South Aust election: Mr Van Den Brink candidate for Fisher opposes import of nuclear wastes
By Dennis Matthews, 11 Mar 14 Three to four weeks ago I sent a questionnaire to the candidates in Fisher. Of the five candidates only Bob Such and Daryl Van Den Brink responded.
On the issue of expanding the nuclear industry in South Australia, both candidates wanted more debate on nuclear power and uranium enrichment but Mr Van Den Brink was opposed to importing nuclear waste.
In relation to electricity, Mr Van Den Brink supported the feed-in tariff for electricity from solar cells, tighter regulation of the electricity network business, and government incentives for energy efficient homes. He opposed making exporters of solar electricity pay more for the electricity network or higher tariff for users of air conditioners. Dr Such considered that the National Electricity Market needed an overhaul.
Dr Such opposed recent changes to the South Australian Electoral Act but Mr Van Den Brink opposed only the increased nomination fees.
Neither candidate supported an official apology to Aboriginal people for past injustices. Mr Van Den Brink wanted more debate, whilst Dr Such supported alternative measures.
Australia’s Liberal and Labor both two-faced on nuclear disarmament
Australia’s nuclear question mark , The Age 11 Mar 14“……Australia’s continuing position on disarmament is a curiously oblique one. As The Age reported on Monday, Australian diplomats worked intensively behind the scenes to frustrate a New Zealand-led 125-nation joint statement at the United Nations last October. Australia took objection to one sentence in the statement, calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons, which said: ”It is in the interest of the very survival of humanity that nuclear weapons are never used again, under any circumstances.”
As declassified material from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade reveals, Australia’s lobbying failed to persuade New Zealand to remove the reference to ”under any circumstances”……..
Irresponsible to send Fuushima residents home
Fukushima disaster: Plan to send residents home three years after nuclear accident labelled ‘irresponsible’ ABC News By North Asia correspondent Matthew Carney 11 Mar 14 A nuclear industry insider has told the ABC that the situation at the stricken Fukushima reactor is still not under control, three years after the disaster there.
Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe has announced he wants 30,000 residents to return to their homes and the reactors to be switched back on within two years.
But a Fukushima insider and two former prime ministers have told the ABC’s 7.30 program that such a move would be irresponsible. At the risk of losing his job if his identity is revealed, a senior TEPCO staffer, who has worked at the Fukushima plant for more than 20 years, says the situation at the reactor is not under control and no-one knows how to fix the problem.
“There are too many systems and they all have problems,” he said “For example, too many water tanks with too many lines – it’s very difficult to operate. It’s made worse because all the experienced workers have reached their radiation limits, so TEPCO has to rely on staff that don’t know the site and who aren’t trained.” The whistleblower says mistakes are made weekly, and contaminated water leaks into the Pacific Ocean every day.
“The other day when contaminated water overflowed from a tank, an alarm was ringing but they didn’t go and check. I couldn’t believe it. It was ringing for nine hours and they thought the alarm was out of order.”
The insider says the damaged reactors can never be decontaminated and that people should not be moved back into the no-go zone, a 20-kilometre exclusion area around Fukushima.,,,,,,,http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-10/plan-to-send-residents-back-to-fukushima-meets-opposition/5311046
Environmentalists call on NSW govt to ban uranium exploration
NSW urged to ban uranium exploration, 9 News 11 Mar 14, Environmentalists are calling for a ban on uranium exploration across NSW, after elevated levels of the metal were found inside an aquifer near a coal seam gas site. While the contamination was not linked to uranium exploration, Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation says it should serve as a wake-up call to the state government on the risks associated with the radioactive metal.
He says there have been cases of water being contaminated with uranium 400 times the safe drinking levels at mines across the country.
“(Uranium exploration) threatens the most important resources that sustain life in this state and on this continent,” he told AAP on Tuesday.
Mr Sweeney is calling for Premier Barry O’Farrell to ditch any plans for uranium exploration or mining in the state. n 2012, Mr O’Farrell repealed a 26-year-old ban on uranium exploration, saying the state would be stupid to turn a blind eye to the revenue that it could generate.
But Mr Sweeney says the economic and employment benefits of uranium mining have been “consistently exaggerated”.
“It is high risk and it is low return,” he said.
NSW’s Environment Protection Authority issued a $1500 fine to energy giant Santos last month following a “pollution incident” at the company’s Narrabri Gas Field operations in the Pilliga……..http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2014/03/11/11/07/nsw-urged-to-ban-uranium-exploration
Global entrenched nuclear bureaucracy lets Japan produce plutonium
So far, Japan’s pursuit of its ambitious plutonium program — using nuclear fuel and technology provided partly by the United States — has mostly been greeted by public silence among government officials in allied capitals.
After spending tens of billions of dollars and decades on breeder-related programs, Tom Cochran said, countries find it hard to pull the plug. “You have an entrenched bureaucracy and an entrenched research and development community and commercial interests invested in breeder technology, and these guys don’t go away,” Cochran said. “They’re believers … and they’re not going to give up. The really true believers don’t give up.
A world awash in a nuclear explosive? Japan is leading a global move towards dangerous reactors fueled by plutonium, Thomas Cochran and other experts say By Douglas BirchemailR. Jeffrey Smith, Center for Public Integrity WASHINGTON 10 Mar 14, — A generation after Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the world is rediscovering the attractions of nuclear power to curb the warming pollution of carbon fuels. And so a new industry focused on plutonium-based nuclear fuel has begun to take shape in the far reaches of Asia, with ambitions to spread elsewhere — and some frightening implications, if Thomas Cochran is correct A Washington-based physicist and nuclear contrarian, Cochran helped kill a vast plutonium-based nuclear industrial complex back in the 1970s, and now he’s at it again — lecturing at symposia, standing up at official meetings, and confronting nuclear industry representatives with warnings about how commercializing plutonium will put the public at enormous risk.
Where the story ends isn’t clear. But the stakes are large. The impetus for Cochran’s urgent new campaign — supported by a growing cadre of arms control and proliferation experts — is a seemingly puzzling decision by Japan to ready a new $22 billion plutonium production plant for operation as early as October.
The plant will provide fuel for scores of special reactors resembling those canceled in America a generation ago. . Critics of the Japanese project worry that its completion in just a few months will create a crucial beachhead for longtime nuclear advocates who claim that plutonium, a sparkplug of nuclear weapons, can provide a promising civilian path to carbon-free energy.
According to its builders, the Rokkasho Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Facility, which has been undergoing testing since 2006, will be capable of churning out 96 tons of plutonium metal in the next dozen years, an amount greater than all the stocks that remain in the United States as a legacy of the Cold War’s nuclear arms race. Continue reading
New Zealand Labour Party maintains its anti-nuclear stance
NZ’s anti-nuclear stance will not be altered by Australia http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1403/S00166/nzs-anti-nuclear-stance-will-not-be-altered-by-australia.htm Monday, 10 March 2014 New Zealand Labour Party NZ’s anti-nuclear stance will not be altered by Australia
Revelations today that Australia has tried actively to frustrate New Zealand’s recent push for nuclear disarmament strike a jarring note in our trans-Tasman relations, says Labour’s Disarmament spokesperson, Maryan Street.
“Australia has every right to take a different position from us on these matters. However, the argument that possession of, or access to, nuclear warheads is a modern deterrent, is so outdated now it would be laughable if it were not so serious.
Science has modelled the catastrophic humanitarian effects of even a minor nuclear engagement and has shown that the climatic effects alone from the release of even small amount of one nuclear power’s arsenal would render the planet unliveable in a very short space of time.
“That is why New Zealand got overwhelming support for our Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons resolution at the United Nations recently.
“The United States itself has led the new nuclear disarmament agenda under President Obama. For Australia to continue to employ the deterrence argument, and actively to try to overcome our efforts at raising awareness of the humanitarian consequences of nuclear war, leaves Australia on the outer in international terms.
“How can it profit the world for nuclear weapons to exist as the ultimate threat? We seek to rid Syria of chemical weapons, minimise Iran’s nuclear capability, and yet somehow think it is okay to retreat behind a nuclear shield which could destroy us all.
“There is no sense in that,” Maryan Street said.
A Salute To Australia’s Solar Heroes http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=4213 11 Mar 14 The millions of Australians living in solar households have been acknowledged in a new infographic from the Australian Solar Council.
According to the Council, 5 million Australians live in a house that has solar panels and/or solar hot water installed.
This has resulted in many benefits, including:
– A reduction in general electricity demand
– A reduction in peak demand
– A drop in wholesale electricity prices
– A reduction in line losses
– A more robust network
– The slashing of network costs
The infographic points out by 2015/16; small scale solar will save all electricity customers more than it costs in terms of the Renewable Energy Target. The average solar power system is reducing electricity costs for its owners by more than 50% and the average solar hot water system by 21%.
Australia’s solar heroes have invested more than $8 billion of their own money, created more than 18,500 jobs, supported more than 4,500 businesses and helped take 2.8GW of coal fired power generation offline.
By 2020, currently installed solar PV and solar hot water would have avoided 93,000,000 tons of carbon emissions.
The infographic has been released as part of a campaign by theAustralian Solar Council to raise awareness of the threat to the Renewable Energy Target, which is currently under review. Some of themembers of the review panel have a history in the fossil fuel industry and/or are on the public record as opposing carbon reduction measures.
“The Prime Minister says he wants to slash power bills, well five million Australians could tell him the best way slash bills is to have more solar,”says the Council’s CEO John Grimes.
A recent poll found just 13% of Australians surveyed believe the nation’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) is set too high.
Costs of Japan’s nuclear reactors continue to grow
Nuclear energy costs still rising, three years on from Fukushima, SMH, 11 Mar 14 The cost to restart Japan’s nuclear power plants: $US12.3 billion ($13.6 billion) and counting.That’s the amount power companies have committed so far on thousands of tons of reinforced concrete and steel, armies of workers, tsunami walls and seismic tests.
All to meet tougher safety standards for the remaining 48 reactors on coastlines throughout earthquake-prone Japan. And to convince regulators the defenses will withstand a quake and tsunami on a scale of what struck the Fukushima area three years ago Tuesday, causing one of history’s worst civil nuclear disasters and shutting down the nation’s atomic fleet……….
The economic pressures to restart reactors mask bigger issues Japan has yet to tackle, the nation’s Atomic Energy Commission vice-chairman Tatsujiro Suzuki said. These include: How much of Japan’s energy, if any, should nuclear provide in the future? What liabilities do utilities carry in case of accidents and what part should be paid for by the government? Will the nation build more atomic stations and how will they fit with a new law to split generation from transmission?………
ncoming Tokyo Electric Power Co. chairman Fumio Sudo, who was formerly president of steelmaker JFE Holdings Inc., said in January that the power company’s whole management and business model needs a shake-up to make them competitive.
“At the moment, no one wants to link all these things together,” Atomic Energy Commission’s Suzuki said.
As the companies pour concrete, public confidence in restarting reactors remains low following flurries of secondary accidents at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima plant, including leaks of hundreds of tons of radioactive water……..
The most visible change at Hamaoka is the construction of a 1.6-kilometer-long concrete tsunami wall, reinforced with 40,000 metric tons of steel. It stretches across beach in front of the plant.
Tsunami wall
When completed this year the wall will be 22 meters high. The height is based on latest estimates that indicate an earthquake in the area would generate a 19-meter tsunami. The wall’s part of a $US3 billion plan to shore up Hamaoka defenses as Chubu seeks permissions to restart the reactors.
Aside from the wall, Chubu is adding a 20-megawatt back-up gas plant on higher ground at the site to power cooling systems in emergencies.http://www.smh.com.au/environment/nuclear-energy-costs-still-rising-three-years-on-from-fukushima-20140311-34ii6.html
Promising renewable energy future for Africa
Africa Has Bright Renewable Energy Future – Ernst & Young Report VENTURES AFRICA- 10 Mar 14 Africa is poised to overtake Europe as one of the key areas of growth in the production and use of renewable energy technologies, as the use of clean tech becomes more imperative to stem the tide of climate change all over the world.
