CND Press Digest: Tuesday 25th April 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• The war in Ukraine is hampering the maintenance of the Russian-occupiedZaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the IAEA has warned.
• Units from Belarus returned home from Russia on Saturday after training on how to use the Iskander nuclear weapons system.
• Risks of a direct military confrontation between the two nuclear powers, Russia and the United States, are steadily growing, the TASS news agency quoted a senior Russian diplomat as saying on Tuesday.
• The comments come as former Russian President Dimitri Medvedev once again said that the world was likely heading towards a nuclear war.
• The Telegraph turns its sights to Russia’s nuclear industry. 
• Politico looks at the nuclear ties between Russia and France and the strains caused by the EU’s next sanctions package which will target Moscow’s nuclear industry.
• Ukraine and the US have signed an agreement to rollout out a pilot small modular reactor nuclear project in Ukraine. Meanwhile Russia has SMR project.

• A consultation started today (April 25) on proposals to allow Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to drop a planning condition to fit acoustic fish deterrents (AFDs) to its water intakes in the Bristol Channel.
• From The Telegraph: The Government’s push to find investors for the £20bn Sizewell C nuclear power station has suffered a significant blow as Britain’s biggest fund managers have snubbed the scheme.
• That’s as Britain’s nuclear industry pleads for funding in this City AM article, amid Sizewell’s struggles to receive private financing. Tom Greatrex of the Nuclear Industry Association claims Sizewell will “make the greatest single contribution to fighting climate change of any project in UK history.”
• Meanwhile campaigners opposed to Sizewell have expressed concerns over the safety of Sizewell after Russian ‘spy’ ships were spotted monitoring offshore energy infrastructure in the North Sea.  
• James Fox asks: Will going nuclear send Rolls-Royce shares into meltdown?

Nuclear Energy

• A South Korean consortium is The Guardian on the nuclear divide in Europe.

The Big One / Renewable Energy

• CND and XR Peace banners and placards were on prominent display in last night’s Channel 4 report of The Big One. Watch the report here.
• BBC’s website coverage of Monday.
• Ellie Mae O’Hagan asks in The Guardian: Can Extinction Rebellion really be the new centre ground of the climate movement?
• The Guardian’s coverage of Monday.
• A report on last Saturday’s renewable energy conference in London. You can watch back here.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• Israel has called on China to intervene with Tehran over fears Iran is on the brink of enriching enough uranium for a nuclear warhead.  

Fukushima

• The Japanese nuclear power company TEPCO said Monday that melted fuel debris at the defunct Fukushima plant likely created holes in the pressure vessel of one of its reactors.

North Korea

• Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton has called for the redeployment of nuclear weapons to South Korea. Washington last had nuclear weapons stationed on the peninsula between 1958 and 1991.
• Bolton’s comment come as South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol visits Washington DC for discussions with Joe Biden. The pair will discuss North Korean missile testing and nuclear threats and how best to respond to them.
• BBC on why some South Koreans want nuclear weapons.

CND

• St Albans CND made the Herts Advertiser on some recent local campaigning on nuclear weapons.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament