CND Press Digest: Thursday 19th January 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• Former PM Boris Johnson has told the Davos summit that Vladimir Putin will not use nuclear weapons, and that the West should call his bluff and send combat tanks to Ukraine. “He’s not going to use nuclear weapons…People argue that we should not escalate and should be wary of doing things that further provoke Putin…How can we escalate against a guy who is doing all-out war against a civilian population?”
• The Times leads with Johnson’s comparison to Putin as the “fat boy in Dickens.”
• That’s as Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev once again raises the threat of nuclear war - if Russia is defeated in Ukraine. “The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war…Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends,” Medvedev said in a post on his Telegram channel.
• On the subject of tanks to Ukraine, this opinion in The Guardian: If Germany has truly learned from its history, it will send tanks to defend Ukraine
• The Ukrainian government has reported a threefold increase in cyber-attacksagainst the country in the past year.
• The Bulletin has a piece on how the war in Ukraine has impacted US-Russian nuclear arms control efforts.
• The head of the IAEA said the nuclear watchdog will continue to work at Ukrainian nuclear plants and for some time after. Rafeal Grossi had previously expressed his hope that a safety zone could be set up around the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia plant – but stressed that the negotiations were difficult.

Nuclear Proliferation

• The FT has an interesting piece where John Thornhill takes his place in a simulation of being the US president during a nuclear crisis and discusses the quest to modernise the nuclear decision-making process. 

Trident

• Cumbria and Lancashire CND appear in the Cumberland News & Star calling for an end to British nuclear weapons convoys. It follows earlier reports that the MoD admitted logging 40 safety incidents between 2019 and 2021.

Whistleblowing

• The lawyers of Alison McDermott, a former Sellafield employee who was dismissed after exposing a “toxic culture,” have told an appeal that the tribunal which sacked her was slanted against her.

UK Nuclear Energy

• The Times with two pieces on nuclear power in Britain with commentary on Great British Nuclear (GBN) from Alistair Osborne and a piece on the funding delays which is holding up the quango being set up.
• A government industry advisor has raised concerns over the lack of clear strategy at GBN.
• The FT meanwhile, has a big read on the drive to find financial backing for a new fleet of nuclear plants.
• That’s as campaigners opposed to Sizewell C in Suffolk have written to the Office for Nuclear Regulation calling for the project to be cancelled due to coastal erosion.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament