What is the best thing to do with Australia’s radioactive waste?
it is time to restore trust, credibility and common ground in relation to radioactive waste management based on good science, good process and acceptance that social and human concerns are valid and need to be addressed alongside technical criteria.
What is clear is that the approach taken to date has failed – and if it is simply tried again in another place it is likely to fail again. The government holds a duty of care to all Australians, including future generations, to get this issue right and the best start is through a dedicated National Commission into responsible waste management.
Many years, many debate and countless column inches later, the nation is no closer to a lasting solution to nuclear pollution. Why? http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/08/15/comment-radioactive-waste-time-new-approach-old-issue By Dave SweeneyIt’s now just two months since the federal government’s long held plan to relocate Australia’s radioactive waste to a remote site in the Northern Territory collapsed during a high profile Federal Court action bought by Aboriginal Traditional Owners opposed to a dump on their country.
After seven years of sustained and against the odds campaigning the people of Muckaty and Tennant Creek dodged a forever bullet, but the celebrations have been clouded by the continuing radioactive rumour mill.
NT Senator Nigel Scullion has joined Chief Minister Adam Giles and former Prime Minister Bob Hawke in banging the nuclear drum and are now actively promoting a new Territory dump site for Australia’s, and possibly the world’s, radioactive waste. A recent flying visit to Tennant Creek by Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has also raised renewed emotions and concerns about the dump push.
Like the waste itself, the issue is far from dead.
But all this political re-positioning continues to miss the central and long-standing question – what is the best thing to do with Australia’s radioactive waste? Continue reading
Former coal executive calls on corporate Australia to stop denying climate change
Corporate Australia in denial over climate change, former coal exec Ian Dunlop says, ABC News, By Nonee Walsh 15 Aug 2014, Corporate Australia is in complete denial about climate change, according to former fossil fuels executive and energy commentator Ian Dunlop.
Mr Dunlop, a former chairman of the Coal Association, said business should be condemning the chairman of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council (BAC), Maurice Newman, for claiming the Earth is cooling…….
Mr Dunlop said not a single voice had been raised by peak business about the appointment of so-called climate change deniers to advise government.
“The appointment of Maurice Newman, Dick Warbuton and David Murray are evidence of the real problem that we have,” Mr Dunlop said.
“The Government is in complete denial on this and unfortunately I believe that most of corporate Australia is in the same position.
“I would have expected that corporate leaders would be coming out and really making their voices heard, because this is the big issue that is going to affect the corporate world.”
Mr Dunlop said the scientists Mr Newman quoted had been debunked………
Mr Dunlop does not expect to see political leadership on the issue, “because it is too hard under the adversarial system”.
“We have never had in this country a serious discussion on what climate change really means, it been dumbed down by both sides of politics,” he said.
“Here it is going to have to be business that leads … it requires people at the top of the corporations to get off their backsides and start to take account of the risks that we face and the opportunities, in a genuinely objective way.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-15/corporate-australia-in-denial-over-climate-change-dunlop-says/5674122
Sabotage causes Belgian nuclear reactor to shut down for this year
Belgian Doel 4 nuclear reactor closed till year-end Major turbine damage forces closure till year-end By Geert De Clercq PARIS, Aug 14 (Reuters)
* GDF Suez confirms outage was due to sabotage
* Other reactors down, Belgian nuclear capacity halved
* Further outage set to impact GDF Suez earnings (Adds GDF Suez quote on sabotage, detail on capacity)
– Belgian energy company Electrabel said its Doel 4 nuclear reactor would stay offline at least until the end of this year after major damage to its turbine, with the cause confirmed as sabotage. Continue reading
Federal Industry Minister Ian MacFarlane admits the disastrous mess of efforts to impose nuclear waste dump on Muckaty
Failed Muckaty nuclear dump process ‘a disaster’, Federal Industry Minister Ian MacFarlane says, ABC News, August 14, 2014, “……..Ian MacFarlane added that if there were no takers for a dump in the NT by September he would “throw open it to all Australia”. Mr MacFarlane has been in the Territory to speak with Aboriginal land councils about proposals to nominate a new site after the Federal Government withdrew its nomination of Muckaty Station north of Tennant Creek as the site for Australia’s first nuclear waste dump in June.
Mr MacFarlane said a dump would be a lucrative opportunity but would only consider nominations that were uncontested…….
Dave Sweeney of the Australian Conservation Foundation said the process should lure people to consider the dump out of financial circumstance.
“We should have a process that’s based on evidence, not enthusiasm. We should have a process that isn’t a race to the bottom of which community desperate and seeking some revenue puts their hand up first,” Mr Sweeney said. https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/24715167/failed-muckaty-nuclear-dump-process-a-disaster-federal-industry-minister-ian-macfarlane-says/
Research reveals effects of radiation on plants and animals at Chernobyl and Fukushima
The Crushing Effects Of Radiation From The Fukushima Disaster On The Ecosystem Are Being Slowly Revealed http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-serious-biological-effects-of-fukushima-radiation-on-plants-insects-and-animals-is-slowly-being-revealed-2014-8 CHRIS PASH A range of scientific studies at Fukushima have begun to reveal the impact on the natural world from the radiation leaks at the power station in Japan caused by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
Biological samples were obtained only after extensive delays following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown, limiting the information which could be gained about the impact of that disaster.
Scientists, determined not to repeat the shortcomings of the Chernobyl studies, began gathering biological information only a few months after the meltdown of the Daiichi power plant in 2011.
Results of these studies are now beginning to reveal serious biological effects of the Fukushima radiation on non-human organisms ranging from plants to butterflies to birds.
