CND Press Roundup Thursday 21th July 2022

War in Ukraine / NATO

• An investigation team of radiation experts from Greenpeace Germany working with Ukrainian scientists has found that radiation levels in the area surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear plant are at least three times higher than estimates previously provided by the UN’s nuclear watchdog. Russian troops occupied the decommissioned plant during the first month of its invasion of Ukraine, which included digging trenches and driving heavy vehicles in a radiated area known as the Red Forest. In late April, the International Atomic Energy Agency said radiation levels at the site were within normal levels. However, Greenpeace has accused the IAEA of being reluctant to report on the full scale of the radiation hazards caused by the Russian presence – adding that the body was compromised by its links to the Russian nuclear agency ROSATOM.

• Russia has decommissioned the world’s largest nuclear submarine, according to the Moscow Times. 175 metres in length, the Dmitry Donskoy, a Typhoon-class submarine has been in service since 1980. Its record will also be beaten by its replacement – the 184-metre Oscar II-class Belgorod – which was commissioned this month.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Lots of coverage of yesterday’s planning decision in favour of the proposed Sizewell C nuclear power plant. The Financial Times reports that Business Secretary’s Kwasi Kwarteng “over-ruled the independent Planning Inspectorate, which had rejected the scheme because of concerns about long-term water supply and its impact on protected species and habitats.” Meanwhile the BBC notes that campaigners Stop Sizewell C said they “will be looking closely at appealing this decision.” The Guardian includes more in depth voices of opposition to the project, including Stop Sizewell C, the RSPB, and Greenpeace UK.

• The Morning Star also covers the Sizewell C announcement, focusing on queries by the GMB union over government spending commitments. GMB national officer Charlotte Childs said: “Britain’s nuclear programme has been delayed too many times due to political decisions. We need further investment in nuclear to secure good jobs for the future.”

• You can catch a report on the Sizewell C planning decision on BBC Look East on the iPlayer - starts around 9 minutes in.

• Meanwhile workers at the Hinkley Point C project had to be evacuatedfrom the site on Monday, after a fire broke out on some scaffolding. The cause of the fire is unknown and an investigation is underway.

• Burnham-On-Sea.com reports on the start of the consultation period by the Environment Agency on the storage of radioactive waste at Hinkley Point C. The plant, currently under construction, was initially supposed to store its radioactive waste in wet storage, submerging the waste in water. Now, operators want to switch this to dry storage, which would see the waste sealed in containers and stored on-site until going to a specialised waste facility.

• Cambrian news picks up on the planned anti-nuclear conference this weekend in Caernarfon, Wales. The event is organised by PAWB (People Against Wylfa B), CND Cymru, Nuclear Free Local Authorities, Cymdeithas yr Iaith, CADNO, the Welsh Anti-Nuclear Alliance and Beyond Nuclear.

• The UK’s Commons Science and Technology Committee is launching an inquiry into the Government’s approach to nuclear power. The inquiry seeks evidence on the technical challenges facing the next generation of nuclear power plants, what further research and development is required to build capacity and how the management of nuclear waste can be improved. People have until September 30th to send in written submissions.

• Politico asks is it time for the nuclear option in this article on nuclear power.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• Politco runs an opinion on the Iran nuclear deal by European Parliament Vice-President Nicola Beer, and King’s College London academic, Professor Peter Neumann. In ‘Iran: Time for a plan B’, they argue that Europe needs to prepare for the negotiations to fail: “If we simply cling to the idea that continued negotiations will somehow lead to resolution, we’ll be sleepwalking as we did with Russia, allowing a hostile power to take advantage of diplomacy while pursuing increasingly aggressive actions against us and our allies.”

• Keeping on the topic of Europe and the Iran nuclear deal, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists asks ‘Will the EU diplomacy revive the Iran nuclear deal or keep spinning in a vacuum?’ It concludes that: “Although no direct evidence exists that Iran intends to build a nuclear weapon, its nuclear program has progressed to such an extent that the country could quickly become a nuclear threshold state if it decided to do so. If Iran was to become effectively a ‘nuclear-capable’ state, it would demonstrate the incapacity of the EU’s diplomacy alone to maintain alive the Iran nuclear deal. As Putin visits Tehran this week, he may seize the opportunity to fill the vacuum left by Western countries. Were the Iran nuclear deal to become effectively dead, the EU would undoubtedly lose diplomatic credibility for not fully complying with its JCPOA commitments. A dead deal would also have disastrous consequences on an already destabilised nuclear order.”

• And on these alleged ambitions by Iran - nuclear weapons are still haram (forbidden by Islam) and Iran’s nuclear weapons policy hasn’t changed – the foreign ministry assured on Wednesday. It comes after an official earlier indicated that the country may pursue to make one by saying that they could if they chose to do so. “In regard to the topic of weapons of mass destruction, we have the fatwa,” or religious edict, by Iran’s supreme leader that prohibits the manufacture of such weapons, said foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani. It’s the second time in the past 18 months that Iran has had to clarify its opposition to nuclear weapons after comments by officials.

Fukushima

• Asia Times has a piece on the push by Japan’s government to restart the nuclear reactors mothballed after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster – and argues that it won’t be the answer to the country’s energy crisis. Academic Florentine Koppenborg notes that in “the decade since the Fukushima disaster, there have not been enough restart applications submitted in order to achieve government targets” on nuclear power production. This leaves the government of Fumio Kishida in a difficult position as “pro-nuclear actors in Japan are losing the necessary political power to implement nuclear policy. Speeding up the restart process would come at the expense of nuclear safety and increase the risk of another nuclear accident occurring.”

CND History

• An interesting blog post here on the 1982 Glastonbury CND Festival and a review in Peace News. It notes how the festival was ‘buzzed’ by a hostile plane from the Tory front organisation Coalition for Peace through Security.

• CND gets a mention in a Guardian review of a book about the physicist Peter Higgs – of Higgs boson fame: “After his insights of the 1960s, Higgs did no more work to develop his theory. “I became a bystander,” he tells Close. His focus shifted to university politics and the campaign for nuclear disarmament. He met his future wife Jody Williamson at a CND meeting in the university staff club in 1960, though they separated 12 years later.”