Exposing the crookedness of the nuclear industry
This week, revelations of Japan’s rigged public opinion forums highlight the labyrinth of deceit that is the nuclear industry’s pitch to the world’s public.
As Senator Scott Ludlam says it would be “extreme optimism” to think that this nuclear crookedness occurs only in Japan.
No, the deceit is world-wide. Three examples pop up in today’s news items:
1 The nuclear hype that there is safe disposal for nuclear waste. In fact, the world has only one long term nuclear waste disposal project – in Finland – and that one is inadequate and unsafe. The nuclear lobby touts that the waste problem is solved.
2. Also Finland – Olkiluoto nuclear power plants. The new “Generation IV” plant – still unfinished, way over budget, and the operating plants considered not safe. Yet then nuclear lobby continues to tout “new nuclear” as safe and affordable.
3. For Australia – the most interesting lie of all – that uranium has a great future. You will see this on any web search about uranium investing – “the fundamentals” are there the “long term prospects ” are sound. the industry’s future is “robust”.
Nonsense! The uranium industry is collapsing. BHP Billiton probably knows this. But keeps up the pretense, because they think it would be too much trouble for them to export only the copper from their monster mine at Olympic Dam. The others, Paladin, Cameco, – the rest of them – desperately trying to get money invested so they can keep going.
The most serious deception by the nuclear industry is in the way that it manages the issue of “low level radiation” – by omission, by half-truths and lies about low level radiation being “harmless” even “benign”
Nuclear industry in retreat and resorting to lies
Senator Ludlam said vigilance was especially needed now that the nuclear industry is in retreat. “The nuclear industry is dying but the company bosses are being dragged kicking and screaming to the funeral. They will fight hard to promote their business, and truth is often the first casualty.”
Long campaign of deception by nuclear industry exposed – Senator Scott Ludlam, October 4,
2011 The nuclear industry’s long-term campaign of deception exposed by an independent investigation in Japan is almost certainly not an isolatedcase, the Australian Greens warned today.
Greens spokesperson for nuclear affairs Senator Scott Ludlam said it would be surprising if Japan was the only victim of corrupt and dishonest tactics from the nuclear industry.”The stacking of public meetings by nuclear sector stooges and collusion with corrupt officials to suppress opposition to nuclear power in Japan is a case study in the lengths to which this industry is prepared to go. In the globalised economy, the idea that these kinds of practices would only be occurring in Japan is an example of extreme optimism.” Continue reading
Short or long term , the news is all bad for uranium industry
Uranium Contract Prices Slip, FN Area News, 4 Oct 11, by Greg Peel, Unlike the uranium spot market, which in recent weeks has been dominated by traders and hedge funds on both sides of the price, the uranium term market more represents legitimate supply deals between producers and utilities, and is thus more representative of ongoing longer term uranium demand.
Shares of Denison Mines and Uranium Resources Face Strong Downward Pressure, MarketWatch, NEW YORK, NY, Sep 30, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX)–– Uranium stocks have struggled this month as prices for the radioactive material have plunged. According to the latest quarterly report by Resource Capital Research, uranium prices are down 27 per cent over the past three months and 23 per cent over the past year….
Kazakhstan Ends Rise In Uranium Production To Stabilize Prices Fox Business, By Christopher Pala & contributing to Dow Jones Newswires, October 03, 2011 ALMATY, Kazakhstan – After more than tripling its output of uranium in four years to become the world’s top producer, Kazakhstan has stabilized production to around 20,000 metric tons annually in order to avoid further depressing prices, Sergei Dara, Director of Strategic Development and International Projects at Kazatomprom, the state nuclear company, said Monday.
He said as long as prices remain at their current low levels, “Kazakhstan will not develop new projects and our production will remain at the current level.”..
Australia well represented in nuclear disarmament World Council of Churches panel at Geneva
Increasing attention is being given to the illegality of nuclear weapons. “We have the International Criminal Court,” Tim Wright of ICAN Australia told the audience at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva. “We need to remind our leaders that if they were to use a nuclear weapon, they would find themselves there.”
Wright urged civil society groups to challenge nuclear weapons on the basis of international humanitarian law, to divest from companies involved in the production of nuclear armaments, and to challenge the nuclear-weapon states directly because they have legal obligations to pursue nuclear disarmament, but are modernizing their arsenals instead………
Imagining a world without nuclear weapons, Ekklesia By Jonathan Frerichs, 3 Oct 2011 Ask anyone if they can imagine a world without nuclear weapons, and as polls indicate, most will say they can. This is true even in countries that possess nuclear weapons according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons or ICAN, a new civil society initiative dedicated to the hope of a nuclear free world.
However, governments that possess nuclear weapons send a different signal. Their policies and expenditures say that “well…perhaps someday…but certainly not in our lifetimes”.
Still a coalition of some 2,000 organizations that want to abolish nuclear weapons met in Geneva on 16 September 2011. The programme included a panel of civil society representatives hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) to examine prospects for nuclear disarmament. Continue reading
Finland’s nuclear waste storage inadequate, Olkiluoto reactors not safe
the companies are planning to make Onkalo only large enough for waste from their own potential seven reactors
the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) has identified safety concerns at operating Finnish power plants as part of stress tests conducted after last spring’s Fukushima crisis in Japan. These include the lack of backup cooling systems that are independent of electrical supply at the Olkiluoto1 and 2 reactors.
a honeycomb of storage sites extending over an area of several square kilometres will weaken the bedrock, making it vulnerable to earthquakes,
TVO: No room for Fennovoima waste in nuclear cave, YLE FI 4 oct 11, Onkalo on Finland’s west coast will be the world’s first permanent nuclear waste repository. The project director of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant, TVO Senior Vice President Jouni Silvennoinen, insists there is no space for waste from utilities other than TVO or Fortum in the Onkalo underground disposal site on Finland’s west coast. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 