CND Press Digest: Friday 10th November 2023

War In Ukraine / NATO

• Reuters: Russia has suspended a cooperation agreement with Japan on the decommissioning of Russian nuclear weapons, according to a government document made public on Thursday night. Russo-Japanese relations have deteriorated sharply since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Tokyo joined Western countries in imposing punitive sanctions. Moscow agreed in 1993 that its Vladivostok-based Pacific Fleet would stop dumping liquid radioactive waste in the Sea of Japan, but asked richer countries to help it process the waste for underground burial.
• The Bulletin: Why a Russian nuclear expert thinks the Doomsday Clock should move away from midnight.

Gaza War

• Watch: Does Israel pose a nuclear threat to the world?
• Pressure is mounting on Rishi Sunak to sack Suella Braverman following the Home Secretary’s inflammatory article in the Times about tomorrow’s Ceasefire demonstration.
• The Financial Times’ Rachman Review asks: Who will run Gaza once the war is over?
• Veterans endorse Remembrance Day demonstrations and dismiss government backlash.
• NPEC: A Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction: a utopia?

Nuclear Weapons

• The US Navy and the Pentagon’s Strategic Command intend to engineer a new warhead to be deployed on the famous Trident II D5 nuclear-armed, submarine-launched weapon for decades into the future, in large measure due to a series of key upgrades and “life extension” programs.
• An opinion in Bloomberg argues that the US needs so-called tactical nuclear weapons in order to keep the peace.
• Foreign Affairs looks at how US strategy is fuelling Chinese nuclear weapons modernisation.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Business Green (paywall but you can get a free 7-day trial): Small nuclear reactors are a bad bet for the British government.
• More on the plan to run a desalination plant for the construction of Sizewell C,using power generated by Sizewell B.
• The Adam Smith Institute fawns over nuclear power.

Nuclear Energy

•  Associates Press: A project to build a first-of-a-kind small modular nuclear reactor power plant was terminated Wednesday, another blow to the Biden administration’s energy agenda following cancellations last week of two major offshore wind projects.

Fusion

• The Telegraph hails the signing of an agreement between the US and UK government to work together on nuclear fusion after being finally rejected from a rival EU programme as a result of Brexit. The paper says the deal will see both share facilities, fund research and build shared supply chains for the complex fuels and other materials needed to achieve fusion.

CND

• The November issue of CND’s Campaign magazine is out now and free to read.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament