths about the nuclear dump, I had opened a can of worms. Some Councillors were determined to be involved in the Community Partnership to access the funding at all costs and they saw me as a threat to this. At the June meeting of full Council, I was ferociously verbally attacked, and then to cap it all a promise made to send a letter I had drafted questioning the seismic surveys was not honoured once the Town Mayor was on holiday and could not intercede. That was the last straw. I resigned.”

• The Environment Agency has launched a consultation on the way radioactive waste will be stored at Hinkley Point C nuclear power station near Bridgwater. Read the full statement on gov.co.uk.

• The Times reports on the possibility that renewables investment manager, Greencoats Capital, may create a nuclear investment fund in order to take a stake in the Sizewell C nuclear project. Richard Nourse, Greencoat Capital’s founder, said: “My feeling is that there’s a huge amount of money required. When you need a huge amount of money, you normally have to price it to go, and therefore it will be potentially an interesting investment. Given nuclear will be a fearsomely complex and technically demanding area for UK pension funds to evaluate risk, we see an opportunity for Greencoat to be a trusted adviser and manager of funds.”

Nuclear Energy

• The Financial Times looks at the full takeover of EDF by the French government – and the problems that need to be faced. Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. “Right now we’re in symbolic territory with this nationalisation. It doesn’t resolve any of the main problems we know the group is facing — will it allow EDF to bolster the skills it needs?” said Cécile Maisonneuve, a senior adviser at the centre for energy and climate at French think-tank IFRI. “None of the industrial or regulatory issues were linked to its capital structure.”

Iran Nuclear Deal

• A top aide to the Iran’s supreme leader has said Tehran is “technically capable” of making a nuclear bomb – but hasn’t yet decided to do so. Kamal Kharrazi made the comments in a recent interview with Al Jazeera. As Reuters notes, it’s a rare suggestion that Iran may be interested in nuclear weapons – a fact it has long denied.

• Meanwhile, an Israeli army chief said the IDF has a “moral obligation” to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons – hinting at military action against Iranian nuclear facilities. “Preparing the home front for war is a task that must be accelerated in the coming years, especially in light of the possibility that we will be required to act against the nuclear threat…preparing a military option against the Iranian nuclear program is a moral obligation and a national security order,” Home Front Command chief, Aviv Kohavi said.

• That’s as Saudi Arabia joined the US and Israel in vowing to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons, in a joint statement issued by Riyadh and Washington on the back of US President Joe Biden’s trip to the region. The statement also affirmed the US commitment to “Saudi Arabia’s security and territorial defense, and facilitating the Kingdom’s ability to obtain necessary capabilities to defend its people and territory against external threats.”

• In response to the suggestion that the US and regional allies will use military force to counter Iranian nuclear weapons ambitions, Tehran has slapped dozens of former and current US officials with sanctions – over their “deliberate support” for the Iranian opposition organisation known as the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), who Tehran considers a terrorist organisation.

• EU officials involved in efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal said talks will shortly wrap up – but it’s unclear if it will end in agreement. “We are very, very advanced in the negotiations. We have had a round of so-called proximity talks in Doha; they produced no results and the reason is very clear because we have negotiated everything that was on the table,” the official said. “We can be more precise on some details that are still pending, we are waiting for some ideas from Tehran and what the Americans have to say…I don’t know (if it is) the end of the process, but the end of the negotiation, yes.”