The US has the power to switch off the UK’s nuclear subs – a big problem as Donald Trump becomes an unreliable partner
Th Conversation, March 28, 2025 , Becky Alexis-Martin, Peace Studies and International Development, University of Bradford
Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently boarded one of the UK’s four nuclear-armed submarines for a photo call as part of his attempts to demonstrate the UK’s defence capabilities as tensions with Russia continue.
However, Starmer faces a problem. The submarine, and the rest of the UK’s nuclear fleet, is heavily reliant on the US as an operating partner. And at a time when the US becomes an increasingly unreliable partner under the leadership of an entirely transactional president, this is not ideal. The US can, if it chooses, effectively switch off the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
British and US nuclear history is irrevocably interwoven. The US and UK cooperated on the Manhattan project, under the 1943 Quebec agreements and the 1944 Hyde Park aide memoire. This work generated the world’s first nuclear weapons, which were deployed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
It also led to the first rupture. In 1946, the US classified UK citizens as “foreign” and prevented them from engaging in secret nuclear work. Collaboration with the UK immediately ceased.
The UK decided to develop its own arsenal of nuclear weapons. The successful detonation of the “Grapple Y” hydrogen bomb in April 1958 cemented its position as a thermonuclear power.
In the meantime, however, Russia’s launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957 had demonstrated the lethal reach of Soviet nuclear technology. This brought the US and UK back together as nuclear partners…………………………………………..
Serious concerns are now being raised about the UK’s nuclear capacity, given the unpredictability and potential unreliability of the new US administration. Trump could ignore or threaten to terminate the agreement in a show of power or contempt.
The UK’s nuclear subs
The UK’s Trident nuclear deterrence programme consists of four Vanguard nuclear-powered and armed submarines. The UK has some autonomy, as it is operationally independent and controls the decision to launch.
However, it remains dependent on the US because the nuclear technologies at the heart of the Trident system are US designed and leased by Lockheed Martin – and there is no suitable alternative. The Trident system therefore relies on the US for support and maintenance.
The UK is currently in the process of upgrading the current system. But its options seem limited. If the US were to renege on its commitments, the UK would either have to produce its own weapons domestically, collaborate with France or Europe or disarm. Each scenario creates new issues for the UK. Manufacturing nuclear weapons from scratch in the UK, for example, would be a costly and protracted activity.
Technical collaboration with France seems the most plausible back-up option at the moment. The two countries already have a nuclear collaboration treaty in place. France has taken a similar submarine-based approach to deterrence as the UK and French president Emmanuel Macron has suggested its deterrent could be used to protect other European countries. Another alternative would be to spread the cost across Europe and create a European deterrence – but both strategies just re-embed the UK’s current nuclear reliance.
While these weapons may deter a hostile nuclear strike, they have failed to prevent broader acts of aggression. Nuclear weapons have not been used in warfare for 80 years. Perhaps it is time to completely and permanently unshackle the UK from nuclear deterrence, and consider alternative forms of defence.
The UK’s nuclear arsenal is expensive to maintain. The cost of replacing Trident is £205 billion. In 2023, the Ministry of Defence reported that the anticipated costs for supporting the nuclear deterrent would exceed its budget by £7.9 billion over the next ten years. This funding could be channelled into more pressing security threats, such as cybersecurity, terrorism or climate change.
Nuclear weapons will become strategically redundant if the UK cannot act independently. As Nato and the US dominate the global nuclear stage, the UK’s capacity to respond has become contested. The time has come to decide whether the US is really our friend – or a new foe. https://theconversation.com/the-us-has-the-power-to-switch-off-the-uks-nuclear-subs-a-big-problem-as-donald-trump-becomes-an-unreliable-partner-252674
Second shipment of high level waste departs UK for Germany
Second shipment of high level waste departs UK for Germany. As previously
announced, the UK will be returning high level waste (HLW) in the form of
vitrified residues to Germany. The second of three planned shipments is now
safely under way. Seven flasks containing high level waste were transported
from the Sellafield site in West Cumbria to the nearby port of
Barrow-in-Furness by rail. The flasks were then loaded to the specialist
nuclear transport vessel Pacific Grebe, operated by Nuclear Transport
Solutions (NTS).
