Why is Australian media not covering the Radioactive Waste debate in the Senate?
Yesterday the Australian Senate debated the National Radioactive Waste Bill – the transcript of this goes for 
20 pages. http://wopared.parl.net/hansard/senate/latesthansard/shansard.pdf I understand that the debate is continuing today.
Wading through those 20 pages, I can find only the intrepid Senator Scott Ludlam asking the questions that all Australians should want to know, about this.
I must conclude that there is a cynical nexus of complacent agreement between Australia’s media, corporations, Liberal and Labor Parties – in the interests of the nuclear industry – to just keep it all quiet. So the Senate, Lib-Lab creature of the corporations, can just pass this momentous and unjust Bill to open up Aboriginal land to nuclear waste.
Perhaps, further down the track, it will be easy for the greedy people who want a nuclear waste import business to follow through on this. While we, the Australian public, remain ignorant of this threat to Australia’s future .
Is Warren Mundine, Director of Australian Uranium Association to join Australian Government Ministry ?
In the Gillard reshuffle of Ministers, it is regrettable that nuclear puppet Martin Ferguson will retain his position.
Olympic Dam uranium mine at risk from earthquakes
from our Seismology Watcher, 28 feb 12, Australian Yet another timely warning for Quarry Australia following seismologist, Edward Cranswick’s peer-reviewed paper on the 35-km-long, steeply dipping Mashers Fault which passes through the middle of the Olympic Dam ore body. The fault length implies an earthquake of maximum about 7.
An observation by Cranswick is that censoring of Australian lists of earthquakes and their corresponding source parameters, (i.e., time, location, depth, magnitude) has taken place.
Cranswick, who investigated earthquakes for the US Geological Survey for 22 years, suggests that the connection between mining and sesmicity (earthquakes) is obscured in Australia particularly the seismic hazard of the OD project in SA. Seemingly, BHP’s proposed expansion and potential radioactive fall-out at the Olympic Dam project in the event of a “natural” catastrophe reveals scant regard for public health and safety. However, there is nothing like an outraged Momma Nature (whose **se is being chewed by the mining industry) to make an ecocidal event, a grim reality.
Cranswick also makes reference to the Barrick/Newmont super pit and its connection to the unprecedented 5.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred in the stable continental region of Kalgoorlie/Boulder in April 2010. And what a pitiful mess that made of the historic buildings in the main street of Boulder which is about a kilometre from the super pit.
En garde my fellow Australians, asleep at the wheel.
Senator Scott Ludlam speaks on the Nuclear Terrorism Bill
Excerpts from a lengthy speech in the Senate, 27 Feb 12, Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) I rise to add the comments of the Australian Greens to debate on the Nuclear Terrorism Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 and to add my support to that of the coalition for this bill….. The Greens support the intention of this legislation and treaty but we remind the Senate this is really only a Band-Aid measure—it is a valuable one but that is all it is when it comes to identifying the root cause of nuclear terrorism, which is of course the existence of nuclear materials, fissile materials and nuclear weapons…….
Explanations by the nuclear haves that the weapons are indispensable to defend their sovereignty are not the best way to convince other sovereign states to renounce the option. This is a debate that is occurring in the Australian defence community at the moment with the reconsideration of the Defence White Paper. Where do US nuclear weapons fit within Australia’s security doctrine? …..We need to get out from under the US nuclear umbrella as a way of encouraging our nuclear ally….
eliminating nuclear materials would seriously impede terrorist networks’ ability to acquire such materials. Immediately securing all nuclear weapons and weapons-usable material is also obvious. Locking down and eliminating existing fissile material and nuclear weapons and facilities is really the only way to address the danger of nuclear terrorism…..This debate must go further. We pass this bill today but we must proceed further to the debate about how to eliminate these weapons from the arsenals of all nations, including our ally the United States.
Australian Conservation Foundation urges Senate to reject Radioactive Waste Bill
Labor’s other federal spill: radioactive waste, Australian Conservation Foundation,Dave Sweeney 27 Feb 12, Against the backdrop of a leadership challenge federal Labor has today pushed ahead in the Senate with legislation designed to impose a national radioactive waste dump on contested Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory.
“This flawed legislation, which could pave the way for a radioactive waste dump to be imposed on the Indigenous community at Muckaty in the Northern Territory, is deeply unpopular,” said ACF nuclear free campaigner Dave Sweeney.“Indigenous, public health, environment and faith groups, key unions and the NT Government all oppose Resource Minister Martin Ferguson’s waste dump plan.
“Radioactive waste lasts a lot longer than a politician’s tenure in parliament and we need to get its management right. “This legislation attempts to manage Australia’s highest level radioactive waste by dumping it on some of the country’s most disadvantaged people. “Martin Ferguson’s Muckaty dump plan is the wrong way to deal with long-lived nuclear waste, lacking transparency, procedural fairness, scientific rigour and community consent.
“Minister Ferguson has been pushing this heavy-handed legislation around the Parliament for more than two years now. “ACF urges all Senators to oppose this legislation because dumping nuclear waste on contested Aboriginal land is not responsible, credible or acceptable in the 21st Century.”
Malaysian responses to the temporary licence given to Australian company Lynas
I think all Malaysians should know by now that the only thing that we can do to stop the corruption and abuse of power is to kick BN out and put in place a government which will care about the people and their wishes. The government elected must take into consideration the people’s desires and needs, and not just bulldoze their way through everything.
