Dear all,

Please find some of this week’s main stories below. Thank you all for your continued support. 

Nukes in Britain

• CND has sent a legal letter to the MoD and Suffolk County Council highlighting concerns over the potential stationing of nuclear weapons at RAF Lakenheath. You can find our press release here and some coverage here. You can also donate towards the costs of the legal challenge here. We’re also asking people to contact their MPs, asking them for a meeting in their constituency office on 14 February. More details Scottish CND column in The National also looks at Lakenheath, linking the US military presence across Britain and British nuclear weapons based at Faslane and Coulport.
• The February issue of CND’s Campaign magazine is out now and looks at the right to protest and the next steps for the Lakenheath campaign.

• Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $383 million contract to develop a new Trident II nuclear-capable ballistic missile modernisation. The contract covers US Columbia-class submarines as well as Britain’s programme.

Ukraine

• Donald Trump’s envoy to Ukraine has dismissed a suggestion made by Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week that Ukraine could host nuclear weapons for its protection once the hot phase of the war with Russia had ended.
• IISS assesses the likelihood of Ukraine getting nuclear weapons in the future.
• IAEA boss Rafael Grossi visited Kyiv this week where he said on Wednesday that a planned rotation of IAEA staff from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was postponed due to a lack of security guarantees by Russia.

Iran

• Comments made by an Iranian opposition group got some coverage this week – where they claimed Iran was building nuclear weapons with a range of 3,000km based on north Korean designs.
• Meanwhile Donald Trump signalled this week that a new nuclear deal with Iran was possible - despite trashing the previous one made under the Obama administration. In response, Iran’s president said it would be easy to verify that Tehran was not developing nuclear weapons.

Global Nukes

• The Guardian view on Star Wars II: US plans for missile shield risk nuclear instability. Donald Trump’s initiative echoes past mistakes and could provoke adversaries and undermine efforts toward nuclear diplomacy

NATO / Europe

• NATO leaders told to spend more on defence. Mark Rutte tells the EU summit there is no time to waste as Sir Keir Starmer presses for security guarantees for Ukraine

• 2024 intake Labour MP for Bolton West, Phil Brickell, has been unveiled as a new member of the UK’s delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Britain has 18 seats within the assembly.

• UK appoints new permanent representative to NATO. Angus Lapsley CMG has been appointed as the UK’s next permanent representative to NATO. Lapsley has more than 30 years of experience in the Civil Service, and recently served as NATO’s assistant secretary general for defence policy and planning. He is also a member of the Strategic Defence Review Team, which advises the UK government as part of the root and branch review of UK defence. He will remain on the review team until the review is complete.

UK Nuclear Energy

•  On Thursday, Keir Starmer said he was going to “rip up the rules” of the nuclear industry by allowing a new breed of mini reactors to be built for the first time in the UK. No2NuclearPower has collated the coverage in the press of the announcement.
• A spokesperson for Hinkley Point C has played down press reports about a man suspected of being a spy at the nuclear power plant. A 67-year-old Italian national who worked at Hinkley Point C from 2020 to 2023 was questioned by counter-terrorism police after he flew into Heathrow airport on April 12th, 2023. It was reported that several documents were found in his possession and were seized by the authorities. Counter terrorism police retained the man’s hard drives for national security reasons. He was not charged with any offence. A spokesperson for EDF’s Hinkley Point C adds: “Hinkley Point C takes information security very seriously and there are rigorous measures in place to protect sensitive data.” “This individual did not have access to sensitive nuclear information. The information he removed was outdated.” The spokesperson adds that the man’s contract with his employer, a supplier to EDF’s Hinkley Point C, has since ended.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament