CND Press Digest: Thursday 8th February 2024

NATO / Europe

• Russia has taken control of one of the world’s biggest atomic power plants. Experts want to look inside.
• IAEA chief says less shelling at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, inspects water supply.
• Russian media: Massive explosion occurs at weapons factory.
• The Telegraph: Russia paid Iran ‘in gold bullion’ for drones used in attacks on Ukraine
  Leak reveals minister’s claim that $1.75 billion contract was signed for 6,000 Shaheds and Kremlin ‘paid in literal gold’

Middle East & North Africa

•  UK admits nine Israeli military planes have visited Britain since Gaza bombing began.
• Palestinian groups accuse UN adviser of failing to warn about potential genocide.
• Netanyahu rejects Hamas ceasefire proposal and vows to fight until ‘total victory’.
• Calls for talks not war after Gaza candle light vigil in Salisbury.

AUKUS / Indo-Pacific

• Cyber-attacks by North Korea raked in $3bn to build nuclear weapons, UN monitors suspect.
• Georgetown Journal of International Affairs: Opportunities and challenges of AUKUS.

Global Nukes

• Washington Post: South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol reiterated that the country would not seek its own nuclear weapons in the face of threats from nuclear-armed North Korea as he vowed further efforts to sharpen nuclear deterrence strategies with ally United States.
• Meanwhile, a recent The Guardian: UK closer to large-scale conflict than in many years, intelligence official says.
• Letter: Military elite are rolling out tired old cliches to gain more power and money.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Britain’s first private nuclear power station will have commercial nuclear fusion reactor ‘as soon as 2040s’.
• Experts say Hinkley Point C saltmarsh plan won’t save fish.
• Lancashire Post: Katherine Fletcher has met with nuclear minister Andrew Bowie MP to discuss the government’s new nuclear roadmap and what it means for the North West Nuclear Arc. Katherine was one of a number of MPs to sit down with Mr Bowie last week in the Prime Minister’s Westminster office to discuss the roadmap.
• Hunt continues for site in Cumbria to store nuclear waste.
• Energy Minister Graham Stuart opposes Holderness nuclear waste site.
• Yorkshire nuclear waste dump: Councillors to call for East Riding Council to withdraw from process after public outcry. Councillors representing a stretch of Yorkshire’s coastline which is being eyed up for a nuclear waste dump are calling on East Riding Council to withdraw from the process.

Nuclear Energy

• The ruined Fukushima nuclear plant leaked radioactive water, but none escaped the facility.

CND

• E.P. Thompson at 100. An interview with Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, and Kate Hudson.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament