Reckless and radioactive: Ranger uranium project must close
Australian Greens spokesperson on nuclear issues, Senator Scott Ludlam. 9 December 2013. Today in senate question time, Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam asked the Environment Minister’s representative about the massive spill of 1.4 million litres of radioactive acid at the Ranger Uranium Mine.
In response to the Government’s feeble and evasive answers, Senator Ludlam has submitted a detailed log of questions to Commonwealth environmental regulators and has called for the closure of the mine.
“The Minister representing the Environment Minister played down the events over the weekend and the on-going leakage and contamination problems at the Ranger mine.
“In fact this mine has an atrocious track record with more than 150 spills, leaks and license breaches since it opened in 1981. Just a few weeks ago a contaminated vehicle was somehow allowed out of the site. In 2004 workers drank and showered in water laced with uranium. I revealed through Senate Estimates that water with uranium concentrations 5400 times background and a cocktail of other radionuclides are seeping from beneath the tailings dam at Ranger.
“This mine must halt operations until an independent assessment can be completed. In addition, there should be there should be no handing over of federal powers to assess and approve uranium mining projects to state or Territory governments.
“ERA and its hapless regulators must now bring forward plans for the orderly closure of this mine, and entertain no further proposals for extending the life of this clapped out mine.”
Senator Ludlam’s Question Without Notice in Question Time today:http://scott-ludlam.greensmps.org.au/content/questions-without-notice/questions-asked-about-1-million-litres-radioactive-acid-spilled-ran
Senator Ludlam’s Question on Notice to the Environment Minister:http://scott-ludlam.greensmps.org.au/content/questions-notice/detailed-questions-nuclear-disaster-ranger-uranium-mine
Aboriginal opposition is likely to finish off Ranger uranium project
Major uranium leak endangers Kakadu – but played down Indymedia Australia, 9 Dec 13;Gerry Georgatos – courtesy of The Stringer –http://thestringer.com.au/ – A million litres of radioactive slurry has contaminated Kakadu National Park from a burst tank at Ranger uranium mine. It is a significant toxic accident but it has surprisingly generated relatively minimal news coverage. It took the local Traditional Owners to break the news to Australia.
Distrust of Japan’s government as new secrecy law is enacted
Risk of losing public’s ‘tolerance’, Reader Mail, Japan Times 6 Dec 13 GRANT PIPER Tokyo Regarding the Dec. 2 article “Secrecy law protests ‘act of terrorism‘: LDP secretary general”: Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba’s comments that street protesters voicing opposition to the new state secrets bill by shouting it in public demonstrations are doing something “not so fundamentally different from an act of terrorism” confirms in my mind the direction that Japan’s conservative government is headed.
That direction is to silence opposition by criminalizing criticism of the leadership. It will include not only journalistic and the political opposition’s critiques of government policy and behavior but also comedic parody and satire as well as treatment of the state and government in the arts — letters, music and graphic arts. Continue reading
Investigative journalism now “criminal” under new Japanese law
Basically, anything can be a secret […] administrators can make the opaque decisions to classify a document even if their work hardly relates to national security. That effectively allows them to hide any embarrassing piece of evidence, and then pursue the journalists and bloggers who make it public
Japan enacts state secrets law late Friday night amid revolt — “It criminalizes investigative journalism” — Terrorism defined as “imposing one’s opinions on others”http://enenews.com/secrets-law-passes-late-friday-night-amid-revolt-mushrooming-opposition-it-criminalizes-investigative-journalism-terrorism-defined-as-imposing-ones-opinions-on-others-protesto Japan Times, , Dec. 6, 2013: Following political turmoil that rocked the Diet over the past week, ruling block Upper House members finally enacted the contentious state secrets bill late Friday night. Earlier in the day, opposition parties intensified their protests in vain over a law that’s being criticizing for not creating an independent oversight body capable of preventing the government from hiding inconvenient information at its discretion.
Businessweek, Dec. 6, 2013: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe secured final passage of a bill granting Japan’s government sweeping powers to declare state secrets, a measure aimed at shoring up defense ties with the U.S. that prompted a public backlash and revolt by the opposition. Continue reading
Unease in share market over ERA’s Ranger uranium mine
it is unclear whether the [Rio Tinto]current leadership, which last month announced the closure of the loss-making Gove Alumina Refinery in the Northern Territory, will continue to show such strong support for a struggling mine with so many environmental and indigenous issues.
ERA shares facing pressure over uranium leak, SMH, Peter Ker, December 9, 2013 Rio Tinto’s hopes of reviving its majority-owned Ranger uranium mine have been dealt another blow by the leak of toxic substances on Saturday….
… Shares in the Rio Tinto subsidiary that operates the mine – Energy Resources of Australia – are traded on the ASX and may come under pressure on Monday morning as federal and Northern Territory regulators conduct investigations.
Processing of uranium has been halted on site until the clean-up and testing can be completed and, with some fearing that halt could last weeks, the market will be keen to know if ERA will need to buy uranium on the market to ensure it can meet its supply contracts.
ERA shares have traded around $1.30 over the past five to six weeks and most of the value in the stock is attached to hopes of starting a new underground uranium mine beneath the Ranger pits, which ceased mining last year after more than three decades.
The underground development is still being explored and will face a heavy load of approvals before it is allowed to proceed. Continue reading
AUDIO on the cover-up of the seriousness of the Fukushima nuclear disaster
The Fukushima Coverup: “Biggest Industrial Catastrophe in the History of Mankind” Global Research News Hour Episode 46. Conversations with Yoichi Shimatsu and Hatrick Penry By Michael Welch Global Research, December 07, 2013
LISTEN TO THE SHOW Length (59:20) Click to download the audio (MP3 format)
“……….The guests on this week`s Global Research News Hour speak of cover-up. Yoichi Shimatsuspoke to the Global Research News Hour about the misleading statements coming from the Japanese government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) about the explosions from March of 2011, the radiative effects, and the secretive role of Fukushima as a storage site for Plutonium and nuclear weapons.
Hatrick Penry goes even further. Penry utilizes documents disclosed from unimpeachable documentary sources, attained through Freeedom of Information requests, to show that much more radiation was released into the atmosphere than is generally recognized.
Moreover, the exercise of removing spent fuel rods from a waste pool at Fukushima`s Unit 4 would seem to be a fabrication.
Mainstream media and government officials have apparently done a better job containing the truth of the Fukushima disaster, than they have the radio-active debris the catastrophe has generated.
THe Fukushima cover-up is about more than mendacious and criminal behaviour on the part of corporate and government officials. It shines a spotlight on the power and clout of the trans-national nuclear industry, and how they co-opt not only media, but whole sectors of economic and military endeavour.
Yoichi Shimatsu is a veteran investigator and former editor of the Japan Times Weekly. He has travelled to the fukushima exclusion Zone on several occasions since the accident.
Hatrick Penry is otherwise known as Tony Muga. He uncovered documents revealed through Freedom of Information requests with which he essentially discredits current and ongoing claims about the state of the facility. His site is http://hatrickpenry.wordpress.com
US corporations can see Trans-Pacific Partnership text, but Australian Senate can’t!
Secrecy surrounds Trans-Pacific Partnership talks : http://www.smh.com.au/national/secrecy-surrounds-transpacific-partnership-talks-20131208-2yzea.html#ixzz2n02wqzej December 9, 2013 Peter Martin Economics correspondent The government has refused the Senate access to the secret text of the trade deal it is negotiating in Singapore, saying it will only be made public after it has been signed.
As the final round of ministerial talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership resumed on Sunday, Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote to each of the 12 
participating nations warning that the deal and the secrecy surrounding it presented ”grave risks”.
Australia’s delegate, Trade Minister Andrew Robb, has told Fairfax Media he is prepared to agree to so-called ”investor-state dispute settlement provisions” in return for access to markets including those of the US, Japan and Canada.
The provisions, rejected by the previous Labor government, allow foreign corporations to sue sovereign governments. Continue reading
Access to hospital blocked, where 6 patients may be radioactively contaminated
Federal police blocked access Friday to hospital where the six were held
Mexico Police Block Hospital Where 6 May Have Radiation Exposure In Wake Of Theft HUFFINGTON POST, By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and E. EDUARDO CASTILLO 12/06/13 06:MEXICO CITY (AP) — Six people being tested for possible radiation exposure in a hospital in central Mexico are suspects in the theft of highly radioactive cobalt-60, a government official said Friday.
The official said the six were arrested Thursday and taken to the general hospital in Pachuca for observation and testing for radiation exposure. Continue reading
Doubts on the future of ERA’s Ranger uranium project
Investigation as radioactive leak leaves Ranger uranium mine under a cloud SMH, Lucy Battersby and Peter Ker December 9, 2013 The future of Australia’s oldest uranium mine is under renewed scrutiny, after a tank holding more than a million litres of radioactive slurry burst at the weekend, sparking a federal investigation.
The accident prompted traditional land owners to describe the Ranger uranium mine as a ”hillbilly operation” with too little regulation. The mine has a history of safety breaches and unions have raised concerns about maintenance standards at the 33-year-old operation…… Continue reading
Lucas Heights reactor medical Isotopes
1998 Both ANSTO and the government have sought to cloak rational discussion about the costs and benefits of a reactor under a dishonest claim that the reactor is vital for nuclear medicine. In fact medical isotopes can be easily obtained from a global market which already supplies many Australian hospitals.
a senior government bureaucrat who was quoted on the same ABC radio program saying: “The government decided to push the whole health line, and that included appealing to the emotion of people. … So it was reduced to one point, and an emotional one at that. They never tried to argue the science of it, the rationality of it”.ABC radio on March 29, 1998
The medical isotope rhetoric has become so implausible that the government is itself backing away from it. The parliamentary Public Works Committee produced a bipartisan report in August 1999 which said: “A number of organisations and individuals challenged the need for a research reactor based on a requirement to produce medical radiopharmaceuticals. … The Committee recognises that this issue has not been resolved satisfactorily.”
In fact, a nuclear reactor is likely to commit Australia decisively to the “nuclear club” by ensuring a seat on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA regulates the world’s nuclear industry and is also the world’s biggest promoter of nuclear energy.
It is unclear how our national interest is served by participating in the global spread of nuclear energy with its associated risks and waste problems. Professor McKinnon, who carried out the government’s 1993 Reactor Review, agreed, stating: “There may be national advantages in not being so closely associated with IAEA stances.”http://www.foe.org.au/anti-nuclear/issues/oz/lh/articles
Cyclotrons have important advantages over nuclear reactors in relation to radioactive waste and safety, and cyclotrons pose no risk in relation to weapons proliferation. The underlying reason for these advantages is that cyclotrons are powered by electricity, whereas research reactors rely on a uranium fission reaction.
Tax office investigating “charity” status of anti-wind farm group
Tax office deciding if anti-wind farm group Waubra is a charity SMH, December 9, 2013 Madeleine Heffernan The tax office is deciding whether an anti-wind farm group linked to former Liberal MPs should retain its favourable tax treatment.
The Waubra Foundation has been classified a ”health promotion charity” by the tax office, meaning its ”principal activity is promoting the prevention and control of disease in humans”.
It has also been granted deductible gift recipient status by the Australian Taxation Office, and donations of more than $2 to it are tax-deductible…….
Donations to Waubra have helped fund legal challenges against wind farm developments.
Former health minister Michael Wooldridge is a director of Waubra, and former MP Alby Schultz is its patron.
The foundation says its main aim is to ”educate others about the known science relating to the adverse health impacts of infrasound and low-frequency noise.”
The health effects of wind farms has become an increasingly vexed question in the countryside, where there are dozens of farms operated by companies including AGL and Origin Energy.
Sydney academic Simon Chapman says the number of health problems linked to wind farms has reached 216. He has argued that bad publicity about the farms makes it more likely people will report feeling sick around them.
”Wind turbine syndrome” – health problems ranging from headaches, dizziness and insomnia, purportedly the result of the turbines’ low-frequency sounds – is not recognised as a medical condition……..
A spokesman for Greens senator Richard Di Natale expected the review into Waubra’s status by the tax office and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission to be finished this month.
The tax office has refused to comment, but described Waubra’s situation as ”curious”.
In a recent Senate Estimates, Senator Di Natale asked how the tax office determined that an illness a group purported to prevent was actually an illness.
Tony Poulakis, the ATO’s assistant commissioner, small and medium enterprise, replied: ”I have to admit to not knowing the procedure in which we made those determinations well enough to answer your question.”
Chris Jordan, ATO commissioner, responded that ”It does sound a curious situation, but we will certainly take that on notice.”http://www.smh.com.au/business/tax-office-deciding-if-antiwind-farm-group-waubra-is-a-charity-20131208-2yzdk.html#ixzz2n0iIozkH
Waubra Foundation calls South Australian Environment Protection Authority “corrupt”
Waubra Foundation attacks EPA Shannon Twomey Weekly Times, December 3, 2013 THE Waubra Foundation labels the South Australian Environment Protection Authority corrupt and is calling for an external inquiry.
The anti-wind farm group attacked SA EPA over its Waterloo Wind Farm Noise Study findings which were conducted during April and June. The results were released on November 26.
The study found the Waterloo Wind Farm meets relevant SA and international standards and there was no evidence linking the noise from the wind farm to adverse impacts on residents.
But in a letter sent yesterday to South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill, Waubra Foundation chief executive Sarah Laurie said the EPA staff involved in the study were deliberately attempting to corrupt the data and mislead residents.
…….The letter concludes with five “necessary actions” that Ms Laurie has urged from the Premier including an immediate external public inquiry into the SA EPA to investigate breaches of integrity, respect and accountability.
SA EPA’s operations director of science, assessment and planning Peter Dolan said noise from the Waterloo Wind Farm did not breach EPA guidelines.
He said infrasound levels from the wind farm were below the internationally threshold for perception and in many cases analyses of audio records and data were unable to demonstrate associations with events described in noise diaries……http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2013/12/03/590978_national-news.html
Bernie Fraser calls on Australian to keep the Climate Change Authority
Bernie Fraser criticises axing of Climate Change Authority The Age Tom Arup 9 Dec 13, Former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser has called on the government to retain an independent climate advisory body as it unwinds Labor carbon policy. He challenged the government’s claims that it could get similar climate advice from other public servants.
The Climate Change Authority chairman said he was frustrated and disappointed that the government was giving up a chance to receive ”good, independent advice”.
The Abbott government wants to axe the authority as part of its repeal of the carbon tax. It also wants to shut the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation…….Mr Fraser said public servants did good work, but did not have the freedom and opportunity to deliver well-considered, independent advice in the manner of the authority, Reserve Bank or Productivity Commission.
”On a subject as complex as climate change, I would have thought every government – whatever its complexion – would want to get good independent advice,” he said.
”I find it a bit frustrating this opportunity … seems to be foreclosing a bit with the present government………….Mr Fraser’s comments follow those of Clean Energy Finance Corporation chairwoman Jillian Broadbent urging the government to re-think its plans to axe that institution. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bernie-fraser-criticises-axing-of-climate-change-authority-20131208-2yzey.html#ixzz2n0g3Af2Os a disappointment.”
Unfounded optimism of Australia’s uranium industry?
Major uranium leak endangers Kakadu – but played down Indymedia Australia, 9 Dec 13;Gerry Georgatos – courtesy of The Stringer –http://thestringer.com.au/ :……….Multinational resource companies have invested in uranium sections to their companies – with huge financial capital dropped into research and development. One insider in a uranium section of a resource company said that the resource industry have sited more than 40 potential uranium mining sites alone in Western Australia, and that the Northern Territory, South Australia and Northern Territory are being further canvassed. He said that the industry, supported by Australian Governments, current and future, is not concerned about any resistance from Aboriginal communities.
“Uranium is the oil and gas, the gold of the future, maybe even blood diamonds.”
“There’ll be protesters but they won’t get in the way. Did the Jabiluka protestors really get in our way. The future is nuclear, not renewable, that’s a secondary industry, not primary. Indigenous communities will consent and sign off deals, just like the Martu (Western Australia). That’s the way it goes.”…….http://indymedia.org.au/2013/12/09/major-uranium-leak-endangers-kakadu-but-played-down
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 