If BN insists on approving the Lynas project, then they should approve it to be built in Putrajaya. Why don’t they do that, since they said it’s safe? We can see that all BN cares about is money. They do not care one bit about the rakyat. We have to kick BN out and then hold Pakatan Rakyat to their promise to send back Lynas to Australia.
Soo Jin Hou: Scientific evidence? Prof Chan Chee Khoon has this to say: Lynas, AELB (Atomic Energy Licensing Board), and IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) have insisted that the expected levels of radiation exposure (for plant employees and for the general public) are well within the existing international norms of ‘safe thresholds’.
They have conveniently ignored the recent debates over the adequacy of existing quantitative risk models which are calibrated against external sources of irradiation (e.g. Hiroshima/Nagasaki atomic bomb blasts), and over the micro-dosimetry of internal emitters.
In the last 10 years, there has been much debate as to whether the radiation hazards from internal emitters have been underestimated by the existing risk models. A UK expert panel (2004,www.cerrie.org) could not arrive at a consensus, re: health risks of low-level exposure to internal emitters. In asserting that Lamp (Lynas Advanced Materials Plant) is unquestionably safe, Lynas and AELB have recklessly abandoned the precautionary principle and turned the Kuantan community into lab rats.
Gerard Samuel Vijayan: If the Lynas plant is so safe, then Najib should explain what happened in Bukit Merah and the cover-up by the Mahathir regime. Why not form an RCI (royal commission of inquiry) on Bukit Merah and call experts from the IAEA to testify as to what happened?
If it is so safe, why isn’t Lynas building the plant in Australia or any other Western country? Or go to Africa or South America instead. I also suggest that Najib and Rosmah Mansor buy a house next to the plant and live there. Why hide in Pekan or Kuala Lumpur?
It is easy for the Umno-BN elites to talk because when they get cancer they run to the US, UK or Australia for treatment using taxpayers’ money but we the ordinary rakyat must seek treatment in sub-standard government hospitals or just die because we cannot afford the treatment or expensive medication.
Why the unholy haste to have this plant built and operational in Gebeng? Just because money is going to be paid into the coffers of Umno and some royalty in Pahang, the rakyat must put their lives on the line?
Changeagent: If it is really as harmless as Najib puts it, why did the government only issue a temporary operating licence? They might as well issue a permanent one since they are so adamant that the plant does not pose any potential health risk to the local community…. http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/190381
Australian Capital Territory plans Canberra as nation’s SOLAR capital, too
Solar industry gives strong vote of confidence in ACT solar plans Invest in Australia, 28 Feb 12, The ACT Government’s plans to make Canberra Australia’s solar capital are being well received by the renewable energy industry, with almost 150 representatives attending a recent ACT Government briefing on plans for a large scale solar auction, Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, Simon Corbell, said.
“I am excited to see that solar industry representatives from right around Australia are showing strong interest in the ACT Labor Government’s plans to create Canberra as a leader in the use of renewable energy technologies,” Mr Corbell said.
“The industry briefing was an important opportunity for the ACT Government to share information and answer questions about the large scale reverse auction process which is now underway.” …. http://www.investinaustralia.com/news/solar-industry-gives-strong-vote-confidence-act-solar-plans-12c3
Australian Labor attempts to sneak nuclear waste dump under the radar
February 27th, 2012. Labor’s attempt to pass widely-opposed nuclear waste dump legislation under the cover of their leadership squabble is cynical and shameless, the Australian Greens said today.
Greens spokesperson for nuclear issues Senator Scott Ludlam said Labor wants to pass the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill behind the fog of the leadership dispute because the law is 
“completely rotten”.
“The Traditional Owners do not want this eternal radioactive waste dump on their country; the locals don’t want it; the Northern Territory government does not want it; and medical experts have criticised the Government’s scheme.
“There is a Federal Court case currently unresolved as to the status of this land, yet the Government pushes on – lead by Martin ferguson, a resources and energy minister obsessed with the nuclear industry. This legislation does not just represent a problem for Muckaty – it places enormous and virtually unchecked power in the hands of that solitary minister.
“Medical experts have argued correctly that we don’t need a reactor to make medical isotopes. This dump is not about ‘low level medical waste’ – but high level waste which is scheduled to land in Australia from the UK and France.
“Last month, in a report to the US Energy Secretary, the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future strongly recommended a ‘consent-based approach to siting nuclear waste storage… noting that ‘trying to force such facilities on unwilling states, tribes and communities has not worked’. The Government ignores the lessons of history and blunders on at the behest of the nuclear industry.”
Under cover of Prime Minister crisis, Australian Senate votes today on Muckaty nuclear waste dump
The National Radioactive Waste Management Bill is scheduled for debate in the Senate this Monday morning at 10am. This will definitely be lost to the media amidst the ALP leadership debacle, but we want to make sure it does not go completely unnoticed.
Please take a minute to sign this petition to Senators (link below) . We were initially aiming for 2000 signatures but the legislation has come up very quickly, so we need to get as many as we can before it is tabled. We are at 669 now so our original goal is possible if you can all help send this out through your networks
http://www.gopetition.com.au/petitions/no-nuclear-waste-dump-at-muckaty.html
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