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”
Nuclear power and Climate Change: theme for July 2011
Now there is a concerted attack, led by the polluting industries, and promoted by the Murdoch media empire, to stop Australia taking action on climate change. The push is to get rid of Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard, much as the polluting lobby got rid of the previous Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, when he aimed to bring in a super profits mining tax.
Somewhat isolated from world opinion, Australians are unaware of climate action being taken by many countries, with carbon pricing successfully operating. Australians are vulnerable to the conspiracy theories of Lord Monckton and others on the fringe of science, as these are given respect and credence. Meanwhile the media largely ignores genuine scientists from reputable climate and metereological agencies.
Yet, strangely, the same lobby that denies global warming promotes nuclear power as the solution to global warming!
Nuclear Power and Climate Change – theme for July 2011
All reactors on sea coasts endangered by sea level rise
Over the next hundred years there will be significant sea rises, one meter or more, and many closed nuclear reactor sites could be flooded, including the stored nuclear waste. That could contaminate much of the coast lines for decades.
Besides those in France, many nuclear reactors in Japan, the US, the UK, Belgium and China are located on or near sea coast or rivers.
Nuclear Power and Climate Change – theme for July 2011
Since around 2003 -4 the global nuclear industry has positioned itself as part of the solution to climate change. In what has been an unprecedented attempt to fool governments and the public about its merits, and to minimise its dangers, the nuclear industry has been cavalier with the truth, to say the very least.
It claims that it is greenhouse friendly, and therefore should be a sought-after energy source for the future. The only part of the nuclear industry’s operations which is not a heavy greenhouse gas emitter is the boiling of the water in the reactor. At every other stage in the chain, from uranium mining, to milling, to transport, to enrichment, to construction of reactors, to re-processing, to storage of waste (probably requiring more transport), to making of weapons, to de-commissioning of reactors, greenhouse gases are emitted….
Jo Valentine Proposed BHP Billiton Olympic Dam Uranium Mine Expansion opposed on a series of logical, economic, environmental and ethical points – former Senator Jo Valentine’s letter to the”authorities” « tony serve blogs
Nuclear Power and Climate Change – theme for July 2011
Time is running out for the expensive, dangerous, dirty, nuclear power industry. The nuclear lobby’s desperate propaganda is that the industry is clean, and is a solution to global warming. That is a lie.
Nuclear Power and Information – theme for June 2011
In ancient times, the great philosopher Diogenes walked the streets of Athens in the daytime, with a lantern shining – he said that he was “looking for an honest man”, desperately trying to seek out the truth.
Diogenes would need a blooming blow torch, in Australia today, to cut through the crap of Australia’s worthy establishment figures talking up uranium, rare earths, and prospects for nuclear and nuclear waste industries.
Fortunately, Australia, and other countries, have some investigative journalists, and independent media, who follow in Diogenes passion for getting to the truth.
Their work is communicated to Australians, even sometimes in the mainstream media. Some intrepid journalists manage this. Others get their message across in independent media
Nuclear Power and Information – theme for June 11
It’s the Information Age, yet, in Australia, it is especially difficult to get
information., and in particular, information about nuclear issues.
- Australia’s monopoly media - the Murdochracy, in general just spouts the line of handouts from our uranium- happy government and uranium companies.
- At the same time, any negative information about the uranium/nuclear industry gets scant coverage, or. better still, is not covered at all
meant that investigative writers now have a struggle to get any decent employment.
The Emperor’s New Nuclear Spin – May 2011
Pro nuclear propaganda is turning into a joke, and not only in Australia, where it is currently intense. The Nuclear Establishment is in denial about the seriousness of Fukushima, about the dangers of nuclear waste, about the prohibitive costs of new nuclear plants, and about the collapse of the uranium industry.
With Fukushima news quietly vanishing from the mainstream media (even though that catastrophe continues), the nuclear mafia revert to their old themes – which now sound more and more like the Emperor’s New Clothes.
This month
For international news, go to nuclear-news ion for Western Australia’s energy future
http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/?p=5755 Mary Olson on how women are more vulnerable to atomic radiation
- Muckaty Gathering 25 May 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1J9q-OeEO4 - NuclearKop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpMhhzkeYjk
Anti nuclear action below: - more info at Action Australia « Antinuclear and at Event details « Antinuclear
- http://www.communityrun.org/petitions/put-the-brakes-on-toxic-trucks-no-nuclear-waste-at-muckaty
- Online Petition - against the proposed national radioactive waste dump at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory http://www.gopetition.com.au/petitions/no-nuclear-waste-dump-at-muckaty.htmlUranium Free WA Sign the online charter saying no to uranium mining in Western Australia http://ccwa.org.au/takeaction/uraniumnotforsaleSIGN THE PETITION TO STOP LYNAS RARE EARTH EXPORTS TO MALAYSIA http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/ban-rare-earth-exports/
EVENTS
- May 29 – Melbourne - Amnesty International panel on weapons and war .
- May 29 – 30 Melbourne - Wind Farms conference
- May 30 Darwin - expert Panel on Nuclear Waste Dump plan for Muckaty
- June 2 - Nuclear Abolition Day
- June 13 - Melbourne -Lizards Revenge -Shut Roxby Down
- June 14 Melbourne Beyond Zero Emissions ZCA 2020 plan.
- June 19 - Melbourne Public meeting US FORCES IN AUSTRALIA: SECURITY OR THREAT? USforcesflyer-2.pdf
The Nuclear/uranium industry and WOMEN - theme for May 2012
Deceptive information given to women about breast cancer. Women are repeatedly told about “genetic causes”, about “risks of obesity:. about “diet factors”, about “not having babies”, or “having a baby at a later age” even about “stress” – as causes of breast cancer. The not so subtle message is that it is THEIR FAULT – a problem caused by the individual woman, so – the only preventive actions must be those made by individual women.
The facts are otherwise. The single most proven cause of breast cancer is ionising radiation. After that, other environmental causes exist, amongst the wash of chemicals, and synthetic hormones, that pervade our environment. After that – probably some hereditary susceptability, amongst some women.
Why is this so? One could conclude that breast cancer is a growth industry. There’s money at every point in this sorry cycle – from the radiation from nuclear fuel through to the medical radiation used to detect and treat breast cancer. There is no money clearly involved in shutting down a toxic industry, and preventing millions of breast cancers.
How does ionising radiation cause breast cancer? Ionising radiation comes in several forms. for example, Gamma rays, x-rays, and some sub-atomic particles such as alpha particles and protons In ionising radiation, a tiny electron is released from an atom, and enters a body cell, hitting the DNA in the cell’s nucleus, and damaging it. The damaged DNA sends out ‘wrong’ messages telling the cell to divide in an uncontrolled manner – cancer develops.
“...the time between radiation exposure and breast cancer development is longest in young women and shortest for older women; young children do not show a detectable elevation in breast cancer occurrence for some 35 to 40 years after exposure. Radiation-induced breast cancers appear to occur later in life during the same ages when breast cancer rates, in general, begin to increase. It appears that a single exposure of sufficient dose during early life can increase breast cancer risk even 50 years later...
the relationship between radiation dose and breast cancer risk can be described by a straight line which implies that no matter how low the dose, there is some small risk associated with the exposure.…
The risk of subsequent breast cancer from very high doses is lower than that which might be expected from the effects of lower doses. This is because radiation at high doses is an effective killer of cells and dead cells are not able to develop into cancer…..
Young girls are at highest risk …when a young girl is exposed to radiation, she will have menstrual cycles for several decades that might enhance the development of any underlying damage caused by the radiation. There is evidence to suggest that exposure to the immature breast during early development, and around the age of beginning menstruation, carries a higher risk than at other times of a woman’s life.
It is unclear how radiation exposure of the breast during pregnancy affects a woman’s breast cancer risk. However, a recent study of women treated for Hodgkin’s disease concluded that pregnancy might be a time of increased sensitivity of breast tissue to the cancercausing effects of radiation……”
.” John D Boyce, Jr, DSc, Scientific Director,Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors in New York State.. Ionizing Radiation and Breast Cancer Risk
