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Category: nuclear

  • Government faces calls to investigate Faslane nuclear leak

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-faces-calls-investigate-faslane-nuclear-leak

    Undated handout photo provided by the Ministry of Defence of vanguard class nuclear submarine HMS Vengeance in Gare Loch, after departing HM Naval Base Clyde in Faslane, Scotland, to go on sea trials

    REVELATIONS of radioactive leaks from Trident’s base were branded “as shocking as they are unsurprising” today as the government faced calls to urgently investigate.

    Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) documents obtained by The Ferret revealed that the watchdog was aware of the 2019 discharge of radioactive water from the home of Britain’s nuclear arsenal at Faslane and Coulport — just 30 miles from Glasgow, Scotland’s most populous city — into Loch Long, citing the cause as the Royal Navy’s failure to properly maintain a network of 1,500 pipes.

    Scottish CND executive member David Kelly told the Star: “The failures in pipework at Coulport, and the subsequent release of nucleotides into Loch Long are as shocking as they are unsurprising.

    “‘How cheaply can we run a nuclear arsenal’ seems to be the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) approach to this most deadly of facilities.  

    “All mechanical components, as complex as a nuclear submarine, or as simple as a pipe, are designed for a specific life.

    “At Scottish CND we make as much noise as we can about the four Vanguard class nuclear submarines which host the missiles we lease from America being well beyond their design life.

    …

    Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-faces-calls-investigate-faslane-nuclear-leak

  • Hiroshima 80 years on

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/hiroshima-80-years

    JEREMY CORBYN reports from Hiroshima where he represented CND at the 80th anniversary of the bombing of the city by the US

    …

    Hundreds of thousands died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the bombs and the cancers that followed. Probably two million lives have been lost by testing and the medical effects of radiation emitted.

    Hiroshima’s bombing in 1945 did not serve any military purpose. Japan was already on the verge of surrender and was reaching out via the Soviet Union for an end to the conflict.

    This was well known to the US and Britain at the time. In reality, it was the last bomb of WWII, and the first bomb of the cold war. The US had spent $2 billion on the Manhattan Project to develop the bomb, despite the opposition of many scientists including Albert Einstein who had initially supported it. They opposed it because they realised the indiscriminate killing of civilians was then, as it is now, an inevitable consequence of nuclear war.

    The horrors of the atomic bombings still haunt the now aged survivors. Known as the Hibakusha, they were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in pleading with the world to abolish the nuclear weapons that had killed their friends and family.

    …

    Eighty years on from the horrors of Hiroshima (and Nagasaki), and the weapons now available are many times more powerful. There are no winners in nuclear war; only burnt bodies, a destroyed environment and a nuclear winter for the whole planet.

    After 80 years, we need to make the Global Ban Treaty a reality — and rid this world of nuclear weapons once and for all.

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/hiroshima-80-years

  • Greens react to Sizewell C deal: Nuclear is too expensive and too slow 

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    Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
    Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.

    Commenting on news that the Government has struck a deal with private investors to progress the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk – a deal in which the government will have a 45% stake – co-leader of the Green Party and Waveney Valley MP, Adrian Ramsay, said:   

    “The tax-payer will pick up nearly half of the estimated £38bn bill for Sizewell C but see not a single watt of electricity from it for at least a decade. Bill-payers will also have to stump up the cash for this plant through an increase in their energy bills by around £12 a year.  

    “New nuclear is a vastly more expensive way to produce electricity than renewables, with electricity from Sizewell C estimated to cost around £170 per megawatt hour compared to offshore wind at around £89/MWh. Hinkley C has also shown how the costs of developing nuclear power plants mushroom and are beset by endless delays.  

    “The billions of our money being squandered on this nuclear gamble would be far better spent on insulating and retrofitting millions of homes, which would bringing down energy bills and keep people warm in winter and cool in summer. We should also be investing in genuinely green power such as fitting millions of solar panels to roofs, and in innovative technologies like tidal power. All this would create many more jobs than nuclear ever will and deliver clean electricity much more quickly.” 

  • Iran bars UN nuclear agency chief from entering country, refuses surveillance at nuclear sites

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    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

    International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi gives a speech in Vienna, Austria on June 23, 2025. [Aşkın Kıyağan – Anadolu Agency]

    Iran’s foreign minister announced Saturday that the country will prohibit Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), from entering its territory and will also not allow the agency to install surveillance cameras at nuclear facilities, Anadolu reports.

    “We will not allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to install cameras at our nuclear sites, and the agency’s chief will be banned from entering the country,” Abbas Araghchi said in a statement reported by the Iranian national news agency IRNA.

    The announcement follows growing tensions between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog over monitoring access and transparency in the wake of recent military confrontations with Israel and the US.

    READ: IAEA confirms no rise in off-site radiation levels after strikes on Iran nuclear sites

    This move follows Iran’s parliament passing legislation on Wednesday to suspend cooperation with the IAEA.

    A 12‑day conflict between Israel and Iran erupted on June 13 when Israel launched air strikes on Iranian military, nuclear, and civilian sites, killing at least 606 people and injuring 5,332, according to Iran’s Health Ministry.

    Tehran launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes on Israel, killing at least 29 people and wounding more than 3,400, according to figures released by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

    The conflict came to a halt under a US-sponsored ceasefire that took effect on June 24.

    READ: Top Iran diplomat urges Trump to drop ‘disrespectful’ tone to Khamenei

    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

  • US bunker-buster bombs failed to destroy Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility: Report

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    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

    Maxar Satellite Imagery provides an overhead view of the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Facility in Iran. [Getty Images]

    US strikes on Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility “severely damaged” but did not destroy the underground complex, a senior American official told the New York Times on Sunday, Anadolu reports.

    The official, speaking anonymously, acknowledged that B-2 stealth bomber attacks using bunker-buster bombs failed to eliminate the “heavily fortified” facility despite causing significant damage.

    The US deployed six bunker-buster bombs against Fordo using B-2 bombers, while submarine-launched cruise missiles targeted Natanz and Isfahan facilities, amid escalating regional tensions.

    US President Donald Trump announced that American forces conducted “very successful” strikes on the Iranian nuclear sites.

    READ: US ‘crossed every red line’ with latest attack on nuclear facilities: Iranian foreign minister

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described the operations as an “incredible and overwhelming success,” claiming the US has “devastated the Iranian nuclear program.”

    Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen. Dan Caine said over 125 American aircraft participated in the mission, including stealth bombers, fighter jets, refueling tankers, a guided missile submarine, and surveillance aircraft.

    Hostilities broke out on June 13 when Israel launched airstrikes on several sites across Iran, including military and nuclear facilities, prompting Tehran to launch retaliatory strikes.

    Israeli authorities said at least 25 people have been killed and hundreds injured since then in Iranian missile attacks.

    Meanwhile, in Iran, 430 people have been killed and more than 3,500 wounded in the Israeli assault, according to the Iranian Health Ministry.

    READ: Iran reports it evacuated materials prior to US strikes on nuclear sites

    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.