CND Press Digest: Wednesday 26th July 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• More coverage of the IAEA noticing the presence of mines around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant by The Morning Star, Metro, and Financial Times.

Nuclear Weapons

• Philip Johnston writes in The Telegraph on the threat of nuclear war and argues that people seem to be more concerned about climate change (with stopping to this that they might be interlinked): “Perhaps the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction is such a powerful disincentive to their use that it is no longer worth fretting about. Let’s worry instead about climate change or AI as the likely harbingers of the Apocalypse. But for all that our children are being told the world is about to go up in flames, it isn’t. We can always adapt to global warming, just as we can harness artificial intelligence to our great benefit. But a nuclear war really would mean the end of life as we know it, which was why Oppenheimer spent his remaining years after the war arguing for controls.”
• Kingston Nub News picks up on commemorations being organised by Kingston Peace Council/CND to mark the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

AUKUS

• New Zealand’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation means it will not play a role in the AUKUS pact. The announcement comes after a meeting between Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on Wednesday.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Copeland MP Trudy Harrison has claimed that West Cumbria stands to benefit most from the establishment of Great British Nuclear. 
• Cambrian News reports on CND Cymru’s anti-SMR march.
• Carlisle-based engineering firm Carr’s has been awarded a £8.4 million contract to supply 18 instrument cabinets and seven shielding blocks for the SIXEP Continuity Plant (SCP) project at Sellafield.

Nuclear Energy

• The Ecologist on the defeated Australian government plan to build a toxic waste dump on aboriginal land.
• Paper: Why investing in new nuclear plants is bad for the climate.
• Environmental regulators in the US state of Massachusetts have denied a request to dump more than 1 million gallons of radioactive water from a shuttered nuclear plant into Cape Cod Bay.

Fusion

• The number of EU-based private companies looking to develop nuclear fusion has doubled in the past year, with three based in Germany, and one each in Italy, Sweden, and France.

North Korea

• Associated Press reports on the upcoming 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice and how they will be marked differently by both Seoul and Pyongyang.  

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament