Australia’s hidden atomic health and death toll
A powerful manuscript entitled “The Black Mist and its Aftermath — Oral Histories by Lallie Lennon” (2010) was submitted to the South Australian and federal governments as well as to the International Atomic Energy Agency
Now aged in her 80s, Lallie has never had her health issues properly investigated, much less received any compensation. She continues to suffer from the beta burn-related skin condition to this day.
Professor Sir Ernest Titterton, the duplicitous architect of nuclear testing in Australia, typified the official contempt for survivors when he dismissed the Black Mist event as a “scare campaign”.
More recently, the ultra-right wing Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt has repeated this line.
Australian atomic massacre still ignored http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/54394, June 29,
2013 By David T. Rowlands Nearly 60 years have passed since Totem 1, a British nuclear test in the Australian desert, was recklessly conducted in unfavourable meteorological conditions.
Nuclear testing of any sort, even in the most “controlled” of circumstances, is inherently abusive, a crime against the environment and humanity for countless generations to come. Yet the effects of Totem 1 were particularly bad, even by the warped standards of the era.
The mushroom cloud did not behave in the way it was supposed to. Instead of rising uniformly, part of it spread laterally, causing fallout to roll menacingly at ground level over a remote yet still populated corner of South Australia, sowing injury, illness and death in its wake.
The number of casualties is unknown because the secretive and unaccountable nuclear establishment has always declined to investigate the full impact of its own criminal negligence. But it has been suggested by investigators that perhaps 50 short-term Aboriginal fatalities resulted.
In addition to those who died, many others were exposed to harmful levels of radiation. The long-term health effects on these individuals have never been charted — but anecdotal reports of high cancer rates and horrendous birth defects in isolated “downwinder” communities have circulated.
At the time of the tests, it was well known by authorities that communities of Aboriginal people were close by. Yet the official attitude was that the concerns of a “handful of natives” could not be allowed to interfere with the “interests” of the British Commonwealth. Continue reading
Tony Abbott to remove carbon tax, but keep the compensation. Strange politics?
Tony Abbott’s vow to abolish the carbon tax but keep the compensation smacks of populist politics at its finest PAUL SYVRET THE COURIER-MAIL JULY 02, 2013 “…………On the carbon front, emissions from the electricity sector have been reduced by 7 per cent, although other factors, such as demand, contribute to this, while renewable energy use is up 30 per cent. Most of the new-generation energy being planned is renewable or gas fired, indicating the carbon price is doing what it is designed to do in terms of shaping long-term investment.
Not a bad effort, Australia. Take a bow.
Still Abbott perseveres (straight-faced) with his claim the looming election will be a referendum on carbon, despite polls indicating only one in three voters support the removal of the tax and its replacement by the Coalition’s nebulous “Direct Action” scheme.
In short, a price on carbon, which was Abbott’s preferred policy option until he saw a chance to use it as a wedge in his plot to topple former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull, is seen by all but a handful of economists as the most efficient way of reducing emissions.
It is a “Pigovian tax”, designed to change behaviour by penalising companies that generate what are called negative externalities, in this case, spewing greenhouse gases into an already warming globe.
As Harvard Professor of Economics Greg Mankiw put it in a 2009 paper: “The economics here is straightforward: emitting carbon into the atmosphere entails a negative externality. In absence of any policy, people will emit too much. The Pigovian policy response is to impose a tax on carbon emission. This will induce households and firms to internalise the carbon externality when deciding, for example, how much to drive, what kind of car to buy, how much electricity to use, what kind of electric power plant to build and so on.”
But no, the Abbott response is to declare again on national television over the weekend that not only would he axe the tax, but Australians would keep the compensation, the sort of addle-headed populism that must have more financially literate members of his team screaming in silent anguish……
This is at the same time the rest of the world is moving to price carbon, with some markets, such as Europe, already well established. Just last week US President Barack Obama took America a big step down the road with a decision to cap emissions for US power plants. California, with a larger economy than Australia, already has a cap-and-trade scheme.
What about here? We may well be left with a “policy” that is based on little more than blood oath obduracy and dog-whistling for the deniers. http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/tony-abbott8217s-vow-to-abolish-the-carbon-tax-but-keep-the-compensation-smacks-of-populist-politics-at-its-finest/story-fnihsr9v-1226672519966
Another wind farm for New South Wales’ Upper Lachlan
Plans for Upper Lachlan windfarm http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-01/plans-for-upper-lachlan-windfarm/4790626 Natalie Whiting Jul 1, 2013 There are plans to set up another wind farm in the Upper Lachlan Shire Council area. Newtricity is proposing to build up to 40 turbines at the proposed Biala Wind Farm, outside Crookwell.
The 30 million dollar project would be spread over two adjacent sites. Two options have been identified to connect the windfarm to an existing electricity terminal.Newtricity says it could connect to the existing Goulburn to Yass transmission line or to the line being used by the near by Gullen Range wind farm, which is being constructed.
The development would also involve building a substation and control buildings on site.The company’s submitted its proposal and its preliminary environmental assessment to the Department of Planning.
Japan adding offshore wind power to its existing wind energy systems
What is not well known is that Japan has considerable wind power, and that its string of wind turbines continued to function throughout the 2011 tsunami disaster.
Work starts on Fukushima floating project Wind Power Monthly 25 June 2013 by Martin Foster, JAPAN: Installation of wind turbines in the testing phase of the biggest offshore floating project to date will finally get under way this week, 20 kilometres off the coast of Fukushima. Two 2MW downwind floating turbines are scheduled to be towed from shipyards belonging to Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding in Chiba prefecture to Onahama port on 28 June, according to a new schedule released by Takeshi Ishihara a civil engineering professor at the University of Tokyo and technical adviser to the project…….
The cable is scheduled to be loaded on ship, laid and sunk in the seabed from the end of July until the end of August. It is planned to connect the cable some time in the month of August, with the project due to start generating power in mid-September.
The massive floating wind farm project, which is being developed by an 11-entity consortium lead by Marubeni Corporation, may eventually see 132 floating turbines come on line. It has been named Fukushima Mirai, literally the future of Fukushima, and has been planned as part of post-nuclear disaster recovery efforts in the area.
The project fulfils a ten-year dream for Ishihara.
“I feel that we have taken the first real step towards finally realising the dream I have embraced for the past ten years. I am really pleased,” he told Windpower Monthly. http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1187536/work-starts-fukushima-floating-project
Solar energy in Victoria continues to soar
Victoria’s Solar Electricity Production Soars http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3819, 2 July 13 Solar energy supplied 550 gigawatt-hours to Victoria in 2012 – 14 per cent of all renewable electricity – says the Clean Energy Council.
The CEC recently released its Renewable Energy in Victoria 2012 report; which provides an overview of Victoria’s electricity generation from renewable energy sources last year.
According to the report, the 550 gigawatt-hours figure was more than double solar’s contribution in 2011; which was 225 gigawatt-hours. In 2009, output was just 18 gigawatt-hours.
Installed solar panel capacity in 2012 in Victoria jumped from 270 megawatts to 418 megawatts. This was due to the uptake of home solar power, which accounted for all but 1 megawatt of installed capacity.
Uptake was spurred on by rapidly ballooning domestic power bills – and with more electricity price rises on the way; solar will likely continue to see solid gains.
While commercial solar installations were still a bit player last year, the CEC says low solar panel prices may see further uptake by the commercial sector during 2013.
The other renewable energy technology that saw significant increases in capacity and production last year was wind power. In 2012, Victoria’s wind farms generated 1674 gigawatt-hours, of clean electricity; up from 1280 gigawatt-hours in 2011.
The state’s 11 commercial wind farms over 1 MW in capacity generated enough electricity last year to provide the power needs of over 230,000 average Australian homes. Wind energy accounted for more than 27 per cent of Victoria’s renewable electricity generation capacity last year.
The report states Victoria’s installed renewable energy capacity has almost tripled since 2000, increasing from 668 megawatts to more than 1860 megawatts by the end of last year.
Victoria’s total renewable energy electricity generation was 3825 gigawatt-hours, in 2012; an increase of 874 gigawatt-hours, or nearly 30 per cent more than in 2011. The Renewable Energy in Victoria 2012 report was created with assistance from Sustainability Victoria. The full report can be downloaded here (PDF).
AUDIO: ABC Japan correspondent Mark Willacy tells the Fukushima story
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/06/27/3790863.htm?site=conversations Mark Willacy tells the story of the massive 2011 tsunami that rocked Japan, and the resulting catastrophe at the Fukushima nuclear power station. He’s been the ABC’s North Asia correspondent for some years, and won his second Walkley for his coverage of the 2011 Japan tsunami and nuclear disasters.The earthquake on 11 March 2011 was one of the largest ever recorded, and the resulting massive tsunami killed nearly 20,000 people.
The waves rolled over the walls of the Fukushima nuclear reactor, and the result was a meltdown and the ejection of radioactive material into the air.Mark reveals in his new book Fukushima why the catastrophe should not have happened.
Whistleblower Snowden speaks out, from Moscow
Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow Edward Joseph Snowden 1st July 2013 One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.
On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic “wheeling and dealing” over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.
This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.
For decades the United States of America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.
In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.
I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.
UK nuclear company salivates at the idea of making money in waste disposal
it is pretty stupid to keep on making radioactive trash, with no way to get rid of it
Nuclear waste: Clean-up Quandary.FT, By Sylvia Pfeifer, 1 July 13, More reactors are to be built but a permanent solution for high-level waste remains elusive …….
More than 50 years after the world’s first commercial nuclear power plants started operating in the UK and the US, the tens of thousands of tonnes of spent nuclear fuel in the world still has to find a permanent home.
The absence of a permanent solution for high-level waste is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry as it tries to recover from the deadly disaster at Japan’s Fukushima plant in 2011. Several governments scaled back their expansion plans, with Germany announcing plans to close all its reactors. The International Energy Agency last year predicted that global nuclear generating capacity would reach 580GW in 2035 – a 10 per cent drop from its forecast a year before.
Yet new reactors, and more waste, are not far off…..
Alvin Weinberg, an American nuclear pioneer, famously said that atomic power represents a Faustian bargain: a valuable source of electricity that carries with it an obligation to deal with the waste. “New nuclear should not go ahead until we have sorted out the waste problem,” says Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace, adding that the environmental organisation is “concerned about a new round of spent fuel set to be created”…..
“We have an obligation to get it right . . . We are like a shopfront for the nuclear industry,” admits Tony Price, brought in recently by Nuclear Management Partners (NMP),as the managing director of Sellafield Limited. “It’s time now to really focus on delivery,” he adds………
In the short term, the pressure is on NMP to deliver at Sellafield. Yet the potential prize is much bigger than just cleaning up one of the world’s most polluted sites. There are potential export contracts for companies involved in the decommissioning work and for west Cumbria it offers much-needed employment opportunities. Success at Sellafield would also mean success on a wider scale.http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/77c177ba-dcba-11e2-b52b-00144feab7de.html#axzz2XvB1ouop
Productivity Commission agrees: solar energy not the cause of high electricity prices
Productivity Commission Says ‘Go West’ For Solar http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3818 2 July 13, The Productivity Commission’s Electricity Network Regulatory Frameworks final inquiry report laments that not enough small scale solar power systems have been installed facing west.
The report states average electricity prices across Australia have risen by 70 per cent in real terms from June 2007 to December 2012 – but doesn’t point the finger at solar. It acknowledges what has been known for years; network costs in most states are the main culprit and offers a series of recommendations for addressing the issues. Continue reading
Victorian Electricity Distributors quietly move to sabotage new home solar installations
Electricity Distributors Cast Shadow over Solar 1 July 13, Victorian Electricity Distributors have quietly introduced new hurdles to the installation of grid connected solar systems. CitiPower and Powercor have both introduced a pre-approval process and criteria which are likely to result in many customers’ applications to install grid connected solar systems being rejected.
NECA Victoria Executive Director, Philip Green said “these criteria are likely to result in many rural customers being unable to connect to the grid while in urban areas customers will have their applications knocked back on the basis that there are too many existing solar systems in their area.”
“Your neighbours may all have grid connected solar, however the electricity distributors can knock you back – it seems to be a matter of first in, best dressed” said Mr Green. “In addition, these policies appear designed to hamper the spread of solar into the commercial and industrial sectors.”
The distributors justify their policies on the basis that grid connected solar has effects on power quality and network integrity issues.
“The community has suffered massive increases in electricity prices over recent years with much of this increase going to upgrade (some would say gold plate) the network” said Mr Green. “Unsurprisingly many consumers are looking to mitigate the high cost of electricity by installing solar and yet they’re being told that can’t connect to the network that they’ve helped pay to upgrade.”
“Distributors should not be at liberty to proceed and introduce restrictive policies that
will impede the community’s best efforts to help reduce its impact upon the environment,” said Mr Green.
The policies have not been widely communicated to either the community or sellers and installers of solar systems meaning that some customers who enter into sales contracts may never be able to conn ect to the grid. NECA also understand that other electricity distributors are likely to introduce similar policies.
Only last year, the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission released its Inquiry into Feed-in Tariffs & Barriers to Distributed Generation Final Report Power from the People. Neither this report nor the Victorian Government’s response to it canvassed or proposed policies like these. “We call upon the Victorian Government to intervene” said Mr Green.
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1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 