CND Press Digest: Thursday 11th July 2024

Nukes in Britain

• Suffolk News: Activists from Lakenheath Alliance for Peace are set to march from Norwich to RAF Lakenheath against the potential return of US nuclear warheads.
• Lesley Grahame writes in the Norwich Evening News: Nearby nuclear issue is within Norwich’s Zone of Interest.
• Kate Hudson speaks to the Morning Star about Keir Starmer’s call for NATO members to spend 2.5% of GDP on military spending.
• The July issue of CND’s Campaign magazine is out and free to read online.

Global Nukes

• Observer Research Foundation: The global nuclear order is increasingly defined by regional contestations, necessitating comprehensive diplomatic strategies that address global and local dimensions of nuclear risk.

UK Nuclear Power

• New Civil Engineer: Five out of six shortlisted firms have successfully submitted initial tenders for small modular reactors (SMRs) to Great British Nuclear (GBN) as the body’s competition for rolling out the technology in the UK moves forward.
• Greatest Hits Radio: Campaigners against Sizewell C hopeful new MPs will take their concerns to parliament. The campaign group Stop Sizewell C says it’s heard from several MPs already. Campaigners are calling on the new Government to consider scrapping plans to build a nuclear power plant on the Suffolk Coast. Once up and running, it’s thought Sizewell C will power up to six million homes, but activists say it’s going to devastate our countryside.
• The National: One of Scotland’s leading environmental campaigners has warned that Labour’s GB Energy plans risk wasting resources on nuclear power. In an article for The Scotsman, Dr Richard Dixon – the former director of WWF Scotland and Friends of the Earth Scotland – warned that GB Energy was “spreading its ambitions too wide” by seeking to invest in nuclear power as well as renewables.
• Nation Cymru: A public consultation has been launched for an environmental permit variation for Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power Station. Nuclear Restoration Services Limited (NRS) has submitted the application to Natural Resources Wales to change its environmental permit for the former nuclear site which closed in 1991. As part of the application NRS (formerly Magnox) is proposing the demolition, infilling, and capping of the Trawsfynydd Ponds Complex, a set of buildings running alongside the two reactor buildings. A four-week public consultation is running now until 6 August. Members of the public can comment on the application.

Nuclear Energy

• Oil Price: Serbia is considering lifting its 35-year ban on nuclear power plants to diversify its energy sources and reduce reliance on Russian gas. The decision opens up a complex geopolitical landscape as Serbia must choose between potential partners like China, France, the UK, and the US, each with their own strategic interests.
• Vancouver Sun: A northwestern Ontario town has formally decided it is willing to become the site of a deep geological repository for Canada’s nuclear waste. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization plans to select a site this year where millions of bundles of used nuclear fuel will be placed in a network of underground rooms connected by cavernous tunnels.

NATO / Europe

• Jerusalem Post: US to start deploying long-range weapons in Germany in 2026 - joint statement. Ground-based missiles with a range exceeding 500 kilometers were banned until 2019 under the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
• The Guardian: China a ‘decisive enabler’ of Russia’s war in Ukraine, says NATO in stern rebuke.
• The Telegraph: China hits out at NATO’s ‘Cold War mentality’ and ‘belligerent rhetoric’ over Ukraine. Western alliance warned against ‘provoking confrontation’ after it accuses Beijing of being ‘decisive enabler’ of Russia’s war against Kyiv.
• BBC: NATO vows ‘irreversible path’ to Ukraine membership.
• Financial Times: NATO’s difficult 75th birthday. Attempts to ‘Trump-proof’ the North Atlantic alliance seem set to fall short.

Middle East & North Africa

• Wall Street Journal: Where’s the report to Congress on Iran’s nuclear program?
  The White House has missed legal deadlines for more than a year.
• The Guardian: I’ll be helping to clear unexploded bombs in Gaza, my home. But I dread what I will find there

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament