CND Press Digest: 3rd October 2024

Posted: 3rd October 2024

Nukes in Britain

  • The October issue of CND’s Campaign magazine is out now - looking at the campaign opposing a US deep space radar in Wales, while outgoing CND General Secretary Kate Hudson reflects on over 20 years in the top positions of CND.

  • NFLA Newsletter September 2024 is also out now.

     

Global Nukes

  • Lawrence Freedman in the New York Times: Putin keeps threatening to use nuclear weapons. Would he?
  • Politico: Russia and China’s cooperation in the Arctic is a rising nuclear threat.While Beijing and Moscow have been working to establish a strategic foothold in the region for more than a decade, Washington and Brussels are just now waking up to the danger.
  • Jamestown Foundation: Russia updates nuclear doctrine, lowering threshold for use of nuclear weapons (Part 1).

Iran

  • The Times: Iran ‘could have ten nuclear warheads by April’. The missiles that were fired at Israel could be adapted to carry the weapons, expert warns — but a strike by Netanyahu on Iran’s nuclear sites would not be supported by the US.
  • The New York Times: To build a nuclear bomb, Iran would need much more than weeks. Nuclear experts see Tehran as facing up to a year of hard work to master the knotty basics of building a deliverable atom bomb.
  • The Telegraph: Iran is months from the bomb – stopping it may not be easy. Strikes on the country’s nuclear facilities may be tempting, but such a course of action is far from simple and could exacerbate the threat.
  • Jack Straw in the Independent: Iran is on course to build a nuclear bomb and enter a high-stakes gamble. As someone who has negotiated with some of the Iranian leaders still in power today, Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary, explains why he believes they have the capacity to build and launch nuclear warheads, and why their recent actions suggest they have decided to go for broke.
  • The Hill: Bolton says Israel should destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

NATO / Europe

  • Stimson: Ten options for Europe to improve NATO’s nuclear deterrence. Exploring options for NATO to improve its nuclear force posture and strengthen deterrence against an increasingly aggressive Russia.
  • FT: Russian defence spending to rise by a quarter in 2025. Next year’s budget signals Kremlin’s readiness to fight a long war in Ukraine.

Nuclear Waste

  •  FT, and the Guardian: Sellafield ordered to pay nearly £400,000 over cybersecurity failings. Nuclear waste dump in Cumbria pleaded guilty to leaving data that could threaten national security exposed for four years, says regulator.

UK Nuclear Energy

  • Financial Times: Sizewell C nuclear project hit by fresh delays as investment talks drag on. UK ministers have made contingency arrangements to fund the Sizewell C nuclear power project in case a final agreement with potential investors is delayed by as much as two years. A £5.5 billion subsidy scheme envisages a scenario where there is no agreement until mid-2026. Several industry and Whitehall figures said no deal is expected before spring 2025.
  • SSRN paper: It is time to expose the Great British Nuclear fantasy once and for all.

AI

  • FT: Is nuclear energy the zero-carbon answer to powering AI? The rise of AI and its insatiable demand for energy could not have come at a better time for the nuclear industry.
  • The Guardian: World leaders at the next AI summit will focus on the impact on the environment and jobs, including the possibility of ranking the greenest AI companies, it has been announced. Rating artificial intelligence companies in terms of their ecological impact is among the proposals under consideration, while other areas being looked at include the effect on the labour market, giving all countries access to the technology, and bringing more states under the wing of global AI governance initiatives. France will host the next global summit on 10 and 11 February, with international politicians expected to attend alongside tech executives and experts. Anne Bouverot, Paris’s special envoy for AI, said discussions would include measuring the technology’s impact on the environment.

AUKUS

  • The Klaxon: The AUKUS security pact — which saw Australia abandon plans to buy French submarines — formed “delicious revenge” against Emmanuel Macron, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reportedly claimed.

Best,

 

Pádraig McCarrick

 

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

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