CND Press Digest: Thursday 16th May 2024

Nukes in Britain

• Politico: Macron’s wrong to think France’s nuclear umbrella can protect Europe.Break it gently to the French president, but it will take more than the French and UK nuclear deterrents to defend the Continent without the US.

Global Nukes

• The Hill: Unraveling the enigma of Putin’s nuclear button.
• Reuters: US questions China’s no-first-use nuclear call given buildup.

Space

• Wall Street Journal: Russia launched a satellite into space in February 2022 that is designed to test components for a potential antisatellite weapon that would carry a nuclear device, US officials said.

UK Nuclear Energy

• The Scotsman: Scottish Secretary Alister Jack announced the plans for a nuclear reactor in Scotland during a committee hearing in Westminster. The UK government is considering building a new nuclear reactor in Scotland despite fierce SNP opposition, it has been revealed. In a move that sparked a furious reaction from SNP and Green ranks, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack announced he has asked ministers at the Department for Energy and Net Zero (DESNZ) to plan for a nuclear reactor to be built in Scotland as part of a UK-wide programme. More coverage from BBC, the National, rejected an appeal hearing over the Sizewell C nuclear power station project.
• Plans for a nuclear power station at Wylfa risk saddling taxpayers with £20billion worth of debt, insiders have suggested.
• Rolls-Royce SMR has issued a challenge to industry, calling for ideas around monitoring and data collection during the transport of modules used to construct its Small Modular Reactor (SMR).
• Hunt for industry partners begins as UK seeks to build prototype nuclear fusion plant.

Nuclear Energy

• Nuclear critics slam ASN over Flamanville approval. Nuclear industry critics have condemned the decision by France’s ASN nuclear safety body to authorise the start of the Flamanville European pressurised reactor (EPR) as “political”, with one saying safety margins had “eroded”.
• Polish industrial group Industria’s plan to construct a power plant based on Rolls-Royce’s small modular reactor (SMR) has been approved by the Ministry of Climate and Environment.
• In October, the French state-owned nuclear firm Orano signed a $1.7 billion deal to extract and process uranium from the Zuuvch-Ovoo mine. Mongolia’s first uranium mine is expected to produce about 2,750 tons annually for three decades, some 4% of global production; it’s currently one of the top 10 unexploited deposits worldwide.

NATO / Europe

• NATO and economic security: a political oxymoron or inevitability?
• The Washington NATO Summit: Ukraine and transatlantic security.

Middle East & North Africa

• Senator’s suggestion to Israel to nuke Gaza is ‘horrible’: Iran.

AUKUS & Indo-Pacific

• The Diplomat: China and Russia disagree on North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Beijing and Moscow have different perspectives on – and different appetites for – Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
• Asia Times: How Trump could push Japan, S Korea to go nuclear.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament