CND Press Digest: Monday 3rd April 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• Russia’s envoy to Minsk said Sunday that Russia will deploy its tactical nuclear missiles close to the western border of Belarus. It comes a week after the deployment was announced by Moscow and would place Russian nuclear weapons on NATO’s eastern frontier.
• NATO within days, according to General-Secretary Jens Stoltenberg. It comes after Turkey became the final member of the alliance to ratify Helsinki’s membership.
• Newsweek on the risk of nuclear war fatigue. 

AUKUS

• In case you saw the news over the weekend that France was joining the AUKUS pact – it was in fact an April Fools joke.
• What isn’t a joke is that the projects associated with the AUKUS pact will requiremore than 8,000 engineers that could otherwise be working on socially useful programmes. Will they be filled in time? Some leading nuclear engineering experts have their doubts.

UK Nuclear Energy

• EDF is to pay an extra £1 million to mitigate for the increased requirement of staff for building the reactors at Hinkley Point C.

Fukushima

• Japan lifts evacuation order in town near Fukushima 12 years after nuclear disaster.

North Korea

• High activity has been spotted at North Korea’s main nuclear site - leading experts to believe that a new nuclear reactor is close to coming online.
• That’s as the Kim Jo Jong, the sister of North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, accused Ukraine of harbouring nuclear weapons ambitions. She based her claim on an online petition which has garnered a thousand signatures.
• South Korea, Japan and US navies kicked off their first anti-submarines drills in six months. The exercises are aimed at countering North Korean missile threats. 

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament