A sad day for Australia – government approvals for world’s worst practice uranium mine
76% foreign owned, BHP Billiton made such huge profits that it’s almost an embarassment. How to spend all that money? Why let’s dig the world’s most gigantic toxic status symbol!
Let’s spend $20 billion of BHP’s huge profits, and untold billions of Australia’s tax-payers money – over the long life of a dirty great mountain range of radioactive dust. Australians will learn to pay for the carcinogenic dust that perennial dust storms will spread widely from Olympic waste mountain. They will learn to pay for the water schemes needed, as BHP Billion plunders our artesian water – at no charge. All Australians, not just the Aborigines, who have always been the first to be ripped off by Australian governments cowardly nuclear ventures. The Menzies government started it off in the 1950s, secretly agreeing to let the British test their atomic bombs in South Australia. Now we have a Labor government again kow-towing to a foreign multinational uranium miner, allowing it exemption from state and national laws.
A better plan for South Australia than accepting BHP Billiton’s toxic radioactive plan at Olympic Dam
“There is an alternative model that would see a lower greenhouse footprint and skilled jobs retained in South Australia. A peer-reviewed study by Monash University’s Dr Gavin Mudd demolished the myth that uranium is central to the mine’s expansion. His model for the expansion is safer, would use much less water and energy, and would mean more jobs and greater economic return for the local economy.
Scott Ludlam, 10 Oct 11, The Federal Government’s approval of the Olympic Dam expansion will see the creation of a carcinogenic mountain range of finely powdered radioactive waste in South Australia, the Greens warned today. Australian Greens spokesperson for nuclear issues Senator Scott Ludlam said the proposed expansion of the BHP Billiton site to will be a disaster for the environment, human health and local jobs.
“BHP Billiton has designed a world’s-worst-practice uranium mine. Continue reading
Poll shows Australians rate solar energy tops, and nuclear energy bottom
Solar power tops poll of positive perceptions, The Age, Michelle Grattan, October 10, 2011 SOLAR energy has a very positive rating in the public’s mind, while the nuclear industry and coal-fired power stations are at the bottom when people are asked about their perceptions of energy industries……
A UMR survey last month found more than eight in 10 people had a positive view of solar energy; only 10 per cent were negative. Three-quarters were positive on renewable energy. The gas industry also scored positively (61 per cent), but those rating the coal industry favourably outstripped those seeing it negatively relatively narrowly (45-38 per cent). People were equally divided about the oil industry (42 per cent each).
Only 36 per cent viewed the coal seam gas industry in a good light, compared with 41 per cent who were negative. Coal-fired power stations, which have copped bad publicity in the carbon debate, were seen negatively by almost half (48 per cent) accompanied by 34 per cent who had a benign view. The nuclear industry scored 51 per cent negative and 33 per cent positive in the online survey of a nationally representative sample of 1000…… Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/solar-power-tops-poll-of-positive-perceptions-20111009-1lfoh.html#ixzz1aQmXRcmj
India’s anti nuclear protest spreading beyond Tamil Nadu
7,000 fast in protest against Indian government’s nuclear power plan for Koodankulam
the fast was only “a beginning of their long struggle” against nuclear power and it would be intensified if the KNPP was not scrapped.
Over 7,000 people observe fast against nuclear project Economic Times, 9 Oct 11, TIRUNELVELI (TN): Breaking the brief truce, more than 7,000 people today observed a token fast against the Koodankulam nuclear power plant(KNPP) and vowed to intensify the struggle if the government did not scrap it. The renewed protest comes two days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured a multi-party delegation including the anti-KNPP activists that an expert group would be set up to allay their safety concerns.
Slamming Singh’s letter to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa seeking her support to ensure timely implementation of the Indo-Russian project, protesters said it only showed the Centre was not concerned about the safety of people. The fast at Idinthakarai near Koodankulam in the district was led by Co-ordinator of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy S P Udhayakumar, a member of the delegation that had met Singh.
Udhayakumar told reporters the fast was only “a beginning of their long struggle” against nuclear power and it would be intensified if the KNPP was not scrapped.
After meeting the Prime Minister, the activists had claimed it was their first victory. But now they are irked by Singh’s letter to Jayalalithaa seeking her help to complete KNPP. Udhayakumar said the contents of the letter, dashed off on the same day when they met Singh, only showed that the “Centre is not concerned about the safety and security of the Tamils.”
Despite the state cabinet’s resolution for halting work on the project, the Centre had chosen to go ahead with it. “This is painful,” he said. People, including fishermen, from 13 villages participated in the fast today. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/over-7000-people-observe-fast-against-nuclear-project/articleshow/10289655.cms
Australian government policies drive Aborigines off their healthy lives on homelands
More than one-third of the NT’s Aboriginal population lives in 500 remote homeland communities…..people were more healthy living in small communities on traditional homelands
Aboriginal policies ‘ethnic cleansing’, SMH, Lisa Martin, October 9, 2011 –Starving Aboriginal people off their traditional homelands is akin to “ethnic cleansing”, the Amnesty International boss has been told during his Central Australia visit.Amnesty International chief Salil Shetty visited communities in Utopia on the weekend describing the plight of locals as “devastating.”….. The human rights group profiled the Utopian region, in an August report that claimed homeland communities were being starved of money for proper housing, maintenance and basic services like rubbish removal.
Amnesty says the policies are aimed at driving Aborigines off their homelands and herding them into 21 “hub towns” where the federal and NT governments were splashing out cash for resources and services. Community leader Rosalie Kunoth Monks told Mr Shetty how desperately her people wanted to stay on their land. Continue reading
1 This month
7 April – WEBINAR – Australia and the Doomsday Clock – Preventing nuclear war through NoFirstUse and other policies
Online | Tuesday April 7, 4:00-5:30pm, Australian Eastern Time / 8:00-9:30am Central Europe Time
– Access the registration link
15 April – Zoom –Nuclear Power is Not the Solution
Apr 15, 2026 01:00 AM in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
Join the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) on Tuesday, April 14th for a timely webinar exploring the risks associated with nuclear power and challenging the myth that it offers a simple, safe, carbon-free solution to the climate crisis
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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