CND Press Roundup Friday 9th December 2022

War in Ukraine / NATO

• Russia said Thursday that the purpose of the establishment of a safety zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant would be to put an end to Ukrainian shelling.

• Meanwhile, Ukraine accused Russia of placing multiple Grad rocket launcher systems near one of the plant’s six reactors, as well as secretly constructing “protective structures” on the site.

• A former senior Chinese military official tells the Financial Times that Beijing is retraining Russia over nuclear weapons use in Ukraine.

• NATO has an interview with the bloc’s chief Jens Stoltenberg. His answer to NATO’s ability to counter a nuclear escalation from Russia amid talk of the use of so-called tactical nukes: “I think what we saw, more some weeks ago than now, was a lot of rhetoric from Moscow, from President Putin, that increased concerns among NATO Allies and others about the potential use of these weapons. We have seen less of that recently. But we remain vigilant, we monitor closely what Russia is doing. And we send the very clear… and Allies have sent a very clear message to Russia that it will have severe consequences for Russia, and also of course that a nuclear war must never be fought.”

• A letter to the Financial Times on the West’s options over Ukraine suggests: “To truly ‘win’ in Ukraine — and indeed to save Ukraine from the utter destruction of an ongoing proxy war between the US and Russia — the west needs historical perspective, not just anti-Russia bluster.”

AUKUS

• A senior Australian civil servant – who is being investigated over a botched social welfare recovery scheme – has been appointed head of the AUKUS project at the Department of Defence. Kathryn Campbell had been head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade but was moved following the Labor Party assuming power. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stopped short of dismissing senior civil servants involved in the scandal.

Tempest

• The Times, Sky News, and Financial Times cover the agreement between the UK, Italy, and Japan to build a next-generation subsonic fighter.

Greenham Common

• The Times has a feature on Greenham Common and how the former airbase has been turned into a business park that will “serve as workshops, warehouses and offices for local businesses.”

UK Nuclear Energy

• A robot designed to assist in decommissioning work at the Dounreay nuclear plant has been added to Time magazine’s top 200 innovations of 2022.

• The Guardian reports on how the owners of a firm behind a proposed new coal mine in Cumbria, are based in the Cayman Islands. It notes that West Cumbria Mining boss, Mark Kirkbride is also: “a member of the committee on radioactive waste management, which the government says is an independent panel set up to give expert advice on the building of a nuclear dump for radioactive waste from past and future nuclear industry.”

• British nuclear waste is to be blasted into space as part of a collaboration between the UK Space Agency and National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL). The team have found a way to extract radioactive element americium and use it in batteries that will power next-generation Moon and Mars rovers.

Nuclear Energy

• The Guardian goes to southern Germany to speak to residents living in the village of Neckarwestheim – where the life of the local nuclear plant has been extended by the German government.

• EDF and Fortum have signed an agreement to explore new nuclear reactor projects in Finland and Sweden.

• India said Wednesday that it would build more nuclear plants, with five sites getting the green light for the siting of ten, 700-MW pressurised heavy water reactors.

• An application has been submitted by Sellafield Ltd. for the demolition of the Calder Control Rod Mechanism Workshop, which was first built on the site in 1956.

• New Mexico is drawing up new rules to limit the amount of radioactive waste in the state’s south-east corner.

Tony Benn

• Kate Hudson features in this Camden New Journal article revisiting Tony Benn’s book, Letters to my Grandchildren. She said Tony had “a big heart and spared no effort to advance the cause of peace.”