Scottish CND

22/08/2026

The £50bn+ permanent nuclear waste dump planned for Cumbria, without which industry figures doubt the sustainability of UK nuclear, was badged "unachievable" by the Treasury last year.

The UK's aging waste storage facility, Sellafield, has caused radioactive pollution of the Irish sea and poses ongoing environmental risks.

Waste management and decommissioning are not fully accounted for in the costs of building/operating nuclear power stations. These legacies can last for generations, as we see with the decommissioning of Dounreay in the north of Scotland.

The nuclear waste problem has been kicked down the road for decades. Future generations will bear the costs.

21/08/2026

What lessons can be learnt about "nuclear deterrence" from the South Asian context?

Sadia Tasleem explains how Pakistan's nuclear weapons policy has not only failed to deter conflict, but poses a serious strategic and security liability during conventional warfighting.

The promotion of nuclear weapons as the "ultimate" security guarantor obscures that these indiscriminate weapons are in fact useless against a multiplicity of threats.

And once the "deterrence" threshold is broken - and there are many historical examples of this - possessing nuclear weapons risks uncontrolled escalations due to miscalculations and misunderstandings of nuclear signalling.

Nuclear states no longer pretend that nuclear weapons prevent conventional conflict - since they tend to be the primary purveyors of military aggression themselves. But nuclear weapons make conventional conflict all the more dangerous and volatile, when the grey areas of "deterrence" policy, which is ultimately a house of cards, are tested.

19/08/2026

“The scale and intensity of the war is once again raising the threat of nuclear confrontation.”

Rather than fuelling this war, Burnham's government should be pushing for de-escalation and negotiations to end the conflict.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/peace-campaigners-call-de-escalation-after-russia-warns-retaliation-british-built-drone

19/08/2026

Currently, US submarine production operates at a rate of 1.2 per year. To meet commitments under AUKUS, that rate needs to double.

Asked about the status of the AUKUS deal while on a tour of south east Asia, US Under Secretary of Defence Elbridge Colby did not confirm that the US would provide Australia 3 second hand Virginia-class submarines by the 2032 deadline.

Colby nevertheless argued that AUKUS was progressing at "full steam".

18/08/2026

18/08/2026

While not the messenger that CND would choose, Marjorie Taylor Greene's statement this week aligned strongly with the core CND message.

In particular, her comments about the disastrous and unjust impacts of the US atomic bombings of Japan in 1945 highlight the horror of a world in which the use of nuclear weapons is still contemplated by reckless, amoral leaders.

If the taboo on military nuclear use is broken again, a disastrous precedent will be set that benefits no country. Nuclear war is not contained to national boundaries. It is a threat to humanity's collective existence.

That's why we say "Never Again." This is not just a moral imperative - the human world has no other choice.

17/08/2026

14/08/2026

AUKUS: Dimensions of a Dubious Submarine Deal will be hosted by Scottish CND and UK CND. We invite two knowledgeable researchers to discuss the political contradictions, environmental impacts, proliferation risks and security concerns generated by this tripartite security deal in which the UK will play a major part. This free webinar will take place on Thursday 24th September at 5pm, UK time.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/aukus-dimensions-of-a-dubious-submarine-deal-tickets-1997686695683?aff=oddtdtcreator&_gl=1*piqc1z*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTg1OTIxMTgzMS4xNzg2NjE4NTg0*_ga_TQVES5V6SH*czE3ODY2MjU4OTIkbzIkZzAkdDE3ODY2MjU4OTIkajYwJGwwJGgw

Sybilla George is a writer and emerging researcher from Melbourne who is soon to begin a Master's degree at Sciences Po in Paris on nuclear history.

Tim Deere-Jones is a marine scientist and researcher who has been commissioned by Friends of the Earth Australia to write a comprehensive report on the environmental impacts and industrial problems within the UK's submarine-building industry.

We will also hear from the General Secretary of UK CND Sophie Bolt, one of the leading figures in the British anti-war and anti-nuclear movement.

This summer has provided further evidence of the multiple intersecting national security threats posed by climate change. But after a national security meeting on Wednesday, rather than announcing nationalisation of water in England, or the recall of the British military’s only firefighting aircraft from Cyprus, the British Prime Minister told Brits to stay hydrated and announced he would urge shops not to sell disposable barbecues.

Intensifying extreme weather in the UK should serve as yet another reminder of the sheer uselessness of nuclear weapons against the genuine national security emergencies we face in the 21st century. Chief among these are the multiple interconnected threats posed by climate change and ecosystem collapse. But an intelligence report into these threats was suppressed by Kier Starmer’s government, while he and his successor continue to bestow tens of billions of pounds on BAE systems to build nuclear submarines.

Meanwhile, a high profile public inquiry is taking place across Australia into the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal between Australia, the US and UK. This inquiry, led by former Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett, has highlighted considerable public and even elite dissent to the deal, which would see Australia provided with nuclear-powered submarines in exchange for hundreds of billions of dollars invested in the US and UK submarine industries.

This week, former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull took the podium at the AUKUS inquiry to call the deal a “colossal mistake” and described Britain’s shipbuilding industry as “in disarray”. Former Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans has already said AUKUS could prove to be one of Australia’s “worst foreign policy decisions” and said believing that the US would defend Australia in the event of existential attack was a “ludicrous delusion”.

The Defence Investment Plan (p23.) announced by Kier Starmer just before his exit detailed that the UK would begin cutting steel for the SSN-A (AUKUS) submarines next year. Given that the final Astute attack submarine is still being built and there are chronic technical problems with the Dreadnought Trident-launching class, this could mean that BAE systems will be managing 3 different nuclear submarine programmes at once at some point in 2027. Meanwhile their submarine products have a questionable performance record: the Royal Navy's BAE-built Astute attack submarines have been unavailable for deployment since early June due to extensive maintenance needs.

Our joint webinar with UK CND on Thursday 24th September, 5pm UK time will be an important opportunity to learn from informed sources on AUKUS, highlighting the international resistance to militarised nuclear technology we are also part of here in Scotland.

Scottish CND and CND UK host two knowledgeable guests to discuss multiple aspects of the contentious AUKUS nuclear submarine deal.

11/08/2026