Australia: nuclear news this week
Nuclear wastes and the old dead High Flux nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights back in the news, as Federal Government plans (listed in Budget) to move these from South Sydney, for dumping on Aborignal land in the Northern Territory. This would clear the way for further nuclear development at Lucas Heights. Nobody seems to have thought of the idea of just stopping making this radioactive trash, importing radiopharmaceuticals made by non nuclear methods. Sydneysiders are anxious about the radioactive transport.
Federal Budget.
- Uranium miners squealing as the Federal Budget moves to stop the rorts on tax exempt exploration, (but they keep all their other perks, such as the fuel rebate).
- Nuke Dump gets $35.7m over 4 years.
- ANSTO gets $38.7m for decommissioning High Flux Nuclear Reactor and $8.1 m for increasing costs of running OPAL Nuclear Reactor
- ARPANSA Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency gets $ 7.8 m over four years
- Rum Jungle radioactive decontamination funds gets $1.5m this year.
- A mixed result for renewable energy and climate change action. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency survives, with funds deferred. The Clean Technology Programs did not receive rumoured cuts. It could have been worse – and certainly will be, if Abbott gets in, in September.
Uranium market gloom. .Underneath the hype of the future “uranium boom”, some analysts actually coming out now and predicting indefinite stagnation for Australia’s (and everybody’s) uranium industry.
Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations going on, in secret, in Lima, Peru. I bet you’re not hearing anything about this. So far, the Australian government has resisted conditions that would endanger the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, limit access to Internet material, and permit US corporations to over-ride Australian legislation, in investor-state dispute provisions. Australia is admired, as a model for resisting this. However, this could all change very quickly if the Liberal Coalition wins on September 14. You think that this is not nuclear-related? Well, I think that it’s related to everything!
Continuing cover-up of the seriousness of Fukushima radiation fallout
Fukushima Fallout Threat and Cover Up Continues . Veterans Today, 14 May 13, A new study in April of 2013 suggests that nuclear fallout from Fukushima in March of 2011 has led to significant elevated rates of congenital thyroid illness among infants born on the West Coast and Hawaii ~ keeping in mind that President Obama not only denied this threat but ordered the EPA to stop weekly & monthly testing for radiation in April of 2011: by Allen L Roland A creeping and never ending deadly fog of radiation, invisible to the eye but not to the immune system, continues to blanket the West Coast while its human cost is just beginning to be perceived.
“…….So what has the American government done to protect us? (According to the Washington Post)
” It has pressured the Japanese government to re-start its nuclear program, and is allowing Fukushima seafood to be sold in the U.S. And U.S. nuclear regulators actually weakened safety standards for U.S. nuclear reactors after the Fukushima disaster. And as we noted 6 months after Fukushima melted down: Americanand Canadian authorities have virtually stopped monitoring airborne radiation, and are not testing fish for radiation. (Indeed, the EPA reacted to Fukushima by raising “acceptable” radiation levels.)” See report ~
In other words, there is currently a concerted worldwide propaganda campaign to cover up the severity of the major nuclear fallout of Fukushima by raising acceptable levels of radiation and, in essence, saying that a little more radiation in your system is nothing to be concerned about.
The cover up regarding exposure to radiation especially applies to Japan itself. On December 20, 2012, a multi-professional symposium was held in Tokyo, and organized by Free Press Association of Japan, a non-profit organization. The symposium clearly illustrates that the issues 
of radioactive exposure are consideredtaboo on the Japanese media ~ as they most certainly are on the American main stream media. 7 minute video
In yet another example of growing corporate totalitarianism, we now have a worldwide conspiracy to suppress the radiation exposure of the ongoing Fukushima nuclear fallout. Led by Japan itself and reinforced by America’s plutocracy ~ much like the financial crisis, the gulf oil Spill, and all other major crises ~ we continue to cover up instead of address the real human problem, human cost and human consequences of these events, and that is the very definition of corporate totalitarianism.
In that regard, what did the leader of the free world, President Obama actually have to say regarding this disaster in 2011? Short true Video (with appropriate Photoshop allowance for hypocrisy)
Clearly, the situation regarding the Fukushima fallout is out of control ~ now that the fog of calculated deception is slowly lifting. As such, the US needs to be forced to lead the way in rallying international support for the crippled plant for it’s obviously more than Japan can handle itself. A Senate investigation would be a first step in facing the reality of Fukushima fallout as well as its ongoing threat. Please continue to circulate thispetition ~
Only the united will of the people in action can block the gears of an out of control plutocracy along with the abuse of corporate totalitarianism but now, in regards to Fukushima, our very lives are at stake. http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/05/14/fukushima-fallout-threat-and-cover-up-continues/
Australia’s old dead reactor and radioactive trash to make way for more nuclear development?
Australia should shut down Lucas Heights and stop making radioactive trash
Nuclear waste on the move in clean-up http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nuclear-waste-on-the-move-in-cleanup-20130515-2jmu5.html#ixzz2TV9sbj00 May 16, 2013 Heath Aston Radioactive waste and parts of Australia’s oldest nuclear reactor will be trucked out of Sydney under plans to clean up the Lucas Heights nuclear facility and develop a national hazardous-waste dump in the outback.
But residents in Sydney’s south are concerned at the prospect of having radioactive 
material transported past their homes.
They believe the dismantling and removal of the 1960s-era ”high-flux Australian reactor” and spent fuel rods is a bid to clear the way for further development at Lucas Heights and the production of more dangerous waste.
The plan to move the retired reactor, switched on by former prime minister Robert Menzies in 1958 and taken out of service in 2007, emerged in the budget papers.
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, which manages Lucas Heights, has been given $28.7 million to prepare for the move. The four-year funding package will pay for ”pre-disposal conditioning of existing radioactive waste in preparation for long-term storage and disposal, and for the clean-up of buildings and infrastructure containing hazardous materials” at Lucas Heights.
Separately, the government has put $35.7 million into securing a site to become the nation’s repository for radioactive material. It will host waste from Lucas Heights and may provide the state government with a destination for contaminated soil from the former uranium smelter site at Hunters Hill.
An area at Muckaty, 800 kilometres south of Darwin, is the government’s preferred site after it struck an agreement with the Northern Land Council. But development of the semi-arid claypan site is bogged down in a legal challenge by some traditional owners. The budget papers do not identify Muckaty specifically, but a spokesman for Resources and Energy Minister Gary Gray said Muckaty, 100 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, remained the only location under consideration.
Within four years a facility that could centralise waste from Lucas Heights, and 100 or so other industrial and medical waste facilities, would be ready for construction. An ANSTO spokesman confirmed the plan to move the reactor and waste. The load will include fuel rods due to arrive in Botany Bay for transportation back to Lucas Heights after they were reprocessed at a nuclear facility in France.
Local resident groups who supported a previous plan to encase the reactor in concrete will meet ANSTO management in Engadine in the next few days.
Uranium price could stagnate at low levels, for years
Now here’s an unusual item from the Australian business pages. Instead of the usual big talking up of the future for Australia’s uranium companies, – darned if one investment writer hasn’t told it like IT IS!
Uranium on the nose, The Motley Fool By Mike King – May 16, 2013 More than 26 months after the nuclear accident at Fukushima, Japan, the nuclear industry is still feeling the effects with depressed uranium prices and cost pressures that are squeezing margins……
The price for uranium has fallen 40% since Fukushima to US$40 a pound, as Japan suspended its fleet of nuclear plants, while Germany…
….. the uranium price could stagnate at current levels for many years, much like it did after previous nuclear incidents. Japan may not restart its reactors, preferring instead to seek other energy alternatives, and reactors currently under construction could still be cancelled or postponed.
That is not good news for ASX listed uranium miners Paladin, Energy Resources of Australia (ASX: ERA), Toro Energy (ASX: TOE) or Deep Yellow Limited (ASX: DYL). http://www.fool.com.au/2013/05/16/uranium-on-the-nose/
AUDIO: Anxiety for Sutherland Shire over Lucas Heights’ radioactive trash
they should shut down this factory for producing radioactive trash
Nuclear future unclear for Lucas Heights. http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2013/05/16/3760616.htm?
site=sydney By John Donegan, 16 May, 2013 702 ABC Sydney Morning presenter Linda Mottram discusses the future of the Lucas Heights nuclear facility with Sutherland Shire mayor Kent Johns. While the permanent site for a national nuclear waste storage facility is mired in the courts, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation [ANSTO] is required to store processed waste materials at the Lucas Heights facility in Sydney.
Australia’s pharmaceutical benefits, Internet rights, at risk in secretive TPP negotiations
Audio The secret trade deal that could let multinationals sue states ’ http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/trade-talks/4689004 RN Breakfast Presented by Fran Kelly 14 May 2013 Cathy Van Extel The latest round of negotiations for the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership starts today in Lima, Peru. The TPP is a multinational trade deal involving 12 countries, including the US and Australia, and if finalised it will account for 40 per cent of the global economy. Cathy Van Extel reports that the 
outcome of the Australian federal election is likely to have a big impact on the terms of the deal. The latest round of negotiations for the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership is kicking off in the Peruvian capital of Lima today.
The TPP is a multinational trade deal involving 12 countries including the US and Australia. If finalised it’ll account for 40 per cent of the global economy.
The trade talks are heavily shrouded in secrecy—and critics are concerned the TPP will benefit multinational corporations at the expense of existing labour and social protections.
The US has been pushing for an agreement by October this year and the Australian federal election is likely to have a big impact on the terms of the major trade deal. The wide ranging trade deal has been under negotiation since 2010 behind closed doors, and that’s a worry for critics like Jane Kelsey, professor of law from the University of Auckland and an activist academic.
She says it’s being rushed through with no public scrutiny.There’s going to be a huge amount of political pressure brought to bear on the negotiators in this round because they have set an informal deadline for signing a deal, or at least something, at the APEC leaders’ meeting in Bali in October,’ Professor Kelsey says. ‘However, the negotiations are still stuck on a number of key points and so there will be quite a bit of public posturing and quite a lot of pressure behind the scenes.’ Continue reading
97% of scientific opinion supports human-caused global warming: no real “debate” on the science
Not much climate change doubt, science says : http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/not-much-climate-change-doubt-science-says-20130515-2jmup.html#ixzz2TV6hLn4F Peter Hannam Carbon economy editor, 16 May 13,
Having doubts over climate change and the role of humans? You’re unlikely to find many scientists who share your uncertainty. That is the finding of a University of Queensland-led study that surveyed the abstracts of almost 12,000 scientific papers from 1991-2011 and claims to be the largest peer-reviewed study of its kind. Of those who a stated a position on the evidence for global warming, 97.1 per cent endorsed the view that humans are to blame. Just 1.9 per cent rejected the view.
The report’s lead author, John Cook, a fellow at the University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute and founder of the website skepticalscience.com, said the scientific consensus was overwhelming, growing and had been around since the early 1990s.
He said that while the number of papers rejecting the consensus was “vanishingly small”, his research suggested the public was under the impression the debate was split 50-50. Continue reading
No international law against TEPCO dumping tons of radioactive water into ocean!
‘Absurd’: Intentionally dumping Fukushima nuclear material into ocean from land “is not considered dumping” — Allowed under international law? http://enenews.com/absurd-intentionally-dumping-fukushima-nuclear-material-ocean-land-considered-dumping-allowed-international-law
Source: Oceanus
Author: David Pacchioli
Date: May 6, 2013
The Fukushima disaster is without precedent and will have unprecedented impacts on future policies governing the ocean, both Japanese and international.
[…] the Fukushima accident has revealed some key shortcomings in international law, said Kentaro Nishimoto, who teaches law of the sea at Tohoku University. To illustrate, he used an incident that has brought sharp criticism from Japan’s neighbors: the intentional release of radioactive water into the sea.
[…] Nishimoto said, the relevant international laws proved to be nonbinding. In particular, he noted, the London Convention on marine pollution, although it expressly prohibits ocean dumping of radioactive material, limits these restrictions to vessels at sea. Release of materials from land is not considered dumping.
“When I tell this to people outside the field of international law, the reaction I get is, ‘This is absurd,’ ” Nishimoto acknowledged. […]
See also: Bloomberg: Increasing risk that Fukushima radioactive waste being dumped into Pacific Ocean
An American soldier recalls Vivian Bullwinkel, and warns about a nuclear-armed Japan
Sister Bullwinkel and a Nuclear Japan, May 15, 2013 By Major Van Harl USAF Ret Wisconsin –(Ammoland.com)- Vivian Bullwinkel was a young Lieutenant in the Australian Army Nursing Service…… Bullwinkel hid her wound because she knew, if the Japanese found out she had survived the Bangka Island Massacre of twenty-one Army nurses, she would be shot. You cannot leave witnesses when you commit atrocities. Wartime atrocities were committed by the Japanese through out the Pacific region of WW II. Today’s problem is Japan is working hard to re-write history…..
Now North Korea has nuclear weapons and Japan is getting very worried. If Japan changes its constitution and builds up an offensive military they will take their world class missiles that we know about and marry them to their world class nukes that we act like we do not know about.They will then become a first world player in the nuclear game and the US is obligated by treaty to defend Japan if it is attacked.
Is a nuclear armed Japan really a good thing even if they are supposed to be our best ally in that part of the world?…. If they amend their constitution and go nuclear that is a game changer as far as I am concerned. The US should not be obligated to defend Japan if they push too hard and start a shooting war just so they can save “face” dealing with China. http://www.ammoland.com/2013/05/sister-bullwinkel-and-a-nuclear-japan/#ixzz2TVN7CNqo
Greens leader Milne confident of renewable energy future, despite Labor’s “green cuts”
Milne blasts cuts to green schemes, BY:LAUREN WILSON , The Australian May 16, 2013 GREENS leader Christine Milne remains confident the legislated carbon package can drive the economic transition from coal to renewable energy, despite the “deep cuts” Labor made in its budget to green schemes and the slump in the European carbon price.
Senator Milne accused Labor of “reneging” on the agreement it reached with the Greens and the regional independents through the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee, by making cutbacks of $685 million to renewable energy and energy-efficiency programs, as well as slashing $257m from the Biodiversity Fund.
“The Labor Party cannot be trusted with this critical area of transition to a low-carbon economy,” she said.
But despite declaring the cuts a “disgrace”, Senator Milne said the climate package legislated after the MPCCC clinched a deal in 2011 “will be effective into the future” despite the plummeting European carbon price and the cut to renewables funding. “Quite outside what this parliament does, the fact is that the technology for renewables is becoming cheaper and what we are seeing is greater competition for renewables,” she said.
Senator Milne, who has previously noted a high carbon price and significant and sustained investment in renewable energy would be essential to drive the transition away from brown coal, said: “I’m hoping that if the European price gets back to the floor price, $15 in 2015, then we’ll be on track, and with the technology prices coming down,” she said.
The minor party leader called on Tony Abbott to block the funding cuts to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency…. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/treasury/milne-blasts-cuts-to-green-schemes/story-fnhi8df6-1226643419221
TEPCO keeps Fukushima nuclear accident “Black Box” secret
TEPCO Withholds “Black Box” Data About Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Simply Info, May 13th, 2013 In April of 2010 TEPCO signed a contract with high tech security company Magna BSP to provide asophisticated video and trespass detection system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. This was the first installation of what was to be a series of similar installations at nuclear plants around Japan, coordinated between the government and nuclear operators. The system was installed at Fukushima Daiichi in 2010
Two TEPCO workers who were trained on the system weeks before the disaster were confirmed to have been among the Fukushima 50 who stayed at the plant during the worst of the disaster. To date TEPCO has not acknowledged the existence of the system or volunteered any of the video and data captured by the system to the public or the press. This data was never taken into account by any of the investigations into the disaster that commenced in 2011 and 2012.
This system holds critical data that could shed light on many of the early events at the plant. It should be made public in an unedited and usable format asap.
The Technology:
The sophisticated technology provided by Magna BSP would have been capable of recording through a variety of drastic conditions at the plant. Most security systems consist of durable cameras and sensors that send data to a central computer system that records and distributes the imagery and other data………
The Issue:
These security systems exist and were in operation at the plant at the time of the disaster. The head of the company confirms the system likely survived all or most of the early disaster and recorded information during that time. The equipment that recorded the data would have survived even under the worst of scenarios and would be recoverable even if damage to the data center occurred.
This data should be made public in an unedited and usable format asap. The existence or lack thereof of any data from these systems should be independently verified. Not just for the exclusive use of the select favored press as TEPCO did with much of the teleconference video but made publicly available to all immediately. This critical information should be made part of all post disaster investigations as they were denied this important information during their work……. http://www.simplyinfo.org/?p=10359
Australia’s disarmament double-speak
As former prime minister Malcolm Fraser writes in the foreword, Australia “should use our position on the UN Security Council to help lead the push for negotiations on a treaty to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons”.1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 