CND Press Digest: Thursday 26th October 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a Russian drone attack early on Wednesday in the western Khmelnitskyi region had probably targeted the area’s nuclear power station. The attack shattered windows at the plant and injured 20 people.

• The Guardian: Russia’s military has conducted a simulated nuclear strike in a drill overseen by President Vladimir Putin, hours after the upper house of parliament voted to rescind the country’s ratification of a global nuclear test ban.

RAF Lakenheath

• The Green Party’s publication Green World has a news item on the party’s concerns about the return of US nuclear weapons to Britain.

Arms Fair

• Camden New Journal have a video report from last month’s DSEI arms fair in London. Watch here.

China

• The Kremlin said on Wednesday it was not concerned by China increasing the capabilities of its nuclear arsenal, stressing Moscow’s “advanced strategic partnership” with Beijing and China’s sovereign right to ensure its own security.

AUKUS

• Joe Biden has played down congressional jitters over the AUKUS pact and has revealed he assured Xi Jinping that the countries involved are not aiming to “surround China”.Biden made the comments during a visit to Washington by Aussie PM Anthony Albanese.
• Meanwhile, Foreign Policy fears the AUKUS pact is stalling, accusing Australia of not taking its defence commitments seriously.

UK Nuclear Energy

• David Toke: Why consumers are very likely to pay a lot more for power from Sizewell C than from Hinkley C.
• The Dalton Nuclear Institute at The University of Manchester has won the 2023 Bhattacharyya Award in recognition of its “stellar” academia-industry collaboration with the nuclear decommissioning sector.

Nuclear Energy

• NS Energy on skills shortages in the nuclear industry.
• Plans have been unveiled to build two small modular nuclear reactors in the United States to power data centres.
• Bulgaria has taken the first steps towards the construction of two additional reactors at its Kozloduy nuclear power plant, which will add combined capacity of 2,300 megawatts (MW), Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said on Wednesday.

Chernobyl

• The Mirror reports on the death of Viktor Smagin, an engineer who was one of the first on the scene of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament