CND Press Digest: 1st October 2024

Nuclear Testing

• The Independent: British army’s atomic bomb guinea pigs still fighting for justice 70 years on. They are known as the ‘atomic veterans’ – men who served in the 1950s and were handed cloths to cover their eyes as the army tested the effects of a nuclear blast on them. Decades on, Joe Shute hears how they and their children have suffered years of health complications and why this could be another scandal similar in scale to the Post Office and infected blood cases.

Global Nukes

• Unilad: Pilot who dropped atomic bomb on Hiroshima describes horrific sight that killed around 140,000 people. It is admittedly eerie to hear the pilot to describe the moment that changed world history forever.

Middle East & North Africa

• ICAN paper on Israeli nuclear weapons.
• The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies: Limited nuclear war
  and Israel’s national strategy.
• Jacobin: There’s no such thing as escalating to de-escalate. Israeli officials have cited a need to “escalate to de-escalate” as motivation for their ongoing assault on Lebanon. This theory has a long and ill-fated history in American foreign policy thinking, where it has served as a fait accompli for bloodshed.
• The Economist: After the decapitation of Hizbullah, Iran could race for a nuclear bomb. The embattled clerical regime might feel the need for stronger deterrence.
• The Guardian: Iran has tried to avoid conflict with Israel and failed – which deterrent will it reach for next? It would be a risky move, but some in Iran now see building a nuclear bomb as the only way to fend off Israeli attacks.

Stop Arming Israel

• Westmorland Gazette: A campaigner calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in Kendal town centre has been presented with gifts by fellow protestors as a thank you for her determined campaigning. Maria Gardner has been peacefully protesting to end the supply of arms and arms components to Israel for the last 50 weeks outside the town hall in Kendal.

NATO / Europe

• Politico: Sorry, Mark Rutte, there’ll be no honeymoon at NATO.
• Euronews: New NATO chief Mark Rutte inherits multiple security headaches.

Korea

• Euronews and Politico: South Korea unveils most powerful missile which could reach North Korea underground bunkers.

Ukraine

• Financial Times: Ahead of Ukraine’s third and most testing winter of the war, criticism is mounting over the government’s slow response to Russia’s attacks on the energy grid and its priorities when rebuilding. Energy minister German Galushchenko has come under fire for delaying by two years efforts to decentralise power generation so it is less vulnerable to Russian attacks.

Nuclear Waste

• Radiation Free Lakeland: “Drop Out of Nuclear Dump Plan” was the message from campaigners at the Nuclear Waste Services “Drop In” at the Beacon Portal, Whitehaven on Saturday 28th September. Should Nuclear Waste Services plan in Cumbria be taken to conclusion a giant mine as deep as Scafell is high at 1000m and larger than the City of Westminster at 25km square would be excavated under the Irish Sea in order to bury the UK’s high level nuclear wastes in the hope that it would stay buried. The above ground area of a Geological Disposal Faciity (GDF) at 1km square, would be nearly as big as Hyde Park in London and would sit alongside the National Park boundary on the Lake DIstrict coast. Lakes Against Nuclear Dump (LAND) a Radiation Free Lakeland campaign chatted with members of the public on Saturday outside Nuclear Waste Services event. LAND were thanked by members of the public for showing resistance to the plan for a deep nuclear dump or Geologicial Disposal Facility under the Lake District’s coast.
• The Engineer: Martin Walsh, Head of Engineering at Nuclear Waste Services, ponders the unique engineering challenges of building a geological disposal facility for nuclear waste. For now, the UK’s most hazardous radioactive waste is treated, packaged and safely managed at over 20 surface facilities across the country. While these facilities are safe for the short to medium term, they require ongoing upkeep and maintenance and would need to be rebuilt every 100 – 150 years.

UK Nuclear Energy

• The Telegraph: Ed Miliband’s decision to ignore nuclear power is a disaster for Britain. The UK is a world leader in red tape, and it is hurting the delivery of cheap, reliable energy.
• The Telegraph: Ed Miliband’s bid to move the UK on to green energy risks destabilising the National Grid, a leading EDF executive has warned. Rachael Glaving said that by abandoning stable forms of energy generation, such as coal, gas and nuclear, the grid would be reliant on intermittent sources such as wind and solar.
• Building Design: GEH has signed an MoU with engineering firm AtkinsRéalis to advance the development of its small modular reactor (SMR) technology in the UK. The agreement, announced earlier this month alongside partnerships with Aecon, Jacobs, and Laing O’Rourke, supports GEH’s efforts to deploy its BWRX-300 SMR technology as part of the GBN ongoing SMR selection process.
• World Nuclear News: Newcleo, the developer of small modular lead-cooled fast reactors, has relocated its headquarters from London to Paris in a move which opens up “access to a broader range of European funding opportunities.”

Nuclear Energy

• Oil Price: After decades of being treated as the black sheep of the energy universe, nuclear energy is enjoying a renaissance in the US and other countries around the world thanks to the need for decarbonization and growing power demand.
• Nature: Microsoft announced on 20 September that it had struck a 20-year deal to purchase energy from a dormant nuclear power plant that will be brought back online. And not just any plant: Three Mile Island, the facility in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania, that was the site of the worst-ever nuclear accident on US soil when a partial meltdown of one of its reactors occurred in 1979.
•  A new survey has shown that more than half of the Swiss population supports the government’s plan to remove the country’s ban on the construction of new nuclear power plants. https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/poll-finds-majority-of-swiss-support-nuclear-new-build?l…

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament