CND Press Digest: Tuesday 27th June 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• Read CND’s comment on last weekend’s events in Russia which calls for all sides to keep nuclear threats off the table.
• The Telegraph runs a comment piece on what’s next for Russia which claims Putin “could well be tempted to use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine in a desperate bid to change the dynamics of the war in his favour. Indeed, we ought to take his transfer of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus and pursuit of upgraded and new ranges of nuclear missiles extremely seriously. We should also be open to the theory that the Kremlin has fundamentally altered its nuclear strategy from basic deterrence to a regional aggressive stance.”
• NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that the events over the weekend “are an internal Russian matter, and yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President (Vladimir) Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine.”
• Russia has called on the IAEA to ensure safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, claiming the plant is operating safely despite Ukrainian shelling near the facility.
• That’s as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of plotting a terrorist attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant that will result in a radiation leak.

NPT

• The US State Department said it convened a meeting of working-level experts from China, France, Russia and the United Kingdom earlier this month in Cairo, to discuss nuclear weapons issues including strategic risk reduction. US national Security spokesperson John Kirby described the meeting as “an ongoing exchange in the context of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).”

Trident

• Preparations HMS Victorious ahead of a major refit. How long will it take and how much will it cost?

• US military blogger David Axe writes in The Telegraph on why the AUKUS pact will leave the US Navy’s submarine force weakened.
• Reuters: US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday said on Monday the United States did not underestimate the difficulties ahead in realizing a three-nation project to supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines and still did not know exactly where the initial batch of vessels would come from.
• Despite these challenges in delivering the subs to Australia, US officials said the second pillar of AUKUS - which includes technologies like AI and hypersonic missiles - could be opened up to other countries.

AI

• Dave Webb writes for the CND website on the dangers of AI in military decision-making.

UK Nuclear Energy

• A legal challenge against the government’s plan to build the Sizewell C nuclear plant has been rejected. Justice Holgate ruled the government’s decision was in keeping with energy policy intended to achieve “diversity of methods of generation and security of supply”. Campaign group Together Against Sizewell C had argued that the government had failed to consider alternatives to nuclear power to meet its emissions targets when approving the project.
• A former advisor to Gordon Brown has called on Kier Starmer to drop Labour’s support for Sizewell C. However: “We should be looking much more positively at the small nuclear reactors that Rolls Royce are developing, because that could be a British technology which could sell around the world,” former BP executive Nick Butler CND’s website.
• Upcoming elections in Spain could see a reversal in energy policy in favour of nuclear power. The ruling Socialists are in favour of going ahead with decommissioning its nuclear plants and backing wind and solar technologies. Meanwhile, the conservative opposition People’s Party wants to reverse the decision and instead extend the life of its reactor fleet – which could need €4 billion over the next two decades to keeping running.
• Hungary said it needs to build more nuclear reactors.

Fukushima

• The operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant has said that the equipment to release radioactive water from the plant into the sea is completed.
• That’s as the head of Japan’s national fisheries cooperatives has reiterated his group’s opposition to the planned discharge, demanding the government take full responsibility for any negative impact on the industry.

CND

• CND’s presence at Glastonbury gets a cryptic mention in Zoe William’s Guardian column: There was a sticker poll in the hippy woo-woo field, asking a simple if leading question: what would you spend £205bn on? Education, the NHS, protecting the planet, or nuclear weapons? People engaged with it surprisingly seriously, I thought: I heard two people have an actual debate about the relative importance of health and education. But there in the “nuclear weapons” column, four brave contrarians had Post-it-noted their support. Because there’s always one (or four).
• CND’s relationship with Glastonbury gets mentioned in the UnHerd article looking at the changing radicalism of the festival.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament