CND Press Roundup Friday 25th November 2022

War in Ukraine / NATO

• The Intelligence podcast from the Economist looks at the dangers facing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and signs that Russian troops may be preparing to leave it after eight months of occupation.

• Ukraine’s energy chief has warned of a “nuclear and radioactive catastrophe” if Russia continues to launch attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Recent airstrikes left Ukraine’s nuclear power plants disconnected from the power grid for the first time in 40 years – and the country is struggling to restore power.

• IAEA experts have arrived at Zaporizhzhia to provide support and assistance to workers at the plant.

• The House of Lords Library has published a new article on the chances Russia could use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

• UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has called on British households to slash their energy use in order to defeat Vladimir Putin. Speaking to the Treasury Select Committee: “For most people we need you to play your part in reducing our energy dependency on what Putin chooses to do in Ukraine. And that’s why we’ve got this national ambition to reduce energy consumption by 15 percent.”

• The 19fortyfive website explores if Russia is removing the nuclear warheads from its missiles in order to use them as conventional munitions in Ukraine.

Trident

• Belgium’s greens – which form a part of the country’s fragile coalition government – have used post-Brexit trading arrangements to block a shipment to the UK of a key technology needed for Britain’s nuclear weapons. The specialised high-pressure isostatic press, which is used for handling radioactive waste, is made by the American-Belgian company EPSI in Antwerp. As The Times reports: “An export licence, required after Brexit, was seen as a formality before Belgium’s deputy prime minister Georges Gilkinet, who is a member of the green party Ecolo, blocked it due to opposition to nuclear weapons and the arms industry.”

Nuclear Bunkers

• A Cold War-era nuclear bunker in Lincolnshire has gone under the hammer for £31,000.

Lakenheath

• A judge has ruled that a US servicewoman accused of killing a motorcyclist as she travelled home from work, must face a civil trial in Britain. Lawyers for airman first class Mikayla Hayes, who works at Lakenheath airbase in Suffolk, had argued that Hayes should face a US military court instead, as she was still on duty at the time of the collision.

UK Nuclear Energy

• The Mirror reports on the tributes from the family of the worker tragically killed in a recent accident at the construction site of the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant.