CND Press Digest: Tuesday 8th October 2024

Nukes in Britain

• Progressive International: Starmer permanently ties UK nuclear arsenal to Washington. Exclusive: Britain’s nuclear weapons are now forever reliant on US military scientists after a transatlantic treaty was quietly rewritten.

Global Nukes

• Al Jazeera: ‘Russia doesn’t want to use nuclear weapons’: The view from wartime Moscow. Putin is revising Russia’s nuclear doctrine at a critical juncture in Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
• Reuters: Russia says emergency hotlines with US and NATO remain as nuclear risks rise.

Ukraine

• Financial Times editorial: Ukraine’s shifting war aims. Kyiv is not being given the support it needs to regain the upper hand over Russia.
  

Middle East

• The Guardian: Starmer urges all sides in Middle East to ‘step back from the brink.’ UK prime minister tells parliament that the first anniversary of 7 October Hamas attack is a ‘day of grief’ for region.

Iran

• The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: James Acton, a physicist and wide-ranging nuclear policy expert who co-directs the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. If Israel or the United States tries to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, my belief is that that will harden Iranian resolve to acquire nuclear weapons without eliminating Iran’s capability to do so. Israel would be motivated, in part, to punish Iran for its recent attack on Israel, using that as an opportunity to try and destroy Iran’s nuclear program, so the Israelis didn’t have to worry about it in the future. I think if they decide to attack Iran’s nuclear program, they will find themselves worrying much more about Iran’s nuclear program in the future. We’ll elaborate on this, but an attack would, I believe, simultaneously harden Iranian resolve to acquire nuclear weapons while also not destroying permanently their capability to achieve that goal.
• The Telegraph: Lasting Middle East peace requires regime change in Iran, writes John Bolton.
• The New York Times: Washington worries the Israelis will bomb Iran’s nuclear sites. But can they?
• NBC: There is no evidence Iran has decided to rush toward building a nuclear weapon, CIA director says. As Israel weighs its response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack, CIA Director William Burns said Monday that there is a “very real danger of a further regional escalation of conflict.”
• House of Commons Library: What is the status of Iran’s nuclear programme and the JCPOA?

NATO / Europe

• The Telegraph: Kamala Harris casts doubt over Ukraine’s membership of NATO. Vice president also refuses to say if she considers Netanyahu a ‘close ally’.
• Politico: France’s army faces deterrence test against Putin’s Russia. In May, thousands of French soldiers will need to get to Romania in 10 days to test their ability to meet NATO requirements.

Space

• Evening Standard: There is growing fear that Russia, along with China and North Korea, is about to add a fourth element to the triad of weaponry — in space. All three are known to have discussed putting a nuclear weapon into space. Already the creeping weaponisation of space is under way — with China, Russia and possibly Iran experimenting with attack satellites. Russia and Iran have had linked satellite programmes for decades, and this year Iran put more military satellites into orbit — communicating through Musk’s Starlink.

Nuclear Waste

• NS Energy: Why used fuel remains barrier to new nuclear projects despite existing solutions. Solutions for the sustainable management of used fuel already exist and innovative options for the future are also being developed. Why then is used fuel a barrier to the deployment of new nuclear projects? Historically, governments and industries have implemented two basic management paths to manage used nuclear fuel. These are: Interim Storage and Reprocessing. Used nuclear fuel management considerations should be included as part of the assessment process for establishing new nuclear power programmes or expanding existing ones. The generation of used nuclear fuel, by-products of the operation of nuclear reactors, should not be a barrier to the deployment of new nuclear projects, as solutions for its sustainable management currently exist and innovative options for the future are being developed.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Somerset Live: EDF ‘breaching’ Hinkley Point C workforce limits ‘for some time’.Somerset Council is “not happy” about the situation. EDF Energy has been “breaching” the number of employees allowed to be working on the Hinkley Point C construction site, according to a Somerset councillor. EDF Energy agreed with Somerset Council that around 8,600 workers would be needed during the peak of the construction programme on Somerset’s new nuclear power station – around 3,000 higher than was originally predicted. Councillor Leigh Redman has now claimed that EDF has “breached” this limit “for some time”, with up to 11,000 people now actively working on site as a result of being allowed to “mark their own homework.
• Bridgwater Mercury: Regulations have caused 7,000 design changes at Hinkley Point C, with a knock-on effect for cost and timescale at Britain’s first nuclear power station since 1995. Last week, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) released an analysis of the cause of 7,000 design changes. It stated that it was “unable to identify the detail of the 7,000 changes” identified by EDF. The industry body estimates that 5,000 design changes occurred in the period 2014-2018, and a further 2,000 were identified in 2019. Many of the design changes were attributed to learning from other European Pressurised Reactors, and site-specific factors at Hinkley Point C. In addition, a number of design changes were driven by factors external to the ONR’s control, including directives from the Environment Agency and Health and Safety Executive. As a result of the regulations, Hinkley Point C has had to use 35% more steel and 25% more concrete. The nuclear power station is three years behind schedule and is not expected to be operational until 2030. In addition, the overall cost in 2015 prices has soared from £26 billion to between £31 to £34 billion.
• Teeside Gazette: UK businesses gather on Teesside to discuss multi-billion pound Hartlepool nuclear project.
• The Telegraph: There’s a low-carbon energy technology that actually works. But we won’t use it. Britain is becoming a case study in the consequences of shamefully wasting nuclear know-how.
• BANNG: Andrew Blowers discusses the ‘black hole’ in public finance can do without the ‘bottomless pit’ of new nuclear. At a time of severe financial constraint on public spending made worse by the £22bn ‘black hole’, it makes no sense to throw public money at new nuclear power. Nuclear is not only unnecessary, it is simply unaffordable, a ‘bottomless pit’ that diverts resources and attention from much more pressing priorities. Nuclear doesn’t deliver in cost or in time.

Nuclear Energy

• Beyond Nuclear: A nuclear plant, fortunately closed, was inundated, but we may not get so lucky next time, writes Linda Pentz Gunter.
  
• World Nuclear News: More than 70% of people who voted in Kazakhstan’s referendum have backed new nuclear energy in the country.

AI

• Reuters: AI sparks only dim odds of nuclear chain reaction.

AUKUS

• Real Clear Defense: Admit Canada to AUKUS—if Ottawa gets serious.

Best,

 

Pádraig McCarrick

 

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament