Australia has four options on nuclear disarmament and uranium sales
Promises and U-turns of the nuclear kind, The Drum, Jim Green, 19 Nov 11“…..What steps could Australia take to extricate us from the current mess – the South Asian nuclear arms race, and the broader problem of nuclear proliferation?
Option #1 is to leave uranium in the ground. It’s not as radical an idea as it might sound. Uranium accounts for a paltry 0.3 per cent of national export revenue and 0.03 per cent of Australian jobs. Few would notice if the industry vanished and still fewer would miss it.
Option #2 is to apply current government policy – restricting supply to countries that have signed the NPT. A variation of that option would be to restrict supply to NPT signatories that are serious about their non-proliferation and disarmament obligations – that would require a rethink of supply to, for example, the US and China since they have not ratified the CTBT. Continue reading
More bad news for Australian uranium companies, Toro and Paladin
Oz Minerals pulls out of Toro uranium JV,9 News, 19 Nov 11 OZ Minerals has pulled out of a uranium exploration
joint venture with Toro Energy in South Australia, saying no economic uranium has yet been found at the Mt Woods project.
The Toro board has accepted a $3.75 million cash offer from OZ Minerals as consideration for the termination, Toro said in astatement on Friday. “No potentially economic uranium results have been reported from the
Mt Woods project,” Toro said…. Shares in Toro were down 3.41 per cent at 8.5 cents at 1540 AEDT while
OZ Mineral shares were 1.89 per cent weaker, compared to losses in the broader market of about 1.8 per cent.
http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newsbusiness/aap/8376270/oz-minerals-pulls-out-of-toro-uranium-jv
BHP chief Marius Kloppers tries to make out that Olympic Dam is not a uranium mine
Further delays to force BHP’s hand, BY:MATT CHAMBERS, The Australian November 18, 2011, BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers has warned that further regulatory delays on the $20 billion-plus Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium expansion could mean the company looks at other options for its huge cashflows.
BHP’s Annual General Meeting dominated by questions, angry Aboriginals and other speakers
Road ahead looks uncertain for BHP, Canberra Times, BY GREG ROBERTS,18 Nov, 2011 “……Chief executive Marius Kloppers said yesterday businesses were cutting back on inventory and taking fewer risks as liquidity and trade financing dried up.
Australia’s change to sell uranium to India will contribute to regional nuclear arms race
This power play fails to charm, The Age, M.V. Ramana, November 18, 2011 Exporting uranium to India would fly in the face of international standards and the cause of disarmament. On the same day that Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced moves to end the Labor Party’s long-standing ban on selling uranium to India, a long-range nuclear-capable missile fired from an Indian military base landed in international waters off the Bay of Bengal. Gillard’s announcement came after intense pressure was placed on the government to change its rules on nuclear technology exports and to lift the ban on selling uranium to India. That pressure was applied even though India has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty or agreed to stop making fissile materials for use in nuclear weapons.
The possibility of selling uranium to India results from the 2008 decision by the Nuclear Suppliers Group to lift the ban on nuclear trade with that country. The basic bargain underlying the non-proliferation treaty is that non-weapon states gain access to nuclear technology and materials in exchange for giving up the possibility of developing nuclear weapons. Implicit in this bargain is that no country that acquired nuclear weapons after 1967 would gain access to nuclear technology.
The 2008 decision by the nuclear supplier group is a clear violation of this implicit understanding. Nonetheless, countries interested in promoting international standards and nuclear disarmament, such as Australia, should continue to hold on to the bargain….
Pakistan and China are expected to react to this by further developing their own arsenals and military strategies. Export of uranium from Australia would contribute, albeit indirectly, to this three-way nuclear arms race. http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/this-power-play-fails-to-charm-20111117-1nl17.html#ixzz1e794yUfv
Rapidly falling costs for rooftop solar PV mean that Australia is poised for a solar boom
a significant threat to the energy incumbents, particularly in the coal and gas industries, because it would reduce opportunities for new deployment and eat into their earnings because of the impact of solar and other short run marginal cost technologies in the so-called merit order effect (more on that tomorrow). It would also come as a shock to the government,
Suntech calls an Australian solar boom, Climate Spectator, Giles Parkinson, 17 Nov 11 Suntech, the world’s largest solar manufacturing company, has produced stunning forecasts for the solar PV industry in Australia – saying it could supply 5 per cent of the nation’s power demand by the end of this decade, reaching the target three decades ahead of the federal government’s most recent forecast.
Stefan Jarnason, the technical director of Suntech Australia, says solar PV capacity in Australia could reach 10 gigawatts by 2020, when it would be growing at a phenomenal 2GW a year. He bases these forecasts on rapidly declining costs, which mean electricity from rooftop PV that is already cheaper than coal-fired energy delivered by energy retailers in some parts of the country, will reach parity for commercial users around 2015, and parity for utility-scale developments towards the end of the decade.
It’s just a forecast, but it represents a growing realisation within and without the industry that in a very few years the rollout of solar PV will be dictated less by the scale of financial incentives – because it might not need much – but by the scale of regulatory protection for the current energy suppliers, because they might need all the help they can get. Continue reading
Anger in India over the weakening of Nuclear Liability Law
India angers Bhopal survivors over nuclear decision India has agreed to limit the liability of foreign nuclear power plant suppliers despite protests from campaigners who said its government had ignored the lessons of the Bhopal gas disaster Telegraph UK,By Dean Nelson, New Delhi, 18 Nov 2011
The liability rules set by the Indian government are aimed at speeding up foreign investment in new nuclear power stations…. …
Ministers had been under pressure to insist on strong liability rules to ensure those affected by any future nuclear accident would be properly compensated and the companies responsible take full responsibility.
Campaigners warned of “another Bhopal”, after the tragedy at the Union Carbide chemical plant where a poisonous gas leak killed several thousand people and injured several hundred thousand. They say full compensation was not paid while contamination of the water supply continues to cause birth defects and disabilities.
Under the Rules of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Act, published on Thursday, nuclear suppliers can cut deals to restrict the duration of warranties, after which they would not be liable for accidents.
“The lessons learnt from the Bhopal tragedy have clearly not made any difference to the government. For them foreign interest is paramount and much above well being of its people,” said Karuna Raina of Greenpeace http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/8896591/India-angers-Bhopal-survivors-over-nuclear-decision.html
India caves in to USA pressure, changes its Nuclear Liability Law
India caved in to foreign pressure on nuclear liability’ Times of India, IANS | Nov 17, 2011,
“Following protests by opposition parties and the civil society, the right to recourse for the operator to seek compensation from foreign suppliers was included in the draft last year and approved by the parliament. This clause has now been reduced to being insignificant,” said a statement issued by the environment issues NGO.
Reacting to the notification of the rules, Greenpeace nuclear and energy campaigner, Karuna Raina said: “The notified rule considerably changes it from what was approved last year amid protest from the opposition, both inside and outside the parliament.”
“The government has undone the efforts put in by thousands of individuals and organisations that fought for a stringent Liability Act. The lessons learnt from Bhopal tragedy have clearly not made any difference to the government. For them foreign interest is paramount and much above wellbeing of its peoples,” she said. India had Wednesday notified the implementation rules for the civil nuclear liability law…
 Reply |
Forward |
Uranium should be taxed, too, say the Australian Greens
Greens want Mining Resources Rent Tax on uranium, The West 18 Nov 11, The Australian Greens will seek to broaden the minerals resource rent tax to cover uranium.
As the legislation for the tax is due to be debated in the House of Representatives next week, Greens leader Bob Brown said he was in talks with his party colleagues on moving an amendment to include not just coal and iron ore but uranium.
Senator Brown told reporters in Canberra the decision came after Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced she would seek approval of the Labor national conference to back the sale of uranium to India.
