CND Press Digest: Wednesday 10th April 2024

NATO / Europe

• The Morning Star: Europe’s largest nuclear plant was attacked by drones againtoday, posing no direct threat to its safety but underscoring the “extremely serious situation” at the facility in Ukraine, the United Nations has said. The International Atomic Energy Agency said its team was aware of an explosion at a training centre next to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant today.
• Reuters: The UN nuclear watchdog’s Board of Governors will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday at the request of both Ukraine and Russia to discuss attacks on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, after the enemies accused each other of drone attacks. The International Atomic Energy Agency has said drones struck the Russian-held facility in southern Ukraine on Sunday, hitting one reactor building. It has not ascribed blame but has demanded such attacks stop.
• Reuters: The United States will sell Ukraine up to $138 million worth of equipmentto maintain and upgrade its HAWK air defense systems to help defend against Russian drone and cruise missile attacks, a U.S. State Department official told Reuters on Tuesday.
• Germany’s Rheinmetall led European defence stocks in their biggest one-day dropin a year on Tuesday, with traders turning nervous about the sector’s record-breaking run and analysts pointing to potentially stretched valuations.
• The Telegraph on investing in the arms companies: Any investor who thinks that FTSE 100 stocks perennially fail to deliver exceptional capital gains should consult BAE’s share price chart. The defence company has produced a 125pc capital return since our original buy recommendation in December 2019.
• Trump, UK’s Cameron discuss Ukraine, NATO spending in Florida meeting.

Middle East & North Africa

• The Guardian: Netanyahu making a ‘mistake’ on Gaza, says Biden, as he urges Israel to push for ceasefire.
• Rishi Sunak has doubled down on the UK’s decision not to suspend arms sales to Israel, echoing foreign secretary David Cameron’s words from yesterday by saying that “none of our closest allies” have stopped existing export licences.
• Iran and Israel traded fresh threats on Wednesday amid heightened concerns over how and when Tehran might retaliate for an Israeli strike in Syria last week that killed several senior Iranian commanders.

AUKUS / Indo-Pacific

• The Times: Japan could become ‘friend’ of AUKUS pact to counter China.Australia, UK and US considering allowing country into the alliance that focuses on developing advanced technology such as AI and hypersonic weapons.
• The United States, Britain and Australia are considering Korea, Canada and New Zealand as potential partners for cooperation on advanced capability projects of their AUKUS security partnership, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday.
• China’s government on Wednesday labelled as “dangerous” comments by a senior US diplomat that the AUKUS submarine project between Australia, Britain and the United States could help deter any Chinese move against Taiwan.

Nukes in Britain

• BBC: The Ministry of Defence’s nuclear weapons research facility is offering apprenticeships for “critically important” security work.

UK Nuclear Energy

• Bloomberg on the decisions facing the government over funding Sizewell C: The UK is taking steps to ease concerns about the risk of delays to the planned Sizewell C nuclear plant as it seeks to draw private investors to the project. The plant is critical to the country’s plans to quadruple nuclear-power capacity in the coming decades to bolster energy security and reach its 2050 net-zero emissions goal. To get the project built, it’s trying to attract private investment through a mechanism that shares the risk of construction costs with the public. But lawmakers have raised concerns that the model leaves consumers overly exposed to cost overruns during construction.The only other major nuclear plant underway in Britain — Electricite de France SA’s Hinkley Point C project — has been repeatedly delayed and is currently expected to cost as much as £47.9 billion ($60.7 billion). The 3.2-gigawatt Sizewell C reactor uses the same design of that plant and EDF expects it will be delivered at a much lower cost. In responses to a consultation on the plant’s funding model published this week, the government revised some mechanisms designed to encourage the project to be delivered on time. It’s trying to shield consumers from cost overruns while making the project attractive enough to draw billions in private capital, despite nuclear plants’ track record of arriving years late and over budget.

Nuclear Energy

• First images inside Fukushima’s nuclear reactor show “icicle-like” structures.Many robots have ventured into the ruins of Fukushima, but few have returned. A snake-like robot and mini drones have ventured deep inside the irradiated reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan. As shown in their new images, the clean-up operations still have some way to go 13 years after the catastrophic nuclear meltdown. In their latest step to clean up the area, TEPCO sent robotic probes in the bowels of this reactor to examine the core and its melted nuclear fuel. Their aim is to learn about the condition of the spent fuel to facilitate its removal so the plant can be decommissioned. It marks the first time they’ve managed to return with images from inside the “pedestal” of reactor Unit 1.

Best,

Pádraig McCarrick

Press and Communications Officer

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament