The nuclear/uranium industry and WATER – theme for February 2012
Effects of uranium mining and nuclear power on water.
Overuse of precious fresh water.One of the greatest dangers of the nuclear/uranium industry is in its use of water. Both uranium mining and nuclear reactors require enormous amounts of water. This is a threat to the world’s scarce resources of fresh water.
Pollution. Both uranium mining and nuclear reactors also pollute water. In uranium mining, water is often used to pour over radioactive dust tailings: radioactive water can leach down into groundwater. In the “in situ leach” process, radioactive water is disposed of into the aquifer.
Nuclear reactors use water for cooling – the resulting hot water is released into the source, river, or coastal sea, to thermally pollute the area, damaging plants and fish.
Effects of water scarcity, and hot water on nuclear reactors.. In heat waves, nuclear reactors often will need to be shut down, as their river sources of cooling water become too warm to function as a coolant.
As global warming brings about a rise in average temperatures and ocean levels, inland reactors will increasingly contribute to, and be affected by, water shortages. During the record-breaking 2003 heat wave in France, operations at 17 commercial nuclear reactors had to be scaled back or stopped because of rapidly rising temperatures in rivers and lake. Spain’s reactor at Santa María de Garoña was shut for a week in July 2006 after high temperatures were recorded in the Ebro River.
Paradoxically, then, the very conditions that made it impossible for the nuclear industry to deliver full power in Europe in 2003 and 2006 created peak demand for electricity, owing to the increased use of air conditioning. http://chellaney.net/2011/03/14/paradox-of-nuclear-power-water-guzzler-yet-vulnerable-to-water/
Seawater can be used to cool reactors, but it has to be purified. Corrosive elements in the seawater would otherwise ruin the reactors – so seawater is a last resort for cooling. As in the case of the Fukushima emergency – seawater was used, as ruining the reactors was preferable to a catastrophic nuclear meltdown.
Nuclear Power and WATER – theme for February 2012
Australia is at the forefront of the world’s nuclear fuel cycle. The world’s media seems to cover nuclear issues at the back end – nuclear reactor accidents, used nuclear fuel wastes.
But – at the very front end is the destruction of precious natural resources. Above all, there’s the guzzling of Australia’s fresh water. There is also the degradation of rivers, creeks and groundwater, through radioactive leakage.
Water intake. No mines are more water intensive this the uranium mines. Of these, BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam is the prime guzzler, with its massive daily draught from the Great Artesian Basin
Over recent months, large areas of Australia have experienced extraordinarily large rainfall. This might have lulled Australians in the Eastern States into thinking that we have plenty of fresh water. Australians are amongst the highest consumers of water in the world.
We don’t. Australia is the driest inhabited continent, with one of the lowest rainfalls in the world. Three quarters of Australia is arid or semi-arid. We depend on the Murray River system for 50% of our water use. While surface water systems provide most of Australia’s water intake, undergoud bores alos play a significant role.
The Great Artesian Basin provides the only reliable source of fresh water through much of inland Australia. Water extraction from the GAB is essentially a mining operation, with recharge much less than current extraction rates. Australia’s extraction of water from the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) is estimated to be greater than the inflow to the GAB
Water radioactive pollution. There have been numerous spills and leaks, and seepage from Australian uranium mines, into creeks, river systems and groundwater. (from Nabarlek, Ranger, Olympic Dam. Beverly, Rum Jungle, Radium Hill, Mary Kathleen. League of Individuals for the Environment, Inc.: Uranium Mining: Australia and Globally)
In South Australia, there have been over 20 spills at the Beverley In Situ Leach mine (http://uranium-news.com/category/processes/in-situ-leach/)
NUCLEAR LIES – theme for January 2012
In 2012 in their desperate struggle to keep the nuclear industry alive, corporations, governments, academia and media will trot out the same old lies, plus a few newer ones.
The new ones will be:
1. to downplay the prospects for renewable energy and energy efficiency – lies about costs, about “base load” power.
2. to tout the safety of new nuclear technology, such as “small modular thorium nuclear reactors”.
3. More subtly than lies – the nuclear lobby uses OMISSIONS – watch how in 2012 the topics of Fukushima, and nuclear waste, fade from mention in the media, even though they are still topics of critical importance.
Nuclear Lies Australia – theme for January 2012
For Australia, lying on matters nuclear is a long tradition. Never more so than now, Australia, being a strategic colony of the USA, and a commercial colony of the multinational corporations.
The current nuclear lies and coverups in Australia are in general, the same as in the global lying.
However, there are some lies and coverups that are special to Australia, for example:
- The lie that the uranium industry has a great future – even as uranium prices continue their downward spiral, and nuclear power falters worldwide
- The lie that renewable energy, solar, wind – is just not suitable, ( indeed wind is “unhealthy”), for Australia
- The lie that the planned nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory is needed for “nuclear medicine”
- The continued coverup of plans being hatched by greedy persons to make Australia the repositary for international radioactive wastes – this one includes the lie that Australia needs the full nuclear fuel cycle.
It’s not that hard to understand the motivations of prominent Australians who promote these ideas, – fame, power, money , these are great motivators- a few examples are pictured:
Martin Ferguson –political puppet of the nuclear lobby.Ziggy Switkowski -famous as the mouthpiece of the nuclear lobby . Tony Abbott – will doanything to become Prime Minister. Barry Brook - famous as the spokesman for nuclear as the cure for climate change. Julia Gillard – apparently will doanything to stay Prime Minister. Marius Kloppers - famous as the great BHP man presiding over plans for the world’s biggest uranium mine. Paul Howes – anything to have a big career in politics. John White - keen to make an awful lotta money from importing radioactive wastes. Bill Shorten – anything to become Prime Minister
But there are plenty of others – examples – what about washed up old politicians – Alexander Downer, and Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and John Howard?- anything to stay in the public eye.
What about the straight out greed of John White’s other pals, – Hugh Morgan, Ron Walker and Robert de Crespigny. setting up their company to import nuclear wastes, while piously proclaiming it’s for the good of Australia?
Peace – nuclear disarmament – theme for December 2011
Peace on Earth to people of good will
But what is good will? How is it shown? The answer is in respect for one another. 
Respect means listening to the other’s point of view, and clearly saying your own point of view. It means discussion, argument – communication.
It can be difficult and time consuming. It often seems easier to just hit someone, show them who’s boss, as we have seen in countless Hollywood films – where might is right.
Communication is the alternative to war - and people use communication to get along, and resolve differences – at home, in the community, the region – and nationally and internationally.
The world is pretty much at the crossroads now. Some Israeli and USA politicians threaten military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran threatens retaliation. North Korea continues to be a nuclear weapons worry and China, India, USA, Russia, UK ramp up their nuclear weapons. Threats, decisions for violent action – it all seems simpler quicker, easier – easier than communication, negotiation, diplomacy.
Peace on Earth – with a nuclear free world – theme for December 2011
Australia can be proud of its history of anti nuclear activism – it has kept 
Australia nuclear weapons free, nuclear power free, and has limited and slowed the uranium industry. Now more than ever, Australia needs its anti nuclear movement, and the Greens party
In both Liberal and Labor parties, machinations go on, behind the scenes, to make Australia a nuclear industry hub, – from uranium quarry right through to nuclear waste dump for the world.
What nice Christmas presents these would make, for their corporate backers!
The Liberals have always been ready to sell out Australia’s clean energy future – and both parties make hypocritical statements about peace, while allowing BHP, ERA, to supplying uranium – fuel for nuclear weapons.
This month, the Labor Party is likely to completely reneg on its commitment
to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, since Prime Minister Julia Gillard dramatically caved in to USA pressure and announced that she wants to
allow uranium sales to India.
Still, Australia’s anti nuclear movement continues – and with it grows the movement, at home and abroad, towards clean, non nuclear, renewable energy
Global movement for clean, non nuclear, energy – theme for November 2011
There is a global zeitgeist, or widespread feeling of enthusiasm for clean energy, and of rejection of the dirty, dangerous, nuclear industry. This can’t be measured, but it does exist. In country after country, while governments are beholden to the nuclear lobby, the people are not fooled.
People are appreciating the value of renewable energy systems, centralised ones, coming through the grid, and decentralised, local, ones, with solar or wind energy coming straight to the user.. Households, businesses, farms benefit also in selling energy back to the grid, through their small local solar or wind technologies. Such small decentralised technologies are being taken up in developing countries, where there is no grid, bringing energy with the FREE fuel of sun and wind.
Even more importantly, energy efficiency and energy conservation are being taken up, as people find that this saves money, too. The culture of endless consumption is now questioned.
World-wide, the public becomes more distrustful of the nuclear industry. Private investment shuns it. People are waking up to the lies of the nuclear lobby: the lie that nuclear power is “clean”, that it’s “safe”, that it’s “renewable”, that it has “no connection” with nuclear weapons.
People are increasingly waking up to nuclear cover-ups, nuclear corruption, and nuclear bribery of politicians. Governments that are beholden to the nuclear lobby are increasingly distrusted. The current wave of opposition to the big corporations includes opposition to the power of nuclear corporations over governments.
The Fukushima nuclear catastrophe continues to influence people away from nuclear power. This , and the global economic problems make the nuclear industry look more and more like a colossal waste of tax-payers’ money. And, underlying this, the continued work of anti- nuclear groups, over decades has pushed on this groundswell of public feeling.
Successes of Australia’s anti nuclear movement – theme for November 2011
Right now, Australia has a somewhat secretive pro nuclear movement in both Liberal and Labor parties, in corporations, and parts of academia.
But Australia has had a proud history of anti nuclear campaigns, and successes. From preventing a nuclear reactor at Jervis Bay in 1969, through influence on the Labor Party over more than 30 years, including a forceful effect in stopping France’s atomic bomb testing in the Pacific , – Australian anti nuclear activists have been effective. They have prevented nuclear power in Australia, and have put the brakes on the uranium industry.
Australia’s anti nuclear movement has been re-invigorated over the past few years, as the nuclear lobby revved up its propaganda.
Greedy and/or ambitious individuals jumped on the pro nuclear bandwagon. Some openly - such as Bob Hawke, Mike Rann, Barry Brook, Paul Howes, and nuclear dinosaurs Ziggy Switkowski and Leslie Kemeny. Others more secretively - John White (Australia Nuclear Fuel Leasing) Ron Walker and Robert Champion de Crespigny, (Australian Nuclear Energy) - manouvreing towards Australia as a nuclear power, and nuclear waste importing country.
Then there are the wobbly ones – like Mike Rann – hoping to be famous for promoting the world’s biggest uranium mine, but also hoping to be famous for stopping uranium mining in Arkaroola Wilderness? There’s Tim Flannery – an Australian icon of climate change fame, but can’t make up his mind whether or not to back the nuclear powers that be.
Countering Australia’s well-funded pro nuclear push have been hard working voluntary organisations, notably The Australian Conservation Foundation, (ACF) the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, Friends of the Earth, (FOE) Anti Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia, (ANAWA) International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) , Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA) and may others.
Individuals stand out – Dr Helen Caldicott – who continues to take the anti nuclear struggle to the world stage. Film -maker David Bradbury. Dr Jim Green, of FOE, Professor Ian Lowe of ACF, Dr Tilman Ruff of MAPW , Dr Mark Diesendof, Dr Gavin Mudd – just some of the experts who keep the anti nuclear/ pro clean energy case before the public.
Most courageous of all – Aboriginal activists, such as Yvonne Margarula, Kevin Buzzacott, Dianne Stokes. Jeffrey Lee turned down $billions to save his land of Koongarra from uranium mining. If only Australians as a whole had Jeffrey Lee’s kind of courage – to reject money gained from dirty, dangerous uranium mining.
