Charlie Hebdo Special – from Nuclear Free by 2045
http://nf2045.blogspot.jp/2015/01/charlie-hebdo-special-nuclear-swindle.html 12 Jan 15
As the French nation prepares for a massive rally in support of liberty and free speech in the wake of the January 7th murders, certain ironies cannot escape attention. The entire political establishment will be out for this rally, yet they were all targets in the past of Charlie Hebdo’s pointed satire. Some of them voiced disgust and disdain when they were the targets, or they showed no interest in fixing the problems exposed in the journal. Good for them, I suppose, if they are now ready take criticism more seriously and pay free speech and democracy more regard.
Just in case anyone gets the impression that Charlie Hebdo did only crude satirical cartoons about religion, let’s remember that these jokers had the courage to take on all sacred cows, even the ones with Iodine 131 and Strontium 90 in their milk.
Below is the cover page of Charlie Hebdo’s special nuclear issue from 2012. The French original of the cover page and accompanying text is here. –(pictures are at sidebar on right of this Antinuclear page)
The full issue does not appear to be available in digital format.
The Nuclear Swindle: 70 Years of French Atomic Radiation
Charlie Hebdo Responds to Montebourg* Special Edition of Charlie Hebdo, September 2012
BHP wants Australian Government to allow bigger radioactive waste dam at Olympic Dam
BHP Billiton wants to increase radioactive waste storage at Olympic Dam, but opponents say leakage rates will rise, SMH, January 12, 2015 – Peter Ker Resources reporter BHP Billiton believes it can increase the amount of radioactive waste being stored in ponds at Olympic Dam without seepage rates rising, under the new development plan for the famous mineral deposit in the South Australian outback.
Continuing the rollout of new plans for the giant uranium, copper and gold mine, BHP has sought permission from the federal government to raise walls around an important waste or “tailings” dam at the mine from 30 metres to 40 metres.
The change would increase the volume of radioactive fluids that can be held in the dam – which is one of four on site – from 48.4 million cubic metres to 64.8 million cubic metres, with the work expected to be complete by September 2023.
Storage of the tailings, which include radioactive materials and acids, has been controversial since Olympic Dam’s previous owner, Western Mining Corporation, confirmed in 1994 that 5 billion cubic metres of the tailings fluids had leaked out of the storages and into an aquifer underground.
Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman Dave Sweeney said increasing the volume of tailings under storage would probably cause more leakage.
“There is no question that increased pressure would add to the chances of increased seepage,” he said.
“We see tailings management as one of the big, unspoken problems with uranium mining. It is an unresolved environmental management problem.”……..
The push to increase the amount of tailings storage comes just months after BHP revealed a new strategy to develop Olympic Dam by putting a heap leach operation at the start of the existing processing cycle.
BHP will conduct a three-year trial of the heap leach concept, before deciding whether it warrants further expansion.
Confirmation of the heap leach trial was the first sign of progress at Olympic Dam since mid 2012, when BHP axed a $30 billion plan to develop the entire Olympic Dam deposit using the world’s biggest open-pit mine.
That $30 billion plan would have required the construction of eight new tailings dams, each requiring a 65-metre-tall embankment, and each covering two square kilometres. http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/bhp-billiton-wants-to-increase-radioactive-waste-storage-at-olympic-dam-but-opponents-say-leakage-rates-will-rise-20150111-12ltwq.html#ixzz3OfOVIn50
Toro Uranium company’s Vanessa Guthrie appointed by Abbot to represent Australia in India n top business group
Toro Energy CEO chosen to represent Australia in India, Australian Mining 12 January, 2015 Vicky Validakis Prime Minister Tony Abbott has appointed the head of uranium developer Toro Energy to the Australia-India CEO forum.
The CEO Forum is a high level business group jointly appointed by Abbott and the Indian Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, to help drive the bilateral economic relationship between Australia and India.
The forum will be made up of 10-15 business leaders who will provide advice to both Prime Ministers on issues of trade, investment and economic development.
It comes after Abbott signalled he was keen to secure a free trade agreement with India this year.
CEO of Toro Energy Vanessa Guthrie said she was “honoured” to accept the appointment……..Guthrie will join Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb in India this week to attend the Australia Business Week in India, an event which promotes Australian opportunities to increase trade and investment markets with the country.
Greens the only Party in Queensland serious about Climate Change
“I think the key thing is that the Greens are the only political party standing in Queensland, giving Queenslanders the opportunity to vote against the expansion of coal seam gas and against the expansion of coal mines and coal ports,” Ms Milne said.
Queensland election: World looking at ‘fossil-fuel free existence’ Brisbane Times 12 Jan 15 Tony Moore brisbanetimes.com.au senior reporter The world is beginning to consider a “fossil-fuel free” existence as soon as 2050, according to Australian Greens leader Senator Christine Milne.
Ms Milne will join the Queensland state election campaign on Monday having recently returned from a climate summit in Lima, Peru. In the negotiating texts – for the (future) Paris agreement, one of the options is for a fossil-fuel free world by 2050,” Ms Milne said.
The United Nations climate change conference – also attended by Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop – was held in Lima from December 1-12.
The long-serving Greens senator agreed it was “still early days” and the text would most likely be opposed by Australia, Saudi Arabia and other countries before the final United Nations talks in December 2015.
“But the fact that you even have in a negotiating text at this point one of the options being a fossil-fuel free world by 2050 shows you the recognition it is getting,” she said.
“If you are serious about climate science – serious about addressing global warming – then a rapid transition to a renewable energy-powered world is on.”……..
Ms Milne said many people had noticed the decision by several major financial bodies to no longer back more marginal coal projects.
“The rapid growth in the divestment movement has surprised everybody around the world,” Ms Milne said. Continue reading
Queensland Nationals Senator Matt Canavan attacks the Renewable Energy Target
Renewable energy ‘fad’ is our best bet for saving the planet MIKE BRUCE THE COURIER-MAIL JANUARY 11, 2015″…….. those impressionable and impetuous Chinese are spending billions to create the world’s largest renewable power capacity (388GW), dwarfing the US (172GW) and renewables-sector darling Germany (84GW). Those crazy and irrational Germans are now producing almost 30 per cent of their electricity needs with renewable energy.
Excuse the sarcasm, but I couldn’t help it after reading an opinion piece by Matt Canavan, a Nationals senator for Queensland, in which he argues for the abolition of the renewable energy target (RET) in Australia……..
While he is careful not to dismiss renewables per se – despite calling them a “fad” – Canavan strongly implies that Australia’s energy future, at least in the short to medium term, lies in fossil fuels, one of the world’s most heavily subsidised industries.
It’s a surprising position for a National, much of whose constituency is at war with coal and coal-seam interests eating into their land, livelihoods and sustainability.
But, then, this narrative does tally perfectly with the Abbott Government’s stunning reticence to act on climate change. Continue reading
Revelations on Scotland’s secret nuclear disaster plans
Scotland’s secret nuclear disaster plan revealed Scotsman , 12 Jan 15 A SECRET plan to deal with a Chernobyl-style nuclear emergency in central Scotland has finally been revealed in a dossier which has been kept under wraps for decades.
The classified documents which show how the government would have responded to a full-scale atomic crisis have been opened and placed in the National Archives.
The files outline the steps that would have been taken if lethal substances had leaked from the twin Hunterston A and B nuclear plants on the Ayrshire coast.
They reveal that staff at Scotland’s largest hospital were primed to treat victims suffering from burns and radiation sickness, a community centre would have been converted into a decontamination zone and residents would have been issued with anti-radiation tablets.
They also show that the strategy for a mass public evacuation revolved around police officers knocking on residents’ doors and politely advising them to leave……..
Hunterston A was opened by the Queen in September 1964, but stopped producing electricity in 1990 and is currently being decommissioned. The neighbouring Hunterston B plant was opened in 1976 and is due to operate until 2023 – well beyond its original planned closure date.
Last year Nicola Sturgeon, the then deputy first minister – a long-term opponent of nuclear power – expressed “deep concern” after it emerged that cracks had been found in one of the plant’s reactors………http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/scotland-s-secret-nuclear-disaster-plan-revealed-1-3657911
Japan readying for scrapping 5 nuclear reactors
5 old nuclear reactors headed for decommissioning scrap heap January 11, 2015 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN Five aging nuclear reactors will be decommissioned in the near future, a move that government officials hope will increase public support for resuming operations at newer reactors.
Executives of four companies in the power generation field are now discussing decommissioning the five reactors that have reached or are nearing 40 years of operation.
Legal changes in the wake of the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in 2011 limited nuclear reactors to a 40-year operating life. Utilities will be given a one-time extension of up to 20 years if a reactor meets new tougher safety standards.
The Genkai No. 1 nuclear reactor in Saga Prefecture, operated by Kyushu Electric Power Co., will reach 40 years of operation in October 2015. Company officials have decided to decommission that reactor rather than carry out expensive work to meet the safety standards.
The other six reactors that are nearing or past the 40-year limit are operated by Kansai Electric Power Co., Chugoku Electric Power Co. and Japan Atomic Power Co.
All the companies are expected to make final decisions on decommissioning before the end of the current fiscal year in March………
Kyushu Electric officials are leaning toward decommissioning the Genkai No. 1 reactor because not only is its output relatively small at 559,000 kilowatts, but about 100 billion yen ($843 million) would be needed for additional safety measures to receive approval for extended operations…….http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201501110012
Great timing? Tasmania’s govt attacking freedom of speech
Labor lashes timing of defamation law change DUNCAN ABEY MERCURY JANUARY 12, 2015 NEW corporate defamation laws proposed by the Tasmanian Government represent a direct attack on freedom of speech and will stifle public debate, the Opposition says.
And deputy Labor leader Michelle O’Byrne said the timing could not be worse, in the wake of the deadly attacks on the staff of satirical Paris-based magazine Charlie Hedbo.
“Once again Tasmania is at the front of the national stage for the wrong reasons,” Ms O’Byrne said.
“The State Government wants to bring in legislation around defamation that will mean nobody can ever say anything against a corporation.
“Now this doesn’t just apply to the people the Government says it will target, such as forestry protesters, but it will apply to individuals and it will apply to the media.
“The right to free speech has never been more warmly embraced by the world than after what we have seen in Paris, and for nobody to be ever allowed to say anything negative about a corporation just smacks of silencing dissent.”………….http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/labor-lashes-timing-of-defamation-law-change/story-fnj4f7k1-1227181465484
Enthusiasm for renewable energy development in States in India
Renewable Energy Project Developers Flock To Indian State Of Telangana , Clean Technica 9 Jan 12 “…….As the auction for renewable energy projects (especially solar power) gets ever more competitive, some project developers are approaching the state governments directly to set up projects and potentially secure power purchase agreements at the base tariffs determined by state-level regulatory bodies.
SunEdison recently successfully undertook this approach in Rajasthan. The company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Rajasthan government to install 5 GW solar power capacity over the next five years.
Greenko is planning to aggressively expand its renewable energy base in India. On 30 September 2014, the company had an operational capacity of 715 MW. It plans to increase the operational capacity to 1 GW by the end of this year. The company has a cumulative capacity of 2.5 GW of power generation capacity in its pipeline.http://cleantechnica.com/2015/01/11/renewable-energy-project-developers-flock-indian-state-telangana/
The psychology behind climate change denialism, (helped by Murdoch media)
Climate change: Why some of us won’t believe it’s getting hotter, SMH January 11, 2015 Peter Martin Economics Editor, The Age What is it about the temperature that some of us find so hard to accept?
The year just ended was one of the hottest on record. In NSW it was the absolute hottest, in Victoria the second-hottest, and in Australia the third hottest………
when it comes to the slowly rising temperature some of us won’t even accept the readings. And that says something about us, or at least about those of us who won’t accept what’s in front of our faces.
I am not prepared to believe that these people are anti-science. Some of them are engineers, some mining company company executives. Like all of us, they depend on science in their everyday lives.
Nor am I prepared to believe they’ve led sheltered lives, although it’s a popular theory. In the United States a survey of six months of coverage on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel found that 37 of its 40 mentions of climate change were misleading.
The misleading coverage included “broad dismissals of human-caused climate change, disparaging comments about individual scientists, rejections of climate science as a body of knowledge, and cherry-picking of data”.
Fox News called global warming a “fraud”, a “hoax” and “pseudo science”.
Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal fared little better. 39 of its 48 references were misleading.
In Australia it’s not as bad. Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian gives more space to climate change than any other newspaper. Its articles are 47 per cent negative, 44 per cent neutral and 9 per cent positive, according to the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism.
It’s impossible to read The Australian‘s articles without feeling at least a bit curious about climate change.
Another theory is that it’s to do with psychology. Some people are more threatened by bad news than others, making them less able to accept that it’s real.
And now a more sophisticated theory suggests that it’s not about the facts at all. It’s really a debate about the implications, disguised as a debate about the facts. Troy Campbell and Aaron Kay, a researcher and associate professor in neuroscience at Duke University in North Carolina find that belief in temperature forecasts is correlated with beliefs about government regulation and what those forecasts would mean for government regulation……..http://www.smh.com.au/comment/climate-change-why-some-of-us-wont-believe-its-getting-hotter-20150110-12koa1.html
Australia dives toward the bottom in large-scale renewable investment
Australia’s large-scale renewable investment dives in 2014 January 12, 2015 Peter Hannam Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald Australia’s ranking among investors in large-scale renewable energy plummeted in 2014, dropping behind much poorer nations such as Panama, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, as confidence in the Abbott government’s policies for the sector evaporated, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Investments in large-scale wind, solar and other clean energy sources dived 88 per cent in 2014 to $240 million, the lowest level since 2002, the energy consultancy said.
Australia’s global ranking sank 28 places from 11th with almost $2 billion invested in 2013 to just 39th last year.
“We recorded zero investment in the wind sector,” said Kobad Bhavnagri, lead analyst for BNEF in Sydney. Six of the seven largest projects were in solar power and involved support from government grants or the Clean Energy Finance Corp.
A breakdown in bipartisan support for the Renewable Energy Target was central to investment all but halting, Mr Bhavnagri said.
The Abbott government has sought to cut the target from the current goal of 41 terawatt-hours annually by 2020 to 27 terawatt-hours but has been blocked by Labor, the Greens and the Palmer United Party in the Senate.
Such a move would slash the value of renewable energy certificates, harming the viability of existing wind farms, not only new ventures, companies such as Infigen Energy have said.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane sought to play down the impact of uncertainty……..
Labor’s policy is to reopen talks with the government but it “will not support any proposal that decimates the industry”, a spokeswoman for Mark Butler, shadow environment minister, told Fairfax Media.
“Tony Abbott’s goal is to protect the profits of old polluting industries like coal,” said the Greens environment spokeswoman, Senator Larissa Waters. “Any so-called compromise deal will be an attack on the RET and clean energy in Australia.”
BNEF’s Mr Bhavnagri said the uncertainty in the industry made it difficult to predict whether investment would improve in 2015.
“It depends entirely on what happens politically,”………
Hugh Saddler, principal consultant for Pitt & Sherry, said ………”Australia is almost unique in the world in combining an extremely emissions-intensive electricity generation industry with a negligible commitment to transforming the industry towards a low-emission future”
The only developed nations with a similar energy mix, Poland and Estonia, had none of the abundant wind, solar, wave and other renewable energy available to Australia, Dr Saddler said……..http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/australias-largescale-renewable-investment-dives-in-2014-20150112-12mbis.html
Doubt on future of Renewable Energy target has made Clean energy ‘univestable’ in Australia
Clean energy sector ‘uninvestable’ due to Renewable Energy Target uncertainty, analyst says ABC January 12, 2015, Uncertainty surrounding the renewable energy target has made the large-scale sector of the industry in Australia “uninvestable”, a clean energy analyst says…….https://au.news.yahoo.com/technology/a/25973289/clean-energy-sector-uninvestable-due-to-renewable-energy-target-uncertainty-analyst-says/
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 