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Proposed US/UK nuclear-powered submarines for Australia jeopardise health while escalating an arms race no one can win. Joint statement by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and its affiliates in Australia, UK and USA: Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia); Medact (UK); Physicians for Social Responsibility (USA).
Beyond Nuclear 10th Oct 2021 read more »
A Taliban supporter who rents land near a UK nuclear submarine base has been told to leave the site by its Iranian owner. It follows Sky News revelations that residents in the area had reported security concerns to police. Waheed Totakhyl is an Afghan national who has previously called for the death of US soldiers in Afghanistan. His brother is a military commander for the Taliban in Kabul.
Sky News 10th Oct 2021 read more »
A Scottish-based submarine is still covered in scaffolding in a dockyard in southern England six years after the start of a multimillion-pound refurbishment, raising fears that taxpayers could be hit with a bill topping half a billion pounds — more than twice the original estimate — and putting Britain’s nuclear deterrent at risk. The Trident missile-armed HMS Vanguard was supposed to return to the Faslane naval base on the Clyde in 2018 after a three-year-long refuelling and refit but the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that it is still being worked on in Devonport dockyard. Defence sources say the £3.75 billion submarine is not expected to rejoin the fleet until the middle of next year at the earliest — four years late — raising fears about the ability of the Royal Navy to sustain Britain’s continuous at sea nuclear deterrent.
Times 10th Oct 2021 read more »
Scotland: Police alerted to ‘suspicious activity’ on Taliban supporter’s farm near nuclear navy submarine base.
Sky News 8th Oct 2021 read more »
Australia’s proposed nuclear-powered submarines could be obsolete by the time they hit the water in the 2040s due to new technologies making underwater vessels “visible”, some experts argue. One of the controversies over the federal government’s decision to ditch the $90bn deal to build conventional submarines in favour of nuclear boats is the timeline for getting them battle-ready. The navy will have to stretch out the lifespan of the existing Collins-class fleet and possibly hire submarines to fill the gap before the new ones are on the horizon. But even before the deal to buy 12 submarines from France’s Naval Group was made, military analysts warned that submarines of all types would be rendered obsolete by new technology including submersible drones and new weapons systems.
Guardian 4th Oct 2021 read more »
British Scientist discovers the cause of cancer in the Hiroshima Black Rain survivors. Massive errors in the basis of legal controls on radiation exposures. In a peer-reviewed paper published by the respectable journal Cancer Investigations, British Scientist Dr Christopher Busby reveals the results of his investigative research into the Hiroshima A-Bomb Black Rain, torrential rain that fell on Hiroshima after the detonation of the US atomic bomb. The issue of cancer risks in people who lived in the area of the back rain was headlined recently when the Japanese government lost a court case taken by Hibakusha groups who believed that their cancers were a result of the A-Bomb, but who lived in the black rain areas too far from the detonation to have received any external radiation dose. One problem for these people is that there has been no scientific explanation. The black rain was believed to be insufficiently radioactive to cause cancer. The report: “The Hiroshima A-Bomb black rain—a resolution of the enigma” provides evidence from an obscure US restricted report from 1976, declassified in 2014, that the 55kg of unfissioned material of the bomb, Enriched Uranium, contained vary large amounts of the Uranium isotope U234 which formed the condensation nuclei for the black rain and contaminated Hiroshima’s water and air for many years. The calculated exposures from the long-lived Uranium particles due to inhalation and ingestion by those living in Hiroshima after the bomb were 10,000 times greater than exposures to the isotope Caesium-137. U-234, which is lighter than U235 (the fissile component) is extracted into the Enriched Uranium during the separation process.
Nuclear News 9th Sept 2021 read more »
EVEN after 16 years of service on nuclear submarines, this mission was amongst the strangest Feargal Dalton had ever undertaken – bringing to life a sub-sea murder mystery that would become a major television event. And it would also see critics turn their fire on programme bosses for making the Dublin-born SNP councillor and anti-nuclear campaigner their naval consultant on Vigil, the BBC hit with the superstar cast and politically-charged content.
The National 3rd Oct 2021 read more »
President Biden has disappointed so far in fulfilling his campaign promise to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. national security policy. Most notably, his administration’s fiscal year 2022 budget fully funded every aspect of the Trump nuclear weapons program. The budget even went beyond what was contained in the Pentagon’s pre-existing plan, which could cost up to $2 trillion over the next three decades. Congress is now poised to vote on the elements of that plan as it considers the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). One of the president’s worst budgetary decisions was to substantially increase funding for a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) known officially by the antiseptic moniker ground-based strategic deterrent (GBSD). One would hardly know from the name of the system that it risks ending life as we know it.
The Hill 2nd Oct 2021 read more »
When Australia decided to buy a fleet of new nuclear-powered attack submarines earlier this month, it sparked international outrage. China labelled it a “cold war, zero sum mentality”. France was enraged at being left out. The deal will cost Australia $100 billion, and hand UK and US technology to a fleet of attack submarines, the apex predators of naval warfare. But by the time they are delivered in 20 years’ time, these submarines could be obsolete. No one really knows how these submarines would perform in a conflict situation. It’s true that submarines have occasionally launched cruise missiles at land targets, but there has been no real submarine combat since 1982, when HMS Conqueror torpedoed the General Belgrano off the Falklands. Exactly how well submarines fare against modern anti-submarine warfare (ASW) forces is a continuing debate.
Wired 29th Sept 2021 read more »
The Taliban could arm themselves with up to 150 nuclear warheads after retaking control of the country, an ex-security advisor has warned. In an interview former White House security boss during Donald Trump’s presidency John Bolton said there were fears the regime would claim the devastating weapons from neighbouring Pakistan.
Mirror 28th Sept 2021 read more »
Daily Mail 27th Sept 2021 read more »
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