Australian government’s deceitful pretense that N.T. nuclear waste dump is for medical wastes
“The claim that a waste facility is required to support nuclear medicine is mischievous scare-mongering,”
Muckaty dump justification ‘nonsense, Channel 9 TV News 12 sept 11 A nuclear expert has taken aim at claims a planned waste dump in remote Australia is needed to house low level radioactive waste from hospitals.
Speaking ahead of a Senate debate this week on the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill, Dr Peter Karamoskos was critical of plans for the proposed dump. He said most radioactive isotopes generated from nuclear medicine were designated as “very low level” waste, which decayed to safe levels with in a few days to a few weeks. Continue reading
Muckaty radioactive waste dump not necessary for nuclear medicine
HEALTH PROFESSIONALS DISPUTE CANBERRA’S NUCLEAR DUMP CLAIMS , 12 sept 11, The Public Health Association of Australia and the Medical Association for the Prevention of War are tonight hosting a special forum at Charles Darwin University to address Canberra’s plan for a radioactive waste storage and disposal facility in the NT. Topics will include refuting the Federal Government’s claims about the connection between nuclear medicine and the proposed waste facility.
The forum is timely with the federal Senate scheduled to debate the highly-controversial National Radioactive Waste Management Bill (NRWMB) this week, and with the Federal Court scheduled to hear a legal challenge against the nomination of the Muckaty site next month. Medical groups have previously written to Federal Senators calling on them to reject the NRWMB (online at <http://tiny.cc/2c7z0>). Continue reading
Tony Abbott scares pensioners about carbon tax, though it will benefit them
Pensioners terrified by Abbott, claims Combet, The Age Misha Schubert, September 11, 2011 CLIMATE Change Minister Greg Combet has blasted Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s devastatingly effective campaign against the carbon tax, saying ”his so-called people’s revolt is revolting” because it has terrified vulnerable old people……
On the eve of the week the climate laws are introduced in Federal Parliament, Mr Combet branded Mr Abbott’s crusade over living costs under a carbon tax ”disgusting”. ”In the last couple of days I have been in my electorate, which is an area where people are not well off, and met pensioners who have been terrified by Tony Abbott,” he said.
”Pensioners in my area are going to receive more than their expected costs – [scaring them] is disgusting and irresponsible, and that has crossed the line as far as I am concerned.’ http://www.theage.com.au/national/pensioners-terrified-by-abbott-claims-combet-20110910-1k39k.html
Australia about to legislate commitment to action on climate change
Carbon tax law to embed Australia’s global pledge, SID MAHER , the Australian, September 12, 2011 LEGISLATION establishing the carbon tax will enshrine Australia’s international commitments to limit global warming to 2C and give the new Climate Change Authority discretion to set an overall limit by 2050 on greenhouse gas emissions.
The Australian understands the legislation, to be introduced into parliament tomorrow by Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, will enshrine in law Australia’s pledge to a global effort to limit temperature rise to 2C by 2050….Debate on the bills is expected to start this week but a joint parliamentary inquiry is likely to be established to run alongside the parliamentary debate. Continue reading
Russia trying to shut up British P.M. over radiation poisoning murder
Kremlin tells Cameron to forget radiation killing of dissident ahead of Moscow state visit, Daily Mail, By JAMES CHAPMAN, 12th September 2011 David Cameron was told to forget Britain’s ‘obsession’ with the radiation killing of a dissident Russian in London last night as he arrived for the first visit by a British prime minister to Moscow in six years.
Mr Cameron wants to focus on Anglo-Russian trade ties, but is under pressure to use the trip to press the Kremlin over the killing of Alexander Litvinenko and broader abuses human rights and state-sponsored corruption.
Four former British foreign secretaries — David Miliband, Jack Straw, Margaret Beckett and Sir Malcolm Rifkind — took the unusual step yesterday of issuing a joint statement urging Mr Cameron to stand up to the Russian regime.
Mr Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in London five years ago in what is alleged to have been a state-sponsored assassination. He died a lingering death. Ever since, Russia has spurned Britain’s demands to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the former KGB officer who is the chief suspect in the murder.
Mr Lugovoy, now a member of Russia’s parliament, has claimed he was not involved. Mr Cameron will raise the case during extensive talks in Moscow but officials are making clear that the aim is to try to ‘reset’ relations.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking yesterday ahead of Mr Cameron’s arrival, signalled that Russia expects the Prime Minister to abandon the demands for Lugovoy’s extradition. ‘We cannot afford to be guided by politicised and stereotyped approaches inherited from a different era,’ he said. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2036288/Kremlin-tells-Cameron-forget-radiation-killing-Alexander-Litvinenko-ahead-Moscow-state-visit.html
Australian govt stalls on helping Maralinga veterans – waiting for them all to die?
“Veterans have been knocked back for a Gold Card because the Department argues they were not exposed to harmful amounts of radiation,” Senator Xeophon said….”But we all know that there is a very high rate of cancers, disease and genetic illnesses among those who served at nuclear test sites.”…”[veterans say] the only thing I can assume is that stalling for time is waiting for us all to die and they won’t have to give anybody anything”,”
MAJOR PARTIES CONTINUE TO NEGLECT MARALINGA VETERANS 12 Sept.11, Independent Senator for South Australia, Nick Xenophon, says both the Government and the Coalition should be ashamed that they didn’t support the automatic provision of Gold Cards to Maralinga veterans, nor did they support a review into the expected costs of doing so in Parliament today. “It’s quite amazing that both the Government and the Opposition have put a blanket ban on this option without even considering it,” Nick said.
Under current legislation, veterans have to prove a direct link between their illness and their service to be eligible for the Repatriation Health Card — For All Conditions (Gold). Continue reading
Psychological effects of the Fukushima continuing radiation release
Low-level radiation is an invisible threat that breaks DNA strands with results that do not become apparent for years or decades. Though the vast majority of people remain completely unaffected throughout their lives, others develop cancer. Not knowing who will be affected and when is deeply unsettling….
Twenty years after the 1986 reactor explosion in Chernobyl, the World Health Organisation said psychological distress was the largest public health problem unleashed by the accident…
the radiation “creates a slow, creeping, invisible pressure” that can lead to prolonged depression.
Fukushima disaster: it’s not over yet Six months after the multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the streets have been cleared but the psychological damage remains “…...Jonathan Watts, guardian.co.uk, Sept 9 11, “……..Reiko went on to describe how everything had changed in the wake of the nuclear accident in Fukushima the previous month. Daily life felt like science fiction. She always wore a mask and carried an umbrella to protect against black rain. Every conversation was about the state of the reactors. In the supermarket, where she used to shop for fresh produce, she now looked for cooked food – “the older, the safer now”. She expressed fears for her son, anger at the government and deep distrust of the reassuring voices she was hearing in the traditional media. “We are misinformed. We are misinformed,” she repeated. “Our problem is in society. We have to fight against it. And it seems as hard as the fight against those reactors.” Continue reading
Australian analysts show that uranium price is STILL going down
Uranium spot price could fall more, Star-Tribune, Tom Mast, September 11, 2011 The spot price of uranium, which tumbled following a Japanese nuclear disaster last spring, could fall even further in the short term.
That’s the assessment of Sydney, Australia-based Resource Capital Research. In its September quarter review, the firm noted a current spot price of $48.85. It is now back to the level seen after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled a nuclear power complex at Fukushima, Japan…..
The firm said the fund-implied price, which is an indicator of market price expectations looking out three to six months, points to a spot price of $45.95. This reflects expectations of possible new supplies entering the market later this year…..
Walk With Us – new book exposes Australian Government’s Northern Territory Internaention
Intervention’s measures are inhumane, degrading, Green Left, September 10, 2011 Nicole Watson, a research fellow at the University of Technology Sydney’s Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, gave the address below at the Sydney launch of Walk With Us: Aboriginal Elders Call Out to Australian People to Walk with them in their Quest for Justice at Gleebooks, Sydney, on September 11 “…..if you look at the measures, and the 500 pages of legislation that was subsequently rushed through the parliament, it has nothing to do with child protection.
At a community level, the intervention has enabled the Commonwealth to seize control of Aboriginal lands — not only the most valuable asset of many communities, but the lynchpin of identity and culture.
The imposition of government business managers has usurped community initiative and contributed to a sense of powerlessness. Research by credible bodies, most notably the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association, has proven the harmful psychological impacts of these measures…..
Walk With Us provides an unflinching gaze into life under the intervention…..
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 