CND Press Roundup Friday 22nd July 2022

War in Ukraine / NATO

• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will hasten Europe’s journey towards renewables in the long run, the UK’s UK Climate Envoy John Murton has said. Speaking to journalists in South Africa, Murton said the turn to coal as European governments switch away from Russian oil and gas was only a temporary measure. “It’s true that, as a result of pressures arising from Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, some of us anticipate using a little more coal over the next few months than we previously planned. (But) there is not a dash back to coal in the UK or in Europe.”

• Newsweek picks up on Greenpeace’s investigation of radiation levels around the decommissioned Chernobyl power plant – and accusations the UN’s nuclear watchdog downplayed the impact left by Russian troops during their month-long occupation of the facility.

• That’s as Russia accused Ukrainian forces of nearly causing a nuclear accident after drones reportedly struck targets at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant currently occupied by Russia. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “It was only by luck that this did not lead to damage to the equipment and to a man-made catastrophe.” Kiev meanwhile has accused Russia of storing heavy weapons and military equipment at the site, which is the largest nuclear facility in Europe.

• Red Flag, published by Australia’s Socialist Alternative, has a lengthy look at the war in Ukraine and looks at some of the debates among the left on the conflict. While some groups openly support Putin and his justification for invading it notes that: “Much larger numbers, including Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali, Walden Bello, New Left Review (NLR) editors, the Morning Star newspaper and the British Stop the War Coalition, condemn the invasion but aim most of their fire at NATO, for supposedly provoking Russia’s invasion. They call for a Russian withdrawal, but their main demand, widely shared in pacifist organisations such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, is for a ceasefire and negotiations to resolve the differences.”

• US politics website The Hill has an opinion on ‘Nuclear strategy and ending the war in Ukraine.’ Former President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, and President of the Global Security Institute, Jonathan Granoff, write: “NATO’s nuclear arsenal failed to deter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has almost no utility as a weapon of war. But NATO’s nuclear weapons can still be put to good use, not by threatening to launch them and escalate the war, but by withdrawing them to make room for new negotiations and eventual peace.”

Global Abolition

• National Interest had published a comment from ICAN members on how the TPNW can pave a progressive path towards nuclear disarmament. Ahead of next month’s NPT RevCon they say: “As states gather in New York in August for the 10th NPT Review Conference, they can look to the success of the first Meeting of States Parties of the TPNW as a model for cooperative and productive work. This Action Plan is only the beginning. It is a ‘to-do list’ for all states committed to achieving nuclear disarmament. All states serious about getting rid of weapons of mass destruction should join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and take part in its framework of collective action to make it happen.”

Iran Nuclear Deal

• The head of MI6 has told the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado that he was sceptical that Iran wants to restart the 2015 nuclear deal. “I’m not convinced we’re going to get there…I don’t think the Supreme Leader of Iran wants to cut a deal,” Richard Moore said, adding that the “Iranians won’t want to end the talks either, so they could run on for a bit.”

• Politico also looks at comments made by Moore and other Western officials in Colorado, including former US Deputy Secretary of State, Stephen Biegun who served as the State Department’s No. 2 during the Trump administration. While not a supporter of the 2015 agreement, he said “there’s not a really very honest debate about what the alternative is to a deal” in US foreign policy and national security circles, and “that is something that all of us bear responsibility for.”

UK Nuclear Energy

• Article on CND’s website on the Sizewell C planning decision with comments from Caroline Lucas and Kate Hudson.

• Professor Andy Sterling has an excellent letter in the Guardian following the UK government’s decision to approve planning for the Sizewell C nuclear project. Attacking government spin on the cost-benefit of nuclear energy he says: “Despite intensifying propaganda, even government data shows this military-backed technology to be, in reality, an expensive, slow, unreliable, risky and unpopular way to deliver affordable, secure, zero-carbon energy.” He also asks: “When did it become acceptable in British public life that a supposedly democratic government should so seriously misrepresent reality in a formal policy document?” Answers on a postcard.  

• BBC News asks what the Sizewell C decision will mean for Suffolk residents. Estate agents have already been fielding enquiries about properties in the region while the head of Suffolk Chamber of Commerce’s Sizewell C Supply Chain portal said the decision was “good news” for the county. However, RSPB, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, and local campaign group Stop Sizewell C are among the voices in opposition.

• East Anglian Daily Times reports on concerns expressed by Suffolk County Council on outstanding issues that have yet to be resolved before the planning decision on Sizewell C was granted. Ongoing worries include: The blight of the additional pylons at the main site; Plans for an unnecessary and damaging outage car park at Goose Hill; and wants the Sizewell Link Road to be removed after construction to prevent lasting damage to the environment. Councillor Andrew Mellen said: “Nuclear power generates dangerous radioactive waste which needs to be safely storied and monitored for thousands of years: timescales longer than western civilization has so far lasted. It is the ultimate exercise in kicking the can down the road, hoping it will go away and expecting future generations to pick up the pieces.”

• Nuclear Free Local Authorities label the Sizewell C decision as a ‘monumental modern folly’.

• IG looks at the uranium market and what Britain’s planning decision on Sizewell C will do for investment potential in the commodity.

• The Times is among several papers covering a push by French nuclear firm EDF to amend a clause in its contract to build Hinkley Point C – that would see it penalised if it isn’t generating power by its target date of 2030. The project was supposed to be up and running by 2025, with that target date then pushed to 2027. EDF are now indicating that a further delay of 15 months could push it close to the 2030 penalty threshold.

• Also in The Times is the plan to “lower onto the seabed the first of four 5,000-tonne water inlet units that will cap the tunnels supplying cooling water” to Hinkley Point C. The work is scheduled to take place on Sunday. Construction Review Online has compiled a timeline of Hinkley Point C.

• Tory MP for Ynys Môn, Virginia Crosbie, has a piece on Conservative Home in favour of nuclear energy.

• The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has issued an improvement notice to the Dounreay nuclear plant following a safety incident in April where “radioactive material may have been released into the environment during a chemical reaction in a storage tank.”

• The ONR has also issued part 3 of its post-implementation review of the Energy Act 2013 – the legislation which established the regulator.

• Sellafield has ended its nuclear fuel reprocessing after 58 years.

Fukushima

• The Financial Times looks at the nuclear energy debate in Japan as the country battles with an energy shortage caused by the war in Ukraine. While it notes that public opinions “on nuclear energy have somewhat shifted in light of the changing geopolitical landscape” safety remains a priority if Japan is going to restart the nuclear reactors mothballed since 2011’s Fukushima nuclear disaster.

• That’s as Japan’s nuclear regulator okayed a plan on Friday to release millions of tonnes of radioactive water stored at the Fukushima site into the sea. However, the area’s local fishing community, South Korea, China, and Greenpeace have all expressed concerns over the plan.

CND History

• One from the Telegraph’s archive - this 2013 article exploring the green credentials of the then Environment Secretary Liz Truss. In ‘Liz Truss: My childhood supporting CND and going to Greenham Common’, the front-runner to replace Boris Johnson at No. 10 speaks about her CND-supporting mother and childhood trips to the women’s peace camp at Greenham Common. In a sign of things to come the article mentions an interview with The Sun where she failed to deny four times that she might like to be Tory leader one day and when asked if she could be compared with Margaret Thatcher, she responded with: “I think she was a brilliant leader of our country but I am my own person.”