CND Press Roundup Tuesday 9th August 2022

War in Ukraine / NATO

• The head of Ukraine’s nuclear power company, Petro Kotin, said Russian troops have turned the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant into a base in which to launch attacks against Ukrainian positions. “They [Russian forces] use it [the power plant] like a shield against the Ukrainian forces, because nobody from Ukraine is going to do something,” Kotin told the BBC. “The Ukrainian Armed Forces know that these are Ukrainian personnel and this is a Ukrainian plant and there are Ukrainian people [there] so we aren’t going to kill our people, our staff and damage our infrastructure,” he added.

• Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that an unstoppable wind of “radioactive contamination” could sweep Europe if the West doesn’t help to stop Russia’s control of the Zaporizhzhia plant. It comes as both Ukraine and Russia accused each other of shelling at the site over the weekend.

• Meanwhile, a scientist at the defunct Chernobyl plant has warnedthat the Russian occupation of Zaporizhzhia risks another Chernobyl incident. Olena Pareniuk claimed to the New Scientist – unconfirmed by the outlet – that Russian troops had moved military vehicles with armour and explosives into the machine hall of Zaporizhzhia close to where the reactor is located. “Staff could get tired and make a mistake, and it might be another Chernobyl. Explosives might explode, the turbine will be damaged and might also explode, and the nuclear fuel might leak into the environment,” she added. “Russians might be crazy enough to drain the cooling water from the spent nuclear fuel basin, the fuel will heat up and uranium will leak into the environment.”

• Anti-nuclear campaigner Adi Roche has condemned the shelling at Zaporizhzhia – labelling it a crime against humanity. “From the moment the invading country came through Belarus into the Chernobyl exclusion zone, taking over the nuclear plant, we said that this has changed the nature of modern warfare. Until this point, in all of the wars, nuclear facilities were off limits,” she told Irish radio station Newstalk.

• The Guardian has an explainer on the dangers posed to Zaporizhzhia by the recent shelling.

• The Mirror runs a story about claims by a former Russian intelligence officer that Russia may conduct a false flag operation at Zaporizhzhia in order to justify the use of tactical nuclear weapons. The post on social messaging app Telegram claimed: “One of the scenarios for the development of the conflict is being actively prepared, when Putin will be able to realise the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons. When this plan is implemented, part of the facilities at the station will be blown up and the power unit damaged. While Putin will speak accusing the leadership of Ukraine of nuclear terrorism, blaming Ukraine for the explosions and equating ‘nuclear terrorism’ with the use of nuclear weapons by Ukraine, giving the order to use tactical nuclear weapons as a ‘response’ measure.”

New START Treaty

• US inspectors will no longer be able to inspect Russian nuclear weapons sites – after the Kremlin suspended the arrangement which is part of the 2010 New START treaty. The mutual inspections had been postponed due to the Covid pandemic but this week Moscow said Russia was unwilling to let them recommence as US sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine had stopped Russian inspectors from travelling to the US. “There are no similar obstacles to the arrival of American inspectors in Russia,” a statement by Russia’s Foreign Minister said. “The Russian foreign ministry raised this issue with the relevant countries, but did not receive an answer.”

Hiroshima & Nagasaki

• Coverage of today’s Nagasaki Day commemoration in the Independent. Speaking during a ceremony at the Nagasaki Peace Park, the city’s Mayor Tomihisa Taue warned that the war in Ukraine showed that a nuclear attack was not just a worry but “a tangible and present crisis.”

• More coverage in the Morning Star from the weekend with a commentfrom Kate Hudson on the importance of nuclear disarmament as we commemorate Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn called for nuclear powers to get rid of their nuclear weapons during a commemoration in Wales.

• The Chicago Tribune has an opinion from writer William Lamberg – urging for a reduction in nuclear weapons: “Our mission must be to prevent weapons of mass destruction from ever being used again. We must be inspired to build peace and eliminate nuclear weapons. As the US Strategic Bombing Survey declared in 1946, ‘No more forceful arguments for peace and for the international machinery of peace than the sight of the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have ever been devised. As the developer and exploiter of this ominous weapon, our nation has a responsibility, which no American should shirk, to lead in establishing and implementing the international guarantees and controls which will prevent its future use.’”

• Famous Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake – a survivor of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima – has died aged 84. The Guardian’s obituary of Moyake notes he rarely spoke about the event in later life but did write about the experience in a 2009 New York Times article aimed at getting then-US President Barack Obama to visit the city: “When I close my eyes, I still see things no one should ever experience,” he wrote, adding that within three years his mother had died of radiation exposure. “I have tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to put them behind me, preferring to think of things that can be created, not destroyed, and that bring beauty and joy. I gravitated toward the field of clothing design, partly because it is a creative format that is modern and optimistic.”

UK Nuclear Energy

• Environmental campaigner Donnachadh McCarthy writes in the Independent on the decision to greenlight the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk. He ties in the current heatwave and water crisis and how the plan to build a new generation of nuclear reactors would be a colossal waste at a time of increased drought: “The Johnson / Truss government has promised to build eight nuclear plants, this would require up to 80 billion litres of water for building and operating them for ten years. These are staggering sums of water we increasingly don’t have. When I asked Kwasi Kwarteng’s department where this water would come from, they did not answer the question, but said: ‘Nuclear power stations must meet robust standards which are overseen by independent regulators such as the Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency.’ With our rivers already full of sewage and suffering over-extraction – due to the collapse in the Environment Agency’s capacity to oversee standards since the Tory government decimated its funding – this statement insults the public’s intelligence.”

• Nuclear Free Local Authorities blasted the decision to slap a nuclear tax on energy customers as “daylight robbery” and will impact the poorest households the most. The levy introduced by the government’s Nuclear Energy (Financing) Act will see energy companies pay nuclear plant developers in advance to help fund construction – this in turn being passed on the consumer. Chair of NFLA’s Steering Committee Councillor David Blackburn said: “It is scandalous that this government seems intent to pass the buck for for-profit nuclear projects onto domestic customers, who have already seen their energy costs skyrocket in recent months, by charging them an extra ‘nuclear tax’ on their electricity bill. Rather than RAB the Regulated Asset Base model should be called ‘Rob’, because this tax will be applied to all customers, even those customers in receipt of a basic income, like Universal Credit, and upon our oldest citizens, many of whom will not even be alive by the time Sizewell C comes online, if indeed it ever does.”

Nuclear Energy

• Beyond nuclear looks at Germany’s green revolution as part of its Talking Points series.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• The text of a renewed Iran nuclear deal has been finalised as negotiations in Vienna come to a close. Drafted by EU diplomats involved in getting the accord back on track, US and Iranian officials will not scour the text to see if it is acceptable to both parties.

• The New Yorker has a piece looking at the battle between Donald Trump and US generals during the former’s stint as US President. One of the concerns was that Trump would start a conflict with Iran – especially as it looked that Trump would lose an election: “In early 2020, when Mike Pence advocated taking tough measures, [US chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark] Milley asked why. “Because they are evil,” Pence said. Milley recalled replying, “Mr. Vice-President, there’s a lot of evil in the world, but we don’t go to war against all of it.” Milley grew even more nervous before the election, when he heard a senior official tell Trump that if he lost he should strike Iran’s nuclear program. At the time, Milley told his staff that it was a “What the f* are these guys talking about?” moment. Now it seemed frighteningly possible.