CND Press Digest: Thursday 9th November 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• The Kremlin said on Wednesday that strategic dialogue with the United States over nuclear weapons was “definitely necessary” but that such talks could not happen while Washington was “lecturing” Moscow.
• It comes as NATO member countries that signed a key Cold War-era security treaty froze their participation in the pact on Tuesday just hours after Russia pulled out, raising fresh questions about the future of arms control agreements in Europe. Many of NATO’s 31 allies are parties to the Treaty of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which was aimed at preventing Cold War rivals from massing forces at or near their mutual borders. The CFE was signed in November 1990 as the Soviet bloc was crumbling but was not fully ratified until two years later.

Gaza War

• The Times runs a comment from Suella Braverman, where she called for the stricter policing of Saturday’s Palestine demo. The paper has also covered her comments in another article.
• Meanwhile Iain Martin writes in the same paper arguing that the protests somehow prove that multiculturalism has failed.
• Peter Oborne and Imran Mulla resigns as a shadow minister from the Labour frontbench in order to call for a ceasefire.
• CND Vice-Chair Carol Turner spoke to the Sky News Daily podcast about the upcoming demo.

UK Nuclear Weapons

• The i newspaper reveals that Britain’s nuclear-powered submarines, including those forming Trident, and military ships have been hit by spare part shortages and repair issues. Some of the suppliers tasked with providing parts and replacement equipment to the Royal Navy recently missed their targets, with the Government rating their performance as inadequate, according to publicly available data.

Nuclear Justice

• The Bulletin writes on a vote by UN diplomats in support of a motion on addressing the legacy of nuclear weapons.

Nuclear Weapons

• The Federation of American Scientists has released its latest nuclear notebook - which includes and overview of what nuclear weapons sharing arrangements mean, satellite images of nuclear base upgrades, and what nuclear sharing arrangements looked like during the Cold War versus what they look like today.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Business Green: Small nuclear reactors are a bad bet for the British government.

Nuclear Energy

• called for nuclear power to be part of the equation when it came to tackling climate change. 

Fusion

• The US and the UK have announced a “major new partnership” in fusion technology, advancing the “shared goal of ending the climate crisis”, officials said. The agreement came from the US Department of Energy and the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero during a meeting in Washington on Wednesday.

Whistleblowers

• In a sobering session at the ECEC 2023, whistleblower Alison McDermott spoke to Katy Diggory about the horrendous abuse and litigation she faced after speaking up about serious systemic issues at the Sellafield Ltd nuclear site. Watch here.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament