More trouble for ERA as shaft collapses ar Ranger uranium mine
Shaft collapse brings new setbacks to Ranger 3 Deeps uranium operation Australian Mining 12 May, 2014 The Ranger 3 Deeps exploration decline project has suffered another setback after a collapse during works on a new ventilation shaft last week. Energy Resources Australian reported that soft ground had “gradually subsided” beneath the top of the vent opening, and that crumbling of material has created a cavity in the shaft wall, about 20 metres below the surface running to the top, which was observed after the completion of drilling by a raise bore.
ERA said this type of crumbling is common, and that ground movement was identified in the development of the raise bore design.The crumbling, which began midway through last week, created a cavity in the ventilation shaft wall which led to the gradual subsidence of material to the top of the shaft…….
The Australian Conservation Foundation, outraged at the “litany of management and material failures at Ranger”, has called upon ERA to suspend development of the Ranger 3 Deeps project altogether. “All mine development operations at Ranger should be immediately halted,” said ACF nuclear free campaigner Dave Sweeney. “The Ranger mine is a dog’s breakfast with eroding shafts, collapsing tanks and the company routinely losing contaminants and credibility,” he said.
“There have been enough warnings, now there needs to be a stop to works and a comprehensive and public assessment of the full impacts of this aging and failing facility.”
In 2021 ERA are legally obliged to end all mining and mineral processing and start the comprehensive clean-up of the existing Ranger site, however in their 2013 report ERA has stated they will not be able to fund the clean-up unless the Ranger 3 Deeps project goes ahead.
Rio Tinto again refused to commit to underwrite the cost of Ranger’s rehabilitation.
This has called into question the issue of regulatory approval for the Ranger 3 Deeps expansion. “The ultimate cost of rehabilitation is uncertain and whilst ERA has used its best estimate, costs may vary in response to factors such as legal requirements, technological change and market conditions,” the 2013 report reads. “In addition, if the Ranger 3 Deeps mine is not developed, in the absence of any other successful development, ERA may require an additional source of funding to fully fund the rehabilitation of the Ranger Project Area.
“Any inability to obtain additional capital or to monetise assets would have a financial impact on ERA’s business and financial performance.”Under the Ranger permit, rehab works must be completed by 2026, which a strategy review has found will cost $603 million……..http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/shaft-collapse-brings-new-setbacks-to-ranger-3-dee
Tony Abbott hides behind his newly created star, Matthias Corman, in attacking renewable energy
Is it not pathetic that a Liberal government should be so determinedly aiming to stifle business?
In Australia, people on the Left have always criticised the Liberal Party for being so “pro business”, at the expense of other section sof the society.
Now, we’ve got a Liberal Coalition government that is hell-bent to stamp out business – or at least any business that has something to do with 20th Century renewable energy technology. The fact that solar and wind energy, (and energy efficiency) are making great strides now, and getting cheaper, and Oh My God, showing that small distrib uted energy sources can be effective and cheap – that fact seems to have spooked Tony Abbott, as well as spooking rather dim-witted energy utility executives. (I mean, they could have got on board with the coming energy revolution instead of fighting it)
Never mind. Abbott ploughs ahead. And look! He’s got a new creation! Coming from nowhere there’s the steely-eyed unblinking Matthias Corman. Corman does not flinch as he adroitly promotes Abbott’s despicable and ridiculous policies on renewable enegy. Here’s a monster in the making, for even Tony Abbott. As Abbott hides, perchance his creation might later be a menace, like Frankenstein’s monster was.
Environmental and racial injustice. The saga of Northern Territory radioactive trash dump plan continues
Environmental Injustice in Australia – Nuclear Waste, The Stringer, by Kate O’Callaghan, May 8th, 2014 Muckaty Station is a small township in the remote Northern Territory, 110km north of Tennant Creek and roughly 800km south of Darwin. Also known as Marlwanpa, the land is held under Native Title having formally been returned in 2001 to thetraditional owners – the Milwayi, Ngapa, Ngarrka, Wirntiku, Kurrakurraja, Walanypirri and Yapayapa peoples. Muckaty is also the proposed site of Australia’s first national nuclear waste dump or, as it’s officially called, radioactive waste repository.
Despite the absence of consultation with the broader community, in 2007 the Howard government approved the Muckaty dump site with plans to open the facility in 2011. After thesecretive deal was negotiated with the NLC, so secretive that some members of the Ngapa clan were not even given a copy, a bitter conflict erupted. Other clans, environmental groups, unions and the NT Government expressed outrage at the lack of proper consultation with the traditional owners. Despite ongoing attempts to contact the government, opposing community groups had their meeting requests ignored, correspondence unanswered and were continually ignored.
In 2010, the subsequent Rudd government introduced legislation giving them the ability to override the Northern Territory’s threat to block the construction of the Muckaty dump. After years of opposition, the Gillard government passed the legislation in 2012. The National Radioactive Waste Management Bill removed community appeal rights, indigenous & environmental protections, and gave the government the ability to override state or territory concerns about environmental impacts. After her election in 2013, Northern Territory Senator Nova Perris expressed her objection to the Muckaty site, stating it would cause “profound grief, suffering and loss on Aboriginal people.”……..
while there are still disagreements on the best way to deal with nuclear waste, there is consensus that the process must involve a high level of community consultation. According to a UK report by an expert committee on nuclear waste, “There is a growing recognition that it is not ethically acceptable for a society to impose a radioactive waste facility on an unwilling community.” It is clear at Muckaty that the Australian government did not engage in meaningful consultation with the community as a whole. More deplorable than this is the willingness of successive governments to dump this problem on marginalised indigenous communities. This is in direct conflict with our international obligations under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which requires that no disposal takes place on 
indigenous lands without without “their free, prior and informed consent.”
So what’s next for the people of Muckaty? After being postponed, the legal battle against the Commonwealth Government and Northern Land Council is expected to commence in the Federal Court in June 2014. The legal team will include prominent human rights lawyers Julian Burnside and George Newhouse, who will challenge the nomination of the indigenous land for the nuclear dump site. The case will be an important litmus test for any similar legal challenges in the future. It is crucial that the government looks toward the responsible and transparent management of radioactive waste and away from the secretive tactics that have defined the past decadehttp://thestringer.com.au/environmental-injustice-in-australia-nuclear-waste/#.U3Er04FdWik.
On Mothers Day, a Japanese mother faces the consequences of speaking out about Fukushima nuclear radiation
Ironically, two stories about Mari Takenouchi appear on “Mother’s Day”. And we learn what happens to a single mother of an infant son. when she speaks out on the Fukushima nuclear disaster and government secrecy surrounding it. What will happen to Mari Takenouchi and her little boy? It could be, that if she “shuts up” about the health effects, and the secrecy surrounding the nuclear crisis, she and her son will be together, and alright.
If she speaks out, perhaps it is separation, and gaol for this mother. Either way, her son loses out. Yet she has had the courage to speak out not only for her child, but for all children in the area – for all children in Japan/ for all the world’s children?
World authorities seem to be turning their back on this problem. Notably health aithofrities, UNSCEAR and WHO word their statements so carefully, so as not to offend the global nuclear industry. They carefully do not investigate certain aspects, such as the effect of ingested radioactive particles “internal emitters”. They point out the difficulties of estimating cancer effects decades later – as if that means that there are NO effects. Like radiation itself – its effects at this easrly stage are “invisible – therefore it is argued that they don’t exist.
Secrecy and doubletalk protect an industry that apparently is “too big (and too dangerous) to fail”
Time that the world chose to first protect mothers and infants, people like Mari Takenouchi.
Matthias Corman, Australia’s Finance Minister – Abbott’s mouthpiece for killing renewable energy
Axing of renewable energy agency would add to broken promises, clean energy industry says, http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/axing-of-renewable-energy-agency-would-add-to-broken-promises-clean-energy-industry-says-20140512-zr9v1.html#ixzz31XjkyEzz May 12, 2014 – The Abbott government is planning to abolish the primary agency supporting clean energy in Australia. The planned axing of the primary agency supporting clean energy in Australia by the Abbott government would break pre-election commitments and send investment in emerging technologies off-shore, an industry group says.
Fairfax Media is among outlets reporting on Monday that the federal government will axe the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) in Tuesday’s budget as part of efforts to curb spending.
ARENA, whose budget had been previously cut to $2.5 billion to 2022, would reportedly be left with about $1 billion to complete projects already backed. The agency, established through the combination of other bodies in July 2012, aims to increase the supply and competitiveness of renewable energy such as large-scale solar photovoltaic plants and other emerging technologies.
What’s disappointing here is that the Coalition really went out of its way prior to the election to restate their commitment to ARENA,” said Kane Thornton, deputy chief executive of the Clean Energy Council.
The Abbott government also backed the Renewable Energy Target (RET) before the September election, saying it would support the existing goal of supplying 41,000 gigawatt-hours of clean energy, such as from wind farms and hydropower, by 2020. It has since set up a review of the target led by businessman and climate change sceptic, Dick Warburton, which the renewable energy industry fears will dilute or delay the RET goal.
