A Message to Australians from the British Government Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog 25 May 13

Dr Cutter of the Aboriginal Health Service, Alice Springs, testified that mass deaths of Aboriginal people occurred at the time. There are reports of mass graves. Britain took 10 years to not answer the question of the location of the mass graves….” http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/a-message-to-australians-from-the-british-government/

Christina Macpherson 25 May 13,  I highly recommend this article, in which  Paul Langley reports on his own research into the effects of the Black Mist fallout cloud of 1953. One court case proved injury to a claimant, but the legal proceedings in this case have been suppressed from the record.

Langley has first-hand witnesses of the radiation injuries, to civilians and military, and of government suppression of information on this.

Yet by 2006 the higher rate of cancer among nuclear test veterans was confirmed by the government’s own survey.
Langley’s efforts to uncover the facts about Aboriginal victims’ health, following exposure, were met with blocking. Yet Langley knew that documents did exist, discussing this, in correspondence between Senator Chaney and the South Australian Health Commission.

He reports that all the medical records of the Maralinga radiation victims treated at Port Augusta hospital have mysteriously disappeared, as have also exposure dose records of all Australian Service Personnel. Langley assumes that these records do exist, but are now held in the UK, by the Ministry of Defence.

Langley’s conclusion – “the Australian government was a fifth column in this nation on behalf of the British government.”

At the launch of the report, Dalitso Kubalasa and Collins Magalasi, the executive directors of MEJN and AFRODAD respectively, spoke briefly before AFRODAD’s Tafadzwa Chikumbu presented the research findings. This paved the way for a lively question and answer session with questions raised about whether or not parliament is ready to renegotiate the terms of the agreement with Paladin, what has happened to the man who lost his sight due to “kayelekera radiation” and if mining revenue in Malawi therefore “dirty money”.

This discussion was followed by the official launch of the report by the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament Juliana Mphande who exclaimed that she was “appalled to note that incentives offered to Paladin have severe implication to Government revenue and require attention of parliament”. She outlined the areas requiring parliamentary investigation and debate…..

Below is a summary of the main findings:

• ……….Corporate tax 27.5% reduced from 30%. Since the declaration of commercial production (2009), no corporate tax has been paid but an estimated MWK 4,55 billion has been received by the Government from payroll taxes, withholding taxes and non-residence taxes.
• Royalty rate reduced from 5% to 1.5% (years one to three, 3% thereafter, with no increase for remained of life span of mine according to Mining Development Agreement). As of October 2012, Paladin had paid a total of MWK 800,856,231 in royalties (approx. USD 3 million given exchange rate fluctuations since 2009). If the royalties had been at 5%, the government would have received over MWK 1.3 billion more……Government has a 15% stake in the mine, but has not benefited as Paladin Africa (subsidiary of Paladin Energy) has been making losses since 2009. This means that the government would not have benefits from resource rent even if it had not been reduced to zero in the Mining Development Agreement……..
• ……
  • Government has a 15% stake in the mine, but has not benefited as Paladin Africa (subsidiary of Paladin Energy) has been making losses since 2009. This means that the government would not have benefits from resource rent even if it had not been reduced to zero in the Mining Development Agreement…..
  • ……
    • Illicit capital flight is likely through suspected transfer pricing, the complex network of companies with subsidiaries registered in countries with low taxation regimes….

The challenges that are facing the mining sector in Malawi can be summed up as the lack of necessary human capital, poor linkages to the broader economy and the absence of a strong and consistently enforced legislative and regulative framework. Taxation is a problematic area highlighted by the report because the company can “avoid and evade tax and export capital through transfer mispricing using the large number of associated holding companies” (see image below); this explains how Paladin Africa is able to report that it is making a loss while Paladin Energy makes a profit…… http://mininginmalawi.com/2013/05/24/the-case-of-paladins-kayelekera-uranium-mine-report-released-on-the-revenue-costs-and-benefits-to-malawi/

Japan Radiation Widely Contaminates Pacific Marine Life http://www.earthweek.com/2013/ew130524/ew130524b.html  24 May 13, 

The isotopes cesium-134 and cesium-137 were found in the tiny plantlike creatures from the coast of Japan’s Hokkaido Island to Guam.

The samples were taken early last year, less than a year after the tsunami that overwhelmed the plant, but the findings were just
announced at a meeting of the Japan Geoscience Union.

Cesium-134 has a half-life of two years while it takes 30 years for cesium-137 to decay by half. Scientists say the isotopes were being dispersed across the Pacific in plankton, and were accumulating up the food chain as the tiny creatures were eaten by larger marine life.
Further studies are being conducted to see how much cesium was building up in fish and possibly marine mammals.

Radiation was flushed into the Pacific after three meltdowns occurredat the Fukushima nuclear plant. More than two years after the March 2011 disaster, plant operators are struggling to contain the 400 tons of radioactive water poured over the melted cores of reactors 1, 2 and 3 to prevent the fuel from melting and burning again.

