CND Press Digest: Tuesday 22nd August 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• Russia benefits from Turkey’s tiff with UN, NATO allies over Cyprus village.

AUKUS

• Financial Review: AUKUS subs deal ‘could worsen US shortfall, blunt China deterrence’.
• The Sydney Morning Herald: ‘Unbelievable’: Defence spends $8.5m on consultantsfor AUKUS nuclear regulator.
• ‘Maximum AUKUS’: Labor gets its war on, as social democracy slips beneath the waves.
• The groups of voters Labor risks losing over AUKUS deal.

Fukushima

• Japan will begin releasing millions of tonnes of radioactive water from the defunct Fukushima nuclear plant on Thursday. Coverage by Greenpeace, Evening Standard, The Guardian, The Times, The Japan Times, and Reuters.
• Reuters: For Fukushima supermarket owner, water release spells renewed battle for survival.
• Explainer: The Fukushima water release plan.
• Hong Kong to ban some Japanese seafood from Aug 24.
• Factbox: Excerpts from Japan’s response to China and Russia’s inquiry on Fukushima water release.

AI

• Military AI: MoD’s timid approach to challenging ethical issues will not be enough to prevent harm.

Nuclear Energy

• Reuters: Shaken by the loss of Russian natural gas since the invasion of Ukraine, European countries are questioning whether they can extend the lives of their ageing nuclear reactors to maintain the supply of affordable, carbon-free electricity — but national regulators, companies and governments disagree on how long the atomic plants can be safely kept running.
• France on Monday afternoon issued a “red alert” for four southern regions amid a spell of excessively hot weather, with temperatures expected to peak at 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Rhone valley…Separately, French power company EDF said it extended the outage at its 1.3-gigawatt Golfech 2 nuclear reactor in south-western France on Monday because river water used to cool the reactor had surpassed maximum temperatures due to the heatwave.

Korea

• North Korea on Tuesday denounced the annual military drills between the United States and South Korea, warning of a “thermonuclear war” over recent trilateral agreements to deepen ties between the leaders of the US, South Korea and Japan at Camp David.

Iran Nuclear Deal

• The Telegraph: Joe Biden launches bid to ease tensions with Iran ahead of 2024 elections.

Nuclear Terrorism

• A pair of British doomsday preppers who Austrian police claim had “planned to build a nuclear dirty bomb” were found with a massive arsenal of weapons at their home. The pair, who have not been named in local media, face up to five years in jail after being charged with nuclear offences following their arrest in Ruden, Carinthia State, Austria, earlier this year.

CND

• The National with a preview of Scottish CND’s Festival of Survival taking place this November. The preview is accompanied by a comment from SCND Chair Lynn Jamieson on climate change and nuclear weapons.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament