CND Press Roundup Thursday 12th January 2023

War in Ukraine / NATO

• IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said Wednesday that securing a deal on establishing a safe zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power in southern Ukraine was becoming more difficult, due to the involvement of military officers alongside diplomats in the talks. The Ukrainian plant, the largest in Europe, has been under Russian control since March 2022, with both sides accusing each other of shelling the facility.

• Ben Armbruster of Responsible Statecraft has an opinion in The Guardian asking if reducing the US defence budget be such a bad thing?: “You also won’t hear any specifics from the White House or hawks in Congress and the media as to why modestly reducing the Pentagon budget will be so devastating to US national security. Reflexively opposing defense department cuts and supporting throwing more money at the Pentagon will always be good politics, particularly for lawmakers, as the weapons industry has carefully located defense industry jobs in nearly every state and congressional district in the country. That explains why Congress gave the Pentagon $45bn more than it asked for in last year’s defense authorization bill and barely anyone batted an eye.”

• If you missed Monday’s event with Medea Benjamin on her new book about the war in Ukraine, you can watch her contribution on Peace News’ YouTube channel.

Non-Proliferation

• A study of some of the biggest research institutes and think tanks has found that 45 of them have taken money from companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons or governments that promote the concept of nuclear deterrence – raising questions about the independence of these groups in the field of nuclear weapons policy. You can read the full study here, or a shortened article by its authors here.  

Nuclear Testing

• Reuters has seen the text of a letter sent to US President Joe Biden from more than 100 arms control groups, environmentalist organisations, and activists, calling for a formal apology and compensation from the US, to the victims of nuclear weapons testing on the Marshall islands in the 1940s and 50s.

Terrorism

• Following the discovery of uranium particles on scrap metal by UK Border Force agents at Heathrow airport, The Telegraph asks if this was accidental or a “brazen” attempt to make a dirty bomb. The incident in late December is being investigated by the Met’s counter-terrorism agents and the Home Office says there is no threat to the public. But the paper notes: “Professors and experts have echoed this, suggesting the reportedly small amounts of uranium are unlikely to have been part of a sinister plot – and that it shows that our precautionary technology is working. But key questions still remain – why was this company forking out to ship scrap metal via air, something almost unheard of across the industry because it is so expensive? Why was it sent to an Iranian business?”

AUKUS / Indo-Pacific Tilt

• Rishi Sunak and Japan’s Fumio Kishida deepened defence ties on Wednesday with a new agreement signed in the tower of London. The agreement will allow for both to station their troops in each other’s country and form the basis for “more complex military exercises and deployments.” The deal also builds on development deals like last year’s announcement to build a next-generation fighter aircraft.

• Meanwhile, the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee has warned against the UK overextending in the Indo-Pacific “at a time when the European security environment is deteriorating.”

• A bipartisan group of nine Republican and Democratic congressional representatives have written to Joe Biden – lending their support to sending nuclear-powered submarines to Australia. It follows the leaking of a letter by two senators to Biden last year, warning that the country’s industrial base couldn’t handle sending subs to Australia without a detrimental impact on the US Navy’s own capability. 

Nuclear Energy

• Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday that it plans to use locally-sourced uranium to fuel a domestic nuclear power programme.

• Some pro-nuclear energy columns in UnHeard and Foreign Affairs.

• Sellafield Ltd is set to be prosecuted over a 2021 accident where a worker fell and sustained serious injuries.