CND Press Digest: Wednesday 31st July 2024

Nukes in Britain

• ITV: Call for inquiry from South Shields nuclear veteran who had ‘no protection’ from atom bomb trials.

Global Nukes

• Newsweek: Beijing reacts to US concerns about China’s nuclear weapons.
• Catholic Herald: Holy See deeply concerned over increase in rhetoric and threatsaround nuclear weapons.
• Moscow Times: Russian military begins ’third phase’ of nuclear weapons drills.
• The MIT Press Reader: What public opinion says about the use of nuclear weapons. Many policymakers believe that the international reaction to the use of nuclear weapons would be severe. A new study challenges this assumption.
• Energy Intelligence: The growing threat of nuclear war.

Nuclear Testing

• Foreign Affairs: Why America stands to lose if it resumes nuclear testing. China and Russia would finally be able to catch up.
• The Independent: North Korea’s rumoured seventh nuclear test could happenduring US elections, South Korea says.

Hiroshima & Nagasaki

• Newsletter: Atomic People explores the human fallout from the first and last atomic bombs.
• I Newspaper: Hiroshima survivors’ haunting memories of the atomic bomb.
• Atomic People TV review — survivors reveal the bomb’s human fallout. A new BBC documentary gathers harrowing testimony from living witnesses of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Andalou Agency: Nagasaki decides against inviting Israel to commemorate nuclear bombing of Japan amid war on Gaza. In contrast, another US nuclear bomb-hit Hiroshima city has invited Tel Aviv to annual event.

Middle East

• The Guardian: UK delays decision on banning some arms sales to Israel amid Lebanon crisis.
• The Morning Star: Replica bomb placed outside of Parliament as government refuses to commit to an arms embargo. Oxfam warns that 7,000 people are estimated to be killed or injured in Gaza by Israeli military during Parliament recess.

UK Nuclear Power

• The Environment Agency: The Environment Agency, Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) announced Tuesday that they are progressing to the next step of their assessment of Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd’s 470 MWe Small Modular Reactor (SMR) design. https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/eastmidlands/news/2088333-rolls-royce-edges-closer-to-nuclear-goal?l…
• Somerset County Gazette: New factories for Hinkley Point C near Bridgwater are reportedly providing proven evidence for a new approach to nuclear construction. EDF states that the factories in Bristol have given a significant productivity boost by following a modular construction approach.

Nuclear Power

• Power Technology: A panel of Japan’s nuclear watchdog has decided against restarting the number two reactor at the Tsuruga NPP citing safety concerns. The Tsuruga plant is located close to the 4,000-year-old Urasoko fault-line where seismic shifts are more likely.
• Channel News Asia: Japan continues search for its first nuclear waste disposal site by screening tiny rural town. Japan has produced more than 19,000 tonnes of nuclear waste since it began generating atomic energy in the 1960s. Screening began last month to assess if Genkai, which has hosted a nuclear plant for about five decades, is suitable to serve as the country’s first radioactive waste disposal facility.

NATO / Europe

• Atlantic Council: To deter Russia, NATO must adapt its nuclear sharing program.

AUKUS / Asia

• Newsweek: South Korea to launch nuclear response unit against North. It will be tasked with preventing or reacting to a potential nuclear or weapons of mass destruction attack by the North.
• North West Evening Mail: Confidence AUKUS submarines will delivered on time.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament