CND Press Digest: Friday 24th May 2024

Nukes in Britain

• Rolls-Royce selects Balfour Beatty as construction partner for MOD and AUKUS expansion work in Derby.

Global Nukes

• Reuters: Putin in Belarus to discuss security, tactical nuclear weapon exercises.
• During his visit to Belarus, Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to discuss the potential participation of the Belarusian military in Russia’s non-strategic nuclear drills, the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported.
• The Strategist: Is Putin preparing for nuclear war?
• Counter Currents: What can we do to disperse the gathering dark clouds of nuclear war and world war III?
• US DoD: The US needs all three legs of its nuclear triad, including the land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and air-launched cruise missiles maintained by the Air Force, as well as the sea-based weapons that are the domain of the Navy.
• France completed the first force assessment firing of its new nuclear air launched cruise missile, the upgraded medium-range air-to-ground strategic missile (ASMPA-R), on 22 May 2024.

Space

• Forbes: The Kremlin’s development of a nuclear-tipped anti-satellite missile and rejection of a new space arms control resolution at the United Nations – both denounced by White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan – could ultimately spark a great-power conflict, say defense experts across US universities, think tanks and the American military.

UK Nuclear Energy

• The UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities have joined campaigners at Stop Sizewell in writing to pension fund administrators providing benefits to membersin at least 120 UK local authorities urging them not to finance the Sizewell C nuclear power plant project in Suffolk.
• X-energy and Cavendish Nuclear have commissioned Teesside University to undertake a study of the potential regional benefits and economic impacts of a proposed power plant in Hartlepool, UK, based on X-energy’s Xe-100 high temperature gas-cooled reactor.
• Plaid Cymru candidate says plans for new nuclear station must prioritise needs of local community.
• Dr Doug Parr, Chief Scientist for Greenpeace UK, said: “Government announcements about new reactors have a theatrical quality that doesn’t inspire confidence, particularly when the financial disaster movie of Hinkley is still rolling in the background. But Wylfa poses an additional danger because, after the damage suffered by EDF, no developer will take on the financial risks of construction.
• A huge ship which has been spotted lingering off the coast of Anglesey has been identified as a nuclear fuel carrier.

NATO / Europe

• Financial Times: Russia unsettles NATO with plan to redraw Baltic Sea borders.
• Hungary is working to “redefine” the country’s NATO membership status to allow it to potentially opt-out from the military alliance’s deepening support for Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said

Middle East & North Africa

• Jerusalem Post: Would Iran use nuclear weapons against Israel?

AUKUS & Indo-Pacific

• The Strategist: We need a third pillar of AUKUS: critical minerals.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament