CND Press Digest: Monday 12th August 2024

Posted: 12th August 2024

Hiroshima & Nagasaki Day

Nukes in Britain

  • BBC: What do you do with a Cold War nuclear bunker?

Global Nukes

  • Toronto Star: Nuclear war would turn Canada into one of the worst places on the planet. And scientists fear we are inching closer.

Spycops

  • The Ferret: At least nine officers from London’s secret undercover policing unit, known as spycops, aided the infiltration and surveillance of anti-nuclear protests in Scotland between 1978 and 1983, The Ferret can reveal.

UK Nuclear Power

  • CND website: Sellafield pleads guilty to IT failings that put national security at risk.
  • BBC: Sizewell C nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast is still awaiting a final investment decision, but there are five signs that preparation work for a possible go-ahead is ramping up. Work on park and ride site begins; Orwell Logistics Park deal; Electronic road signs; Resurfacing work and speed restrictions; Official signage.
  • The Telegraph: Miliband urged to save mini-nuke site in Cumbria. Moorside’s hopes of hosting first small modular reactors are in jeopardy, MPs warn. MPs and businesses have warned the energy secretary that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is putting Moorside’s hopes of hosting the first small modular reactors (SMRs) in jeopardy. That is because GBN has signalled it will only pick sites that have enough land available for several SMRs. As a result, Moorside is at risk of missing out after the NDA unveiled plans to use most of the site’s space for other decommissioning purposes. In a letter seen by The Telegraph, MPs, Lords, business leaders and union officials urged Mr Miliband to instruct the NDA and GBN to prioritise the land at Moorside for new nuclear use “first and foremost”, warning that failure to do so would have “considerable” consequences.
  • Daily Mail: Rolls Royce has had a breakthrough in its attempt to win the race to develop the UK’s first mini-nuclear power plant. Its design for a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) is the first to go through to the final stage of examination by UK regulators.
  • Sheffiled Star: Scores of staff at the Nuclear AMRC have been put on 90-day consultation after it failed to reach revenue targets. The hi-tech site, on the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, employs 122. Just 30 are set to transfer into sister department the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre.

Nuclear Power

  • Reuters: Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of starting a fire on the grounds of Europe’s largest and now Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on Sunday, with both sides reporting no sign of elevated radiation. The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog, which has a presence at the vast six-reactor facility, said its experts had seen strong, dark smoke coming from the northern area of the plant in southern Ukraine following multiple explosions.
  • The Independent: Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant engulfed in flames with Russia accused of ‘blackmail’. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russian forces of starting a huge fire at a nuclear power plant in the country’s south, describing it as a “provocation” by Russia.

NATO / Europe

  • The Guardian: Ukrainian sources have indicated that thousands of troops have been committed to its incursion into Russia’s Kursk province, as Moscow and Kyiv traded accusations about a fire at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant 250 miles to the south. A Ukrainian security official told the Agence France-Presse that the aim of the incursion was to destabilise Russia and string out Russian forces with light, fast-moving attacks. It remains unclear how sustainable the operation will be in the medium term amid Kremlin threats that it will be snuffed out using Russian reserves. Russia had suggested that several hundred Ukrainian troops had launched a surprise attack on Tuesday, but the Ukrainian official said the numbers were larger. Asked whether more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers were involved, the official said: “It is a lot more … Thousands.”
  • The Telegraph: Russia appears to be building new defensive trench lines in the Kursk region, not far from a nuclear power plant, according to the BBC. It comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that his military was now pushing the war onto “the aggressor’s territory”. A video analysed by the BBC showed heavy machinery next to a long line of piled earth, just south-east of the Kursk nuclear plant.
  • The Times: NATO’s weak spot against Russia facing a choice to take up arms. The undefended Aland Islands in the Baltic Sea have long been a gap in Europe’s shield. Remilitarisation could turn them into one of the West’s key defences

Gaza

  • ‘This has to stop’: plea by survivors of deadly IDF strike on school in Gaza.
  • Former Israeli MK writes in the Telegraph: UK funding of UNRWA makes Gaza peace less likely. Hamas can devote itself to brutal war thanks in part to a UN agency and our money going into its coffers.
  • Reuters: UK, France and Germany ask Iran to refrain from attacks against Israel.
  • Euronews: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemns Israeli statements on cutting aid to Gaza.
  • The Guardian: Thousands flee Khan Younis after Israel warns of new offensive.
  • AUKUS/ Indo-Pacific

    • Newsweek: South Korean nuclear weapons warning amid North provocation.
    • The Guardian: Australia indemnifies US and UK ‘against any liability’ from nuclear submarine risks. New text reveals any party can terminate their collaboration on nuclear-powered boats with just one year’s notice.
    • UK Defence Journal: AUKUS partners sign agreement on naval nuclear propulsion.

     

    Best,

     

    Pádraig McCarrick

     

    Press and Communications Officer

    Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

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