CND Press Digest: Tuesday 14th February 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• A very NATO tanks being sent to Kiev – but the article also notes that the US Air Force wants to send some of its older MQ-9 Reaper drones to help bust Russian tanks.

• Chair of the defence secretary Tobias Ellwood writes in the i newspaper calling for more defence spending “to increase prosperity.”

TPNW

• Aberystwyth Council in west Wales passed a motion to urge the UK government to sign up to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – one of our newest nuclear ban communities.

AUKUS

• The Sun quotes government insiders who claim UK ministers are open “in principle” to selling conventionally-armed nuclear subs like the Astute-class to Australia. But while the piece lauds the potential boon to the British defence industry in Barrow, what will this mean for Aussie hopes to have some of the work take place down under?

UK Nuclear Energy

• Sizewell B has been temporarily calls to abandon the the Akkuyu nuclear plant in Turkeyfollowing last week’s earthquake.
• NFLA has called on the Scottish government to block any attempts to use nuclear power in any of its green freeports.

Hydrogen

• The EU published rules on Monday that opens the door for hydrogen produced in nuclear-based energy systems to count towards the bloc’s renewable energy goals.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• MPs Stephen Crabb and Steve McCabe (of Conservative and Labour Friends of Israel respectively) on the need to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp. They note: “Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has been aided by Iran’s provision of hundreds of deadly suicide drones to President Putin, and now, reportedly, ballistic missiles. The IRGC is also the key actor in Iran’s march towards developing a nuclear weapon. There is also a growing understanding about the depth and breadth of the IRGC’s involvement in the international drugs trade.”

Fukushima

• Japan’s nuclear regulators on Monday “approved contentious safety evaluation changes and draft legislation to allow aging reactors to operate longer, in a rare split decision in which one of the five commissioners dissented.”

Iraq War 

• The Observer with people’s memories of the 2003 Iraq war protest.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament