CND Press Digest: Wednesday 6th December 2023

War In Ukraine/NATO

• NATO cannot combat climate change. As European and North American military alliances prepare to “wage war on climate change,” the real war on nature and vulnerable communities rages in the background.

Nuclear Weapons

• Chinese nuclear weapons and Canada: an uncivil-military connection. National Interest on why the United States should take action to ensure that domestic and foreign actors are not boosting the nuclear programs of adversaries.
• War on the Rocks looks at the Biden administration’s cancellation of a sea-launched nuclear cruise missile - despite Republicans including it in amendments to US defence spending.
• The Bulletin: new information tool on nuclear weapons seeks to identify the next arms control strategies.  
• Donald Trump is back speaking about nuclear weapons, telling Sean Hannity: “The level of power of nuclear weapons is incredible. Take Hiroshima or take Nagasaki and that was many, many decades ago and multiply that times 500, that’s what a big bomb would be today,” Trump said. “Whether it’s Israel or major countries, nuclear weapons are the biggest problems we have.”

Nuclear Testing

• Barlestone: Nuclear test veteran delighted to receive medal.
• Peterborough City Council to hear call for nuclear test apology

Nuclear Leaks

• ‘Dirty 30’ and its toxic siblings: the most dangerous parts of the Sellafield nuclear site.
• Revealed: Sellafield nuclear site has leak that could pose risk to public.
• Ministers pressed by Labour over cyber-attack at Sellafield by foreign groups.
• UK minister demands answers for security failings at Sellafield.
• Secondary reporting by BBC, iNews and Sky News.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Dame Judith Hackitt has been named as the new interim Chair of the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR).
• BBC: Does nuclear power have a role in Scotland’s energy future?
• The SNP’s Energy Secretary has turned down the latest plea for nuclear power stations to be constructed north of the Border – insisting the technology “is not safe, it is expensive and it is not wanted”.
• Scottish Greens: A nuclear power-free Scotland would be safer for people and planet. 

Nuclear Energy

• 20-plus countries pledge to triple the world’s nuclear energy by 2050.
• New on the CND website: Major pledges on cutting new oil and gas production or the demand for fossil fuels have been thin on the ground at the COP28 summit in Dubai, as the nuclear lobby hovers on the sidelines and world leaders make big promises to use nuclear power as a future energy source.
• A pro-nuclear article in Time magazine from a former US energy specialist and diplomat.
• China starts up world’s first fourth-generation nuclear reactor.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament