CND Press Roundup Wednesday 16th November 2022

War In Ukraine / NATO

• Joe Biden told allies that a missile that killed two people in Poland on Tuesday was from a Ukrainian air defence missile, a NATO source told Reuters.

• Some analysis from Julian Borger in The Guardian on how the explosion in Poland is unlikely to spark an escalation – but warns the risks between NATO and Russia remain very real.

• CND’s short item on the Poland explosion here.

• The IAEA has expressed concern over how staff at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant are receiving conflicting instructions on how to run the plant.

• Germany has given its backing to the creation of a security zone around Zaporizhzhia.

• Meanwhile, reactors at two Ukrainian nuclear plants had to be shut down following Russian air strikes on Tuesday, leaving millions of residents with electricity. The plants in question were not specified.

British Nuclear Testing

• Cambridgeshire Live: Cambs Royal Engineer ‘lost all his teeth’ and ‘developed tumour’ after Operation Grapple nuclear tests.

UK Defence Spending

• The Telegraph: Rishi Sunak has declined to promise he will keep Liz Truss’s defence spending target of three per of GDP by 2030, opening the door for the pledge to be abandoned. Speaking to reporters on the plane to the G20 summit in Bali, the Prime Minister instead pointed back to the UK’s success in hitting the current NATO two per cent target.

Climate Emergency

• A new report has been released by the The Transnational Institute on how military spending is accelerating climate breakdown.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Construction work at Hinkley Point C remained on hold on Tuesday, following the death of a worker at the site on 13 November. The Telegraph also covers the accident.

• The Independent: Nuclear fusion discovery uncovers strange behaviour of limitless energy source. Even as scientists achieve new milestones in developing fusion power, new questions arise as to how the basic physics of fusion reactions may work.

Nuclear Energy

• Two nuclear firms expect to hear an answer from the US Department of Energy by the end of the year, on a funding decision to help them keep two struggling nuclear plants open. One plant, California’s Diablo Canyon, was scheduled to close its reactors in 2024 and 2025.

• Project Syndicate looks at why nuclear power is not the answer to the global decarbonising agenda.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• Reuters: As EU sanctions come, Macron says Iran ‘revolution’ harms nuclear deal prospects.

Spycops Inquiry

• News item on CND’s website calling for fresh information about police informants operating within CND in the 1980s.