Politics of solar: Milne, Hunt and the CEFC, REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson  24 May 2013 

Greens leader Christine Milne delivered the only new initiative, saying she wants to establish a new federal government agency – the Energy Savings Agency – that she says will lower electricity bills, save energy and reduce emissions.

She says the Energy Savings Agency will have three priorities – focusing on reducing demand in peak periods, striking a minimum and compulsory “fair price” for electricity generated by consumers and exported to the grid, and designing a national energy efficiency scheme, something that Labor has talked about but failed to deliver.

Milne proposes providing $400 million over 5 years in incentives to reduce demand, which she says could deliver $1 billion in energy savings. The national EE scheme would look to combine and expand the three state-based schemes currently in operation.

She said the agency will make Australia’s energy system fairer, cheaper and cleaner. “The Federal and State Governments have failed to prevent unnecessary spending on new electricity poles and wires,” Senator Milne said. “Make no mistake, several state governments want to maximise profit from their electricity assets. Selling less electricity is not in their interest which is why reform of the energy market is too slow and why intervention is vital.”

“We need an independent agency to provide information, analysis, advocacy and financial support to help remove the barriers to cheaper and cleaner energy options.”

Senator Milne said the proposal has been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office and will cost $405 million to run each year.

The case of over-investment in the grid was one taken up by Oliver Yates, the CEO of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which has $10 billion in funds to invest – for a commercial return – in emerging renewable technologies, and which is likely to be a major catalyst of big solar and other significant renewable projects.

Yates said that the $40 billion spent on the grid in recent years had provided a “miserable” outcome for consumers. A study to be released soon by the CEFC will conclude that a minimal amount had been spent on demand management – despite numerous studies saying that these could have saved billions of dollar in investment, and thousands of dollars to individual households.

“Rather than writing off expenditure  … there is a real risk that these costs will get pushed onto retail and commercial customers that produce electricity,” Yates said. This would be bad for the solar industry. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/politics-of-solar-milne-hunt-and-the-cefc-22212

A report from Doctors for the Environment Australia points to the Port Augusta power station, the deferred Olympic Dam expansion and the Port Pirie lead smelter as examples of industrial developments approved without adequate checks.

Environment Minister Ian Hunter said the State Government was working on the National Plan for Clean Air and its own framework to manage air quality.

DEA spokesman Dr David Shearman said SA was listening to their concerns more than in other states…… The DEA report claims state governments have a “conflict of interest between budget bottom line and the health of their citizens” and calls for a federal environmental protection agency to oversee health impact assessments, or at least national laws that enforce a higher standard for the states.

Spokesman David Shearman said projects were given the go ahead without factoring in the social and financial costs of the pollution.

“It is clear that state government approvals of coal and coal seam gas projects are often influenced by potential economic gain without thorough assessment of potential harms,” he said. …. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/doctors-say-big-south-australian-projects-show-little-regard-for-health/story-e6frea83-1226649548350

The heavy footprint of the mining sector is compounded by the legal limitations of the native title regime, the often controversial and secretive nature of mining agreements and the fact that the cards are heavily stacked against the Aboriginal people who are concerned about or would prefer to see no mining on their country

Selling the future short ANDREW PICONE ABC Environment 24 MAY 2013 Mining offers great hope for many Indigenous communities, with promises of jobs and schools. However Australia’s traditional owners should not sell themselves short of a future. ”…….Next week in Darwin, Indigenous land owners, environment groups and other stakeholders from around the world will come together to address some of these burning issues at the World Indigenous Network 2013 conference. The conference comes at a key moment because across Australia, particularly in the north, there is an increasing number of collaborations between Indigenous Australians and conservationists, occurring alongside Australia’s mining boom.

Indigenous peoples from places as diverse and distant as Egypt, Mongolia, Lappland, Ecuador and all over Asia Pacific and representatives from communities right across Aboriginal Australia will share stories and strategies about a broad range of land and sea management issues and to celebrate healthy country and strong cultures.

The Australian Conservation Foundation has long recognised that the best way to protect the environment in this country is in partnership with those who have done this for thousands of years – the Aboriginal traditional owners.

This vision for northern Australia aims to respect culture, protect the environment and put forward appropriate solutions for issues affecting Indigenous communities. One of the great challenges now facing all people working to see clean country and healthy communities is how to best address years of institutionalised Indigenous disadvantage.

Some view the resource industry as the primary way to empower Indigenous communities. From ACF’s perspective this is a dangerous and fraught path. The historical experience of the interface between the resource sector and our first peoples is one of profound and adverse impact.

White occupation of Australia was based on the legal fiction of terra nullius, coupled with a utilitarian economic thinking that saw this ‘empty land’ as fair game for any activity that could generate ‘ownership’ and income.

Then, as now, mining could do that. Times, people and expectations have changed, but there is still a massive structural imbalance weighted in favour of mining giants.

The heavy footprint of the mining sector is compounded by the legal limitations of the native title regime, the often controversial and secretive nature of mining agreements and the fact that the cards are heavily stacked against the Aboriginal people who are concerned about or would prefer to see no mining on their country.

And underpinning all is a more fundamental question: why should Indigenous communities have to trade away their land for basic citizenship entitlements that other Australians take for granted? What about the many, many Indigenous communities that do not have mineral riches underneath their country or who cannot prove to the satisfaction of a non-Aboriginal court that they have a connection to that country?

The question that looms large is how can we have a mining boom alongside deeply entrenched Indigenous disadvantage and still ensure healthy country and communities for future generations. For the answer to this we need to listen more closely to the voices of Indigenous leaders.

As Murrandoo Yanner, chairman of the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation and a Gangalidda man of the Gunamulla clan commented recently, “Mining is here to stay in Northern Australia, but it’s no silver bullet. Mining jobs are limited and all booms eventually bust. Building an economy in remote regions of Australia requires longer-term vision…Our people want to get to work managing it. Indigenous rangers and Indigenous Protected Areas are a great success story providing real jobs and good management for our country.”

Australia can and must forge a future that embraces indigenous cultural and ecological knowledge and heritage and takes a different approach to managing our precious country for all generations to come – and this is a journey that must be taken together.http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2013/05/24/3766015.htm

Of a total of 10.9 million people in the overall cohort, 680,211 individuals had been exposed to low-dose ionizing radiation through CT, and 18% of those individuals had had more than a single CT scan. The researchers based their main analysis on a 1-year lag between CT scan and cancer diagnosis to minimize the possibility that the scan might be part of a cancer diagnostic procedure. They also considered 5- and 10-year lag periods in further analyses.

During a mean follow-up period of 9.5 years for the exposed group and 17.3 years for the unexposed group, 3150 exposed individuals and 57,524 unexposed participants were diagnosed with a cancer. Overall cancer incidence for the 1-year lag was 24% higher in the exposed group after adjusting for age, sex, and year of birth (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.24; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.20 – 1.29; P< .001). Incidence remained higher in the exposed group for 5- and 10-year lags, but proportional increases were smaller.

Brain cancer had the highest IRR, at almost twice the overall rate for individuals who had a brain CT scan (IRR, 2.44; 95% CI, 2.12 – 2.81). Excess brain cancers for the exposed individuals who had brain scans were calculated at 122.7, with an excess incidence rate of 2.97 (95% CI, 2.28 – 3.66). However, the increase in IRR was maintained for all cancers after an analysis excluding brain cancer.

IRRs were highest for CT exposures in children younger than 5 years but decreased with increasing age at first exposure (P = .001 trend for brain cancer trend; P < .001 trend for all cancers).

The researchers calculated the absolute incidence rate for all cancers combined at 9.38 per 100,000, which amounts to 608.4 excess cancers for the exposed group, or 1 excess cancer in every 1800 CT scans.

“[T]he inference that CT scans cause most of the excess cancer in exposed people cannot be conclusively proven,” but is supported by several observations such as the ones above, the researchers write.

In an accompanying editorial, Aaron Sodickson, MD, PhD, section chief of emergency radiology and medical director of computed tomography at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, writes that, in perspective, “The authors found an overall risk of about 0.125 cancers per Sievert [of exposure]…. This would equate to roughly one excess cancer per 4000 head CTs at the more typical doses in use with current day technology.”

VIDEO Solar Powered Wheelchair Wins Award  http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3758  25 May 13 

We first reported on solar wheelchairs back in 2010, when Haidar Taleb had just begun a journey to take him across the United Arab Emirates.

Inspired by roofs on convertible cars, the lightweight solar panels on the U.Va. team’s wheelchair are retractable and don’t significantly add to its length, width, height or weight when stored. A system of hinges on both sides of the chair controls the deployment of the solar panels. The three panels have a conversion efficiency of 15% and a capacity of 160 watts. When fully deployed, the custom solar panels cover an area of over one square meter. The wheelchair can operate for more than 4.5 hours at a speed of 8 kilometres per hour on a fully charged lead acid deep cycle battery, a range increase of more than 40 percent over batteries alone. At a speed of 1.6 km/h and suitable light exposure, the wheelchair and can run “indefinitely”; without needing to utilise battery power.

Built with lightweight materials, while the system may look fragile, it has been designed to operate under conditions more extreme than would be experienced in normal use. The panels and retractable mechanisms account for less than 15% of the completed wheelchair’s unoccupied weight.

Anyone with enough physical dexterity to use a joystick can operate the chair; including retracting and deploying the solar panels. In addition to standard features common to this type of wheelchair, USB power outlets are provided that can power a wide range of small devices.

In a wonderful display of generosity, the team will use their prize money to perform some final tweaks to the chair give it the individual in Turkey who submitted the initial suggestion for a solar-powered wheelchair.
The remaining prize money will be returned to United Cerebral Palsy in support of future World CP Day competitions.