CND Press Roundup Tuesday 6th December 2022

War in Ukraine / NATO

• Explosions rocked two airbases deep within Russian territory on Monday in an apparent Ukrainian attack aimed at reaching Russia’s long-range bombers, damaging at least two aircraft. One of the bases, Engels-2, has nuclear weapons storage facilities.

• Russia’s Defence Minister accused Ukraine of “nuclear terrorism” and of risking a nuclear accident, amid continued shelling at the Zaporzhizhia nuclear plant.

• Common Dreams on the new US stealth bomber, the $750-million per plane B-21 Raider.

• A resurgent NATO and nuclear weapons feature as two of the issues to watch in 2023, according to Chatham House.

Trident

• The Ferret and The Guardian - using data provided by NukeWatch – found that the UK’s nuclear submarines have been at sea for record-breaking lengths of time. The investigation found that two of the submarines had each been at sea for 157 days – promoting fears that it will lead to “boredom, complacency and an inevitable drop-off in standards.” Normally, patrols would last no=longer than three months at a time.

AUKUS

• Australia’s shadow Defence Minister has called on Canberra to purchase two Virginia-class nuclear-powered subs from the US by 2030. Andrew Hastie said the subs were urgently needed ahead of Australia producing their own subs domestically under the AUKUS pact with the US and UK.

• Vijay Prashad  writes in The Morning Star on Australia’s growing military posture towards China.

China

• China has refuted claims made in a Pentagon report about the modernisation of its nuclear forces as “gesticulating and absurdly guessing.” Published last month, the report said Beijing was planning to increase its arsenal to 1,5000 warheads by 2035.

North Korea

• North Korea conducted its second consecutive day of artillery drills on Tuesday, in response to live-fire exercises carried out by South Korea. The pair have been engaged in tit-for-tat drills in what has been a record-breaking year for North Korean ICBM tests.

RadWaste

• The BBC looks at the Yucca mountain nuclear waste storage site in Nevada and local opposition to it.  

UK Nuclear Energy

• Energy Live News suggests British infrastructure projects will face the axe in order to pay for the UK government’s nuclear power stations like Sizewell C.