Fossil fuel and nuclear industries rev up their influence in Australia
It’s been a bit of a Yey ! Boo! week for Australia’s polluting industries.
Yey! – They’ve had a big political win in Victoria, where Ted Baillieu’s Liberal government has sided with the fossil fuel front groups the Waubra Foundation and the Landscape Guardians (see http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/environment/the-ugly-landscape-of-the-guardians/) Their aim is to destroy Australia’s wind industry.
Boo! – They’ve had a political setback in Western Australia, where both Liberal government and Labor opposition reject Rio Tinto’s call for nuclear power.
South Australia is the nuclear lobby’s safest propaganda State. This is the State that hosts Professor Barry Brook , and Professor Pam Sykes at Flinders University. Brook manages to be a top promoter of the nuclear industry, while being Director of Climate Science at Adelaide University. Sykes manages to promote low level radiation as OK, even healthy, while being funded from money originally intended to help the USA victims of low level radiation from atomic bomb tests.
Now South Australia is getting a new university project. It’s to study the full life-cycle costs of nuclear power compared to other energy sources. The Adelaide campus chief for University College London, David Travers, assures us that the research will be impartial.
Trouble is, BHP Billiton gave University College London the money to set up this research project. It will be done under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Association. Do you smell a rat? I do. – Christina Macpherson
No nuclear power for Western Australia – State government rules
Government rules out nuclear power for WA mines, Perth Now, AAP , August 30, 2011 THE WA government has rejected a call by mining giant Rio Tinto for it to consider using nuclear energy plants to supply some of the state’s future electricity needs. In submissions to the government’s peak energy advisory body, Rio asked why the option of nuclear power was not at least being canvassed.
But WA Energy Minister Peter Collier said there was simply no demand for nuclear energy in WA and it would not be used in the state in the next two decades.
`We have sufficient capacity through other fuel sources such as gas and coal and renewables,” he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
Opposition Leader Eric Ripper said there was no public support for nuclear power and Labor also would not support its introduction….http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/government-rules-out-nuclear-power-for-wa-mines/story-e6frg13u-1226125360975
China developing outdated, cheap, less safe nuclear reactors – Wikileaks
The US embassy and Westinghouse may have wanted to play up the risks to improve the strength of their own bids, but safety concerns are also expressed within China. This year, Prof He Zuoxiu, who helped to develop China’s first atomic bomb, claimed plans to ramp up production of nuclear energy twentyfold by 2030 could be as disastrous as the “Great Leap Forward” – Mao Zedong’s disastrous attempt to jump-start industrial development in the late 1950s.
WikiLeaks cables reveal fears over China’s nuclear safety, Cables highlight US lobbying and say that cheap, out-of-date technology is ‘vastly increasing’ risk of nuclear accident,Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent, guardian.co.uk, 25 August 2011
China has “vastly increased” the risk of a nuclear accident by opting for cheap technology that will be 100 years old by the time dozens of its reactors reach the end of their lifespans, according to diplomatic cables from the US embassy in Beijing. Continue reading
Western Australia’s former Premier explains why the nuclear industry should just quietly die
Nuclear power can’t compete when it comes to both economics and the economics of environmental reform….It would be much better for all of us if the industry was allowed to die – hopefully with no disasters along the way. We don’t need it to tackle climate change and we can’t afford it.
Why I am against nuclear power, WA Today, Geoff Gallop, 30 Aug 11, About 65 nuclear plants will be under construction by the end of 2010, all including cost overruns and delays. Importantly though, none of these are being built as a result of market-based decision-making……Indeed the market hasn’t been all that keen on nuclear power – and no wonder with the high costs, technical complexities and local politics. It’s not exactly a stock-market friendly business – just ask the owners of the Tokyo Electric and Power Company!
The general public have never been all that keen on nuclear power. They have weighed up the risks and have almost always concluded that it is not for them – when asked that is….I think we can see some rational self-interest at work. Continue reading
Australia’s renewable energy reputation down the drain
Wind farms crackdown ‘looming’, SBS World News Australia 29 August 2011 | Gareth Boreham, Australia’s renewable energy industry is warning billions of investment dollars and hundreds of jobs will be lost after an unprecedented wind farm crackdown. Victoria has become the first state to place strict limits on how close to homes they can be built, no closer than two kilometres from homes and five kilometres from key town centres.
The wind power industry fears the Victorian decision could have wider implications for Australia’s international reputation as a world leader in renewable energy technology……http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1582856/Wind-farms-crackdown-looming
Victoria’s Liberal Government kills off the future for the wind industry
The Clean Energy Council estimates the decision will kill off around $3 billion of potential wind farm developments. …Victoria’s decision removes some of the best wind resources in the eastern states.
What bothers the industry most about the Victorian decision is that the government has refused to explain its rationale and the analysis behind the rulings, or why they have not been applied to other industries, such as coal seam gas. The government is accused of delivering on all of the demands of the anti-wind groups, and more, despite the fact that many of its claims had been dismissed in the recent Senate wind inquiry
Have we blown the RET? Climate Spectator, Giles Parkinson, 30 Aug 11, “….Victoria’s imposition of a 2km setback for wind farms (giving the right of veto to any householder within that area), to exclude vast tracts of the best resources (the prettiest areas along the coast near the Great Ocean Road, the Mornington Peninsula, the Yarra Valley, and Mt Macedon ranges), and an unexpected addition – a 5km setback from 21 regional centres – means that options in that state are fast running out. Continue reading
Victoria’s Professor Maria Forsyth’s research team – developing solar storage
Can we store solar energy for when the sun doesn’t shine?, The Age, 30 Aug 11, A question for Professor Maria Forsyth”….one of Australia’s top researchers with an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship, Professor Forsyth and her research team are developing battery technologies and materials so industries can capture green energy and store it, too….
“..we’re looking at it more from a point of view of stationary applications — so any small industry that can generate its own power on-site, and has storage capacity and capability, doesn’t have to rely on the grid….
How soon could these materials be available?
I have a desire to see the first generation of these devices available within three years. In five to 10 years, we should be getting towards the high-quality end of these devices. But it does require industry involvement — worldwide, and especially in Australia.
Tasmania already 86% renewable energy, but going for 100%
Renewable energy push, The Mercury, DAVID KILLICK | August 30, 2011 TASMANIA should become Australia’s renewable energy state, producing 100 per cent of its own needs and selling clean power to rest of the nation by 2020, a report recommends. The state should also aim to become a proving ground for the new generation of electric and hybrid vehicles, the Tasmanian Renewable Energy Industry Development Board report says.
The board yesterday handed its advice to the State Government on a Tasmanian renewable energy strategy with recommendations including more funding for clean power projects on the Bass Strait islands…. Tasmania generates 86 per cent of its energy from renewable sources and last year was a net exporter of energy for the first time via the Basslink cable…http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/08/30/257231_tasmania-news.html
New wind technology cheaper than nuclear power
It’s also important to point out that growth in wind power capacity is perfectly symbiotic with projected growth in electric vehicles. EV battery packs can soak up wind power produced during the night, helping to equalize the curve of daytime energy demand. ….think of the benefits of having our power production fed by a resource that is both free and unlimited
Japanese breakthrough will make wind power cheaper than nuclear A surprising aerodynamic innovation in wind turbine design called the ‘wind lens’ could triple the output of a typical wind turbine, making it less costly than nuclear power. Mother Nature Network, Karl Burkart, Aug 29 2011, The International Clean Energy Analysis (ICEA) gateway estimates that the U.S. possess 2.2 million km2 of high wind potential (Class 3-7 winds) — about 850,000 square miles of land that could yield high levels of wind energy. This makes the U.S. something of a Saudi Arabia for wind energy, ranked third in the world for total wind energy potential. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 