Uranium interests, not the public’s, served by BHP’s Marius Kloppers
A tax would favour international nuclear electricity generators and boost pressure to overturn Australia’s ban on nuclear generators. Both effects would aid BHP’s uranium interests.
BHP Billiton chief Marius Kloppers knows how to look after his shareholders’ interests, Paul Kerin The Australian, September 20, 2010 BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers’ touting of a carbon tax serves his shareholders’ interests — not the public’s. Continue reading
70,000 tons of high level nuclear waste already in USA
the country’s political leaders are no closer to a safe, permanent disposal plan for nuclear waste than they were a generation ago,
Nuclear waste piles up with no disposal plan, APP.com | Asbury Park Press, By RAJU CHEBIUM • WASHINGTON BUREAU • September 15, 2010 — Tens of thousands of tons of potentially lethal radioactive waste have been piling up across the nation for more than a generation, but the federal government has yet to decide how to get rid of it permanently. Continue reading
Australia and China should collaborate on renewable energy
the renewable energy sector needs to be thinking more about how much they can strengthen their collaboration, where they position Australia better in a global low-carbon economy
China tipped to deliver Australia’s energy needs, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 20 Sept 10, By Sarah Clarke The WWF says Australia has the opportunity to ramp up its role in the booming renewable energy market. Continue reading
Health effects of uranium mining in India
Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD), an affiliate of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize recipient International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, conducted a health survey in 2007 that looked at 2,118 families within 2.5 km of the mines.It found that 9.5 percent of newborns die each year due to extreme physical deformities…….
Uranium mines afecting health of workers and local communities, India Info Online, 20 Sept 10, AT BANDUHURANG, there are no prohibitory signs, no warnings about radiation, no barbed wire and no demarcation of territory. Continue reading
Protest Oct 10 against coal, for renewables
Protesters will also call for a “just transition” away from coal for workers in the industry …[meaning that coal workers] would be guaranteed “green jobs”, through the development of renewable energy and energy-efficiency manufacturing facilities.
Protest to target Hazelwood, Green Left Weekly, September 18, 2010 By Chris Peterson, Melbourne, On October 10, climate activists will converge on the Hazelwood power station in the Latrobe Valley in eastern Victoria. They will use mirrors to try to create Victoria’s “first solar thermal power” station at the Hazelwood gate, to show solar is a viable alternative……….. Continue reading
USA looks like giving up on selling nukes to India
the chances of altering how the legislation works appear to be dimming….it looks increasingly likely that the Obama visit will center instead around job-creating deals for the U.S………..Nowhere did the statement contain a reference to the nuclear deal.
U.S. Chances Dim on India Nuclear Revision – India Real Time – WSJ, by Paul Beckett, September 20, 2010, As we reported recently, the U.S. government and nuclear-equipment industry have been scrambling to alter the impact of nuclear-liability legislation passed by the Indian parliament that the U.S. side views as unfavorable to U.S. nuclear suppliers … Continue reading
Hillary Clinton to Australia – to discuss “clean” ?nuclear energy
Clinton Sets Australia Visit, Thinking Australia, 20 Sept 10, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to visit Australia in November for re-scheduled ministerial talks……There are many matters that are of mutual interest, from developing new technologies for clean energy to addressing climate change, halting nuclear proliferation, countering the threat of terrorism, and so much else”.Clinton Sets Australia Visit
BHP Billiton- Kloppers’ spin to promote uranium mining
But is BHP just playing the uranium card ?….is it an announcement to push the South Australian government to OK the Olympic Dam mine expansion;
BHP Boss Casts Doubt On Coal’s Future, Energy Efficiency, September 18th, 2010 When the world’s largest mining boss Marius Kloppers warns Australia should look beyond coal and towards other energy sources, you have to wonder whether its spin or otherwise. Continue reading
Thousands protest Germany’s nuclear power plants
the anti-nuclear movement has not seen such strong public support since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union, in 1986.
Berlin / Munich – Two Cities / Different Crowds, EU Australia Online , September 19th, 2010 Weekend events in Germany saw a large protest in Berlin over nuclear power stations, ……CONFRONTATION OVER NUCLEAR STATIONS Crowds estimated at between 40-100,000, depending on who was counting, paraded to the office of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Berlin, objecting to government plans for extending the life of ageing nuclear power plants. Continue reading
Western Australia the logical place for Solar Power
The WA coalition argues that the state with the best solar radiation in Australia should be leading the country in solar generation and argues that a 5 per cent solar target for 2020, underpinned by an FiT set by auction, would unlock more than $4 billion of investment to install some 1060MW of capacity.
