Thorium nuclear reactors – Australia’s nuclear lobby’s latest con job
the mere idea of these lovely little reactors needing plutonium or enriched uranium suggests the wisdom of Australia having uranium enrichment, nuclear power and nuclear reprocessing . And heck, why not a radioactive waste facility – to take in plutonium and other radioactive waste from other countries – as the start of another lucrative industry? Use it to facilitate the thorium reactors that will be dotted around the country. To seriously consider thorium nuclear energy in Australia means a foot in the door for the whole nuclear fuel cycle here.
Don’t believe thorium nuclear reactor hype, Independent Austtralia 28 Jan 13, Thorium reactors are the latest big thing in nuclear spin. Noel Wauchope says: don’t believe the hype.
The explanation becomes clearer, when you consider that the nuclear industry has sunk $billions into new (uranium or plutonium fuelled) large nuclear technologies, as well as into lobbying governments and media. Would big corporations like Hitachi, EDF Westinghouse, Toshiba, Areva, Rosatom be willing, or indeed able, to withdraw from the giant international operations that they already have underway? Would they, could they, tolerate a mass uptake of the new thorium nuclear reactors — which is what would be needed, to make the thorium market economical?…. Continue reading
Tony Abbott’s climate policies – straight from USA’s Koch brothers and Tea Party
In Australia, those [climate change action] mechanisms have been set in motion – albeit a little too slowly – through the carbon price, the renewable energy target, and the Clean Energy Finance Corp (CEFC) and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
Abbott, though, is determined to throw this transition into reverse.
The whole policy is, of course, absolute nonsense, as even Malcolm Turnbull has revealed on several occasions. It’s a policy designed by vested interests – to sweep away as many environmental checks and balances and initiatives at state and federal level to allow certain organisations to maximise short term profits.
Abbott locks in with Tea Party and a green army http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/abbott-locks-in-with-tea-party-and-a-green-army-67668 By Giles Parkinson 28 January 2013 This is going to be a very long year. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has kicked off the political calendar with a sort of mini-election launch in the western suburbs of Sydney. Some media types billed it as a presidential-style event, but the most striking and worrying similarity to the last US election campaign was not Abbott’s shirt sleeves nor his soapbox, but his grim determination to hang on to Tea Party politics and policies on climate and clean energy.
“Isn’t it bizarre that this government thinks that somehow raising the price of electricity is going to clean up our environment, stop bushfires, stop floods, stop droughts?” Abbott said in his speech. “Just think of how much hotter it might have been the other day but for the carbon tax!”
Borrowed straight from the handbook of Fox News in the US, Alan Jones, and News Ltd bloggers such as Andrew Bolt and Tim Blair. Abbott seems grimly determined to ignore the science in the search of cheap trick.
Of course a carbon imposed six months ago won’t knock 0.5C off Sydney’s record of 45.6 in early January – any more than paying utilities to close coal-fired generation would under the Coalition’s plans would.
As the science explains, the climate impacts we are feeling now are the result of man-made emissions built up over decades. And as President Obama explained in his inauguration speech last week, the action we take now will influence our legacy for future generations. It is worth repeating those words. “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Continue reading
Australia in UN: opportunity to return to principle on nuclear disarmament, and negotiations with Iran
despite the window of opportunity that Australia has open to it as chair of a number of relevant committees on the UN Security Council, Carr’s recent statements are devoid of any talk of global disarmament, or of a just dialogue between Iran, Israel and the West. The Australian government instead seems intent on reforging the policy bonds of the “Coalition of the Willing” which proved so morally, politically and economically disastrous in 2003.
Julia Gillard must not continue to take Australia further down the path of moral decay in the area of non-proliferation and disarmament as I’ve elsewhere argued she has done. Now on the Security Council, Australia must use its role to push for what Prime Minster Gillard herself promised 
in the candidate brochure:
… a lead role in advancing disarmament and non-proliferation efforts and continuing our longstanding efforts to promote respect for international law.
The decay of Australia’s nuclear ethic, Aljazeera, NAJ Taylor, 26 Jan 13, Australia must use its new position in the UN Security Council to push for conciliation with Iran. Within three days of Australia taking the chair of the UN Security Council committees overseeing “Iran’s WMD proliferation activities”, Foreign Minister Bob Carr announced that Australia is to adopt severe economic sanctions against Iran that are “broadly aligned” with those already actioned by the US, Britain and European Union.
Thursday’s announcement is bitterly disappointing, for it draws to the fore a deep moral inconsistency in Australia’s recent nuclear dealings.
Simply put, Iran is alleged to have an active nuclear weapons programme, despite it having undertaken a number of international obligations – including the primary instrument of the nuclear regime, the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Continue reading
Paladin uranium company’s losses: cuts staff in Malawi, Namibia and Australia
According to KYJD Publicist Stevenson Simusokwe, PAL had promised the
people of Karonga a referral hospital, good road network in the district
and free water.
But from the retrenchment statement, dated January 24 2013, PAL says it
has been operating at a loss and further adds that circumstances beyond
its control have led to the decision to trim down its staff not only at
Kayerekera but also at its Langer Heinrich Mine in Namibia and at the
company’s head office in Australia.
The company has been able to remain in operation only due
to continued financial support provided by the parent company, Paladin
Energy Limited.
Paladin to cut Malawi staff at Kayerekera mine by 18 percent 25
January 2013 The Maravi Post, by PIUS NYONDO
MZUZU–-Paladin Africa Limited (PAL) says it will reduce the number of
employee at its Kayerekera Mine (KM) in Malawi’s border district of
Karonga in response to economic hardships caused by dwindling uranium
prices on the global market, MaraPost has learnt. Continue reading
Another nuclear-capable missile test by India
India tests nuclear-capable missile
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/india-tests-nuclear-capable-missile/story-fn3dxix6-1226563126908
AAP January 28, 2013 AN Indian news report says India has
successfully tested a medium-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile
fired from an underwater platform in the Bay of Bengal.
The Press Trust of India news agency says the missile would soon be
ready for deployment on platforms, including a nuclear submarine.
India’s Defence Ministry spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Pallava Bagla, a defence expert, said Sunday’s test off the east coast
was 14th in the series with a range of 700 kilometres. It would
complete India’s nuclear triad – the capability to launch missiles
from land, air and below the sea.
India and its nuclear-armed rival Pakistan routinely test different
versions of their missiles. The countries have fought three wars since
they gained independence from Britain in 1947.
There is a reasonable solution to the West’s confrontation with Iran
Devil Is in the Details for Iran Nuclear Deal Anti War.com by Jasmin Ramsey, January 26,
2013 After a year of fruitless negotiations that are expected to resume soon, Iranian and U.S. experts are urging both sides to show more flexibility and make more concessions on its nuclear programme. Continue reading
Iran nuclear plant explosion? A case study in dubious reporting
Not for nothing have the major news organizations ignored Kahlili’s Fordow report. Beyond his questionable credibility, there is no supporting evidence. If a large explosion did occur at Fordow a week ago, why have no satellite photos appeared of dozens of vehicles on the site involved in rescue operations? And if there are 240 workers trapped underground, how come no worried relatives have expressed concern on one of the social networks? Iran may have a repressive regime, but tens of millions of citizens are connected to the Internet and are experts at evading the regime’s attempts to monitor and filter their communications. Something would have come out by now.
Who spread reports of an ‘explosion’ at Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant and why?
According to the report, the explosion in Fordow seriously damaged many of the centrifuges in the plant and trapped underground 240 employees who have yet to be rescued. But if this is true, why have the major news networks dismissed it?
Haaretz, By Anshel Pfeffer | Jan.27, 2013 The Internet has been abuzz over the last couple of days with an uncorroborated report regarding a huge explosion in the underground uranium enrichment plant at Fordow in Iran. According to the report, the explosion seriously damaged many of the centrifuges in the plant and trapped underground 240 employees who have yet to be rescued.
If this is true, it will be the most serious sabotage caused yet to the Iranian nuclear program. If this is true.
The main problem with the report is that no supporting evidence has appeared so far from any reliable sources to corroborate it, nor has a statements been released from an official source in Iran or any other country. All the main Western news organizations with contacts and sources in the intelligence community have steered well away from the story. (In Israel, only the tabloid Yedioth Ahronoth, which splashed the story on the front page of its Sunday edition, took notice of the story.)
Perhaps it’s the identity of the report’s author which leads to the disbelief: Reza Kahlili, an Iranian exile with an interesting past who is well known to many reporters covering intelligence and Iranian affairs. He published the report on the explosion, which apparently took place on Monday, the eve of the Israeli elections, on World News Daily, a veteran website with close contacts to the far-right in the United States. Kahlili himself is a frequent speaker at events organized by right-wing organizations and those that support the right in Israel. It’s not hard to realize why. In an interview he gave Haaretz two years ago, upon the publication of his book “A Time To Betray”, Kalili set out a worldview on Iran that was surprisingly similar to that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also compared the regime in Tehran to that of the Nazis, and called upon Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear installations…… Continue reading
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