Sellafield 27th March 2025. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/second-shipment-of-high-level-waste-departs-uk-for-germany
Britain’s worst nuclear disaster: the Windscale fire of 1957
When a routine procedure went wrong in October 1957, a fire broke out at
the Windscale nuclear power station in Cumbria, UK. By the time it was put
out, radiation had been sent across Britain and Europe.
Jonny Wilkes reveals what happened, and why we should be grateful that it wasn’t much
worse. Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima: three names that have gone
down in infamy; bywords for the nightmare scenarios that can occur when the
production of nuclear power goes disastrously wrong. Before them all
though, was Windscale.
History Extra 27th March 2025,
https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/atomfall-real-nuclear-windscale-disaster-fire/
Massive Mine Shafts and Nuclear Dump For Cumbria Coast? Tell Cumberland Council “Vote NOW
A Very Hot Nuclear Waste Dump Under the Irish Sea Bed ? Decision Maker: Cumberland Council
, By mariannewildart. https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2025/03/27/massive-mine-shafts-and-nuclear-dump-for-cumbria-coast-tell-cumberland-council-vote-now/
The Issue
We, the undersigned, including residents, Council taxpayers and electors of Cumberland in Cumbria, UK, call upon Cumberland Council to schedule a debate at a specially convened meeting of Full Council on the question of whether Cumberland Council:
1. Continues to support Nuclear Waste Services in its investigations to identify potential locations for a Geological Disposal Facility for Heat Generating Nuclear Wastes in either the Mid or South Copeland Search Areas and
2. Continues to remain a partner in the two Community Partnerships.This debate to be followed by a vote in which all elected members be invited to vote yes or no to continuing these arrangements, with a majority no vote signifying that Cumberland Council withdraws its support and withdraws from membership of the two Community Partnerships ending the process.
In making this appeal, the petitioners are aware that:
1. An Executive of only four members at Copeland Borough Council originally decided to engage with Nuclear Waste Services in initiating a search for a site in either Mid or South Copeland, and that no vote ever took place amongst all the Councillors of that authority.
2. The Executive of the successor authority Cumberland Council assumed that commitment to GDF engagement, despite the facts that –
Cumbria County Council, which like Copeland was replaced by the new unitary authority and was its biggest component, was manifestly opposed to any GDF in the county.
There has never been a vote amongst all elected Councillors of Cumberland Council as to whether the authority should have assumed this commitment made by just four Copeland Councillors.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Cumberland Council in Cumbria is unique in becoming a “Partner” in the UKs dangerous nuclear dump proposal while having had no debate or full council vote. Other areas who were persuaded to go into Partnership with the developer, Nuclear Waste Services, later held full council debates and a vote. South Holderness and Theddlethorpe in Lincolnshire decided that they were not to be fobbed off with the bribe of £2 Million a year to host a dangerous experimental “geological disposal facility.”
The beautiful and fragile Cumbrian coastline and already vulnerable ocean is in the firing line for the biggest infrastructure project ever in the UK. This construction site would be active for 100+ years with massive industrial sprawl, movements of highly radioactive materials and pollution. Mine shafts on the Cumbrian coast would be tunnelled by giant tunnel boring machines leading to a mined out void the size of the country of Tuvalu (26km square) up to the size of Bermuda (50 km square).
The massive amount of rock spoil from an area up to 1000 metres deep and 50km square would be an industrial hazard in itself with naturally occurring radioactive material leaching out of the mountain of spoil.
Tourism is Cumbria’s biggest industry closely followed by Farming and despite ongoing pressures both these industries support tens of thousands of people many in the Cumberland Council area. Both tourism and farming would be disastrously impacted by the plan for a 100+ year massive mine in which to dump high level nuclear wastes, a plan which now includes plutonium, under the Cumbrian coastline and ocean.
The reason the proposed “geological disposal facility” (sub-sea nuclear dump) has to be so huge is to dissipate the enormous heat from widely spaced out containers of highly radioactive nuclear wastes which are currently stacked together and kept cool by millions of gallons of fresh water a day from the top quality fresh water in Wastwater and the rivers Ehen and Calder (Nuclear is the most wasteful means of producing electricity as a vanishingly small percentage of heat from uranium fuel is used to turn the turbines while the rest is waste and has to “cool off” for tens of thousands, in some cases millions of years).