Axing the agency “would send concerning signals to the renewable energy sector broadly but also to investors around the world who are making investments under ARENA, and are watching closely the outcome of the RET review”, Mr Thornton said.
On ABC’s Radio National on Monday, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said “too many agencies” were responsible for similar functions and needed to be cut back.
“This is about making government as efficient and effective as possible,” Senator Cormann said.
Support for emerging renewable energy technologies, which include geo-thermal and marine power, should be seen in the context that all other major forms of energy had got their start with backing from governments, Mr Thornton said.
“The very first coal-fired power stations, the first gas and the first nuclear power stations were all supported by the government, and wouldn’t have happened without government help,” he said.
Among the projects getting ARENA support was AGL’s 155 megawatt-capacity solar photovoltaic power plants at Nyngan and near Broken Hill in NSW. ARENA and the NSW government supplied $166.7 million and $64.9 million, respectively, with AGL supplying the remainder of about $208 million, according to the agency.
“That wouldn’t have happened without the support of ARENA,” Mr Thornton said.
“A lot of large-scale solar companies will really question why they are still operating in Australia, and will really focus their efforts on other parts of the world,” he said.
The Menace of Nuclear Energy – dismissed by Mainstream Media
Our Nuclear Menace – Just as Darwin Would Have Predicted Andrew McKillop MAY 6, 2014 BY 21WIRE Fukushima. It is perhaps the most under-reported cataclysmic event in human history. Maybe things would have been different had it happened in either Russia, Iran or North Korea.
More silence, a few new theories and a couple of less than convincing assurances like, “It’s all under control, the humming birds and the badgers have returned to the exclusion zone and there’s a lot of very affordable property now, lost of economic opportunity in Fukushima”, (if you had any doubt of how spineless and redundant our leadership would be in the event of a true humanitarian crisis, this should be your ‘eureka’ moment). The best they could manage is release a new Godzilla film production – and that’s about as close as you’ll get to an admission from the global elite’s media machine.
Already, the situation in Japan is so degraded that it’s almost past the point of blame game. It’s not so much that the establishment is holding a gun to our heads, as it is man-kind holding a shotgun to its own head.
A Major Glitch in ‘Evolution’ Theory
When it comes to devising new and creative ways to snuff out his own species, you really have to hand it to mankind. Not surprisingly, Darwinian nihilists must be quietly chuckling in the corner.
Incredibly, many politicians, economists and even hard-core environmental priests, still love nuclear power. It’s a strange kind of love, or a Strangelove to be precise.
Economically depressed North Tasmania stands to lose wind farm project if Renewable Energy Target is cut.
Renewable energy fears for wind farm http://www.examiner.com.au/story/2274842/renewable-energy-fears-for-wind-farm/?cs=95 By EMILY BAKER 12 May 14, CUTS to the renewable energy target could affect a wind farm planned for the state’s economically depressed North, the project’s developer says. Low Head Wind Farm founder and director Shane Bartel yesterday said any significant cuts to the target would affect the $60 million wind farm proposed for an area east of Low Head.
Mr Bartel said the project would hire between 30 and 50 contractors in the building phase and employ five to 10 people post- construction.The project was partly driven by the federal target of 20 per cent renewable electricity production by 2020, which is under review.Low Head Wind Farm’s development application has been submitted to the government.”It’s up to the Commonwealth to approve that – we’re still working with them on that,” Mr Bartel said.
“I certainly think (a decision will be made) this month … to date, there have been no serious issues with it.”
The Australian reported on Saturday that Hydro Tasmania – which has power-purchasing agreements for its major Tasmanian wind farms Musselroe and Woolnorth – would suffer financially if there were significant cuts to the renewable energy target.
The state-owned company would not comment on the report leaked to the national newspaper but said ongoing reviews of the target had created uncertainty around wind farm revenues. “Hydro Tasmania did not confirm to The Australian the losses claimed in the story,” a statement from Hydro Tasmania said.
“It is our expectation that a positive outcome from the RET review will in fact make these figures meaningless, and our wind farm investments will be delivering the expected returns.”
Clean Energy Council deputy chief executive Kane Thornton said more than $10 billion of investment in renewable energy would be damaged if the scheme was changed. “Leaving the policy alone would create approximately 18,400 jobs by the end of the decade, additional investment of $15 billion in large-scale renewable energy and lower power bills over the medium term,” he said.
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 