CND Press Roundup Tuesday 10th January 2023

War in Ukraine / NATO

• Time magazine asks if Russia will go nuclear with seven questions to consider.

• The Telegraph reports on how the UK government is mulling the decision to send Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine.

• Ukraine expects that Russia’s state nuclear firm – Rosatom – will feature in the next round of EU sanctions against Moscow, according to its Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

• Meanwhile, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the country will continue to develop its nuclear weapons triad – as they are the main guarantee of its sovereignty. Feeding into the existential threat narrative, the secretary of the country’s Security Council and key Putin ally, Nikolai Patrushev, said Russia was now fighting the US-led NATO alliance in Ukraine, who were trying to wipe Russia from the political map.

Doomsday Clock

• The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has unveiled details of its Doomsday Clock announcement – due on 23 January 2023 – along with graphics that can be used on social media.

Lakenheath

• Hans Kristensen from the Federation of American Scientists writes in his blog that the C-17A transport plane has been cleared by the USAF to carry the B61-12 nuclear bomb to US/NATO bases in Europe. He adds that he doesn’t believe the schedule to bring forward the deployment of the bombs from spring 2023 to December 2022 went ahead, as reported by Politico last October.

AUKUS

• Australian PM Anthony Albanese is “confident” that a deal to buy nuclear-powered submarines from the US and UK under the AUKUS pact will go ahead – despite two US senators pouring cold water on the viability of such a procurement to US President Joe Biden. In a letter written last year, the pair said the US submarine industrial base was at breaking point and couldn’t support such a programme without harming its own capability.

Militarisation of Space

• Britain’s first attempt to launch nine satellites – including military ones – into space ended in failure on Monday, after the Virgin Orbit aircraft suffered an anomaly which prevented it from reaching orbit. CND and Drone Wars opposition to the launch featured in The Irish Times, MSM, TRT World, and Economic Times.

CND

• An obituary for former Labour MP Alice Mahon by London Region CND co-chair Carol Turner is a guest blog on CND’s website.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that discussions on Iran’s nuclear programme will feature heavily when he travels to Israel for talks with the new government of Benjamin Netamyahu.

Nuclear Energy

• A good letter from December on the need for more honesty about dealing with nuclear waste.

• Belgium will extend the life of two nuclear power plants by 10 years.

• Billionaire Bill Gates visited a shuttered coal-fire plant in West Virginia on Monday – as part of plans to use nuclear power as an energy solution for the US east coast.