Already, South Africa has been recognised as a significant hub for clean tech, having been voted for by the IHS as the best country in the world to locate clean technologies. Market experts have watched international developers and funders invest copiously in the South Africa’s renewable energy market, making it a hub for laudable renewable energy projects.
While African countries like Ethiopia and Kenya were identified as markets to watch this year alongside other emerging markets like Malaysia and Uruguay; the Ernst & Young Renewable Energy Attractiveness Index (RECAI) report noted that emerging markets are attracting about half of new investment in the sector, and investors will increasingly focus on those markets ………
Warren also stressed the need for increased investment in grid management, digitalized supply and demand management, distributed applications and the commercialization of storage technology in order to avoid transmission bottlenecks and intermittency challenges. http://www.ventures-africa.com/2014/03/africa-has-bright-renewable-energy-future-ernst-young-report/
Europe getting to reach its renewable energy target
EU edges towards renewable energy targets http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/world/a/21909665/eu-edges-towards-renewable-energy-targets/Brussels (AFP) – The European Union is making steady progress towards its 2020 renewable energy target, a key effort in curbing the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming, official data showed Monday. Renewables — predominantly wind but including tidal and biomass sources as well — accounted for 14.1 percent of the EU’s energy consumption in 2012, up from 13 percent in 2011, the Eurostat statistics bureau said.
The EU has set itself a 20-percent target for renewable energy use by the year 2020, part of its overall “Europe 2020” strategy of sustainable economic growth.
Eurostat said of the 28 member states, Sweden continues to lead the field, with 51 percent of its energy coming from renewables, up from almost 39 percent 10 years ago when the EU average was 8.3 percent. Latvia on 35.8 percent was the next best performer, followed by Finland on 34.3 percent and Austria 32.1 percent.
Among the lowest ranked were Malta at just 1.4 percent, Luxembourg with 3.1 percent, Britain with 4.2 percent and the Netherlands with 4.5 percent.
Radiation leaks from Fukushima – entering food chain?
NBC Nightly News: ‘Has Radiation Entered Our Food Supply 
Chain?’ — USA Today: News getting worse at Fukushima, widespread suspicion leaks into ocean ‘underreported’ — Expert: “I’m not trying to be alarmist… but how will we know it’s safe” for West Coast? (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/nbc-nightly-news-has-radiation-entered-our-food-supply-chain-usa-today-news-getting-worse-at-fukushima-widespread-suspicion-leaks-are-being-underreported-expert-im-not?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews
USA Today,, Mar. 9, 2014: Ken Buesseler, a chemical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution […] and other scientists are calling for more monitoring. No federal agency currently samples Pacific Coast seawater for radiation, he said. “I’m not trying to be alarmist,” Buesseler said. “We can make predictions, we can do models. But unless you have results, how will we know it’s safe?” […] Last July [Tepco] acknowledged for the first time that the reactor was leaking contaminated underground water into the ocean. Since then, the news has gotten worse, and there is widespread suspicion that the problem is underreported. […] three competing models of the Fukushima radiation plume […] all predict that the plume will reach the West Coast this summer […]
NBC Nightly News, Mar. 7, 2014:
Title: Has Radiation Entered Our Food Supply Chain?
Brian Williams, anchor: Scientists from Long Beach State University have started to look for […] signs of radiation in the kelp that is found off the California coast.
Miguel Almaguer, NBC reporter: Could this kelp be contaminated with radiation from Fukushima?
Dr. Steven Manley, CSULB professor: This is used to detect the radioactive materials coming over from Fukushima.
Almaguer: Will it pose a public health threat? […] Its impact on the environment and marine life remains an unknown.
Kei Iwamoto, Ph.D. UCLA adjunct associate professor of experimental radiation oncology: We have not seen anything that should raise any kind of red flags or alarm to the general public.
Almaguer: For now, no alarm, but these researchers know their work is just beginning. Watch the NBC News broadcast here
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