Labor has long opposed India being able to buy Australian uranium because it is not a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty…..
“It seems logical to me, in an age where health care and public education are short of funds right around this country, should we not be taxing the largely foreign ownership of our uranium mines?” Senator Brown said.
“We will be looking at adding that amendment in the light of the huge change that we are seeing not just in the promotion of uranium to India by Prime Minister Julia Gillard but with the uranium prices going up.”
Senator Brown said he had no doubt that Australian uranium “is going into nuclear weapons or making it possible for other uranium to go into nuclear weapons in some of the most volatile circumstances around the world”. He said it remained Greens policy to stop all uranium exports. http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/a/-/business/11757119/greens-want-mrrt-on-uranium/
Australia: Northern Territory Government tries to shut down protest against uranium transport
Protesters air uranium transport fears, ABC News, 17 Nov 11 The Northern Territory Government has tried to shut down a protest in Alice Springs. People were meeting to protest about the increased uranium that will pass through the town if the South Australian Olympic Dam is expanded.
The protest comes as dam developers BHP Billiton holds its annual general meeting in Melbourne today. Protester Lauren Mellor says she feels people do not know about the extra uranium that will be travelling through the town.
“We’re protesting here today for the specific reason of the transport risks to people who are along this rail line that the radioactive ore will be carried on up to Darwin,” she said.”So here in Alice Springs we’re at the intersection where this radioactive ore, two trains a day will be coming through our town and putting the lives of people here at risk and also the environment in Alice Springs.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-17/protesters-air-uranium-transport-fears/3677478
India racing ahead with plutonium weapons, uranium enrichment, nuclear missiles and submarines
This power play fails to charm, The Age, M.V. Ramana, November 18, 2011“……… in the past few years, the Indian government has continued with its production of plutonium for weapons purposes at the 100-megawatt Dhruva reactor. It has also kept many of its power reactors outside of International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, and even by 2014, when it is supposed to put a total of 14 heavy-water reactors under safeguards, eight reactors will be available for potentially military purposes.
Also outside IAEA safeguards is the prototype fast breeder reactor that is under construction and that could produce about 140 kilograms of high-quality, weapon-grade plutonium, sufficient for nearly 30 Nagasaki-type bombs, every year. In 2010, the International Panel on Fissile Materials estimated India had stockpiled 300 to 700 kilograms of weapon-grade plutonium and 3300 to 3900 kilograms of reactor-grade plutonium.
India is also expanding its capacity to enrich uranium, reportedly for use in a nuclear submarine reactor. Recent Google Earth images suggest that new centrifuge halls, roughly twice the size of the existing facility, are being built.
Last year the chief of the navy said India would soon have an operational triad of aircraft, land-based missiles and (nuclear-powered) submarine-launched missiles for delivery of nuclear warheads.
Pakistan and China are expected to react to this by further developing their own arsenals and military strategies….http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/this-power-play-fails-to-charm-20111117-1nl17.html#ixzz1e7A9KnGx
USA militarisation in Australia is disturbing to China
The Global Times, a tabloid owned by the Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper, hit hard upon the theme of 
besiegement. It quoted a People’s Liberation Army major general as saying that the expanded U.S. training and deployment base inAustralia was one of a series of U.S. installations to “encircle China from the north to the south of the Asia-Pacific region.”….
Beijing is wary of Obama’s assertive China policy , Taiwan News, By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press 2011-11-18 President Barack Obama‘s sudden moves to contest rising Chinese power are setting this capital on edge, even if in public the response has been muted.
During his ongoing nine-day swing through the Asia-Pacific region, Obama has already unveiled a plan for an expanded U.S. Marines presence in Australia, advocated a new free-trade area that leaves China out, and called on Beijing not to buck the current world order.
The Beijing government is trying to understand the shift, tasking academic experts to review the initiatives and submit options on how to respond. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 