Definitely no nuclear submarines for Australia
Navy chief rules out nuclear subs, Canberra Times, BY DAVID ELLERY, 17 Dec, 2011 Nuclear submarines are off the menu for the Royal Australian Navy, according to its chief, Vice-Admiral Ray Griggs….Admiral Griggs told an Australian Strategic Policy Institute dinner in Canberra on Thursday night, ”In terms of nuclear submarines the Government position has been very clear – it has been consistently [that] the only thing that is ruled out is nuclear.”
Bleak prospects for Australian uranium miners: most States and ACT ban uranium mining
Olga Galacho reports in the Herald Sun , 19 Dec “….In Western Australia, a pro-uranium conservative government faces a Labor Opposition that wants the mining banned. It is in WA that Toro will next year begin extracting uranium for the first time in that state from its $300 million Wiluna mine.
In Queensland, a state Labor government opposes uranium mining, unlike the Labor governments in South Australia and the Northern Territory.
In NSW and Victoria, freshly elected conservative governments have maintained their Labor predecessors’ ban on uranium
exploration……”It takes two election cycles to get a uranium operation up and running and in Australia, this is considered too high a political risk.”…..”
China now looking dodgy as a market for Australia’s uranium
Even before Fukushima, China’s government was asking tough questions of its nuclear growth ambitions. Late last year, its State Council Research Office issued a report outlining a number of concerns about the expansion program.
Since Fukushima, China’s government has pressed the pause button on nuclear expansion
the new generation AP1000 reactors that make up a large portion of the proposed nuclear capacity are not yet in operation anywhere in the world. It is an as yet unproven technology
there is reason for the people of China to be asking questions about the country’s ability to deliver large-scale, hi-tech projects as memories of July’s tragic Wenzhou high-speed rail crash, in which 40 passengers died, are still fresh in their minds….. Nuclear will remain a fringe source of power in China
China’s nuclear ambitions move to the slow lane, BY: PAUL GARVEY , The Australian, December 19, 2011 CHINA has been the one ray of hope in a miserable year for the global uranium industry. But sadly for uranium stocks, it looks increasingly likely China’s substantial nuclear reactor development program will take much longer to roll out than planned.
With the nuclear industry under review across Europe and Japan in the wake of the Fukushima disaster earlier this year, China has represented one of the only, and certainly the largest, growth market for uranium. Continue reading
Drastic and continuing fall in uranium companies share prices
Fukushima affects uranium stocks, Star Tribune, 18 Dec Share prices of global uranium majors continue to suffer the aftereffects of an earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant last March.
That’s the assessment of Sydney, Australia-based Resource Capital Research, which noted share prices for selected companies have declined substantially.
An analysis noted that Cameco shares declined by nearly 50 percent over the past year, while Uranium One shares had dropped by nearly 45 percent. Energy Resources of Australia stock fell by 82.1 percent.
“The Merril Lynch Uranium Equity Index (a global basket of uranium equities) is down 2 percent over the past month, down 7 percent over three months and down 54 percent over the past 12 months,” the firm said in a report earlier this month. …..
The uranium spot price was pegged at $52.25, down from $67.75 prior to the Fukushima disaster. In the near-term, Resource Capital Research said Fukushima will continue to weigh on the market, “including Germany’s decision to
close reactors and the potential for disposal of surplus utility inventory.”…..
Huge anti nuclear protest intensifies in India
Anti-nuclear protestors take out rally, stage peaceful demo Radhapuram (TN) Dec 18 (PTI) About 10,000 anti-nuclear protestors today took out a procession from a temple at nearby Koodankulam to this town and staged a peaceful demonstration, condemning Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement that the Nuclear Power project would be operationalised in a couple of weeks and resolved to picket the plant if work resumed.
Pushparayan, Convenor of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), which is spearheading the stir, said the organisation would intensify its agitation from January 1 if their demand for removing the fuel rods loaded into the reactor were not removed by that date.
