CND Press Digest: Wednesday 18th January 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• The Telegraph on Russian threats that British tanks will burn in Ukraine – after the UK said it would send Challenger 2 tanks to Kiev. It comes ahead of a meeting of the Rammstein Group on Friday where it’s expected Ukraine’s allies will announce a new package of military support.
• The Telegraph has a report on Russia’s announcement that it has built the first set of its new Poseidon torpedo – which comes with a nuclear warhead and can cause radioactive tsunamis on coastal cities. It won’t be coming into service until 2027 and its development has been plagued with development difficulties.
• The Observer on how the war in Ukraine has resulted in Russian and Belarusian physicists being barred from having research papers published. Worth noting that it’s not necessarily Ukrainian scientists calling for this – but rather EU ones.
• Financial Times Opinion: There is no path to lasting Russian victory. Putin’s war has left his country isolated in Europe, while permanent occupation of Ukraine is unfeasible.
• France 24 on comments by the EU’s Ursula Von der Leyen that the bloc will back Ukraine for as long as it takes.
• The EU has also given Finland €242 million to That’s as France is looking for permission for a new project to store long-term nuclear waste.
• Finland’s underground nuclear dump is nearing completion – with a final license for the facility to start storing nuclear waste expected in 2024.
• The People’s Dispatch: Why nuclear industry’s comeback hopes rest on very thin ice.

Fukushima

• Japan’s High Court has upheld the acquittal of three bosses of the company that owned the Fukushima nuclear plant. Victims had tried to prosecute the Tepco chiefs over failures to prepare for the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that led to the plant’s meltdown.
• Meanwhile, Pacific islands nations have called on Japan to delay its plan to dump radioactive water from Fukushima into the ocean.

Nuclear Korea

• Japan Times on changing attitudes within South Korea on nuclear weapons – and the problems it poses for the US.  
• Financial Times Opinion: Lessons in preparing for war on the Korean peninsula. As Kim Jong Un ratchets up his nuclear arsenal, Seoul residents face questions over how to plan for a crisis.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• The Times on how the recent execution of a dual British-Iranian nation by Tehran is souring London’s support for reviving the 2015 nuclear deal. The UK could also designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organisation. However, Iran’s oil exports ended 2022 on a high with the trend continuing into 2023 despite the lifting of sanctions.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament