New Nukes
The Nuclear: Metals and Manufacturing Conference features a full itinerary of high profile speakers from the nuclear industry and will focus on the current drive towards Generation III+ nuclear power stations in the UK. The aim is to provide delegates with an insight into the huge opportunities for the UK’s materials and manufacturing supply base, whilst giving companies the chance to network and engage with nuclear vendors and their Tier 1 suppliers.
Process & Control 4th May 2010 more >>
An anti-nuclear protester got within a few feet of Gordon Brown tonight in a huge security breach at a citizens’ assembly addressed by all three major party leaders. The Prime Minister was giving an impassioned speech to the CitzensUK gathering at the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster when the unidentified man carrying a placard reading “NuKiller Power, NO” rushed through the crowd and on to the stage. He was stopped just a yard or so short of Mr Brown and bundled heavily from the stage as some 2,500 delegates from religious and community groups watched on.
Times 4th May 2010 more >>
Sky News 3rd May 2010 more >>
Heysham
Lancaster District CND recently joined a new pressure group called “Heysham Anti-Nuclear Alliance” (HANA) formed in Winter 2009 in response to Government plans to build a new nuclear power station at Heysham to be operational by 2018. EDF Energy intends to submit a planning application for the new nuclear power plant by Summer 2010, and HANA will organize within the local community against this development. We will cooperate with them to achieve our goal of stopping a new nuclear power station at Heysham.
Lancaster District CND May 2010 more >>
Cumbria
Copeland Green Party candidate Jill Perry defended her support for windfarms – and opposition to nuclear power – in a News & Star live web chat. She said: “Not everyone in west Cumbria is pro-nuclear and it’s important they can exercise their choice. I am the only candidate that dares to be anti-nuclear.” When asked if wind turbines were ‘huge, inefficient and ugly’ she responded: “Wind turbines aren’t inefficient and they’re only one of the renewables we’d like to see.” She said the Greens opposed burial of nuclear waste.
Carlisle News and Star 3rd May 2010 more >>
General Election
Nick Clegg’s credibility on national security is called into question today by senior defence and intelligence figures. Writing to The Times, they said that Liberal Democrat policies risked leaving Britain exposed to terrorism and diminished on the world stage.
Times 4th May 2010 more >>
NPT
In effect, Article IV offers a nuclear reward to non-nuclear weapons countries who sign the treaty; promise never to make the bomb and you can build and operate nuclear reactors. Since the materials, and to a certain degree, the processing involved in arriving at fuel for a civilian reactor or to create an atomic bomb are basically the same, a civilian program can lead to – and has led to – the covert development of nuclear weapons. Examples of this pathway include India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea – none of whom are signatories to the NPT. (South Africa also developed nuclear weapons from its civilian nuclear program but has since dismantled its arsenal and is now a NPT signatory.
Alternet 3rd May 2010 more >>
Acronym has produced a series of key briefings for the 2010 NPT Review Conference. Drawing on the knowledge and experience of key thinkers, analysts and experts in the field of multilateral arms control and international security, we address some of the core issues relating to the NPT, non-proliferation and disarmament with the aim of enhancing the conference outcome and developing collective strategies to move towards security in a world free of nuclear weapons.
Acronym May 2010 more >>
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today rejected allegations his country is developing nuclear weapons, saying there is ‘not a single credible proof.’ In the first day of a month-long conference reviewing the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), the Iranian leader dismissed allegations that his country’s uranium enrichment program is designed to produce a bomb, prompting the U.S. and other nations to call for sanctions.
Daily Mail 3rd May 2010 more >>
Delegates from over 100 countries kicked off a summit to assess progress on nuclear non-proliferation at the United Nations headquarters in New York yesterday. The marathon four-week nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference aims to produce a consensus final document on how to advance the NPT goal of checking the spread of nuclear weapons, while working towards reducing and eventually eliminating them.
Morning Star 3rd May 2010 more >>
Submarines
TWO Devonport-based nuclear submarines have been operating with a safety defect which put the vessels and crew at ‘serious’ potential risk, a leaked memo has revealed. Valves in the hulls of HMS Turbulent and HMS Tireless were blocked off during testing of their hulls, preventing the boats venting excess steam pressure. These blocking devices should have been removed before the submarines re-entered service after their maintenance periods but were instead left in place.
Plymouth Herald 4th May 2010 more >>
BBC 3rd May 2010 more >>
Disarmament
Barack Obama wants a world without nuclear weapons. America will push the idea of “global zero” at the United Nations conference on nuclear non-proliferation that opened in New York on Monday. The vision was unveiled just over a year ago. In a speech in Prague, the US president painted a glorious picture of a world freed from the nuclear threat, while adding (in words that faintly echoed Martin Luther King) that it might not happen in his lifetime. It was good stuff. But I sincerely hope that Mr Obama was being insincere. For the idea of a world free of nuclear weapons is not so much an impossible dream as an impossible nightmare.
FT 4th May 2010 more >>
The US revealed the size of its current nuclear weapons stockpile on Monday, in a move intended to encourage other countries to adopt non-proliferation rules but which also drew attention to the sheer size of Washington’s arsenal. In an announcement timed to coincide with the opening of the United Nations nuclear non-proliferation conference in New York, the Pentagon said it had a nuclear stockpile of 5,113 warheads as of September 30 2009.
FT 4th May 2010 more >>
Telegraph 4th May 2010 more >>
Guardian 4th May 2010 more >>
New Zealand Government – Disarmament Minister Georgina te Heuheu has welcomed US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s announcement that the United States will work towards adhering to the South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone.
NZNewsUK 4th May 2010 more >>
Endorsing a campaign by UK Churches, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba of Hiroshima has stressed the crucial role of British citizens in ridding the world of nuclear weapons. The Mayor’s statement came just days before the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, which will take place May 3 to 28 in New York.
Inspire Magazine 3rd May 2010 more >>
Iran
Iran’s nuclear ambitions are putting the world at risk, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has warned. She told delegates at a nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) conference that Iran had violated its obligations and should be held to account.
BBC 3rd May 2010 more >>
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has used the United Nations as a platform to launch an attack on the West’s efforts to impose a new round of sanctions.
Telegraph 4th May 2010 more >>
Reuters 3rd May 2010 more >>
North Korea
Kim appears to have turned to Beijing, an ally during the 1950-53 Korean war and now its biggest provider of aid, for help in preparing for potential fallout from the Cheonan sinking and for extra food aid in return for agreeing to resume the nuclear talks. Pyongyang has said it will not discuss its nuclear programme until the UN lifts sanctions imposed after its second nuclear test a year ago and the US agrees to hold talks on a formal peace treaty.
Guardian 4th May 2010 more >>
Carbon Capture
Detailed work on six continents has convinced hundreds of impartial geoscientists that massive capacity for CO2 storage exists. The UK is especially fortunate as rocks similar to those which host our oil are anticipated to store 100 years of CO2 from all north-west Europe’s power plants. This can buy us time while truly sustainable energy sources develop to limit climate change.
Guardian 4th May 2010 more >>