Where is this planned?
The Lake District coast adjacent to the National Park.
“Mid-Copeland Community Partnership Area of Focus.” Despite Sellafield, the biggest industrialised mass in the North West or an “atomic carbuncle” as Wainwright called it, this is an ancient and beautiful area with Viking hoards, stone circle and Abbey.
“South Copeland Community Partnership Areas of Focus” are rising up against the plan to host the access mine shafts and associated industrial sprawl for a sub-sea nuclear dump in their beautiful and historic area.
SIGN HERE
Walt Zlotow: UK to push 250,000 Brits into poverty to increase unneeded defense spending.
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 28 Mar 25
Now that President Trump has bailed on endless US funding of failed Ukraine war, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has picked up the slack.
Starmer is delusional that Russia seeks to recreate the Soviet empire. He joins equally delusional French President Emmanuel Macron that the EU must replace the disappearing $175 Billion in US treasure to continue the lost Ukraine war.
Starmer wants to boost UK defense spending to 3% of GDP from the current 2.3% tho no foreign enemy is anywhere in sight. To pay for this senseless squandering of UK treasure, Starmer proposes cuts in welfare spending. He appears oblivious of reports that such cuts may push 250,000 Brits into poverty, including 50,000 kids.
Alas, Starmer also remains oblivious that the hundreds of billions the US and EU has squandered in Ukraine has merely cost Ukraine hundreds of thousands of casualties, 10 million fled and 45,000 lost square miles of land. But the only words echoing in Starmer’s brain are: ‘The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming.’
EDF reduces stake in Sizewell C as boss sacked
the sacking raises “further fundamental questions about the wisdom of proceeding with the Sizewell C ‘Replica’ project of Hinkley Point C in which EDF is set to be deeply involved”
“Clearly Sizewell C could not reach a Final Investment Decision without taxpayers shouldering the bulk of the project’s massive cost – a hugely controversial choice given that the Chancellor is currently scrabbling around to save as much money as possible.“
25 Mar, 2025 By To s-sacked-25-03-2025/ https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/edf-reduces-stake-in-sizewell-c-as-boss-sacked-25-03-2025/
EDF’s ownership of Sizewell C has decreased to 16.2% and the UK government’s stake increased to 83.8%. Meanwhile, the French company’s chief executive has been axed and its financial stability has been called into question.
The UK’s flagship gigawatt-scale new nuclear projects under construction – Hinkley Point C in Somerset and Sizewell C in Suffolk – are both subject to intense scrutiny as costs rise and timelines slip.
Hinkley Point C is late and over budget, and Sizewell C is awaiting its delayed final investment decision (FID) which is scheduled to be made at the Spending Review on 11 June. The FID will reveal the final determination of who will fund the project and how. The government has already invested several billion pounds in developing it.
Hinkley Point C’s costs rose from around £25bn in 2015 to up to £34bn in 2024, and Sizewell C is projected to cost £40bn – double what it was estimated by EDF and the UK Government to cost in 2020. However, the Treasury disputes this latter figure.
EDF Sizewell C ownership stake reduced
On 24 February 2024, NCE reported that EDF was appearing to scale back its proposed ownership ambitions of Sizewell C.
EDF’s 2024 Annual results document laid out its contribution to the power plant, which is “subject to some conditions, including […] a share in ownership of the project of 10 to 19.99%, including a cap on financial exposure in value.” It also requires “a return on capital expected by EDF as an investor in line with market return for this type of assets, risk allocation profile and its investment policy.”
It is understood that the reason for selecting 19.99% rather than 20% is because a company buying 20% would have to set up a subsidiary entity to take the ownership.
Credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings announced in a ‘Rating Action Commentary’ on 21 March 2025 that the Sizewell C’s owners – the UK Government and EDF – had changed their ownership stakes.
EDF previously confirmed in its 2024 half year results that Sizewell C is owned 76.1% by the UK Government and 23.9% by EDF.
Fitch’s announcement said: “As of end-2024, the project was owned 83.8% by the UK government and 16.2% by EDF, down from 49.4% at end-2023.”
This marks a fresh drop in EDF’s ownership by 7.7 percentage points.
The decrease comes after French public spending watchdog Cour des comptes said EDF should scale back involvement in UK nuclear projects.
Macron sacks EDF chief and funds EDF reactors
In France, where the government has political control of the entirely state-owned EDF (Électricité de France), Macron fired the company’s chief executive Luc Rémont.
The UK’s Daily Telegraph linked Rémont’s ousting to EDF’s planned electricity price hikes for French industrial customers, of which Macron had promised to “take back control”.
Adding further pressure to EDF’s leadership, French building materials company Saint-Gobain chairman and chief executive officer Benoit Bazin, speaking to French business news channel BFM Business, accused EDF of “giving the middle finger to French industry”.
It has also been reported that the French state has agreed to issue a single subsidised loan “covering at least half the construction costs of six nuclear reactors”, according to the president’s office. It is understood that the six reactors are at the pairs at Penly, Gravelines and Bugey in France.
Former energy secretary reacts to ‘extremely concerning’ developments‘.
Backbench Conservative peer Lord Howell of Guildford reacted to the news. Howell was energy secretary in Margaret Thatcher’s government which supported the construction of nuclear power plants.
He described the reduced stake in Sizewell C as “one more development in growing concern about EDF’s capacity or ability to continue with Hinkley Point C project or take a large (20%+) position in the Sizewell C proposed project.”
Reflecting on the sacking of the EDF boss, he said this is “An extremely worrying development.”
He went on to say the sacking raises “further fundamental questions about the wisdom of proceeding with the Sizewell C ‘Replica’ project of Hinkley Point C in which EDF is set to be deeply involved”
Anti-Sizewell C groups say ‘alarm bells should be ringing’
Stop Sizewell C executive director Alison Downes said: “EDF has not contributed a single penny financially to Sizewell C for well over a year now, and is under growing pressure in France, not only having lost its boss but to scale back its international commitments across the board.
“Clearly Sizewell C could not reach a Final Investment Decision without taxpayers shouldering the bulk of the project’s massive cost – a hugely controversial choice given that the Chancellor is currently scrabbling around to save as much money as possible.
“Rachel Reeves should cancel Sizewell C now and redirect those funds to the Warm Homes Plan, which would lower energy bills and create jobs in every constituency.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has proposed austerity measures for the welfare state, which she says are needed to fund infrastructure developments, ahead of the Spring Statement and Spending Review.
Cuts to welfare, particularly covering disability and unemployment support, are proving to be unpopular with dozens of MPs on the left of the Labour party.
A Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) spokesperson said: “Alarm bells should be ringing as the UK government stake in Sizewell C increases to 84% with only the UK taxpayer currently funding Sizewell C’s development costs.
“This begs the question, ‘Why are EDF refusing to put any further money into Sizewell C?’ EDF have decided to build no more of this reactor design in France, indicating they have no confidence in the EPR design destined for Sizewell.”
The spokesperson went on to say: “EDF are broke, as evidenced by their desperate search for cash to finish Hinkley Point C’s construction.
“This is hardly a secure basis for the UK government to continue in partnership with EDF and certainly not a good advert to encourage potential investors.”
Referencing EDF’s plans for a final stake to be as low as 10%, TASC said: “This evidences that even the developer considers the Sizewell C development to be inherently
EDF and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero did not respond to requests for comment.
Russia rules out transferring control over Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to Ukraine
the plant being jointly operated, including with the participation of international organizations,
“In this case, for example, it is impossible to properly ensure nuclear and physical nuclear safety, or regulate issues of civil liability for nuclear damage.
Transfer of the facility or control over it to Ukraine or any other country is ‘impossible,’ says Foreign Ministry
Burc Eruygur 26.03.2025, https://www.aa.com.tr/en/russia-ukraine-war/russia-rules-out-transferring-control-over-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-to-ukraine/3520006#
Russia on Tuesday rejected transferring control over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) to Ukraine or any other country, saying it is “impossible.”
US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the situation surrounding energy supplies to Ukraine and the country’s nuclear power plants during a phone call last Wednesday.
Trump told Zelenskyy that the US could be “very helpful in running the plants with its electricity and utility expertise” and that “American ownership of those plants could be the best protection for that infrastructure,” according to a White House statement.
Zelenskyy told journalists at a briefing later that he and Trump did talk about the restoration of the ZNPP and that Ukraine is ready to discuss the modernization of the plant but they did not discuss the issue of ownership of the plant.
A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that the plant is a “Russian nuclear facility,” saying the transfer of the facility or control over it to Ukraine or any other country is “impossible.”
“All the station’s employees are citizens of the Russian Federation. Their lives cannot be played with, especially considering the atrocities that Ukrainians have committed and continue to commit on the territory of our country,” it said.
The statement also denied the possibility of the plant being jointly operated, including with the participation of international organizations, describing this as having “no such precedents in world practice.”
“In this case, for example, it is impossible to properly ensure nuclear and physical nuclear safety, or regulate issues of civil liability for nuclear damage.
The statement also denied the possibility of close cooperation between NATO intelligence services with Ukraine, which have impressive sabotage potential, makes it impossible, including with the participation of international organizations, describing this as having “no such precedents in world practice.”
“In this case, for example, it is impossible to properly ensure nuclear and physical nuclear safety, or regulate issues of civil liability for nuclear damage.
“An important aspect is that close cooperation between NATO intelligence services with Ukraine, which have impressive sabotage potential, makes it impossible to even temporarily admit representatives of these states to the ZNPP,” the statement added.
The situation around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest and one of the world’s 10 biggest, particularly remains tense as concerns persist over a possible nuclear disaster involving Moscow and Kyiv, both of which have frequently accused each other of attacks around the facility.
Since Sept. 1, 2022, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) personnel have been present at the plant, which has been under Russian control since March 2022.
Finland’s Fortum says building new nuclear power is too expensive, for now
New nuclear power production capacity is not commercially viable to
build for now, based on the current Nordic power market outlook of low
prices. The company on Monday concluded a two-year study into the
feasibility of new nuclear power but said it would focus on renewable
energy and nuclear lifetime extensions to cover growing electricity demand
in the Nordics for now.
“New nuclear could provide new supply to the
Nordics earliest in the second half of the 2030s, if market and regulatory
conditions are right,” Fortum CEO Markus Rauramo told reporters. He said
Fortum would continue to explore new nuclear generation and pumped
hydropower as long-term options in Sweden and Finland. Fortum said building
new nuclear reactors would require a solid risk sharing framework similar
to the one being prepared by the Swedish government.
Reuters 24th March 2025,
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/finlands-fortum-explores-long-term-options-new-nuclear-power-2025-03-24/
It’s time to stop Sizewell C to generate ‘Warm Homes’ jobs instead
March 24 2025, Funding th Future – Tax Research UK.
Campaigners have called on Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband to stop Sizewell C, and redirect its funding to generate ‘Warm Homes’ jobs in every constituency by the next election.
Their report’s summary says:
There is a clear political advantage from halting Sizewell C and redirecting the billions saved into making millions of homes more energy efficient, thus reducing fuel poverty. This approach will benefit every city, town, village and hamlet in Britain.
It will generate long-term, secure jobs, particularly for young people. It will be quick to implement, so by the next election new jobs and cheaper, warmer, healthier homes will have appeared in every constituency. By contrast, continuing to build Sizewell C and, post 2030, the development of new small modular nuclear reactors, will affect a limited number of constituencies.
Should Sizewell C go ahead, it is expected to cost around £40bn between now and when it opens, potentially around 2040: an average of £2.7bn per year for the next 15 years. Deducting money already spent, if Sizewell is cancelled now, the public money saved by 2030 is £7.1bn, assuming (as seems likely) no private investors are found to share the costs.
We propose that this £7.1bn should be added to the £6.6bn to be spent over the current Parliament on home energy efficiency, as promised in Labour’s 2024 manifesto. This shift of funds would massively increase the chances of achieving the Government’s aim to ‘Make Britain a clean energy superpower to cut bills, create jobs and deliver security with cheaper, zero-carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero‘. https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/03/24/its-time-to-stop-sizewell-c-to-generate-warm-homes-jobs-instead/
Ukraine and Israel are not US allies.
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL , 25 Mar 25
They are essentially US Trojan Horses used to project US power dominance in Europe and Middle East respectively.
Both US Trojan Horses have come up lame and are heading for the glue factory.
The US marched their Ukraine Trojan Horse up to Russia’s borders armed with NATO entrance papers and billions in US weapons. When Russia pleaded with the US for years to discuss Russia’s valid security concerns, the US replied ‘Nyet.’ Former President Biden knew Russia would attack but believed any invasion would be a Vietnam style quagmire for Russia. Biden saw the upcoming Russian collapse as the shining achievement of his half century anti-Russian Cold War mantra. That failed spectacularly.
The election of Trump has injected a healthy dose of realpolitik that acknowledges Biden’s folly. Trump is currently in negotiations to put America’s Ukraine Trojan Horse to pastoral retirement. Can’t come soon enough.
America’s Israeli Trojan Horse to dominate the Middle East is a horse of a different color. It’s more like Israel’s Trojan Horse near totally financed by Uncle Sam. America gets to sit back while Israel marches around their neighborhood committing genocide is Gaza, indiscriminately bombing innocents in Syria and Lebanon, and promoting US attacks on Yemen and eventually Iran. All this senseless carnage constitutes Israel serving as the US battering ram to recreate the Middle East according to its dominant worldview.
Like our Ukraine Trojan Horse, our Israeli Trojan Horse is failing to promote America’s true national interests. Most of the world’s 193 countries are aghast America promotes the most grotesque genocide this century. America’s standing may be at an all time low. Like with Ukraine, we’re enabling Israel to self destruct. It’s now a pariah state. Tourism and investment are in decline. Its military is demoralized both from significant casualties and having to commit genocide.
Both allies are flirting with wider war; nuclear in Ukraine, regional war in Israel.
America gets nothing from allies Ukraine and Israel except worldwide condemnation, squandered treasure and diminishing unipolar world dominance.
With allies like Ukraine and Israel, America does not need enemies.
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to stay in Russian control, Moscow says
By Reuters, March 26, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-stay-russian-control-moscow-says-2025-03-25/
MOSCOW, March 25 (Reuters) – Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was a Russian facility and transferring control of it to Ukraine or any other country was impossible.
The ministry also said that jointly operating the plant was not admissible as it would be impossible to properly ensure the physical and nuclear safety of the station.
It said Zaporizhzhia region, partly controlled by Russian forces, was one of four in Ukraine that had been annexed by Russia by virtue of referendums staged seven months after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour and a presidential decree had formally made the station Russian property.
Western nations have dismissed the referendums as shams.
“The return of the station to Russia’s nuclear sector has been a fait accompli for quite some time,” the ministry statement said. “Transferring the Zaporizhzhia plant to the control of Ukraine or another country is impossible.”
Russian forces seized the station early in the invasion and each side has since routinely accused the other of staging attacks that endanger safety at the plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors.
Although the plant now produces no electricity, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog has monitors stationed there, as it does at all Ukrainian nuclear power sites.
Ukraine demands the return of the station to its jurisdiction and rejects the 2022 annexation of its territory as illegal.
U.S. President Donald Trump, during a phone conversation this month with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy suggested the United States could help run and possibly own Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.
Zelenskiy said the plants belong to the Ukrainian people. He said he and Trump had discussed potential U.S. investment in the plant. Reporting by Maxim Rodionov and Ron Popeski; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Rod Nickel
‘Deeply concerning’: British General’s Israeli weapons job criticised.
“That the UK’s former chief of the defence staff is now advising Israeli arms companies exemplifies the extent of the links between the British state and Israel’s arms industry. “
General Carter signed a military treaty with Israel. Now he advises Israeli arms firms.
PHIL MILLER, 20 March 2025, https://www.declassifieduk.org/deeply-concerning-british-generals-israeli-weapons-job-criticised/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Image&utm_campaign=ICYMI&utm_content=Image
The former head of Britain’s armed forces is providing advice to Israeli arms firms, sparking questions over his role in a country whose prime minister is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
General Sir Nick Carter was chief of the defence staff – Britain’s most senior military position – from 2018-21. Months before stepping down, he signed a military cooperation agreement with Israel.
That pact has never been published – despite freedom of information requests and questions in parliament – but it was hailed as a landmark moment in relations between the two militaries.
Carter had visited Israel earlier in his tenure, touring military bases and shaking hands with his opposite number, General Aviv Kohavi.
That experience of rubbing shoulders with the top of the IDF is likely to come in handy for his new job at Exigent Capital, a boutique financial services firm based in Jerusalem.
Carter is one of Exigent’s two “domain experts” in its “strategic advisory” wing, with his focus on “aerospace and defence”.
His role there is to “develop international growth strategies for our clients as well as identify and open doors to new business opportunities that accelerate growth”, according to the company’s website.
Or, as the Jerusalem Post put it, Carter provides “strategic consulting services to Israeli companies operating in the defense sector.”
Doing business
Carter attended a military tech summit in Tel Aviv in December 2024 – before the ceasefire had been signed in Gaza – when he told a journalist: “Israel is very significant in the world of defense tech.”
Carter added: “We appreciate the extraordinary innovation that Israeli defense companies exhibit and sometimes adopt what we see in Israel. It’s impressive to see the innovation of Israeli companies”.
The British army has bought Israeli-made drones, rifle sights and air defence systems.
More recently, he felt “privileged” to have signed the “successful” UK-Israel military deal in 2020, commenting: “It’s very important for both militaries to work together, share the best training, and understand together the complexity of the modern battlefield. This is a very good way to do business.”
General Carter: Caught in the revolving door?
However campaigners are criticising Carter’s business decisions. Dr Sara Husseini, director of the British Palestinian Committee, told Declassified: “That the UK’s former chief of the defence staff is now advising Israeli arms companies exemplifies the extent of the links between the British state and Israel’s arms industry.
“These revelations are deeply concerning, particularly at this moment in which Israel is recommencing its large-scale bombardment of Gaza, killing more than 400 Palestinians in the past two days.
“Rather than aligning with a state which is on trial for genocide and – as the Foreign Secretary acknowledged earlier this week – is in breach of international law, Keir Starmer’s government must now halt its military collaboration with Israel, including scrapping the agreement signed by Sir Nick Carter.”
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said: “Serious questions arise from former defence officials working with arms companies in states that have a track record of serious violations of international law.”
Turning to Labour’s partial embargo on weapons exports to Israel, Doyle commented: “It also raises longer term questions about whether former officials should be allowed to work with arms companies in countries where there is a ban on arms exports because the government has already acknowledged a serious risk of human rights abuses.”
Arms trade expert Andrew Feinstein from Shadow World Investigations remarked: “This is an example of what used to be called the revolving door – or is now known as the open plan office – between the British state and arms companies. It raises the question of whose interests the most senior political and military figures are working in: their own material interests, or the interests of Britain?”
‘System is bust’
Under government rules supposed to prevent conflicts of interest, former Generals must inform Whitehall’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) of any job offers they receive for two years after leaving the military.
General Carter notified ACOBA of 12 jobs he had been offered since stepping down from the army in July 2022, although Exigent was not among them.
General Carter and Exigent did not respond to a request for comment on when they began working together. A LinkedIn post by the company shows they had started at least three months ago, when Exigent said: “We look forward to sharing his unparalleled expertise, insights and network with our clients.”
His other job offers encompassed unpaid roles at Harvard and Stanford universities, plus a trusteeship at the Royal United Services Institute think tank.
Paid positions included working part-time as a strategic advisor for Schroders bank, plus advisory roles at Helsing – a German AI defence start-up – and an insurance firm.
On top of this, Carter spends 30 days per year “as a thought partner for Tony Blair in his role as Executive Chairman” at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
And he is chairman of Equilibrium Gulf Limited, which advises the crown prince of Bahrain on the autocratic country’s notoriously brutal interior ministry.
While he claims no military experience is required for the Bahrain role, previous Equilibrium directors include another former defence chief, General David Richards, and MI6’s one-time Middle East controller Geoffrey Tantum.
Lord Pickles, who oversees ACOBA, has acknowledged there are weaknesses in the system supposed to regulate Whitehall’s ‘revolving door’ between government positions and corporate careers.
Pickles said of ACOBA last year: “The system is bust and needs fixing.”
Militarize Ukraine ‘to the teeth’ – Finnish president
Comment: Is the Finnish President among those that do not really want a settlement in Ukraine any time soon?