Western Australian government preparing for repression of peaceful anti-nuclear protestors?
An extraordinary week for Australia’s democracy, and Australia’s anri-nuclear movement.
In Melbourne and Sydney, police crack down on peaceful protestors – with violence, and some police not wearing badges, which is illegal. Meanwhile, police travel to Perth, to join in preparations for the repression of a planned peaceful protest – a social justice movement encompassing many causes.
The causes include opposition to Australian governments’ subservience to multinational corporations, and Australia’s movement towards becoming the uranium-nuclear-radioactive waste hub of the world.
The walkers from Wiluna, 1400km away, will arrive, to celebrate our movement to stop uranium mining.
Will they be met with violent repression?
Australia has a grand tradition of peaceful protest. Yet, as the Western Australian police round up and prevent good, peace-oriented organisers from attending the protest – one must ask? Is the Western Australian government trying to bring about violence? What is happening to Australia’s civil liberties, as the greed of multinational nuclear corporations prevails over our democratic values? - Christina Macpherson
Nuclear power and radiation – theme for October 2011 – the medical aspect
Back in the early 1940s, Dr Charles Pecher pioneered radiation as a treatment for cancer – ( until his work was taken over by the military to use radiation as a weapon.). Still, medical radiation has an honourable history and valuable role in treating cancer.
But medical radiation is a two-edged sword. We need to remember the risks it can carry to radiation technologists, nurses, doctors, other patients in hospital, and family members. Children can be at particular risk.
This is illustrated in a recent news item: Radiation treatment meant mother could not touch son Hartlepool Mail, 30 September 2011 A MUM was forced to stay away from her baby son after being given potentially dangerous treatment when she found she had a rare form of cancer. New mum Jill Teasdale could not get close to little son Max just months after he was born after contracting thyroid cancer.
The 30-year-old found a lump in her neck and following hospital tests, was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. Within weeks, she had undergone an operation to remove her thyroid gland and was prescribed a course of radioactive iodine treatment.
“The treatment lasted about a week, but because of the radiation I wasn’t allowed to get close to my little boy,” she said. “I had to have minimum contact.”
Although diagnosed in June 2009, it was not until the following April that Jill was given the all clear….. http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/radiation_treatment_meant_mother_could_not_touch_son_1_3822684
Nuclear Power and Public Opinion in Australia – theme for Sept 2011
Who really favours nuclear power? Well, a minority of Australians enthusiastically support it. – careerists in the nuclear industry, careerists in politics, academia, careerists in the Murdoch media, highly paid uranium workers, communities that exist only because of mining, - (the latter can’t really afford not to support it)
Less enthusiastic Australian supporters are those who follow the good old Australian dictum
– ”she’ll be right mate”. You don’t need to think. You know that the “experts’ in the Murdoch media know best. It’s safest to support the Establishment. After all, there’s supposed to be money in uranium investing. Very many Australians wrongly believe that BHP and Rio Tinto are ethical, and are Australian companies.
BUT – even in Australia, land of the golden yellowcake investment dream, there is a growing minority who
enthusiastically do NOT favour the nuclear industry. And they probably number many more than the pro-nukes. Their numbers are growing, as information spreads about the diseconomics of the nuclear/uranium industry, and its global destructiveness.
As their numbers grow they form part of a world-wide movement whose aim is to shut down this toxic industry – forever.
Nuclear power – Australian public opinion – theme for September 2011
In Australia, the uranium/nuclear lobby is twisting and turning – in desperate effort to win over public opinion.
They need to do this, because the uranium industry is well and truly in the doldrums. The nuclear lobby envisages a future for Australia in which Australia hosts the entire nuclear fuel cycle, from cradle to grave – from uranium mining, through nuclear power plants, to hosting the world’s radioactive wastes.
Despite the investment pages hyping up the uranium industry, despite the mainstream media generally ignoring the continuing Fukushima disaster, despite South Australian politicians spruiking uranium and uranium enrichment – the Australian public is not fooled
NUCLEAR POWER, NUCLEAR WEAPONS and WAR – theme for August 2011
“Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” - J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientist and “father of the bomb”
On the morning of 6 August 1945, the first atomic bomb, code-named “Little Boy” was dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later the United States dropped a plutonium bomb code-named “Fat Man” on the city of Nagasaki. 140,000 people (almost all civilians) died in Hiroshima either immediately or within a few days. Deaths in Nagasaki were about 74,000. The survivors lived on, some with horrifying burns scars, some to die of radiation-induced illnesses
Following the war, many scientists involved in the atomic bomb project, turned to the “atoms for peace” program – nuclear power. They did this partly out of guilt, partly to continue to be employed. (Where would a nuclear physicist get a job, otherwise? Well, some were happy to continue with nuclear weapons development)
Nuclear weapons are an inevitable by-product of the nuclear power industry
Nuclear weapons – Australia’s role – theme for August 2011
Australia has long been part of the USA’s nuclear war strategy. Pine Gap, USA’s secret facility in Central Australia, has since 1966 been a centre for espionage and for co-ordination of US air strikes. It has been part of America’s “Star Wars” plan to put missiles into space. American congressmen have made $millions from their investments in Defense Department contracts in Pine Gap, and can tour Pine Gap. But Australian Members of Parliament are denied entry.
In recent months, Australia’s role in the USA’s nuclear war strategy has been stepped up. A new base, at Exmouth. will be added to the Northwest Cape joint communications base, for increased tracking of missiles and satellites, and potentially for cyber warfare. U.S. Military equipment will be stationed in Darwin and Townsville. There will be increased visits from U.S. military ships, and more U.S. military exercises in Australia.
Being part of the American nuclear war machine makes a hypocrisy out of Australia’s supposed posture against nuclear weapons.
As an exporter of uranium, Australia plays a key part in nuclear weapons. There are no effective safeguards against uranium being used for weapons, - no real barrier between the “peaceful atom” and the “military atom”
This month
For international news, go to nuclear-news
Audio from Sydney Parliament House rally against uranium mining in New South Wales, 22 Feb http://beyondnuclearinitiative.com/audio/
of the week: http://hormesishistory.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/radiation-hormesis-and-adaptive-response-definitions/ Here’s a brand new website. It’s for anyone who wants background knowledge on ionising radiation. It will bust the spin of the current propaganda campaign promoting bodgie pseudoscience. – “radiation hormesis” and “adaptive response” are the latest spin designed by the nuclear industry to reassure us that low level ionising radiation is OK.
from Lauren Mellor I am currently writing a history of uranium mining in the NT and would be very interested to discuss with families of those affected as workers or traditional owners of the mine site – if anyone would like to contact me for more information please write to lauren.a.mellor@gmail.com
Energy Matters Video News – Episode 59 – February 22, 2012
http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3063
Anti nuclear action below: - more info at Action Australia « Antinuclear and at Event details « Antinuclear
EVENTS
Take action against National Radioactive Waste Management Bill http://beyondnuclearinitiative.com/2012/02/06/four-action-points-to-help-stop-the-proposed-nt-nuclear-dump/
Petition opposing nuclear waste dump at Muckaty http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-nuclear-waste-dump-at-muckaty.html
- February 23 - Adelaide Nicole Foss – a Mentor For Turbulent Times. Nicole Foss speaks on Energy and the Economy http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=FqRGVNUK5x0
- March 7 -Darwin – information night on Nuclear Free World Conference
- March 11 – Darwin – Fukushima Memorial Night
- March 11 – Perth - Remembering Fukushima
- March 11 Melbourne - Japanese for Peace- Rally
- March 17 – April – Perth - Muckaty Photo Exhibition http://www.fotofreo.com/ .
LATEST AUDIO & VIDEO ITEMS. arrive – so fast and so good – go to our audiovisual page Audiovisual « Antinuclear for information on these websites
Nuclear power and WATER – theme for February 2012
For Australia especially, Global warming means WATER shortage – drought over wide areas, more evaporation.
