Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) unfair monopoly on selling radiopharmaceuticals
He alleges the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation used “duplicitious” and 
“uncompetitive” tactics to push Cyclopet out of the NSW marketplace.
a report by the Productivity Commission’s Australian Government Competitive Neutrality Complaints Office that backs his allegations,
PET peeve provokes a stoush BY: LEIGH DAYTON The Australian July 28, 2012 Cyclopharm’s James McBrayer believes Cyclopet could have flourished in a fair playing field. JAMES McBrayer is not a happy man. Since 2006, the company he heads has spent nearly $10 million on establishing a business producing and supplying a radiopharmaceutical used in positron emission tomography, or PET scans. Continue reading
Makes ya proud to be Australian – recent nuclear news
AUSTRALIA and INTERNATIONAL
Makes ya proud to be Australian! The latest computer worm success – an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities – featured Australian band AC/DC, making computers play “Thunderstruck” at full volume in the middle of the night.
In Australia and in UK and in USA – a big push by the nuclear lobby to sell the public on a new gimmick. It’s a kind of alchemy. The plan is to turn plutonium into gold, and involves nuclear reprocessing, and new PRISM nuclear reactors (Power Reactor Innovative Small Module). Barry Brook and Robin Batterham, (Chief technologist for Rio Tinto) have been spruiking Small Modular Nuclear Reactros and “fast breeder” reactors for Australia. Meanwhile in UK and USA, Richard Branson (of Virgin fame) and Bill Gates are also promoting these technologies , (which still exist only as blueprints). But they are being touted as a supposed solution to Britain’s huge and worrying nuclear waste problem.
Still in the news – BHP Billiton and the planned new uranium megamine at Olympic Dam. The grand effort of the Lizard’s Revenge anti-nuclear protest wound up. Dr Helen Caldicott ‘s talk at Roxby Downs was attended by a few brave souls, (under the watchful eyes of BHP Billiton’s film crew.)
But the Olympic Dam project has been newsworthy for a different reason – doubts about its future. South Australia’s Treasurer revealed that the project would have little impact on the State’s revenues, whether or not it goes ahead. Meanwhile the engineering company, Jacobs Engineering, that has been doing the feasibility studies, is now laying off workers, realising that the project’s future is in doubt.
Japan’s anti-nuclear protests continue, and grow in numbers, while the government gets anxious about coming elections. 51 religious leaders call for an end to nuclear power. Revelations that some Fukushima workers have been wearing lead shields over their radiation dose monitors – to produce a lower radiation reading.
Australia’s ACDC stars in hacking into Iran’s nuclear facilities
The latest cyber weapon to rock Iran’s nuclear program? Australia’s AC/DC The Star, July 25, 2012, Bloomberg, DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Iran’s nuclear facilities have suffered a cyber attack that shut down computers and played music from the rock band AC/DC, the F-Secure Security Labs website says.
A new worm targeted Iran’s nuclear program, closing down the “automation network” at the Natanz and Fordo facilities, the Internet security site reported, citing an email it said was sent by a scientist inside Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.
The virus also prompted several of the computers on site to play the song “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC at full volume in the middle of the night, according to the e-mail, part of which is published in English on the website……
AC/DC has played “high voltage rock ‘n’ roll” since the band was formed in 1973 in Australia, according to the band’s website. The group’s songs were among the loud music played to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility in preparation for interrogations, the Associated Press reported in October 2009, citing the National
Security Archive in Washington….. http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1231457–the-latest-cyber-weapon-to-rock-iran-s-nuclear-program-australia-s-ac-dc
Uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia cutting jobs
Uranium mine foreshadows job cuts, ABC Rural News, By Carl Curtain , 26/07/2012 The CEO of the Ranger Uranium Mine in the Northern Territory says jobs will be cut as mining is suspended and the company begins its exploration underground.
A $60 million loss was recorded last financial year by Energy Resources Australia, outlined in its half-yearly report released today..
Mining of ‘Pit 3’ will finish at the end of the year, and only stockpiles of ore will be processed until more uranium can be
discovered and mined in coming years…. http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201207/s3554257.htm
Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) – big losses but hopeful that Japan will “embrace nuclear energy”!
ERA looks to Japan re-embracing nuclear THE AUSTRALIAN, BY: BY KIM CHRISTIAN From: AAP July 26, URANIUM miner Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) says Japan will re-embrace nuclear power and that China will become increasingly reliant on the same technology.
The comments by ERA chief executive Rob Atkinson come as the miner’s year of reckoning approaches with its flagship mine Ranger in the Northern Territory rapidly depleting.,,,,,, Mr Atkinson said the uranium market remained challenging,… Mr Atkinson was speaking after ERA said it net losses shrank by more than 50 per cent to $59.86 million in the first half compared to the previous corresponding period. Continue reading
Global warming damaging nuclear power production
Temperatures will rise about 3 degrees above normal in the U.S. Northeast from Aug. 4 to Aug. 8 and computer modeling shows another heat wave may arrive the week of Aug. 6, according to Commodity Weather Group President Matt Rogers.
“Heat is the main issue, because if the river is getting warmer the water going into the plant is warmer and makes it harder to cool,” David McIntyre, an NRC spokesman, said
Heat Sends U.S. Nuclear Power Production To 9-Year Low Bloomberg, By Christine Harvey – Jul 26, 2012 Nuclear-power production in the U.S. is at the lowest seasonal levels in nine years as drought and heat force reactors from Ohio to Vermont to slow output. Continue reading
Britain’s risking new PRISM nuclear reactor, despite its previous nuclear reprocessing fiasco?
Pete Wilkinson, an independent environmental consultant, said it “beggared belief” that ministers were going down this path after losing an estimated £600m from operating an original MOX plant.
“It would be interesting to see the commercial arrangements which justify turning Britain into a nuclear waste dump for plutonium that no-one else wants.”
UK nuclear authority takes ownership of German plutonium UK risks becoming a ‘nuclear laundry’ looking after unwanted waste from other countries, warns industry expert Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, 13 July 2012 Britain risks being turned into a “nuclear laundry” by taking ownership of German plutonium in return for cash, the government was warned on Friday.
The move came along with confirmation that ministers were moving towards a controversial decision to build a new mixed oxide fuel (MOX) plant despite having just agreed to close an existing one which lost millions of pounds.
Britain has the largest stockpile of plutonium in the world Continue reading
Fukushima’s children are the world’s radiation guinea pigs
the advice of Australian pediatrician Dr. Helen Caldicott, who after observing that “It is extremely rare to find cysts and thyroid nodules in children,” added that “you would not expect abnormalities to appear so early – within the first year or so – therefore one can assume that they must have received a high dose of (radiation)” before concluding, “it is impossible to know, from what (Japanese officials) are saying, what these lesions are.”
Caldicott also noted that Japanese officials are not sharing the ultrasound results with foremost experts of thyroid nodules in children
Fukushima – Local Children Unwitting Guinea Pigs, Scoop, By. John C.K. Daly of Oilprice.com , 27 July 2012, “……..Only two months ago TEPCO stated that the Fukushima debacle may have released twice as much radioactivity than Japan’s government initially estimated.
Accordingly, how can anyone estimate long term health effects when actual exposure rates are unknown?
That said, scientists do have a well defined test group – the population of Fukushima Prefecture surrounding the stricken NPP.
And the sixth report of the Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey, which was released in April, revealed after the survey examined 38,114 local children that 36 percent of Fukushima children have abnormal thyroid growths. Continue reading
Australia’s Foreign Minister Bob Carr gungho about selling uranium to India
Australia working to ensure uranium supply to India: Bob Carr to SM Krishna http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-07-11/news/32632787_1_australian-uranium-australia-exports-uranium-first-australian-country-to-country-agreement
PTI Jul 11, 2012, Months after reversing its policy of not selling uranium to India, Australia today said it was in the process of working out internal arrangements to ensure supply of the yellowcake to New Delhi.
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr conveyed this to External Affairs Minister S M Krishna during their talks here in the Cambodian capital on the sidelines of the ASEAN Ministerial meeting .
Wind farm at Collector supported, despite one small “astroturf” group’s opposition
Wind farm claims local supporters, Canberra Times, July 27, 2012, John Thistleton Proponents of a $400 million, 68-turbine wind farm at Collector say most of the village residents support the project, which has moved a step closer to approval.
RATCH-Australia is expected to take two years building the region’s latest wind farm near the Federal Highway at Collector. It will generate up to 228 megawatts of electricity, or enough energy to power around 80,000 homes annually.
Chief executive Steve Loxton said the 60-day public exhibition period represented the culmination of years of research.
”Our surveys of local Collector residents confirm that there is strong support for renewable energy Continue reading
Lift Renewable Energy Target, urges Australian Greens
Greens urge push for renewable energy boost BY: SID MAHER The Australian July 27, THE Greens have called on the renewable energy industry to pressure the government to lift the Renewable Energy Target above 20 per cent by 2020.
Greens leader Christine Milne warned the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation which has been established to bring on new generation technologies, that wind power could be squeezed out of the scheme by solar if the target is not lifted. Continue reading
Big Wind projects getting investment in Australia, decentralised solar getting cheap
if you want to decrease your own electricity bill, then you are going to install a solar panel on your rooftop
Wind power more likely than solar to attract investment, ABC Rural News, By Babs McHugh , 26/07/2012 A report on renewable energy investment has found wind power remains the most popular option. BCI Economics says $5.2 billion was spent on renewable energy technology in 2010-11, with the bulk of the investment in NSW, Victoria and South Australia.
Report author Franciska Mey says the number of solar PV panels on home roofs grew rapidly, but no large-scale commercial projects have got off the ground.
Ms Mey says unlike wind power projects, which offer a strong return on investment, big solar projects are struggling to find investors. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 