Press Digest - 24 January 2025

Posted: 24th January 2025

Dear all,

 

Please find this week’s news digest below. Thank you all for your continued support.

 

CND Weekly Press Digest: Friday 24 January 2025

 

UK

  • The morning Star on tomorrow’s protest against US spy drone flights from RAF Fairford. https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/anti-war-campaigners-protest-airbase-plans-fly-us-drones?lin…
  • The government has announced a £9 billion deal with Rolls-Royce in support of the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine fleet. More from Rolls-Royce on the announcement here.
  • CND has written to the Prime Minister, asking him to come clean over any deployment of the B61-12 nuclear bombs to RAF Lakenheath. It follows comments made last week by Jill Hruby, the (now former) Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration in the US, that the new B61-12 nuclear bombs “are fully forward deployed.”
  • Jacobin: For the first time since the 1990s, the US has reestablished a direct military presence in Scotland. As Washington builds up its new Cold War, Scotland’s political class is its willing servant.
  • AWE (the Atomic Weapons Establishment) has told NCE about how the procurement process will work for its new multi-billion pound, multi-year manufacturing facilitycalled the Future Materials Campus (FMC).

  • Air Force Technology: The US Air Force’s first pair of F-15E Strike Eagle jets outfitted with the advanced Eagle Passive/Active Warning and Survivability System (EPAWSS) have arrived at RAF Lakenheath base in the UK.This aircraft is outfitted with what is considered the most sophisticated Electronic Warfare (EW) suite available

Global nukes

  • Reuters: Risk of clash between nuclear powers is growing, Russian security official says.
  • Newsweek: US President Donald Trump has said he wants to hold “denuclearization” talks with Russia and China now he is back in office.

NATO

  • With Britain announcing more troops being sent to Eastern Europe and with speculation that European NATO states are considering deployments to Ukraine, CND’s Chair, Tom Unterrainer, discusses the implications for the region.

  • The Guardian: The head of NATO has called for a “step up” in support for Ukraine, to put Kyiv in the strongest position to achieve a sustainable peace deal with Russia.

Gaza

  • Westmorland Gazette: Peace campaigners were busy collecting signatures in Kendal on Saturday (January 18, 2025) to urge MPs to help create a permanent peace in Palestine and Israel. Members of South Lakeland and Lancaster District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) are calling on all Cumbrian MPs, including Tim Farron and Lizzi Collinge, to do more to persuade the UK Government to take action.

Iran

  • The Guardian: A senior Iranian politician has appealed to Donald Trump to begin new negotiations with Tehran over its civil nuclear programme, saying: “I hope that this time around, [Trump 2.0] will be more serious, more focused, more realistic.” Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s vice-president for strategic affairs, pointed out that the returning US president had not reappointed figures from his first term such as the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton, who persuaded him in 2018 to quit the nuclear deal on the basis that withdrawal would lead to the regime’s collapse. Instead, Zarif said, withdrawal had left Iran closer to obtaining a nuclear bomb, with the components including highly enriched uranium, although he claimed Tehran was not interested in actually making such a weapon.  

  • The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: How quickly could Iran build its first nuclear weapon? Look at China.

Saudi Arabia

  • Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Climate Envoy Adel Al-Jubeir said that Saudi Arabia is striving to develop its nuclear program to generate nuclear energy in order to benefit from its uranium reserves, which are estimated at ranging between one percent and four percent of global reserves. He ruled out any intention to produce nuclear weapons.

UK nuclear power

Nuclear waste

  • ACE Media: Tetronics, a world leader in plasma arc systems for waste treatment, materials recovery, industrial decarbonisation and green hydrogen production, has received an award from the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) for its key role in successful Higher Active Waste Thermal Treatment (HAWTT) trials.

AUKUS

  • Naval Technology: Australia invests to boost local AUKUS submarine supply chain 
    The initiative will support 125 businesses nationwide to meet submarine construction and maintenance needs under AUKUS.

 

Best,

 

Pádraig McCarrick

 

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

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