CND Press Digest: 2nd October 2024

Nukes in Britain

• UK Defence Journal: The UK’s efforts to modernise its nuclear deterrent have taken another step forward with a $2.1 billion contract awarded by the US Department of Defense to Lockheed Martin Space for the production and support of Trident II D5 missiles, alongside the development of the W93 warhead.

Global Nukes

• Reuters: Russia will not sign a new treaty with the United States to replace the agreement limiting each side’s strategic nuclear weapons that expires in 2026, the Izvestia newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing an unidentified senior Russian source.
• Kyiv Independent: Is Russia’s new nuclear doctrine a game of bluff or a shift in strategy?
• Oil Price: Is a new nuclear arms race inevitable?
• Common Dreams: The threat of 1,000 Holocausts puts everything at stake. If a nuclear war happens, of course we won’t be around for any retrospective analysis. Or regrets. So, candid introspection is in a category of now or never.

Middle East

• Sky News: After Iran’s attack, the Middle East could be on the verge of a ballistic missile war.
• The Telegraph: Iran may feel that building a nuclear bomb is now its only choice
  Tehran has viewed Hezbollah as its chief insurance policy against an Israeli attack on its nuclear programme – but that has been swept away.
• The Telegraph: Israel urged to attack Iran’s nuclear programme. Former PM says Netanyahu has in his hands the ‘biggest opportunity in 50 years’ to transform the Middle East.
• The Times: Why did Iran attack Israel — and will it pursue a nuclear option?Netanyahu’s options for retaliation range from oil to scientists. Tehran’s options are limited unless it can accelerate its nuclear weapons programme.
• Wall Street Journal: Does Iran have nuclear weapons?
• 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

NATO / Europe

• BBC: No imminent nuclear threat from Russia, says new NATO chief.
• Euractiv: Poland ‘ready’ to host nuclear weapons, Polish president says. Poland is ready to host nuclear weapons on its territory, President Andrzej Duda announced on Monday (22 April), confirming he had been in talks on the matter with the US administration during a recent visit.
• Andalou: President Alexander Stubb rules out deployment of nuclear weapons in Finland. ‘I don’t think there is any country in the world that has more memberships than Türkiye has in different directions,’ Finnish president tells Anadolu.

Nuclear Waste

• Public Technology: Government seeks software to track radioactive waste as nuclear site decommissioned. A government body is seeking to make a six-figure investment in software to help log and track radioactive waste created over the coming years as a long-standing nuclear fusion research site is decommissioned. Based in Oxfordshire, the Joint European Torus (JET) facility began operating in 1983 and conducted its final test late last year. A decommissioning process – which will last until 2040 – has now begun. Work will be led by the UK Atomic Energy Authority, an arm’s-length body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. In delivering the project, UKAEA will require a new IT system to help keep tabs on the radioactive material created by the process.

UK Nuclear Energy

• East Anglian Daily Times and BBC: A Suffolk landowner is “absolutely delighted” that Sizewell C has provided the final piece of the funding jigsaw for a major flood defence project by contributing £25million. The Benacre estate, on the heritage coast between Lowestoft and Southwold, has been seeking improved flood defences and now the nuclear power station developer is providing funding towards the overall £59m cost of the Benacre and Kessingland Managed Realignment Scheme. The initiative seeks to protect dozens of local properties, 600 hectares (ha) of farmland and prevent road closures due to flooding on the A12.
• Business Desk: The UK’s largest nuclear services business with a huge base in the North West has been acquired by an American business Amentum that has floated on the New York Stock Exchange. Amentum has merged with Jacobs Solutions Inc’s Critical Mission Solutions and Cyber and Intelligence businesses. The new business merger creates what the group describes as “a global leader in advanced engineering and innovative technology solutions, well positioned to address its customers’ most significant and complex challenges.” US-owned Jacobs employs 2,750 staff at operations in Warrington, Manchester and Knutsford. The business is now known locally as Amentum. Headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, Amentum is a leading global engineering and technology services business serving the U.S. Government and its allied partners and employs more than 53,000 people in approximately 80 countries.

Nuclear Energy

• The Register: The Biden administration has announced plans to reignite a shuttered Michigan nuclear power plant with a $1.5 billion loan that, combined with other nuclear announcements yesterday, suggests the US federal government is right now all in on nuclear energy. The 800-megawatt Holtec Palisades plant, located on Michigan’s southwest coast in a relatively low-populated area, shut down in 2022 due in part to cheaper energy prices caused by fossil fuels, it’s said. Once the station is brought back online sometime in the fourth quarter of 2025, said the US Department of Energy (DoE), it’ll be the first time a retired nuclear power plant in the country has been restarted. Licensing approval still needs to be granted following upgrades at the site, and power purchase agreements (PPAs) have already been signed to keep the plant running until 2051.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament