CND Press Digest: Tuesday 15th October 2024

Hibakusha

• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement formed by survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings and nuclear weapons testing (or Hibakusha), “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.”
• Catholic Herald: New Japanese cardinal says Church must press for abolition of nuclear weapons as atomic bomb survivors win Nobel prize.

Global Nukes

• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Two conflicting developments arose this month in US efforts to produce new plutonium pits for its nuclear weapons: The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced it had produced a warhead-ready pit—the explosive core of a nuclear weapon—for the first time in decades, and a federal court ruled that NNSA will be required to consider the cumulative environmental and health impacts of its pit production program.
• National Post: The Canadian farmboy ready to unleash nuclear hell during the Cold War. In the late 1960s, Gordon Todd and 11 other RCAF pilots practised dropping atom bombs on Europe: ‘The most destructive power in our history.’
• Responsible Statecraft: Why aren’t Harris and Trump talking about nuclear weapons? The threat is real and at times the call is coming from inside our own house.
• Daily Mail: The world’s four nuclear war flashpoints: How Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are pushing us to the brink of WW3 and Armageddon.

Ukraine

• World Nuclear News: The next phase of the project has begun to study which parts of the shelter built rapidly around Chernobyl’s unit 4 after the 1986 accident need immediate dismantling and which bits need stabilisation. The project, funded through the International Chernobyl Cooperation Account, aims to determine the scope of early deconstruction work for unstable Shelter structures and provide an initial cost estimate and enable the beginning of design work for the next stage, which includes the dismantling of the unstable Shelter structures. The original shelter over the destroyed unit 4 at Chernobyl was constructed in a matter of just months, and the international Shelter Implementation Plan in the 1990s had three phases – firstly to stabilise it and secondly to build a larger secure construction to enclose it – the New Safe Confinement which was completed in 2017 to pave the way for the dismantling and decommissioning stage.

Middle East

• UK Government: Israel Defence Forces’ attacks on UNIFIL bases: statement by foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy and the UK.
• Al Jazeera: UN Security Council says UNIFIL must be protected after Israeli attacks. Security Council urges all parties to respect ‘safety, security of UNIFIL personnel and premises’ in southern Lebanon.
• Reuters: Netanyahu denies targeting UNIFIL, calls for withdrawal, UNIFIL says we’re staying.
• The Guardian: Hezbollah drone attack kills four IDF soldiers as US prepares to send missile system to Israel.
• BBC: Why the US is giving Israel a powerful Thaad anti-missile system?

Iran

• Washington Post: Netanyahu tells US that Israel will strike Iranian military, not nuclear or oil, targets, officials say. The signal is being seen in Washington as a sign of restraint after concerns that an Israeli strike on oil or nuclear facilities could trigger a wider war.

