The Bomb
The first meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is taking place in Vienna (Austria) from today. The list of the 62 State parties is attached.
Austria, Ireland, Malta and the Holy See stand out as representing Europe in this Treaty.
Finland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland are participating in the Vienna meeting as observers, thus showing their interest in this Treaty, which is based on the Chemical Weapons Convention.
None of the nuclear weapon States are present in Vienna. France, the UK and the USA even issued a joint statement on July 7, 2017, totally against the Treaty. ” France, the United Kingdom and the United States have not taken part in the negotiation of the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. We do not intend to sign, ratify or ever become party to it…”
Despite the tensions, the current flows
Ukraine – press release n°5. March 7, 2022 – 4:00 pm
Nuclear power: Slovakian power plants fill their tanks
On March 1, an Ilyushin-76TD of Volga-Dnepr Airlines specialized in the transport of heavy load flew over Poland with NATO authorization to transport new nuclear fuel to Slovakia. It left Domodedovo Airport in Moscow, flew around Ukraine, over Belarus and through Polish airspace to land in Bratislava. According to IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) rules, only small urgent packages, such as short-lived radiopharmaceuticals, can be transported by air. The potential crash of an airplane carrying nuclear fuel exposes the population and the environment to considerable risks.
White flag on nuclear sites
Ukraine – press release n°3. February 28, 2022 – 2 pm.
It is the first time in the world that a nuclearized country is subjected to aerial bombardments of such intensity and to the other complexities of a modern war.
Fifteen nuclear reactors are in operation in Ukraine, all of Russian technology. They require Russian spare parts for their maintenance. Ukraine and Russia are obliged to cooperate in order to ensure their proper functioning as much as possible.
Nuclear reactors and waste repositories are not immune to misfiring or sudden loss of power supply, which could endanger the people and environment of continental Europe and the countries bordering the Black Sea.
The Atom of Discord
Russia is taking over Chernobyl. For ROSATOM, Russia’s national atomic energy company, this is a way of preventing the European Union and the United States from taking control of the nuclear industry in Ukraine (see box below). The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has spent over 700 million euros to build a protective sarcophagus over the Chernobyl No. 4 reactor, which caused the devastating events of 26 April 1986. According to an EBRD press release, this project is meant to act as a “giant cage to contain the monster”, and also as a long-term infrastructure investment to improve nuclear waste management. The sarcophagus was completed in October 2019.