Wrap up of the week’s nuclear news
Radioactive wastes Liberals and Labor unite in the Senate to rush through the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill. However, the Greens managed to get included an important amendment against international wastes being included. Opposition to this legislation continues. Aboriginal landowners continue their legal fight against the Muckaty nuclear waste dump plan.
Fukushima anniversary: Australians in all States and Territories held anti nuclear, anti uranium rallies on 11th March, anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.
Bob Carr: Surprise surprise. Bob Carr, parachuted into the Senate, NOT ELECTED, comes out as a mover and shaker for nuclear power.
Victoria’s Baillieu government: Victoria’s Liberal government.s’ disconnect with voters. Opinion poll shows Victoria;’s Baillieu government’s laws on climate change, are opposite to the wishes of most voters. Stawell Climate Action Group calls on the area’s National Party M.P. to back Clean Energy Finance Corporation and solar power.
New South Wales Premier O’Farrell delighted with Sydney as host for Clean Energy Finance Corporation, even though Abbott ‘s Liberal opposition is opposed to this climate action initiative.
Lynas rare earths problem, as legal hearing continues. Where to send its radioactive wastes? to Australia?
BHP Billiton’s OLympic Dam new mega uranium mine far from being a done deal, but BHP planning a grandiose tower in Adelaide to celebrate it.
Solar rebates: The federal government suddenly shuts down the solar hot water rebate (Renewable Energy Bonus Scheme) – damaging the emerging solar industry, with the loss of thousands of jobs.
Legal case goes ahead to stop nuclear waste dump at Muckaty on Aboriginal land
New Federal Laws on nuclear waste have no impact on Muckaty legal challenge, Amanda Tattam, 13 March 12, Maurice Blackburn lawyers say the passage of the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill today will not affect the Federal court challenge over the nuclear waste dump at Muckaty near Tennant Creek.
In 2007, the National Land Council nominated Muckaty as a proposed site for the deposit of radioactive materials under the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act 2005. The new Act repeals the old act, but provides for nominations under the old act to continue.
Elizabeth O’Shea, lawyer for a number of traditional owners representing five different groups with an interest in Muckaty said:
“The legal case continues regardless of the passage of this legislation. This law does not dilute the resolve of Traditional Owners who are opposed to the Muckaty nuclear dump. They did not give consent and were not sufficiently consulted over the nomination of their land for Australia’s first radioactive waste dump.They want to keep the land safe for their communities, their children and future generations.
Traditional Owner and Applicant in the proceedings, Lorna Fejo said: “it’s our land and we are going to continue fighting for it. It’s my heritage and no one has the right to take that away from us. I am still opposed to the dump in spite of this bill passing.”
Legal proceedings against the Federal Government and the Northern Land Council (NLC) were started in June 2010 and a mediation held last year failed to reach agreement over the land. The case goes back to the Federal Court for a two-day hearing on procedural matters at the end of the month. Ron Merkel QC is appearing for the traditional owners.
“There are allegations that the NLC engaged in misconduct and breach of fiduciary duty by their actions in nominating the Muckaty site. These are important claims to have resolved in court before any further assessment of the Muckaty site goes ahead,” said Ms O’Shea.
“The National Radioactive Waste Management Act offers some minimal procedural fairness provisions which must be followed in the process of declaring the site of the dump. It also preserves the only nomination currently on foot – Muckaty – and does not remedy the alleged substantial flaws in that nomination which are the subject of the Federal Court challenge. The challenge will go ahead and the Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson has maintained that he will respect the outcome of the Federal Court case.” Maurice Blackburn is conducting this matter on a pro bono basis through its social justice practice. www.mauriceblackburn.com.au/news/press-releases–announcements/2010/indigenous-owners-launch-federal-legal-challenge-over-australia%E2%80%99s-first-nuclear-waste-dump.aspx
Australia’s Nuclear Waste Bill strongly opposed
Australia passes controversial nuclear waste bill Radioactive material set to be dumped in remote Aboriginal community, despite ongoing court case into legality of proposal Oliver Milman guardian.co.uk, 13 March 2012 The Australian government has passed legislation that will create the country’s first nuclear waste dump, despite fierce opposition from environmental and Aboriginal groups.
The passage of the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill 2010 through the Senate paves the way for a highly controversial plan to store nuclear waste in Muckaty Station, a remote Aboriginal community in the arid central region of the Northern Territory. The ruling Labor party received support from the conservative coalition opposition to approve the bill, despite an ongoing federal court case over the legality of using the Muckaty site to store radioactive material…
Anti-nuclear protesters disrupted proceedings in the Senate as the legislation was debated earlier on Tuesday, with the group heckling lawmakers from the public gallery over their support for the bill.
A recent medical study warned that transporting nuclear waste over long distances to such an isolated location, which is 75 miles north of the Tennant Creek township, could endanger public health.
“The site is in an earthquake zone, it floods regularly, there are very long transport corridors, there are no jobs being applied and it’s opposed from people on the ground, on the front line from Tennant (Creek) all the way up to the NT government and people around the country,” said senator Scott Ludlam of the Greens, which successfully added an amendment to the bill that bans the importing of foreign nuclear waste to the site.
Aboriginal groups launched legal action after claiming that traditional owners of the land around Muckaty do not approve of the dump, despite the government maintaining that the local Ngapa indigenous community supports the plan…… The Northern Territory government has complained that it is being strong-armed into taking the dump due to it being a “constitutional weak link” and not having the same rights as full Australian states….. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/13/australia-nuclear-waste-aboriginal?newsfeed=true
Australia’s new UNELECTED Senator Carr – another stooge for the nuclear lobby
Gee – according to Carr, it looks as if the Fukushima nuclear accident was just a little setback really – bit of a nuisance for the nuclear stillbirth – sorry, I mean reanaissance. As for renewables taking off slowly – well our pro nuclear, pro fossil fuel governments see to that!
Australia should stay open to nuclear: Carr, news.com.au, 13 March 12 FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr says Australia should stay open to nuclear technology, despite Japan’s recent nuclear disaster.
Senator Carr, a proponent of nuclear technology, said the push towards nuclear energy was hampered by last year’s tsunami and earthquake disaster in Japan, which caused the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
“I think Japan has set it back because of the impact it’s had on insurance and cost,” he told ABC Television today. However, he said Australia should still consider moving towards nuclear energy. “The fact is, some of the renewables are taking off more slowly than I, as a believer in climate change, would have liked.” http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/aust-should-stay-open-to-nuclear-carr/story-e6frfku0-1226298987359#ixzz1p856oy87
Will Western Australia take climate change seriously, or just pander to fossil fuel lobby?
You’d think that Western Australia would now go all out for renewable energy. You’d think that Western Australia would now renounce all projects for water intensive uranium mining.
But it seems that the W.A. government will still be fiddling around, pandering to the fossil fuel and uranium industry, while their State burns.
WA’s south-west ‘drying out’ fast, Daniel Mercer, The West Australian, March 14, 2012, Two of Australia’s foremost scientific agencies have warned that south-west WA is warming and drying faster than anywhere in the country and will be increasingly prone to drought.
After a record eighth heatwave in Perth this summer, the Weather Bureau and CSIRO will today release the latest biennial snapshot of climate trends in Australia. The report backs up earlier conclusions that Australia’s land and sea temperatures are rising and rainfall is shifting from southern latitudes to the country’s centre and north.
It said average temperatures were expected to increase 0.6C to 1.5C by 2030 and 1.0C to 5.0C by 2070, with particularly harsh effects on south-west WA, including Perth. The report suggested the area would have long-term reductions in rainfall and more years like 2010 – the driest ever.
Rising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the rising acidification of Australia’s oceans were noted in the report, which said it was “90 per cent likely” the trends were because of man-made global warming…… http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/13159615/was-south-west-drying-out-fast/
Wind farms unhealthy for Australians, but not for 1 million Danes?
our wind resource is twice as powerful as in Europe.
Australia’s twist in the wind, CLIMATE SPECTATOR: Matthew Wright, 13 Mar 2012 Denmark’s renewable energy achievements and its ambitious targets demonstrate a serious plan to lead the world in tackling global climate and energy security. Wind turbine technology will power half of its plan.
At the end of last year, Denmark announced that it will increase its share of wind power in the electricity supply mix from 25 per cent, its total today, to 50 per cent by 2020. The earlier plan was to do the same, but by 2025.
Denmark’s bullish drive towards wind energy comes from the public’s ongoing strong support for the industry and technology. Over one million Danes currently live within one kilometre of an operating wind farm. Many of these wind farms are being, or are scheduled to be, upgraded with newer turbines. This ongoing process of upgrades shows that support for wind energy stays strong in the local vicinity even after communities have lived with a generation of turbines that have served their useful lives.
Denmark will reach its 50 per cent wind power target through three main tracks. They’re building a generation of new onshore wind farms as well as the establishing a brand new offshore wind industry. A very important part of the plan involves the repowering of existing wind farms. Continue reading
THE AUSTRALIAN newspaper ignores reputable science on wind energy
The Australian’s fear of reds under the bed, CLIMATE SPECTATOR: Tristan Edis, 12 Mar 2012 On Friday, The Australian newspaper dedicated front page coverage to a United Kingdom study that claimed that, in Britain, using wind turbines to cut emissions costs 10 times the price of a gas-fired power station. Such a claim is not correct for Australian circumstances. But what I find remarkable is why The Australian considered such a study to be front page news.
There are more than 50 Australian economic modelling studies (my hard drive holds 730 megabytes worth) – prepared by a range of highly credible sources – that examine the relative costs of wind versus alternative power sources, specifically for Australian conditions. The Australian could have chosen from the Australian Energy Market Operator, the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics, Access Economics, CSIRO, Carbon Market Economics, the Treasury, the Electric Power Research Institute, several of Australia’s major electricity companies, and even ACIL Tasman (who they have cheerfully and uncritically quoted on countless occasions in the past when they have been commissioned by the Coal Association and the oil and gas industry).
If they had bothered to pick up any single one of these studies they would have found the claim of a tenfold cost difference to be profoundly exaggerated
Yet the paper decided a study analysing UK conditions and prepared for a lobby group (The Global Warming Policy Foundation) that is obviously dedicated to undermining the case for action to reduce carbon emission, was not just news, but front page news. I would have perhaps understood such a response to an international study if it had been prepared by the International Energy Agency, or the OECD, or the UK’s peak scientific body, the Royal Society. But the Global Warming Policy Foundation?
This report was supported by commentary by their environment reporter, Graham Lloyd, headed ‘An Industry Running out of Puff ’. In it he suggests that community opposition to wind farms and health fears about wind turbines are widespread, major problems afflicting the wind industry. No mention is made of the CSIRO study that found that opposition within local communities hosting wind farms in Australia is largely exaggerated. Nor does it mention that many thousands of people in Denmark have been living in close proximity to wind turbines for more than a decade without ill-effect. …..
f this was an isolated case from The Australian then one could just pass this off as ‘slow news day desperation’. But the embarrassing errors have been systematic and long-running. Below are some stand-out examples, but there are enough to fill a book……
Despite the nuclear/uranium lobby’s hype – uranium price continues its downward plunge
Spot Uranium Drifts Downward. by Melissa West, Uranium Researcher, 13 March 12 Uranium Investing News, Platts reported spot uranium prices are continuing to drop at a slightly faster rate than earlier this year. As quoted in the market news:
TradeTech on Friday lowered its weekly spot price to $51 a pound U3O8, a drop of 80 cents/lb from TradeTech’s price March 2. TradeTech said the drop was due largely to a lack of buying interest and “aggressively priced material offered by one motivated seller.” http://uraniuminvestingnews.com/10910/spot-uranium-drifts-downward.html
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 