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.