Solar’s western promise Business Spectator Giles Parkinson , 20 Sep 2010 The solar energy industry has virtually given up on the federal government providing a mechanism for the roll-out of utility-scale solar installations across the country, and is instead focusing its efforts on individual states. Continue reading
For Australia – renewable energy -YES, Martin Ferguson -NO
one key obstacle remaining: the energy minister. Martin Ferguson is not only ideologically opposed to climate action, to most kinds of renewable energy and to talking to the Greens, but he is also not a negotiator. He should be replaced in the portfolio with a more effective player who both supports action but will also be a good negotiator.
A good chance to push renewables, Green Left Weekly, September 18, 2010By Tim Hollo “…..This parliament can and should deliver the most exciting, ambitious renewable energy policies Australia has ever seen. The next two years may be the best opportunity for renewables we ever get, Continue reading
France’s “Nuclear Socialism” a warning to USA
“This analysis shows the greatest danger is not that the U.S. will import French technology, but that it will replicate the French model of nuclear socialism,”…“ go to France to see more nuclear means less renewables and energy efficiency,”
U.S. Nuclear Industry Will Remain Ward of the State, as in France, Report Warns By Sara Stroud SolveClimate, Sep 16, 2010 Government subsidies of nuclear power plans could hitch U.S taxpayers to a technology that suffers out-of-control costs while pushing aside renewable energy development, according to a study released last week by the Vermont Law School’s Institute for Energy and the Environment. Continue reading
BHP, Rio Tinto, drain Australia’s bore water – for free!
BHP, Rio Tinto, Pilbara Manganese, Fortescue Metals and Hamersley HMS were the thirstiest, collectively taking more than 345 billion litres of water last year….Bore users are not charged for the water…the drawing of water by bore users had dried up lake systems in Yanchep National Park.
- Bore users escape fines | Perth Now, By Narelle Towie, September 18, 2010 “………….the mining sector has been exposed as the biggest water guzzler in the state, according to the department’s annual report, which will be released at the end of the month. Continue reading
Competitive Solar Feed-In Tariff – Australian Capital Territory
The territory will be the first to implement the FiT for commercial premises (warehouse and office buildings), and anticipates that up to 240MW of solar could be installed, generating the equivalent of 25 per cent of its total energy consumption.
Solar’s western promise Business Spectator Giles Parkinson , 20 Sep 2010 “……Feed in tariffs for small-scale solar average around 45c per kilowatt hour (more expensive in some states), but the solar industry estimates competitive large-scale solar would only need a tariff of around 20c/kwh, decreasing over time. Continue reading
How uranium mining poisoned the Navajo
investigative journalist Judy Pasternak comprehensively recounts in her chilling new book, “Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed.”
“Yellow Dirt”: Radioactive reservation, The shocking story of how industry and government poisoned and then abandoned the Navajo Nation, Salon.com, Laura Miller, 19 Sept 10,
In the summer of 1979, an earthen dam over the town of Church Rock, Utah, broke, flooding the arroyo below and then the bed of the Rio Puerco (an intermittent stream) on the southern border of the Navajo Nation. It was a small flood, but a dangerous one. It burned the feet of a boy who stepped into it, and caused sheep and crops along the banks to drop dead. Continue reading
1.This month.
The Road to War brings a sharp focus to why it is not in Australia’s best interest to be dragged into a war with China which will almost inevitably go nuclear very quickly. The filmmaker has interviewed some of Australia’s senior foreign policy analysts who have vast experience behind them in analysing what really is going on here as the United States rattles its sabres with China. And sets us up to be its proxy, like the poor Ukranians have been fed into the Meatgrinder. So America can remain the Top Dog. The Road to War reveals how the United States through its spy base at Pine Gap and by stationing six nuclear capable B52 bombers in the Top End (without permission from the traditional owners) is making Australia a prime nuclear target if the current war of words suddenly melts down into full scale war.
The Road to War shows the implicit connection between Carbon emissions (the US military uses a whopping 70% of America’s annual petroleum to move its armies and vast War Machine around the globe to its 800+ military bases..but under a loophole wangled at Kyoto, the US military does not have to report its C02 annual emissions). The Road to War starts screening at selected cities and regional centres in March. See the trailer end for details.
Antinuclear 