A series of articles summarising these studies has now been published in the Journal of Heredity. These describe widespread impacts, ranging from population declines to genetic damage to responses by the repair mechanisms that help organisms cope with radiation exposure.
“A growing body of empirical results from studies of birds, monkeys, butterflies, and other insects suggests that some species have been significantly impacted by the radioactive releases related to the Fukushima disaster,” says Dr Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina, lead author of one of the studies. Continue reading
What’s wrong with the India-Japan Nuclear Deal? – Plenty
Reasons to Oppose the India-Japan Nuclear Deal – Nuclear Free by 2045 ? Dennis Riches 14 Aug 14 In late July and early August, a leading member of India’s Coalition for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, Kumar Sundaram, visited several Japanese cities in order to speak to the mass media and Japanese citizens about the proposed Japan-India nuclear energy agreement. He timed his visit to Japan to precede that of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the end of August. Modi will meet with his Japanese counterpart in hopes of finalizing a deal to allow the purchase of vital components of nuclear power plants that are proposed or under construction
AGL, Energy Australia and Origin Energy lobbying to dismantle Australia Renewable Energy Target
Greenpeace slams Big 3 “dirty” energy retailers http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/greenpeace-slams-dirty-big-3-energy-retailers-43991 By Giles Parkinson on 15 August 2014 Environmental group Greenpeace has slammed the “Big 3” energy retailers in Australia, accusing them of “greenwash” and doing little to promote the adoption of green energy.
Among the worst greenwash offenders it says are AGL, EnergyAustralia and Origin Energy – the biggest retailers in the country with more than three quarters of the national market.
“The ‘Dirty Three’ go to great efforts to advertise their ‘clean and green’ credentials but invest relatively little in renewables,” Greenpeace says in its new Green Electricity Guide.
“The ‘Dirty Three’ are also using their political muscle to try to dismantle the Renewable Energy Target. “This means locking out solar and wind, and locking in higher household bills and climate change driving coal and gas power for decades to come.” Continue reading
ACT’s Uriarra solar project is important to the nation
National significance of Uriarra solar should not be underestimated, says ACT Environment Minister Simon Corbell August 14, 2014 Kirsten Lawson Chief Assembly reporter for The Canberra Times.
View more articles from Kirsten Lawson With the country’s biggest solar farm in Canberra’s south about to go live, Environment Minister Simon Corbell has defended the controversial Uriarra solar farm in the face of bushfire concerns and overwhelming opposition from local residents.
Mr Corbell said the 20MW array off the Monaro Highway at Royalla, which will go live in a couple of weeks, was twice the size of any other solar farm in the country and the largest feeding into the national grid. Its nearest rival was a 10MW solar farm in Western Australia.
He said the Uriarra solar project, now in planning, would also be 10MW and its significance on the national scale should not be underestimated. He rejected residents’ characterisation of the 27-hectare solar array at Uriarra as an industrial site.
“These are PV panels sitting in a field,” he told the ACT Assembly. “They don’t create noise, they don’t create emissions, they don’t create all of those things that are associated with an industrial plant. But, of course, the opponents … want to characterise it as that because in doing so … they hope to attach the emotional language that comes with industrial, manufacturing or mining or other resource-intense facility.”
The solar farm was low impact, environmentally beneficial and simply harnessed the power of sunlight, Mr Corbell said………
The Liberals’ Andrew Wall said the project had a litany of flaws, including the damage it would do to property values in Uriarra and the bushfire risk. Residents were not opposed to solar power but to the site, he said.
But Mr Corbell rejected concerns about the power line, saying the village was already powered by an overhead electricity line through the same corridor as the planned solar-farm line.
The ActewAGL line is 11V, but Mr Corbell said it was “not a big difference when it comes to starting a fire”. “One spark will start a fire, it doesn’t matter about the power of the line,” he said.
Farmers wanted solar and wind farms because it helped them diversify and access a reliable income stream, he said.
The importance of the project should not be underestimated at a time when the federal government was sending a message to companies and countries around the world that Australia was not interested in renewable energy.
When Royalla begins operating in September, ActewAGL will pay it $186 for each megawatt hour fed into the grid. The company is expected to generate about 37,000 megawatt hours a year, and the maximum it will be paid for is 42,293 megawatt hours. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/national-significance-of-uriarra-solar-should-not-be-underestimated-says-act-environment-minister-simon-corbell-20140814-103www.html#ixzz3AcIlV6Od
Risk to crops from radioactive dust contamination from Yorke Peninsula Hillside mine?
Uranium dust’ from Yorke Peninsula Hillside mine could contaminate crops, campaigners say ABC News, By Malcolm Sutton 15 Aug 14, Fears that dust from a planned mine on Yorke Peninsula could contaminate crops with low-level uranium and potentially travel as far as Adelaide have been raised by campaigners.
The YP Landholders Group said an estimated 3 million kilograms of dust produced annually by Rex Minerals’ Hillside copper, gold and ore mine could include radioactive uranium and its decay products, called radon gas and radon daughters.
Chairman Stephen Lodge cited a joint paper written by United States doctor Dale Dewar that found “long-lived radioisotopes” from uranium mines could spread on surrounding land via dust and the water used for dust suppression.
Mr Lodge said Rex Minerals’ own documents acknowledged the existence of uranium on the site near Ardrossan………
Mr Lodge said the level of uranium considered safe was constantly being downgraded and feared guidelines could be breached as a result.
“YPLOG is asking Rex to guarantee there will be no increase in background radiation, radioactive dust or radiation levels in rainwater tanks as a result of the Hillside operation,” he said.
He warned that Rex Minerals’ decision last week to consider scaling back the project’s initial stages did not mean the full mine would not go ahead, and people needed to be aware of the risks……
Antinuclear 