CND Press Digest: Friday 8th June 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• News item on CND’s website about the collapse of the Kakhovka dam and the impact it could have on safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
• IAEA said Thursday that water from the Kakhovka reservoir is still being pumped to help cool the reactors at the Zaporizhzhia, but at levels earlier thought to make it impossible.
• Concerns by nuclear safety experts on the risks to the Zaporizhzhia cooling ponds.
• The Atlantic Council: Kakhovka dam collapse threatens Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
• A visual guide to the collapse of the dam. 
• Mines uprooted in Ukraine dam disaster could pose danger for years – Red Cross.
• Volodymyr Zelenskiy chides the International Committee of the Red Cross over its response to the collapse to the dam.
• The Morning Star report on calls on GMB members to reconsider giving “blind support to Ukraine’s neoliberal, anti-trade union government as it cracks down on the workers’ movement.”

AUKUS

• Bad news for Australia as supply chain and workforce shortages hits the US Navy’s submarine programme with a two-year delivery delay. The US programme is meant to supply Australia with up to five nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS pact.

Trident

• BBC: There has been a “minor” seawater leak at a naval base in Plymouth where nuclear submarines are stored. A £3m contract has been awarded to repair the leak. Thirteen decommissioned nuclear submarines are stored at 3 Basin at Devonport dockyard. The Ministry of Defence said there was no environmental risk from the leak.

TPNW

• Durham’s student newspaper the Palatinate on the city’s adoption of the TPNW.

UK Nuclear Energy

• New Civil Engineer: New government strategy on nuclear waste aims to make it permanently safe, sooner.

North Korea

• US and South Korean officials will meet on Monday to discuss joint work on disarming North Korea.

Fukushima

• Inside town abandoned after nuclear disaster filled with hundreds of vintage cars.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• US and Iran have both denied reports that an interim deal on reviving the 2015 nuclear pact is near completion.
• Sky News on the tensions between Israel and Iran over the latter’s nuclear programme.
• The Telegraph: The 11 UK universities accused of helping to develop Iran’s ‘suicide drones’. Academics in Britain found to be collaborating on joint research projects with military and civilian applications.
• A former Iranian foreign ministry claims that if Iran is to normalise relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Riyadh can only use this [nuclear programme] issue as a playing card to secure more interests.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament