CND Press Digest: Tuesday 13th August 2024

CND

• Campaign: The August issue of CND’s Campaign magazine is out now. It includes a look at the upcoming US Presidential election and CND’s recent evidence session to the Spycops inquiry.

Hiroshima & Nagasaki

• Kyodo News: Charles Oppenheimer, grandson of physicist Robert Oppenheimer,known as the “father of the atomic bomb,” visited Hiroshima for the first time this summer, 79 years after the nuclear attack and emphasized the critical need for dialogue among nuclear power adversaries to prevent a war that could annihilate humanity.

Global Nukes

• Economist: America prepares for a new nuclear-arms race. Its build-up could start as early as 2026.
• Warrior Maven: Is there now a massive global nuclear arms race?
• Counter Punch: No first use policy. The recent collapse of nuclear weapons talks between China and the United States in July 2024, followed the withdrawal by the US and Russia from long-established nuclear weapons treaties, like the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, (ABM) Intermediate-Range Forces Treaty (INF), and The Iran Nuclear Deal (JPCOA). Nuclear tensions have regressed to dangerous levels not seen since the Cold War.

UK Nuclear Power

• The Ferret: Labour and Conservative governments secretly harboured doubts about building a nuclear power station at Torness in East Lothian in the late 1970s, according to internal documents released by the Scottish Government. Campaigns against Torness won support within the then Scottish Office, and came closer to success than realised. There was a “real risk” of the treasury in London delaying the project, warned one official. But the nuclear industry fought a fierce behind-the-scenes battle in defence of the power station, and it ended up being built in the 1980s.

Nuclear Power

• Metro: Map reveals nuclear fallout that would happen if Europe’s biggest plant explodes. A major nuclear incident at the plant could put several European nations at grave risk, not just Ukraine. A model map shows how the continent could be affected by a nuclear explosion if it were to happen – and also illustrates how far and concentrated the release of cesium-137, which poses a major health hazard, would spread.
• Independent: Dark smoke plumes pour into the sky meters above a cooling tower at a Russia-occupied nuclear plant on Sunday 11 August. A Russian governor claimed the fire began with Ukrainian shelling while Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Vladimir Putin’s forces had caused the fire. The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said experts “witnessed thick dark smoke” after hearing multiple explosions throughout the evening. It comes as the Russian defence ministry said Ukrainian troops had advanced as much as 19 miles into Russia’s Kursk region in an audacious cross-border attack that began a week ago.
• Oil Price: The most common of condiments could help researchers better understand the physics behind one of the most difficult and sought-after scientific feats—making nuclear fusion a reality. When compressed and heated, mayonnaise exhibits some characteristics similar to the various states of plasma in a hypothetical nuclear fusion reaction, scientists have found. So, the common condiment could become an ingredient in solving one of humanity’s longest-standing dreams—achieving nuclear fusion.

NATO / Europe

• The Financial Times: Russian navy trained to target sites inside Europe with nuclear-capable missiles. Secret presentation for officers reveals plans for overwhelming strikes in early stages of potential war against NATO.
• Firstpost: Russia has trained navy to target Europe with nuclear-capable missiles in case of NATO conflict. Russia has trained its navy to strike targets deep inside Europe using nuclear-capable missiles in the event of a conflict with NATO, according to a Financial Times report, citing secret files.
• Baltic News Network: Signatures collected in favour of stationing nuclear weapons in Latvia.
• Visegard interview with Rose Gottemoeller.
• Turkey wants to improve its ties with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), but its priority is fulfilling its responsibilities to NATO as an important ally, Defense Minister Yasar Guler said.
• CEPA: Bring Ukraine into the NATO fold. Despite the usual outpouring of self-congratulatory rhetoric at July’s NATO summit, the alliance continues to fail Ukraine. That should change.
• Australian Institute of International Affairs: The view that Russian aggression towards Ukraine is driven solely by the goal of maintaining its neutrality as a buffer state must ignore certain realities. Its most important omission is that Russia’s military actions and the genocidal tactics employed against Ukrainians align with a broader historical narrative of reasserting dominance over regions seen as integral to Russian identity.
• Reuters: Ukraine touts huge gains in Kursk region as it takes war back to Russia.
• Reuters: Ukraine pummelled two Russian regions with drones on Tuesday as its ground forces tried to smash through defensive lines in a bid to carve out even more territory in its biggest attack on Russian territory since the war began.
• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/13/vladimir-putin-war-russia-ukraine-kurs…

Middle East

• Foundation for Defense of Democracies on Iran’s nuclear programme.
• The Guardian: As a former IDF soldier and historian of genocide, I was deeply disturbed by my recent visit to Israel. This summer, one of my lectures was protested by far-right students. Their rhetoric brought to mind some of the darkest moments of 20th-century history – and overlapped with mainstream Israeli views to a shocking degree.
• The New Arab: US lifts restrictions on Saudi weapons, with eye on resolving Gaza.
• BBC: UN vehicle carrying Irish troops damaged in strike. A United Nations (UN) patrol vehicle with six Irish soldiers on board was caught up in an air attack in a village in south Lebanon on Saturday. Eight troops, including six Irish and two Polish, were on an armed patrol when there was a drone or air attack on a village.
• Reuters: United States asking Turkey to prevail on Iran to de-escalate tensions, envoy says.
• Why should US troops pay the price for Biden’s failure to rein in Netanyahu? Small, poorly defended bases in the Middle East are targets because the president refuses to disown Israel’s reckless PM. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/13/us-troops-israel-gaza-joe-biden-benjam…

AUKUS/ Indo-Pacific

• Andalou: AUKUS pact reflects complete surrender before US, says Australian lawmaker. Updated version of pact says Washington or London ‘could pull out of the submarine deal with just a year’s notice.’

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament