Nuclear news- last week and the coming weeks
Today, as I write this, Martin Ferguson is speaking on ABC Radio, Darwin. He’s explaining how the Federal Government will put a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station, while at the same time will repeal the Howard Government’s Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act.
So the Muckaty nuclear waste dump will be 1. voluntary (i.e. asked for by some aborigines), and 2. will be for returning Australia’s “own” wastes,
originating from Sydney’s Lucas Heights nuclear reactor. (No question of radioactive wastes going to any of the States, or on Commonwealth or “whiteys'” land)
Sounds fine, doesn’t it? Let’s wait and see what happens when Obama gets to Australia in March, to talk about uranium sales to USA, under the GNEP, whereby wastes are to go back to the uranium’s place of origin.
100% electricity from renewables technically possible
Australia Group Rolls Out Plan for 100% Renewable Energy by 2020’There Are No Technological Impediments’ solve climate, by Stacy Feldman – Feb 22nd, 2010
A report to be released in the first half of this year finds that Australia can use solar and wind power to produce 100 percent of its electricity in 10 years using technologies that are available now. Continue reading
U.S. State resists dumping of radioactive depleted uranium
(USA) Utah gov: 2 trains of SC waste won’t come to Utah, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Brock Bergakis, February 22, 2010. SALT LAKE CITY — About 6,500 tons of low-level radioactive waste from South Carolina won’t be coming to Utah as originally planned, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Monday in announcing a verbal agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy.
Impossible to dump nuclear waste on white Australians’ land
ANSTO executive Steven McIntosh said …“We cannot really comment upon that policy process [of siting remote dumps]…….. but politics frankly was the determining factor.”
How to site a nuclear waste dump – Crikey.
22 February 2010 Apart from the dispute between traditional owners, there’s a more fundamental question of why remote areas are preferred for nuclear waste dumps. The prerequisites routinely mentioned – geological stability and distance from groundwater – can readily be achieved elsewhere, without the expense and danger of transporting nuclear waste thousands of kilometres. Continue reading
How the nuclear lobby has bought politicians and media
nothing about atomic energy has really changed.Except this: $645 million spent on lobbying and media manipulation.
(USA)$600 Million Lipstick for a Dead Radioactive Pig THE HUFFINGTON POST, Harvey Wasserman February 22, 2010 The mystery has been solved.Where is this “new reactor renaissance” coming from?There has been no deep, thoughtful re-making or re-evaluation of atomic technology. No solution to the nuke waste problem. No making reactors economically sound. No private insurance against radioactive disasters by terror or error. Continue reading
Australian Government manipulations on nuclear waste dumping
22 February 2010 The Government is expected to announce tomorrow or Wednesday that it will repeal and replace the Howard Government’s much-criticised Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act 2005, and that a nuclear waste dump will be established at Muckaty Station, virtually in the middle of the Northern Territory. Continue reading
Reactor Sales to China Might Save Failing Nuclear Industry
Here’s how the shell game could work. If the coal industry could sell outdated, pollution-spewing, coal-fired power plants to China, could the nuclear power industry do the same thing? Could they get rid of their unresolved and unfunded decommissioning headache with the same trick?
(USA) How Do You Say “Oh Crap!” in Chinese?, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Alexia Parks, February 22, 2010 China is picking up the worst of American technology along with its best. For example, to keep up with U.S. consumer demand, China has bought and imported the worst of our outdated, pollution-spewing, coal-fired power plants. Continue reading
Antinuclear 