CND Press Roundup - 15 December

• Sizewell C
• The Guardian’s financial editor has pointed to the problems with Sizewell C, saying that the government is “contemplating ordering a replica of Hinkley Point C before the Somerset original has produced a single megawatt of electricity.” He argues that problems with Sizewell C include “local opposition, the suitability of the site and the still-unclear status of co-financing by China (surely impossible in the current political climate)”, concluding that “Sizewell should be viewed only as a last resort.” Source: Guardian. 
• Energy White Paper
• Powering Our Net Zero Future, government’s energy White Paper, published yesterday, aims to bring ‘at least one large-scale nuclear project to the point of Final Investment Decision (FID)’ by the close of this Parliament. “We will remain open to further projects later if the nuclear industry demonstrates that it is able to reduce costs and deliver to time and budget”, the White Paper says. 
• The White Paper argues that while a net-zero energy system will be dominated by wind and solar, ensuring its reliability means “intermittent renewables need to be complemented by technologies which provide power, or reduce demand, when the wind is not blowing, or the sun does not shine”. Technologies providing this function, it says, include nuclear, gas with CCS etc. Source: The Energy White Paper, Powering our Net Zero Future
• Belarus plant 
• The EU’s energy commissioner said yesterday that Brussels officials will visit Belarus this week to carry out a safety review of its nuclear power plant. This comes after a complaint about the plant’s safety by Lithuania, following several equipment issues in recent weeks. Source: Bloomberg. 

Iran nuclear deal 

• Biden lobbied
• ‘A coalition of 50 retired generals, former secretaries of defense, diplomats, and lawmakers from across the spectrum are urging Biden in an open letter to swiftly rejoin the Iran nuclear deal when he takes office in January.’ Source: Politico. 
• Iran readiness: Rouhani remarks
• Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani has said that his country would return to compliance with the nuclear deal within an hour of the United States doing so. Rouhani also made clear, though, that Iran is not prepared to discuss any change’s to the deal’s scope, or any limits on the country’s ballistic missile programme. The outgoing Trump administration continues to ramp up sanctions and tensions, yesterday blaming Tehran for the first time for the disappearance of an FBI agent on an Iranian island in 2007. Source: Guardian. 
• Rouhani added that although the US must “make up for its past mistakes”, repair of damage caused by sanctions would not be a precondition for revival of the deal: “If we start demanding compensation, then it just means sanctions will last longer… We have to decide how big the damages are, who has to pay, will they pay and which forum decides.” Source: Bloomberg. 
• Joe Biden, Rouhani insisted, knows that Iran’s ballistic missiles are off the negotiating table: “The Americans were trying for months to add the missile issue and this was rejected. Trump was uninformed and did not know about the matter, but Mr. Biden is well aware of the details of the deal.” Source: Reuters. 
• Europe-Iran forum postponed
• Meanwhile, a three day Europe-Iran Business Forum due to be opened by keynotes from Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, and including a panel with EU ambassadors, has been postponed in the wake of ‘growing outcry’ at the weekend execution of Iranian opposition figure and journalist Ruhollah Zam. The foreign ministries of France, Germany, Austria, and Italy cancelled their participation after protests. Source: France 24.

Nuclear weapons 

• P5 risk reduction 
• The European Leadership Network has issued a group statement, signed by 140 security experts from 30 countries, calling on the P5 (the five nuclear-weapon states recognised by the NPT) to “launch a sustained, open-ended and regular panel on strategic risk reduction.” Source: ELN. 
• China warheads 
• A new report by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists estimates that China has 350 nuclear warheads, a significantly higher figure than that previously estimated by the US Department of Defense. Written by the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and an FAS researcher, the report counted both operational warheads and those ‘still in development’. The Pentagon’s estimate in its 2020 report on China’s military capacities was “low 200s”. Source: Defense News.