CND Press Roundup Friday 18th November 2022

War In Ukraine / NATO

• IAEA: Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyy Nuclear Power Plant (KhNPP) lost all access to the electricity grid yesterday due to military attacks in the country, forcing it to temporarily rely on diesel generators for back-up power, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said today, citing information he had received from Ukrainian authorities.

• Meanwhile the IAEA’s Board of Governors on Thursday passed a motion “calling on Russia to end all actions at Ukrainian nuclear facilities.”

• Reuters looks at the heavy fighting and attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

• Moscow has kept shtum on a reported warning made by the head of the CIA to his Russian counterpart, on what would happen if a nuclear attack occurred in Ukraine.

• A Russian cruise missile shot down over Kiev reportedly contained a dummy nuclear warhead. The swap has caused speculation over its purpose – with one suggestion being that the missile was being used as a decoy for Ukrainian air defences.

Nuclear Test Veterans

• The Mirror looks at the coming together of Labour and Tory MPs to demand the release of files relating to Britain’s nuclear test veterans.

AUKUS

• Aussie PM Anthony Albanese has shrugged off fresh statements from France, that the procurement of nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS military pact could risk a confrontation with China. Relations between the two were soured after Albanese’s predecessor ditched a submarine deal with France in order to join AUKUS with the US and UK.

• More coverage of the Aussie’s intention to stick with AUKUS in The Independent.

UK Nuclear Energy

• ‘Selected’ construction resumed at Hinkley Point C on Friday – after a fatal accident at the site forced a week-long closure.

• Chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirmed during his Autumn Statement that the Sizewell C nuclear plant will go ahead. The Guardian has a run down of the energy policies within the statement.

Nuclear Energy

• Romania has confirmed that it will be spending $3 billion to build two US-made nuclear reactors in the east of the country.

RadWaste

• Australia’s top nuclear organisation has warned that it may have to stop making life-saving cancer drugs if a new nuclear waste dump doesn’t go ahead. The chief executive of Australia’s Nuclear Science Technology Organisation (Ansto), Shaun Jenkinson, said the federal government organisation would not be able to keep producing nuclear medicine if it ran out of waste storage space at its Lucas Heights facility.

• A complaint has been made against a local councillor at Copeland Borough Council, over the plan to conduct seismic blasting in the Irish Sea. The blasting is part of preparatory work ahead of the siting of an offshore waste dump.

North Korea

• Japanese officials said that a North Korea ballistic missile that landed in Japanese waters on Friday had the potential to reach the continental USA.

• World leaders have condemned the latest North Korea launch as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit kicks off in Thailand.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• The IAEA Board of Governors on Thursday passed a motion that Iran must cooperate with the nuclear watchdog’s probe into its nuclear activities.