NATO / Europe

• Newsweek: NATO conducts nuclear exercise after Russia warning.
• Reuters: NATO will not be intimidated by Russia’s threats, Rutte says at Ukraine mission HQ.
• The Telegraph: US expands NATO base storing nuclear-capable jets in Hungary.Plan comes in the wake of numerous warnings that Russia could be ready to fight a war by the end of the decade.
• NATO: Securing Britain’s and NATO’s digital supply chains. In his first press conference following the elections, the United Kingdom’s new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stressed the UK’s “unshakable” commitment to NATO and that his government’s “first duty” must be security and defence. As part of this commitment, a significant focus should be placed on securing Britain’s and other NATO Allies’ digital supply chains against stepped up cyber attacks by threat actors determined to breach our critical national infrastructure.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Bylines Scotland: CND Vice-President Dr Ian Fairlie is among the signatures of an open letter addressed to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, saying new nuclear power ‘a catastrophically poor bargain.’
• Together Against Sizewell C: Campaigners opposed to Sizewell C unfurled two banners saying “Sizewell C is a Toxic Investment” this morning outside the City of London’s Guildhall. The protest took place as world business leaders gathered for Labour’s first International Investment Summit, and the Labour government launched its Industrial Strategy consultation. A Sizewell C Final Investment Decision (FID) has been delayed and rumours are swirling around about which, if any, of the small pool of private investors reported to be taking part in the equity raise are still involved. Alison Downes of Stop Sizewell C said “It’s fantastic that Britain is open for business, but we’re here to tell international investors that, unless they want to find themselves embroiled in another HS2, they should put their money into renewables instead of slow, risky, expensive, “toxic” Sizewell C. The reality is that Sizewell C cannot help the Labour government achieve its Energy Mission, and if UK investors won’t touch it, neither should international ones, nor the taxpayer.”
• South West Farmer: Plans to turn a huge swathe of land in North Somerset into a marsh to make up for the environmental impact of Hinkley Point C would “destroy” homes and livelihoods, farmers have warned.
• City AM: A US start-up has announced plans to invest £300m in developing a series of cutting edge micro-nuclear power plants in Bridgend County, South Wales. Last Energy intends to bring into service four micro-modular nuclear units on a vacant site in Bridgend Country, which housed the coal-fired Llynfi Power Station until 1977. It estimates the project will create 100 local jobs, while the completed 20 MWe plants will produce the equivalent energy consumed by around 244,000 UK homes each year. The firm’s investment comes as the UK government looks to revitalise its nuclear power sector and replenish an ageing fleet of reactors, aided by nimbler technologies. Last Energy’s reactors will be even smaller [than Rolls Royce], but the tech is still in the early stages and faces a myriad of hurdles. A deadline of 2027 has been set for the delivery of the first South Wales plant, however the roll-out will be contingent on licensing and planning processes. The company plans to source at least 10 per cent of its needs from South Wales suppliers, which it claims will pump around £30m into the local economy.
• NS Energy: A multi-million pound overhaul of the Sizewell B nuclear power station is underway – and the work will bring a big boost to the Suffolk economy. Every 18 months teams at Sizewell B Power Station take the site’s nuclear reactor offline for refuelling and other works designed to improve the efficiency of the plant’s operations. The reactor, which every year generates enough zero-carbon electricity to meet the needs of more than 2.5m homes, was taken offline on 11 October for the work which will take around two months and cost approximately £75m.

Nuclear Energy

• The FT, BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, Independent and Times among those reporting on the news that Google has ordered six to seven small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) from Kairos Power, becoming the first tech company to commission new nuclear power plants to provide low-carbon electricity for its energy-hungry data centres. Google and Kairos said on Monday that the tech company had placed an order for SMRs with a total capacity of 500MW, helping Kairos, a seven-year-old start-up, to bring its first commercial reactor online by 2030 and additional reactors by 2035. The agreement was “a landmark for us at Google in our 15-year clean energy journey”, said Michael Terrell, the company’s senior director of energy and climate. Kairos, based in Alameda, California, has developed a reactor cooled by molten fluoride salt, rather than water. In December, it received a construction permit from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a 50MW demonstration reactor in Tennessee called Hermes. Kairos’s molten salt reactor uses ceramic-coated TRISO fuel and operates at close to atmospheric pressure, transferring heat from the salt to generate steam and run a turbine.
• World Nuclear News: The European Commission has selected nine small modular reactor projects - including two lead-cooled fast reactors – in the initial round of applications to form Project Working Groups under the European Industrial Alliance on SMRs. The European Commission (EC) launched an Industrial Alliance dedicated to SMRs in February this year, aiming to facilitate the development of SMRs in Europe by the early 2030s.

Nuclear Waste

• Lincolnshire World: Your chance to find out more about plan for nuclear waste dump at Theddlethorpe. Key information events are being held this weekend to shed more light on plans for a possible underground nuclear waste dump in Theddlethorpe. A former gas terminal within the seaside village is one of three sites in England that has been identified for the dump, known as a GDF (geological disposal facility), by the government agency, Nuclear Waste Services (NWS). The proposal has triggered alarm among nearby residents, with one survey suggesting that 85 per cent are opposed to it. Local councillors have also called for a referendum.

AUKUS / Indo-Pacific

• Rolling Stone: Inside the Trump admin’s secret battle plans for North Korea. Amid growing risk of nuclear conflict, would a second Trump term make the US approach to North Korea even more volatile?
• The Guardian: North Korea blows up roads linking it with South, prompting warning shots at border. Roads have long been unused but destroying them sends clear message Pyongyang does not want to negotiate with Seoul, experts say.
• The Independent: North Korea threatens to turn South Korea ‘into piles of ashes’ after drones fly over Pyongyang.
• Asia-Pacific Defense Reporter: ASC selects ORBIS as first US AUKUS capability partner.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament