CND Press Digest: Thursday 13th June 2024

General Election 2024

• In CND’s second election blog, CND officer Annie Tunnicliffe writes about why US nuclear bombs returning to RAF Lakenheath should be an election issue.
• Business Green takes a look at the Green Party’s manifesto.
• Forces.net: The Green Party has pledged to dismantle the UK’s nuclear weapon stockpile in its general election manifesto. Co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay said they would “mend a broken Britain”, with the party running on the slogan ‘Real Hope, Real Change’. The manifesto outlined that “most of the world’s countries do not possess weapons of mass destruction and are safer as a result.”

Global Nukes

• Bulletin: Why the West should take Russia’s nuclear threats more seriously.
• Reuters: Russia practiced electronic missile launches during tactical nuclear drills.

UK Nuclear Power

• Dounreay management moves ‘could prolong strike action,’ warns union. One of the unions representing workers at Dounreay has warned that management changes could prolong the ongoing industrial action at the former nuclear test site.

Nuclear Power

• Governments and others promoting the use of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for nuclear power have not considered the potential terrorism risk that widespread adoption of this fuel creates, nuclear scientists have warned.

NATO / Europe

• Reuters: In a rare reference to the Western nuclear arsenal, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday highlighted the alliance’s efforts to adapt its capabilities to current security threats, taking note of Russia latest nuclear rhetoric and drills. Talking to reporters before a two-day NATO defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels that will include a gathering of the alliance’s nuclear planning group, he called nuclear weapons NATO’s “ultimate security guarantee” and a means to preserve peace.
• Atlantic Council: A Putin summer surprise for NATO? Worries are growing.
• Al Jazeera: Hungary to allow NATO aid to flow to Ukraine. Budapest will not obstruct NATO military aid to Ukraine as it has the EU’s efforts, but it will not help.

Middle East & North Africa

• The Bulletin: The West has a 15-month opportunity for a new nuclear deal with Iranthat precludes an Iranian bomb.
• DW: Could a US-Saudi nuclear deal spark Middle East arms race?

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament