CND Press Digest: Tuesday 21st May 2024

Posted: 21st May 2024

Nukes in Britain

Morning Star report on a strike ballot by UNITE workers at the Coulport and Faslane nuclear bases, after 99 per cent rejected a lower-than-inflation pay offer.
BBC: Derbyshire veterans who conducted nuclear tests for the British armed forces in the 1950s have been recognised at a ceremony.

Global Nukes

Newsweek: North Korea has accused the United States of a “dangerous act” and of hypocrisy following a recent subcritical nuclear test.
European wranglings over nuclear as a “sustainable” energy source reflect military pressures – an aspect that remains little discussed, say Andy Stirling and Phil Johnstone of the University of Sussex Business School.
Times of India: Kakodkar says ex-chief of Los Alamos lab believed India would not give up nuclear weapons.
Japan disagrees with Lindsay Graham’s enthusiasm for nuclear wars.
Center for Strategic and International Studies: Why Russia keeps rattling the nuclear saber.
Reuters: Russia said that a US subcritical experiment aimed at giving data on the behaviour of the materials used in nuclear warheads did not violate the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Europe’s nuclear armament shows new trends.

Space

Reuters: A Russian-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution that called on all countries to prevent “for all time” the placement, threat or use of any weapons in outer space failed on Monday with the 15-member body split over the move.
Russian research on space nukes and alternative counterspace weapons (part 2).

NS Energy: The UK has up to £20bn to invest in SMR designs that can be used at ‘various sites’ but has yet to propose new nuclear locations. But opinions are divided on whether a new ‘delivery body’ can deliver.
Business Green: Rolls-Royce’s nuclear manufacturing unit has announced plans for a multi-million-pound facility in Sheffield where it will manufacture and test prototype modules for its proposed fleet of small modular reactors (SMR). Housed within the University of Sheffield’s advanced manufacturing research centre, the plant will produce working prototypes of the individual modules that could eventually be assembled to become small modular nuclear power plants.
A deep geological disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel and other highly radioactive waste is not expected to be ready in the UK until the 2050s, but a shallower disposal facility could be available within 10 years allowing for quicker decommissioning which will save around £500m (€584m, $634m) in storage costs, the government has said.
Calls for a nuclear revival in Scotland – including the possibility of a new Dounreay reactor – have been dismissed as “folly” and a “mad delusion”.

Nuclear Energy

Amory Lovins writes for Renew Economy: During my current visit to Australia I’ve been surprised to see nuclear power promoted by the federal Coalition and by certain media.

NATO / Europe

Financial Times: NATO allies should not fear that sending troops to Ukraine to train its soldiers would risk dragging the military alliance into war with Russia, Estonia’s prime minister has said.

Middle East & North Africa

AUKUS & Indo-Pacific

Lowy Institute’s Executive Director Michael Fullilove speaks to US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell about American policy towards China, the relationship between Moscow and Beijing, Xi Jinping’s recent visit to France, and plans for AUKUS.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament