CND Press Digest: Wednesday 29th November 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• NATO chief urges allies to ‘stay the course’ in supporting Ukraine. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/28/nato-ministers-talk-russia-ukraine-war-kosovo-unrest-at-br…
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to visit first NATO country since Ukraine invasion.
• UK to galvanise support for Ukraine as David Cameron attends meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
• Sweden says Turkey pledges to ratify its NATO bid ‘within weeks’.
• Reuters Explainer: What Turkey gained in delaying Sweden’s NATO bid.

RAF Lakenheath

• US deputy defense secretary Kathleen Hicks has payed a visit to RAF Lakenheath - which the Telegraph says “hints at new nuclear weapons deal” between Washington and London. The Telegraph also mentions CND’s recent legal action against construction work at the base. More coverage of Hicks’ visit, with comment from CND, in the Mirror. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/28/us-defence-guided-tour-of-raf-site-hints-at-home-for-nuc…

UK Nuclear Weapons

• Two contracts, worth collectively over £100 million, have been awarded to Babcock as part of the the Dreadnought programme.
• AUKUS
  • AUKUS pact stresses longterm workforce development.
  • Australia to use its AUKUS fleet as a peacetime intelligence tool.

  UK Nuclear Energy

  • Lots of pro-nuclear power articles out today: The Times (paywalled) and Daily Business report on pressure on the SNP to drop its opposition to nuclear power projects.
  • The Telegraph laments on NuScale Powers’s scuppered plans to rollout out SMRs across the US Midwest – and worries it will have knock on effects for Britain’s“green transition.”
  • Suffolk News: Fears Woodbridge could become gridlocked amid possibility that A12 works by Suffolk County Council and Sizewell C could overlap.
  • Cambridge University has conducted a survey on what your energy preferences say about you.

  Nuclear Energy

  • A look at the nuclear industry lurking around the fringes of COP 28.
  • Reuters: The global nuclear industry is in the middle of a renaissance but still faces financing challenges and needs government support for projects, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol said on Tuesday.
  • That’s as the head of the IAEA said that a dozen countries are expected to start producing nuclear power in the next few years.
  • EDF aims to build one nuclear reactor a year in 2030s.

  Best,

   

  Pádraig McCarrick

   

  Press and Communications Officer

  Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament