CND Press Round-up Monday 16th January 2023

War in Ukraine / NATO

• Germany’s defence minister has stepped down from her brief, after month’s of criticism of her performance and growing pressure on Germany to approve a plan to send battle tanks to Ukraine. It comes as manufacturer Rheinmetall said that it would take until 2024 for any of its industrial stocks of Leopard II tanks to reach Ukraine, and that any donations to Kiev would need to come from the existing inventories within European armies. Meanwhile, Britain confirmed at the weekend that it would include 14 Challenger II tanks in its latest military package to Ukraine. US, France, and Germany have also pledged more hardware including reconnaissance vehicles, and armoured fighting vehicles.

• The upping of military support by Ukraine’s Western allies has fuelled Russia’s domestic propagandists, with one of Putin’s key allies claiming World War 3 has already started. Vladimir Solovyov also suggested tactical nuclear strikes on countries like the UK, France, and Poland.

• The ever diplomatic former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev suggested Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida commit ritual disembowelment, over the latter’s apparent subservience to US foreign policy. Medvedev’s comments were in response to a joint statement by Kishida and Joe Biden on Russian nuclear threats.

• Russia’s TASS news agency said the country has produced the first nuclear warheads for its self-powered Poseidon super torpedoes. Poseidons are being developed for the country’s Belgorod nuclear submarine.

• The Conversation has a piece asking “What next for the anti-NATO left after Ukraine?”

Trident / UK Defence

• A Freedom of Information reguest by The Ferret found that Britain’s nuclear weapons convoys logged 40 safety incidents over the last three years. Two incidents involved convoy vehicles cashing, while convoys also got caught up in five other crashes. Vehicles also suffered multiple brake faults, breakdowns and power losses.

• A letter to The National calling for “absolute certainty” that Trident is removed from Scotland following a successful independence vote. It comes after comments from the SNP’s new defence spokesperson in Westminster, that independent Scotland could join NATO without having to base nuclear weapons.

• Edward Lucas in The Times calls for the Tory government to ditch its post-Brexit ‘Global Britain’ mantra – seen in its Indo-Pacific tilt – and instead focus its military and diplomatic clout on Europe: “Over-ambitious thinking and complacency are a lethal combination. Our £55 billion defence budget is staggeringly badly spent. The prime example of this is our floating white elephants: the two aircraft carriers, one broken, both vulnerable, neither relevant to our most pressing defence needs. Some of our woes, such as the procurement quagmire and the army’s recruitment problems, are too public to hide. Others, such as nuclear submarine availability, are still more worrying, but rightly secret. Yet allies and foes alike know the real picture: a country with hollowed-out armed forces that tries to do too much with too little, and ends up doing it all badly. This impresses nobody.”

Counter-Terrorism

• UK police have arrested a man on suspicion of terrorism offences, after uranium particles were discovered on metal imported through Heathrow airport late last year.  

• A former general has suggested that the radioactive material found at Heathrow could have been used in an attack similar to the one which killed Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko.

• Modern Diplomacy: Heathrow nuclear shipment?

Indo-Pacific

• CNN has some analysis on how the arms race in Asia risks spiralling out of control.

• The US is close to securing fresh co-operation deals with the Marshall Islands and Palau – seen as integral to stemming growing Chinese influence in the Pacific. The agreements will also include compensation and support deals for islanders, who have been left with health and environmental impacts caused by US nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 1960s.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• Reports suggest that the UK is reviewing its support for the Iran nuclear deal following the execution of the British-Iranian dual national, Alireza Akbari.

• Simon Tisdall in The Observer discusses the West’s inability to confront the increasingly far-right coalition government of Benjamin Netahyahu, and concerns Israel will sooner or later threaten to attack Iran over its nuclear programme.

Nuclear Energy

• The Guardian: audio long read on the challenges of dismantling Sellafield.

• New Civil Engineer: Pipeline of ‘no-regrets’ new nuclear schemes needs ‘expediting’

• Machine Market: The nuclear option for power transmission

• News & Star: Solway Community Power Company hopes to bring new reactors to Cumbria

• News & Star: Allerdale GDF announce new changes to search area for storage facility

• South Korea’s president Yoon Suk-yeol has said his country’s journey to being carbon neutral will rely on more nuclear energy, despite his predecessor hoping to move away from it as an energy source.