Police said the procession and the demonstration passed off peacefully and that adequate security had been deployed to ensure no untoward incidents took place. Earlier in the day, PMANE condemned Singh’s ‘anti-people’ and ‘autocratic’ statement on KNPP, saying it betrayed the fact that the state government’s resolution to
halt work was never honoured earnestly or implemented effectively.
http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/antinuclear-protestors-take-out-rally-stage-peaceful-demo/935954.html
VIDEO Huge protest planned in Kudankulam over PM’s statement by ndtv on Dec 18, 2011 With the Prime Minister announcing that the Kudankulam plant will be operationalised in a couple of weeks, at Ground Zero, villagers have called for a huge protest rally today, from Kudankulam to nearby Radhapuram in Tamil Nadu. “If the Nuclear Power Corporation of India or the Department of Atomic Energy tries to restart the work at the Kudankulam nuclear plant, we will lay a siege with thousands of people and their families immediately at the site, and number two in order to protest against PM’s statement made in Russia we are going to hold a rally from Kudankulam to Radhapuram,” said SP Udhayakumar, Convenor, People’s Movement against Nuclear Energy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPPlEavM3VE
To get the truth on Fukushima nuclear plant- nationalise it, says former Japanese P.M.
Hatoyama: Nationalize Fukushima N-plant The Yomiuri Shimbun, 18 Dec 11 Only by bringing the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant into government hands can scientists thoroughly discover what caused the nuclear crisis, former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama says in an article published in the Dec. 15 issue of the British science journal Nature.
In the two-page article coauthored by Hatoyama and Tomoyuki Taira, a fellow Democratic Party of Japan member of the House of Representatives, Hatoyama said the Fukushima plant “must be nationalized so that information can be gathered openly.”
“A special science council should be created to help scientists from various disciplines to work together on the analyses,” he said. “Through such a council, the technologies needed for decommissioning and decontamination…can be developed.”
It is extremely rare for a major science journal to carry an article written by a former prime minister as a cover story, according to an official of Nature Japan.
In the article, Hatoyama criticizes Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the crippled plant, for disclosing only limited information to Diet committees. He also hints at the possibility of recriticality at the plant and says there is still much about the crisis that needs clarification, including the state of the molten fuel within the nuclear reactors.
Hatoyama also says that he and Taira obtained data on samples of contaminated water TEPCO obtained from the basement of the plant’s No. 1 reactor and asked an outside research institute to reanalyze them…. http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T111215005428.htm
South Australian government silent on Aboriginal Heritage Act, and its implications for uranium mining
The Government, however, remains silent on its responsibility in implementing the requirements of the Aboriginal Heritage Act,
“The traditional owners”.. are not even named in this news release.
The traditional owner group, known as the Yura Language Consultative Group, is disappointed the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs has failed to investigate its requests for a ministerial determination over the Beverley Four Mile and Mt Gee area as being culturally significant and intimately connected, despite a legal obligation to do so under the SA Aboriginal Heritage Act.
Marsh: Cultural significance snubbed, The Advertiser, by:Jillian Marsh December 14, 2011 http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/marsh-cultural-significance-snubbed/story-e6freai3-1226221235838 THE news release entitled “Arkaroola to be protected forever” by the SA Government’s pledging a commitment of “unprecedented protection” is welcome news. This protection, on the basis of a comprehensive three-step process, is particularly welcome for traditional owners – members of the Adnyamathanha community.
This announcement follows the persistent public outcry over the past few years over exploration leases being granted in the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary and, in particular, Mt Gee. Despite a shift in state political agencies towards a more sympathetic view of conservation concerns, all political parties remain hesitant in acknowledging the cultural significance of this region for the traditional owners. Continue reading
How come wind turbines are seen as unhealthy, but nuclear facilities are OK?
the pieces are falling nicely into place for a high-level nuclear waste DGR at or near the Bruce site….. But there are many questions, not the least of which is how highly radioactive and toxic nuclear waste buried “forever” is going to be safely managed for centuries, even millennia, when just 500 metres above anything can happen and will.
And another question, .. In this area and elsewhere in rural Ontario many people, including municipal
politicians, are up in arms over the widespread development of wind turbines and their supposed adverse health effects.
Why, so far anyway, aren’t we as concerned about the burial of radioactive nuclear waste of one level or another in our backyard?
(Canada) Wind turbines are trouble but highly radioactive waste is OK?, The Sun times, By PHIL MCNICHOL, 18 Dec 11 I am possibly the least surprised person in the Grey-Bruce area to see local communities near Bruce Power starting to show interest in being picked as the central site for the long-term, underground storage of Canada’s growing pile of highly radioactive, very dangerous used nuclear fuel. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 