Kwasi Kwarteng is poised to approve the US takeover of one of Britain’s most sensitive defence companies after a transatlantic diplomatic row. The Business Secretary said that he is prepared to agree to the £2.6bn purchase of Ultra Electronics, which makes vital equipment for nuclear submarines, following promises made by its buyer, Boston-based Advent International. It comes after US officials threatened to limit defence cooperation with Britain if the deal was blocked. Advent has offered to place Ultra’s top-secret businesses into two separate legal entities. These will each have a government-appointed director to protect British national security interests and report to the state if the company tries to sell or pare back services important to defence.

Telegraph 23rd June 2022 read more »

Times 24th June 2022 read more »

Hiroshima and Nagasaki mayors call for nuclear abolition at treaty meet.

Japan Times 22nd June 2022 read more »

THE SNP has argued nuclear proliferation is “not in the best interests of rules-based international order”, in a new paper outlining what they would like to see in Nato’s strategy ahead of their Madrid summit. Highlighting the trend of nuclear non-proliferation agreements and arms control treaties expiring without renewal, SNP has said Nato should “take the lead in strengthening international frameworks of nuclear non-proliferation”.

The National 19th June 2022 read more »

A defence firm failed to reduce risks to their workers’ health and safety amid an electrical overload on a nuclear submarine at Faslane. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has issued an improvement notice to Babcock Marine Ltd almost a year after the incident took place.

Herald 17th June 2022 read more »

The contamination from nuclear weapons pollutes the air, water and earth, devastating local ecosystems. The people who are exposed to it experience physical and psychological injuries, social, economic and cultural impacts, and infringement of their rights. The damage may forcibly displace entire communities. Facing Fallout, by the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic and CEOBS, identifies 19 principles for remediating the environment contaminated by nuclear weapons; it also includes a commentary that elaborates on the principles and provides legal and policy precedent for each. The principles aim to address existing harm and unacceptable risks of future harm to the environment and affected communities by targeting the underlying causes of the harm, the pollution that degrades the environment and in turn affects people. This report complements the 2020 report by the same authors entitled Confronting Conflict Pollution: Principles for assisting victims of toxic remnants of war.

Conflict & Environment Observatory 15th June 2022 read more »

READERS are concerned after it was announced Barrow’s MP wants to return the UK’s first ever nuclear submarine to the town to act as a lasting tribute to the area’s shipbuilding heritage. The Dock Museum has been earmarked as a potential location for HMS Dreadnought, the first nuclear submarine built in the shipyard between 1959 and 1960. Simon Fell is now spearheading a campaign to bring the boat back to Barrow. It is currently stationed at the Rosyth Dockyard in Scotland having been withdrawn from service in 1980.

NW Evening Mail 14th June 2022 read more »

Among the diplomats and parliamentarians travelling to Vienna for the First meeting of States Party (FMSP) to discuss the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), is SNP MSP Bill Kidd.

The National 14th June 2022 read more »

POLICE are carrying out arrests of members of a human blockade outside the Clyde UK nuclear weapons base in Scotland. Demonstrators have refused to move after lying on the road as anti-nuclear activists stepped up a protest near RNAD Coulport. Up to eight demonstrators have been seen lying on the road with Scottish CND saying that they were “putting their bodies in the of business as usual for weapons of mass destruction”. Anti nuclear activists began their protests at Faslane and Coulport on Sunday with activists towing a trailer with a giant piece logo on it.

Glasgow Times 13th June 2022 read more »

The global nuclear arsenal is expected to grow in the coming years for the first time since the cold war, and the risk of such weapons being used is the greatest in decades, a leading conflict and armaments thinktank says. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and western support for Kyiv has heightened tensions among the world’s nine nuclear-armed states, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) thinktank said on Monday in a new set of research. While the number of nuclear weapons fell slightly between January 2021 and January 2022, Sipri said that unless immediate action was taken by the nuclear powers, global inventories of warheads could soon begin rising for the first time in decades.

Guardian 13th June 2022 read more »