CND Press Roundup Wednesday 10th August 2022

War in Ukraine / NATO

• Russia is beefing up its anti-aircraft defences around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the RIA Novosti news agency said, reporting comments from a Russian-backed official. The site is currently occupied by Russian troops with both the Kremlin and Kiev trading accusations that the other is responsible for recent attacks on the station.  

• Former Tory leader William Hague calls for the West to up its military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia as the conflict continues towards the autumn. He also calls on governments to prepare their populations for hardships this winter: “Western leaders will have to do more to prepare their own voters for a tough period ahead, explaining why it matters to show that war does not pay, that international law is upheld, that tyranny does not triumph, and how the effort to show that is far from hopeless. They should explain that Putin’s main hope now is that we are weak or lack resolve…their domestic economic policies will need to be designed to maintain public confidence that sacrifices are fairly shared. Financial support for households will need to be focused on direct help for people struggling with energy costs rather than used up in wider tax cuts — contenders for prime minister please note.”

NPT

• Kate’s article on the NPT review conference, originally published in August’s edition of Campaign magazine has been reblogged by Labour Outlook.

Nuclear Energy

• Reuters looks at Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor – which resumed test production this week after months of additional maintenance. The plant had been under construction since 2005 and was due to start generating electricity in 2009 – but delays and technical problems pushed this back to March of this year. However, test production was quickly put on hiatus after “foreign material” was discovered in the turbine’s steam reheater.

• Some praise of Emmanuel Macron in the Telegraph (of all places) – for capping energy prices despite the litany of issues facing its fleet of nuclear reactors and having to resort to importing electricity: “By capping retail energy prices, France has ensured that the wider economic impact of the energy price shock is not nearly as great as much of the rest of Europe. We see this most clearly in France’s rate of inflation, which though it leapt to 6.5 percent in June, is still substantially lower than Britain, Germany and the US.”

• Cormac Lacey of Scottish Power writes about Ireland’s reluctance to embrace nuclear power in this comment in The Sunday Times. Citing the “nervousness of modern society” and the “agitated reaction” of politicians, he downplays the disaster of Fukushima and Chernobyl – “no immediate deaths caused by radiation” in the case of Fukushima. While in the case of Chernobyl: “In its immediate wake it appears that roughly 30 died from blast trauma and acute radiation syndrome. In the succeeding decades that number has climbed to 60, inclusive of radiation-induced cancer. A UN-sponsored study suggested more than 15 years ago that eventually 4,000 deaths might result from the disaster. Nuclear power (0.03) is responsible for fewer deaths per terawatt-hour than wind (0.04), biomass (4), oil (18) or coal (24). It also vastly outperforms all other energy sources in limiting CO2 emissions with the exception of wind, which it equals. Yet, because nuclear power has been portrayed as a bogeyman in cinema and because of its associations with nuclear weaponry, Ireland hasn’t just opted out of the nuclear power generation, it has gone so far as to expressly ban the possibility, under the Electricity Regulation Act 1999. Ireland prefers piety built on a foundation of hysteria to fortitude and courage.”

• Electrical Review looks at how EDF is running out of money.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• Iran and US officials are weighing up the EU-led draft proposal to revive the 2015 nuclear deal – with Iran dropping two demands that held up an agreement in March – that the Quds Force – a unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps – is dropped from the US terrorism list, and assurances from Washington that future presidents don’t pull out of the deal like Donald Trump. However Iran has added a demand that the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, drops its three year investigation into the unexplained presence of “man-made uranium at various Iranian research sites.” Meanwhile, an anonymous US official said Washington is ready to “quickly conclude a deal” based on the EU’s text – if Iran returns a mutual implementation.

Hiroshima & Nagasaki

• Lancaster Guardian has some coverage of the Hiroshima Day commemorations by Lancaster CND. Speaking at the event, spokesperson Philip Gilligan said the atomic bombings of Japan should be a warning that it could never happen again: “The world needs no more Hiroshimas. It needs nuclear disarmament. Nuclear weapons, including the UK’s Trident warheads, threaten our very existence. Thankfully, 86 of the world’s countries have now signed the United Nations Treaty on the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons. The United Kingdom needs to do the same as soon as possible.”

When the Wind Blows

• Tributes have come in to mark the death of author and illustrator Raymond Briggs with obituaries in the Guardian, Independent, BBCand Telegraph. In addition to creating the Christmas classic, The Snowman, he is perhaps best known in CND circles for creating the haunting parable about nuclear apocalypse – When the Wind Blows. BFI takes a look at the graphic novel and the subsequent film adaptation on its website.