CND Press Roundup Thursday 8th September 2022

War in Ukraine / NATO

• The Times reports on how the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is currently being operated by only a third of its staff. A worker at the plant told the paper that many have quit or were taken away by Russian troops for not cooperating. “I think about 70 per cent of the staff have left, mostly the low-level workers,” he said. “I don’t know if that means there are enough to keep the plant running, maybe. It wasn’t safe there. As we came off shift we would have to try to avoid the incoming missiles. We would have to run for shelter.”

• That’s as Ukraine said it is considering closing the Zaporizhzhia plant, after villages near the plant underwent 24 hours of shelling by artillery, tanks, and fighter aircraft. Kieve has also called for nearby residents to evacuate for their own safety. Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling near the plant.  

• The US Air Force conducted an unarmed nuclear missile test on Wednesday, the second such test since August 16th. The previous test had been postponed for 12 days over fears the proximity of the launch to a visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would be seen as too inflammatory to an already irate Beijing.

Trident

• World Socialist Web looks at the defence spending commitments made by Liz Truss and a recent report by think tank, the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), crunching the numbers on her plan to increase the defence budget from 2.1 percent to 3 percent.

AUKUS

• What have the US, UK, and Australia been doing in the year since the AUKUS military pact was announced? Well according to Undersecretary of the US Navy Erik Raven: “Some time in the future, journalists and historians are going to look back at this moment and look at how much work has been done over the past 12 months of this consultation period and ask: ‘Why can’t [the Defense Department] react as quickly to a major program and establish requirements and a process to meeting those strategic goals as quickly as we have been doing?... We don’t have solutions ready for prime time, but what we have been doing over the last 12 months is really spending it engaging with our partners, understanding what capabilities we all have to bring to the table, what capabilities are needed, and start aligning those against how are we going to perform to plan.”

UK Nuclear Energy

• Some nice local coverage of CND Cymru’s march against small modular reactors (SMRs) by Cambrian News.

• New PM Liz Truss has called on the SNP to drop its opposition to nuclear power. Speaking during her first Prime Minister’s Questions Truss said: “I am determined to tackle the issues we face in energy, and I look forward to the Scottish government playing their part by building new nuclear power stations.”

Nuclear Energy

• German Chancellor Olaf Sholtz has defended his coalition government’s decision to keep its two remaining nuclear power stations online for emergencies only, rather than using them to generate power.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• The Times of Israel reports on how Tel Aviv has received indications from Washington that a revived nuclear deal with Iran has been shelved for now.

• The UN’s nuclear watchdog said Wednesday that it believes Iran has further increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium that is one step away from becoming weapons-grade. It also expressed frustration that Tehran hasn’t been cooperating with its investigation and has become a sticking point for reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.

Nuclear Korea

• The top nuclear envoys from the US, South Korea, and Japan met in Tokyo on Wednesday to discuss the threat posed by a nuclear-armed North Korea. It follows similar talks in Hawaii last week as the three brace for a potential nuclear test by Pyongyang.

Trump

• Salon reports on how former US President (and full-time space cadet) Donald Trump called for nuclear testing on the moon during the final months of his presidency. Plans involved testing nuclear energy on the moon by 2027 and commissioning a feasibility study on developing nuclear-powered spacecraft and satellites.