CND Press Digest: Friday 12th July 2024

Nukes in Britain

• Yorkshire Post: More than 100 research posts at risk at Sheffield nuclear centre. Former city MP suggests Nuclear AMRC should be removed from university control as job cuts loom.
• Southern Daily Echo: Families Against The Bomb in Southampton during cold war.

Global Nukes

• The Diplomat: SIPRI Yearbook 2024: rising global nuclear arsenal sparks concerns.
• US Air Force nuclear weapons experts are approaching industry for companies able to build a diagnostic radar system able to identify defects, verify repairs, and assess the overall health of the Long Range Standoff (LRSO) nuclear missile.

UK Nuclear Power

• East Anglian Daily Times: The Sizewell C nuclear project is set to give a huge boost to the region’s food producers and suppliers by sourcing the vast majority of food for its workforce locally.
• Daily Post: Radiation levels assessed for on-site burial plan at old nuclear power station. Demolition and disposal is due to start in 2030. Potential radiation levels arising from the next-stage decommissioning of a former nuclear power station have been assessed as within safety thresholds. Magnox, owner of the Trawsfynydd site in Gwynedd, is aiming to demolish and infill the site’s ponds complex before capping it with concrete.

Nuclear Energy

• Financial Times: The scramble to find around-the-clock clean power coupled with new US limitations on Russian uranium products are ushering in a “whole new era” for the nuclear fuel market. Spot prices for uranium are up 50 per cent in the past year, averaging $84 per pound last month and surpassing $100 per pound earlier this year, as demand continues to outstrip supply, according to UxC, a data analytics company. A new US ban on uranium from Russia, a top-three market for imports, will also further tighten supply for its utilities. “It’s a whole new era in the uranium market,” said Leigh Curyer, chief executive of NexGen Energy. The Canadian start-up believes it can solve the west’s uranium shortage with its project in Saskatchewan, Canada, a city that’s been called the “Saudi Arabia of Uranium”.
• Renew Economy: South Australia’s renewable triumph is stunning proof that Dutton’s nuclear plans are a folly.

NATO / Europe

• Reuters: The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday demanded that Russia “urgently withdraw its military and other unauthorized personnel”  from Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and return it to the full control of Ukrainian authorities. The 193-member General Assembly adopted a resolution with 99 votes in favour, nine against and 60 abstentions. The Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest in Europe, was captured by Russia shortly after it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It is shut down but needs external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a meltdown.
• The Guardian: Joe Biden defiant despite gaffes at NATO press conference as he battles calls to stand aside.
• Joe Biden: key takeaways from his NATO press conference.
• NATO over Russia accusations.
• NATO.
• Politico: NATO’s bad boys: Turkey and Hungary play their own game.
• NATO spending target by 2032 – Trudeau.

• The Independent: US and South Korea sign joint nuclear deterrence guidelines in face of North Korean threats.
• AUKUS. The deterrence effects of nuclear-powered submarines are easily overstated, and the boats won’t fulfil Australia’s most pressing security needs in a changing environment.