Nuclear power and uranium mining are water-intensive
Uranium mining is water intensive. Already outback communities are being hit by water shortage, as water is being extracted from the Great Arterial Basin faster than it is being replenished.
Yet BHP Billiton has open slather, at no cost whatever, to its daily guzzle of 35 million litres, and BHPB plans to extract an additional 120 million litres of publicly-owned artesian water per day, every day, for the next 70 years.)
Out of sight, out of mind
Groundwater is a major resource, but one that has been taken for granted for decades. In the past, groundwater supplies were treated as an infinite resource, and subject to an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude. But that’s changing. There’s now an enormous interest in the way our groundwater resources are measured, managed and utilised. There are also concerns over issues such as over-extraction of water, pollution, wastage, allocation and licensing issues, water pricing and groundwater salinisation.
The water source beneath one-fifth of Australia
The most well-known and important groundwater source in Australia is the Great Artesian Basin, or GAB. This is a vast groundwater source that underlies 22 per cent of Australia – extending beneath the arid and semi-arid regions of Queensland, the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales. It covers about 1.7 million square kilometres, and contains an estimated 8700 million megalitres of water. Not surprisingly, it’s one of the largest artesian water basins in the world……
The sustainable yield of a groundwater source depends on balancing the use or discharge against recharge rates. Normally discharge of groundwater occurs through vegetation, into streams and lakes, or through evaporation into the atmosphere. Sustainable yield cannot simply be determined by a measure of the recharge rate. If water is extracted for human use at the recharge rate, discharge to other areas can be affected…..
Extraction of groundwater can also lead to salinity problems and have a negative impact on native vegetation with roots that tap into groundwater, as well as wetlands, rivers and streams. The full impact of using these aquifers as planned is not known, but is likely to reduce the rate of water flowing to support rivers and wetlands and other groundwater dependent ecosystems…. http://www.science.org.au/nova/100/100key.htm
Garlick said water from the Great Artesian Basin in Central Australia is being depleted to keep residual radioactive dust from uranium mining wet in order to keep it from blowing across the continent. Seven million gallons of water is being extracted from the basin per day to keep the radioactive dust in place, she said.
Despite its profits more than tripling in the last three years, BHP has never paid a cent for the vast amounts of water used by the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine near Roxby Downs. The mine currently uses approximately 35 million litres of water a day from the Great Artesian Basin. Under the Roxby Downs Indenture Act BHP is not required to pay for this water usage.
The Indenture Act applies specifically to the Olympic Dam mine, and provides for wide-ranging legal exemptions and overrides from environmental and Aboriginal heritage protection laws that apply elsewhere in the state, including the Environmental Protection Act and the Natural Resources Act (which incorporates water management issues).
“The Indenture Act means that the Olympic Dam mine is not subject to the same environmental regulatory framework as other industrial projects in the state,’ explained Nectaria Calan of Friends of the Earth Adelaide. “Additionally, by allowing BHP to take water from the Great Artesian Basin for free, the South Australian government is essentially providing BHP with a massive subsidy,” she continued.
The water intake from the Great Artesian Basin has already had adverse impacts on the unique Mound Springs found near Lake Eyre, which are fed by the underlying Artesian Basin, and are sacred to the Arabunna people, the traditional owners of the area.
As part of the proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam mine, BHP Billiton proposes to increase its water consumption by an additional 200 million litres per day. Water intake from the Great Artesian Basin will increase to up to 42 million litres per day, with the remainder to come from a proposed desalination plant at Point Lowly. This amounts to over 100,000 litres of water per minute.
“The vast water usage of uranium mines is often forgotten in the debate about uranium and nuclear energy. Here we are, in the driest state on the driest continent on earth, host to a mine which needs millions of litres of water each day. Due to the Indenture Act, we are essentially exporting our water overseas for free,” said Ms. Calan. (FOE)
