CND Press Digest: Wednesday 19th July 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• Ben Wallace used yesterday’s Defence Command paper announcement to note that Ukraine has “tragically become a battle lab” for new war technologies.

UK Nuclear Weapons

• reaction to the paper.
• Declassified UK has a Twitter thread on it which does mention the additional billions for nuclear weapons.
• CND’s press release to the additional money announcement which was picked up by Common Dreams.

UK Nuclear Energy

• 100 Percent Renewable UK writes: What is really most significant about the Government’s new announcement for £137 million funding for research into so-called small modular reactors (SMRs), is the failure to move forward with plans to finance Sizewell C. This latest nonsense about SMRs can best be seen as a cover for this lack of movement.
• The Guardian: Grant Shapps has condemned the neglect of Britain’s nuclear industry as a “colossal mistake” as he earmarked £20bn for a fleet of new reactors – but admitted it would take six years to even make a decision on giving projects the green light.
• Nils Pratley writes: Small nuclear reactors are a big, but sensible, step forward – now get on with it.
• The Times also looks at Shapps’ funding announcement here and here. With the Financial Times coverage here.
• Reuters on the new competition to roll out small modular reactors. 

Nuclear Energy

• Sweden’s parliament on Tuesday adopted a new energy target, giving the right-wing government the green light to push forward with plans to build new nuclear plants in a country that voted 40 years ago to phase out atomic power.

CND

• More than 100 people have been hospitalised and one person was killed after an explosion at a uranium enrichment plant in Russia’s Urals region—the largest of its kind in the world.
• CND Cymru’s upcoming march in opposition to small modular reactors covered in the nation.cymru and Nuclear Free Local Authorities.

North Korea

• The Times reports on the appearance of the first US nuclear-armed submarine at a South Korean port in decades.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament