Nowhere to put Lucas Heights nuclear waste – but they still keep making it!
Nuclear waste returning to Sydney from France http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nuclear-waste-returning-to-sydney-from-france-20150117-12seco.html Kirsty Needham State Politics Editor, The Sun-Herald A shipment of radioactive waste being returned to Sydney from France by December has raised concerns Lucas Heights is becoming a “de facto” national store.
Federal government plans to build a national radioactive waste dump at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory collapsed last year, and a new search for a site will begin in March.
With no permanent national repository, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation has been forced to build an interim waste store at Lucas Heights for the French shipment. It will include 28 stainless steel canisters of reprocessed waste, and six cemented drums of technological waste, including gloves and protective clothing worn by French nuclear workers.
The waste will be shipped from La Hague from July, immobilised in glass in canisters and shielded inside a specially designed forged steel transport container with 20-centimetre thick walls.
Australia sent the radioactive material from its nuclear research reactor to France in the 1990s for reprocessing, but under legal agreements, it must be removed from France by December 2015. More waste will be returned from Britain in 2017. Continue reading
Western Sydney residents again face threat of radioactive waste dump at Kemps Creek
Controversial radioactive clean-up to go ahead,SMH January 18, 2015 Kirsty Needham State Politics Editor, The Sun-Herald A bitter fight over radioactive waste between Sydney’s western and northern suburbs is set to be reignited by the Baird Government on the eve of the state election.
The NSW government will push ahead this year with a $12.4 million clean-up of Hunters Hill land contaminated by a uranium smelter 100 years ago, a government report has revealed.
But the only site in Australia identified by a string of government studies as the best option to store the waste – Kemps Creek near Penrith – is in a marginal Liberal seat where sitting MP Tanya Davies campaigned against the dump while in opposition. Continue reading
Aboriginal Australians prepare to mark Invasion Day January 26
Aboriginal activists plan national convergence for freedom, Green Left, January 17, 2015 By Alex Bainbridge & Seamus Doherty Aboriginal people and their supporters are converging in Canberra from all over Australia for the Invasion Day weekend. The weekend will feature a “sit-in” that is expected to release an historic Declaration of Independence reaffirming Aboriginal sovereignty in this country.
Plans for the convergence were made at the Freedom Summit held in Alice Springs in November. The summit reportedly involved 250 people who released a communique and appointed a delegation of twenty Aboriginal leaders from around the country to prepare the January mobilisation.
A program of activities has been organised including the “Last Day of Freedom” on January 25 and a national day of mourning for Invasion Day itself. The “First Day of Resistance” on January 27 will begin a the month long sit-in……….
Special focus is made on the decision to close Aboriginal communities in Western Australia and South Australia. The Communique describes the bulldozing of Oombulgurri in WA as “an act of aggression in an open genocidal process, on top of the continuing apartheid and land clearances through the Northern Territory Intervention.”
The communique also highlights the fact that sovereignty has never been ceded by Aboriginal people in this country and identifies “mass action in the streets” as the means to win justice………….
Activists around the country have been mobilising for the summit including preparation activities in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
The Nyoongar Tent Embassy in Perth has organised a series of fundraisers, including a quiz night and performance nights, to raise funds to send people on buses to Canberra.
The bus from Perth departs January 20. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/58042
Uranium price rally was short-lived
Uranium Rally Running Low on Juice After shooting higher, prices have come back down amid questions about how much more of the radioactive metal China needs to buy. BARRON’S Uranium bulls have long pointed to China’s nuclear-industry expansion as a catalyst for a recovery in the market. In mainland China, there are 22 nuclear reactors currently operating, 26 being built and more about to start construction, according to the World Nuclear Association.
However, Australian investment bank Macquarie thinks there are now “serious question marks” about how much uranium the world’s No. 2 economy will need. “China is clearly the most positive story globally when it comes to nuclear-power-capacity expansion,” according to Macquarie analysts. “The concern, however, is that China has already procured a substantial amount of uranium well in excess of what it has consumed and that this advance purchasing might limit its need to enter the market to source material over the next few years,” they add in a note.
Uranium prices have mostly languished since the 2011 Fukushima disaster………with uranium prices rising 37% from August through November as Japan moved closer to restarting its idled reactors. Consultants Ernst & Young said they thought the market had bottomed. Analysts at Australian brokerage Bell Potter agreed.
BUT THAT RECOVERY HAS STALLED…….While the revival of Japan’s nuclear sector is positive for prices, China’s potential demand is more important……..But Macquarie’s analysts say China’s growing store of uranium may be bigger than anyone previously thought. Their latest analysis suggests China increased its stockpiles by 17% last year and now has enough uranium to meet domestic demand for about seven years at forecast 2020 consumption rates. China doesn’t provide data on its uranium inventories…. JPMorgan expects uranium prices to average $30.70 a pound this year, down from last year’s $31.70…….http://online.barrons.com/articles/uranium-rally-running-low-on-juice-1421462807
Quakers remove funds from 4 major banks – cannot fund uranium, nuclear weapons, coal
Quakers to pull funds from Australia’s four major banks, citing ethical concerns http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jan/18/quakers-pull-funds-australia-four-major-banks-ethical-concerns Religious group says it can no longer support investment and lending practises lacking ‘clear ethical policies’. The Quakers are pulling their funds from Australia’s big four banks, saying they can no longer support investment and lending practises lacking “clear ethical policies”.The religious group says it will remove all corporate funds from the four major banks – and also Macquarie and St George – and they are calling on others to do the same.
Presiding clerk Julian Robertson said the group had for years avoided direct investment in alcohol, tobacco, military weapons, uranium and other mining industries.
“We also have a problem with the investment policies of the larger banks in Australia, where our money is being used for financing some of these companies.
“We are particularly worried about carbon-intensive industries and some others which do not have the ethical standards that we would like,” he said.
Tony Abbott ‘frozen in time’ as Western Australia sizzles with climate change
WA sizzles as scientists reveal 2014 was the hottest in a century news.com.au JANUARY 18, 2015 NOT even the beach offered respite from the sun’s nuclear intensity as WA sizzled and the mercury approached 40C in Perth on Saturday…….Ambulance officers advised the elderly to stay inside and drink plenty of water and slip, slop, slap was the order of the day as the UV index peaked at 14. Readings of 11 and above are considered “extreme”.
New research from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US space agency NASA shows 2014 was the hottest year in more than a century, reviving alarm about global warming.And WA’s top meteorologists agree, saying West Australians face decades of rising temperatures with hotter, drier and more extreme summers as a result of climate change.
Australia in 2014 experienced its third hottest year and hottest decade on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
“It’s climate change. Temps across Australia are warming. There is no getting away from it,” weather bureau spokesman Neil Bennett said.
The NOAA report found that “globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for 2014 was the highest among all years since record-keeping began in 1880”. The average temperature in 2014 was 0.69C above the 20th century average, beating the previous record-holding years of 2005 and 2010. Russia, Alaska, parts of the US and South America, eastern and western coastal Australia, North Africa and most of Europe all experienced record heat.
Federal Labor environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said in the wake of the NOAA report that Prime Minister Tony Abbott can no longer ignore the evidence on climate change. “Tony Abbott is frozen in time while the world warms around us,” he said……http://www.news.com.au/national/western-australia/wa-sizzles-as-scientists-reveal-2014-was-the-hottest-in-a-century/story-fnii5thn-1227188545684?from=public_rss
Edward Snowden reveals NSA and its allies’ preparation for cyber war
New Snowden documents show that the NSA and its allies are laughing at the rest of the world http://revolutionradio.org/?p=91448 , 2015 By Paul Martin Investmentwatchblog.comJanuary 18th, 2015
A team of nine journalists including Jacob Appelbaum and Laura Poitras have just published another massive collection of classified records obtained by Edward Snowden. The trove of documents, published on Der Spiegel, show that the National Security Agency and its allies are methodically preparing for future wars carried out over the internet. Der Spiegel reports that the intelligence agencies are working towards the ability to infiltrate and disable computer networks — potentially giving them the ability to disrupt critical utilities and other infrastructure. And the NSA and GCHQ think they’re so far ahead of everyone else, they’re laughing about it.
We already know that the US is already capable of launching complex digital attacks that can cause physical damage to its enemies. A computer virus
known as Stuxnet, discovered in 2010, was deployed as part of a joint operation between the US and Israel that ravaged Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, destroying many of the country’s nuclear centrifuges. Since then, the NSA’s top brass has boasted of newer and more powerful digital weapons.
The Rest…HERE
John Pilger discusses his film “Utopia” on Australia’s land steal from Aborigines
John Pilger Interview: White Australians Would Like Aboriginal People to DisappearSunday, 18 January 2015 00:00By Mark Karlin, Truthout | Interview Noted journalist John Pilger directed and is the lead investigator in an extraordinary documentary, Utopia: An Epic Story of Struggle and Resistance.
Pilger incisively and tenaciously reveals the brutal conquest and continued racist treatment of the Aboriginal people in Australia. Against this appalling historical documentation of conquest, discriminating and neglect, Pilger also highlights the continued resistance of the original inhabitants of the land stolen by British settlers.
The following is a Truthout interview with John Pilger about Utopia. Continue reading
You can’t solve climate change without resolving nuclear imperialism
The Marshall Islands’ latest nuclear test – Marshall Islanders are well-acquainted with the horrors of the nuclear arms industry. Belen Fernandez, Aljazeera, 18 Jan 15 “…………The Times quotes Marshallese Foreign Minister Tony de Brum on the seemingly parallel threats to survival: “What would it gain mankind to reach a peaceful resolution of the climate change threat, only to be wiped out by a nuclear misunderstanding?”
There are certainly common denominators between climate change and nukes – not least that both are filed away in many of our brains under the category of things that we know can swiftly destroy us but would prefer not to think about.
However, there appears to be a missing link in de Brum’s analysis, because you can’t resolve the climate change threat without resolving the business of imperial militarism, in both its nuclear and non-nuclear varieties.
The connection between the military-industrial complex and environmental catastrophe is fairly clearly spelled out in Project Censored‘s annual report from 2010, which confirms the US Department of Defense as the worst polluter on the planet………
the Marshall Islands …nuclear lawsuit should be encouraged – if for no other reason than the possibly vain hope that awareness can help combat inertia.
And another vain hope: that with attention will come context.http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/01/marshall-islands-latest-nuclear-201511352947395615.html
USA Department of Defense as a Global Polluter
This article might be 4 years old, but nothing has changed. My only question about it, is that Russia is surely equal with USA at the top of the military pollution list?
US Department of Defense is the Worst Polluter on the Planet Project 
Censored October 2, 2010 The US military is responsible for the most egregious and widespread pollution of the planet, yet this information and accompanying documentation goes almost entirely unreported. In spite of the evidence, the environmental impact of the US military goes largely unaddressed by environmental organizations and was not the focus of any discussions or proposed restrictions at the recent UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. This impact includes uninhibited use of fossil fuels, massive creation of greenhouse gases, and extensive release of radioactive and chemical contaminants into the air, water, and soil. Continue reading
Australia’s unstoppable solar energy revolution
“If you look at what the mainstream analysts are saying now, they are talking about the solar 
revolution,” said Parkinson. “Even the energy distributors in Australia, they are talking about the end of centralisation and the rise of the micro-grid.” According to Parkinson, solar is now at “grid parity” with traditional sources of electricity.
“You can’t address climate change using heavily centralised, obsolete, hideously risky fission reactors,” Milne told Al Jazeera. “It’s a humiliating stance. Australia needs to phase out fossil fuels and move to 100 percent renewable energy for the climate – and for our economy.”
Australia’s rising solar power ‘revolution‘, Aljazeera, After record-breaking solar project, scientists question why coal-dominated nation ignores renewable innovation. Royce Kurmelovs 13 Jan 2015 Adelaide, Australia – Australian researchers broke the world’s solar power efficiency record last month with their design of a novel commercial energy system, raising hopes the fossil-fuel dominated country may someday switch off its reliance on coal.
Led by Professor Martin Green, the University of New South Wales team worked with a local company to create a highly efficient solar energy system that uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto a central solar panel to generate electricity.
The method is known as concentrator photovoltaics (CPV), and the end product is a system with an efficiency of 40 percent – meaning 40 percent of the sunlight hitting the solar panels is converted into energy, the highest such level ever achieved.
Most importantly, the design uses readily available materials that makes putting the system into operation easier – and cheaper – than trying to commercialise more experimental designs.
Green, who is also the director for the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, has a history of this kind of innovation.In 2011, he and his team built a solar cell that operated with 19.3 percent efficiency and soon after pushed this to 19.4 percent, edging out the previous record holder with 18.9 percent efficiency.
Off the grid
This kind of innovation has become the hallmark of the solar energy industry, and it is only going to grow, according to Green. Continue reading
Even if it worked nuclear fusion would be too expensive
Even If Lockheed Has Made a Breakthrough in Fusion Power, the Hard Part Will Be the Economics http://www.forbes.com/sites/amorylovins/2015/01/16/even-if-lockheed-has-made-a-breakthrough-in-fusion-power-the-hard-part-will-be-the-economics/ Lockheed-Martin has just confirmed that it is among the private firms—the rest generally much smaller—that are pursuing various innovative designs for nuclear fusion reactors. Some of these innovations may prove technically feasible. All will be very challenging: if we can do controlled fusion, it will be arguably the most difficult engineering humans have ever done.
USA has as many jobs in solar power as in coal industry
There are about as many solar jobs as coal jobs in the US, Vox January 18, 2015 Rooftop solar power is fairly labor-intensive. You need people to design and manufacture panels. Then people to market the panels to households. Then people to come and install them on rooftops…..the solar industry employed roughly 174,000 people in 2014, according to a survey from the non-profit Solar Foundation. And the industry is expected to add another 36,000 jobs this year, as rooftop installations keep rising at a rapid clip.
To put this in perspective, 174,000 is pretty comparable to the number of workers employed by the US coal industry, if you add up everyone employed in coal mining (about 80,000), plus coal transportation and coal power plants.
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 