Australia: a nuclear waste colony?
by Christina Macopherson 11 August 09
Australia started out as a colony of Britain. We became a strategic and cultural colony of Los Angeles. We’re sort of a beginning economic colony of China and others.
But hey! Australia can become a nuclear waste colony of everybody! This idea has been on the table since Pangea in the 1970’s , and since John White’s Australian Nuclear Fuel Leasing (ANFL)in more recent years.They spent $45 million up until Sept 2007 in promoting this.
“Such companies are effectively “middlemen” in the nuclear fuel industry and are likely to be sustained so long as the volume of Australian uranium exports is maintained or increased. …Herald Sun George Lekakis – February 28, 2007.……………”
nuclear waste: ‘stick it in the middle of Australia’
Oz ‘the perfect N-dump’
August 11, 2009
NUCLEAR waste from around the world should be brought to Australia for disposal, a global energy expert said yesterday.
There is a great opportunity for Australia to make lots of money as the use of nuclear energy increases, said Professor Paul Stevens, senior research fellow at Chatham House, the London-based Royal Institute for International Affairs………………………..
“One of the problems of nuclear, of course, is the waste disposal. But I get frustrated over this. Surely it is not beyond the wit of humankind to come up with a solution.
“The screamingly obvious one is to stick it all in the middle of Australia, because you’re geologically secure and politically stable.
“You would charge for the honour of doing this.”
Industry needs much higher uranium price to fund new production
(Canada) Industry needs much higher uranium price to fund new production
Mining Weekly by: Liezel Hill10th August 2009TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The uranium-mining industry will likely need to see prices lift “considerably” before lower-grade, higher cost mines can be brought into production, Jean Nortier, the CEO of Vancouver-based Uranium One, said on Monday.
Uranium One also announced earlier in the day that it had agreed to buy additional assets to speed up its production plans in the US, and that it is in negotiations to sell its shuttered Dominion mine, in South Africa, for about $38,5-million in cash, net of transaction costs…………………..
Uranium One produces uranium from mines in Kazakhstan, and owns 51% of the Honeymoon project, in Australia, as well as some processing facilities and deposits in the US…………………
Uranium One also revealed on Monday that its Dominion asset, in South Africa, is now being held for sale, prompting a big translation adjustment in the firm’s second quarter financial statements.
Industry needs much higher uranium price to fund new production
Australia’s carbon scheme to boost markets
Carbon scheme to boost markets
Giles Parkinson | August 10, 2009Article from: The Australian“……………..Lagging behind in renewables
WITH the federal government’s Renewable Energy Target also facing a standstill in the Senate, there are growing concerns in the local renewable energy industry that the country is being left behind.There are billions of dollars of projects currently on hold, and while the government says it wants to be a leader in renewable technologies, other countries are marching ahead.China has recently upgraded its renewable energy target from 15 per cent to 20 per cent by 2020, which will translate to around 150 gigawatts of wind power, 20GW of solar power and 30GW of biomass power.India joined the push towards solar last week, announcing plans to install 20GW of solar capacity by 2020 — its reliance on an equivalent amount of diesel-sourced power means solar will be cost-competitive — with a grand plan to lift that to 200GW of solar by 2050.
“Everyone wants to be world leader,” says Ray Wills, head of the WA Sustainable Energy Association. “Other developed and developing nations are moving aggressively to develop their lesser renewable energy resources while Australia — with the world’s best resources — is lagging behind.”
In the US, the amount produced by renewable energy sources (11.1 per cent) has overtaken that of nuclear power (10.4 per cent), according to the latest data from the US Energy Information Administration.Professor Wills notes that $US155 billion was invested directly into clean-energy companies and projects worldwide in 2008, and total transactions in the sector, including acquisitions and buyouts, were $US223 billion. Precious little of that occurred in Australia.