Thu, 20 Mar 2025 https://www.sott.net/article/498616-Militarize-Ukraine-to-the-teeth-Finnish-president
Alexander Stubb has also called for stronger sanctions against Russia and the seizure of its frozen assets
Finnish President Alexander Stubb has called on Kiev’s Western backers to pump Ukraine with military resources and financial aid, claiming that this will deter Russia. He made the call shortly after meeting Vladimir Zelensky in Helsinki and as EU lawmakers negotiate doubling the bloc’s weapons budget.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had pitched a plan to increase the bloc’s cashflow for Ukraine from €20 billion ($20.9 billion) in 2024 to €40 billion ($43.7 billion) this year. However she admitted to La Stampa that she was opposed by Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal. The Italian newspaper has reported that a €5 billion cap has been placed on the donation.
Stubb told Politico on Wednesday that “Deterrence – which is based on militarizing Ukraine to its teeth,” would be the best way to end the Ukraine conflict.
The Finnish president lamented the fact that Kallas failed to gather support for her plan, expressing hope that that heads of state and government would be able to salvage the package.
“It’s very important now to send a message from Europe that the military, political and economic support continues,” he said, emphasizing that sanctions against Russia should be bolstered, while its frozen assets should be seized to ramp up pressure.
Hungary has refused to sign a joint EU summit statement on Ukraine, according to TASS, which reported that both lethal and non-lethal aid had been rejected by Budapest.
The Finnish president also supported potential Ukrainian membership in the EU and in NATO. Finland, which only joined the US-led military bloc in 2023, has been a strong backer of Kiev since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in February 2022.
Moscow has consistently condemned NATO expansion towards its borders, describing the bloc as a threat to Russia’s national security. President Vladimir Putin and other officials have repeatedly stressed that efforts to include Ukraine in the military bloc had been one of the root causes of the escalation of the conflict in 2022.
Stubb’s comments come amid negotiations for a 30-day ceasefire aimed at halting long-range strikes on energy infrastructure by both sides advocated by US President Donald Trump. Another round of talks between Russian and US delegations is scheduled for March 24 in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
France delays EPR2 reactors to 2038
The 4th meeting of France’s Nuclear Policy Council (CPN – Conseil de
politique nucléaire), chaired by President Emmanuel Macron, decided to
delay the commissioning of EPR2 reactors to 2038 – a postponement of
three years. The CPN, which has been held regularly since 2022, defines the
main orientations of national nuclear policy.
The EPR2 programme, announced
in February 2022, envisages the construction of six upgraded EPR reactors
with an option for eight more. The first three pairs of EPR2 reactors are
planned for the Penly, Gravelines and Bugey NPP sites. Construction is
expected to start in 2027. The cost was originally estimated at €51.7bn
($56.4bn), but this was revised upwards to €67.4bn in 2023, according to
the Court of Auditors. Taking inflation into account, a total budget of
nearly €80bn is now being considered.
Nuclear Engineering International 21st March 2025, https://www.neimagazine.com/news/france-delays-epr2-reactors-to-2038/
Redirect Sizewell C funding to the Warm Homes Plan, say campaigners.
Alison Downes, https://stopsizewellc.org/sizewellcvswarmhomes/
Campaigners call on Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband to stop Sizewell C, redirect its funding to generate ‘Warm Homes’ jobs in every constituency by the next election.
Building Sizewell C would likely cost around £40bn over the next 15 years. Deducting money already spent, if Sizewell C is cancelled now, the public money saved by 2030 would be £7.1bn.
A paper from Stop Sizewell C and the Green New Deal Group calls for this saving to be added to the £6.6bn the government is committed to spend in the current Parliament on energy efficiency in the nation’s homes. Turbocharging this ‘Warm Homes Plan’ by more than doubling its budget will generate long term, secure jobs, particularly for young people across the UK. It will be quick to implement, so by the next election new jobs and cheaper, warmer, healthier homes will have appeared in every constituency.
Alison Downes of Stop Sizewell C said: “The taxpayers’ money being ploughed into risky, expensive Sizewell C – which will inevitably soar higher due to cost overruns and building delays – would be far better spent improving the lives of households nationwide, bringing down their bills, and helping the UK meet its net zero target”.
Colin Hines of The Green New Deal Group said: “At absolutely no extra cost to the nation’s finances Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband could stop funding the nuclear white elephant that is Sizewell C and not only improve the living conditions for homes in every constituency, but create jobs in every constituency, thereby improving their chances of winning the next election.”
1 This Month
of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
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