CND Press Digest: Friday 12th May 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• Ben Wallace announced on Thursday that Britain will give Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine. The long-range missiles have a range of around 250km (some versions can go further) and give Kyiv its deepest strike capability to date. Read CND’s comment here.
• The Guardian with more on concerns around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant amid plans by Russia to evacuate up to 2,700 Ukrainian staff who work at the plant.

Trident

• After more than seven years and at a cost in excess of $500 million, HMS Vanguard has left the Davenport dockyard after completing its mid-life refit.

UK Nuclear Energy

• A former government advisor on nuclear waste has raised concerns over the impact climate change will have on proposed nuclear sites. Professor Andy Blowers, an opponent of the government plans, worries that ministers seem to have taken no account of sea level rise, intense storms and the prospect of flooding at these sites.
• Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLAs) writes to King Charles asking him to intercede over the plan to locate a nuclear waste dump in East Lincolnshire right next to the first Royal nature reserve.
• The Lincolnite: Anti-nuclear campaigners have claimed victory in Theddlethorpe after last week’s district and parish council elections. Opposition councillors, including independent Trais Hesketh, gained a majority of seats with a high voter turnout.
• An opinion by a Labour campaigner in The Scotsman calling on Humza Yousaf to reverse the SNP’s policy opposing nuclear power.

Fukushima

• Officials from Japan and South Korea held a meeting on Friday to discuss a visit by South Korean experts to Fukushima. Japan hopes to convince them that a plan to release millions of tonnes of radioactive water from the defuct plant into the sea.

North Korea

• North Korea has warned Japan not to join the South Korean / US nuclear consulting group. Pyongyang said by joining the group, Japan would help “plunge Northeast Asia into instability and finally turn it into a sea of flames.”

Iran Nuclear Deal

• The Telegraph with a comment on the tit-for-tat tanker seizures between Iran and the US.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament