South Australia goes against global trends in the declining nuclear industry
Given the SA Premier has stated that he thinks building a nuclear power plant in SA is the “least likely” outcome of the Royal Commission, it is fair to assume the bigger agenda here is to soften the ground for a high level nuclear waste dump.
Professor John Veevers from Macquarie University – “Tonnes of enormously dangerous radioactive waste in the northern hemisphere, 20,000kms from its destined dump in Australia where it must remain intact for at least 10,000 years. These magnitudes of tonnage, lethality, distance of transport, and time − entail great inherent risk.”
South Australia Out Of Step With Global Trends On Nuclear Energy:
Environmentalists https://newmatilda.com/2015/02/14/south-australia-out-step-global-trends-nuclear-energy-environmentalists By Dave Sweeney and 
Jim Green In New Matilda’s ongoing debate around nuclear energy, Dave Sweeney (l) and Jim Green (rt) make their case against nuclear power.
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill’s surprise announcement of a Royal Commission to examine opening the door to an expanded nuclear industry in South Australia is out of step with the trend of the global nuclear trade, risks undermining the reality and potential of the state’s renewable energy sector and increases pressure on South Australia to host an international radioactive waste dump.
The timing is odd, coming against a backdrop of a further 300 job cuts at BHP’s Olympic Dam uranium mine and the news that in 2014 Australia ripped and shipped less uranium – the fuel stock for all things nuclear – than for any of the past 16 years. Continue reading
Belgian nuclear regulatory head warns of global implications as more cracks found
More cracks found in Belgian nuclear reactors, 18 February 2015, Greenpeace International Brussels, 17 February 2015 – Following the discovery of thousands of additional cracks in critical components of two Belgian nuclear reactors, Greenpeace today called for immediate checks of nuclear power plants worldwide.Thousands more cracks found in Belgian nuclear reactors, Belgian regulatory head warns of global implications
The cracks were found in the steel nuclear reactor pressure vessels in nuclear reactors Doel 3 and Tihange 2 in Belgium. The vessels contain highly radioactive nuclear fuel cores. The failure of these components can cause catastrophic nuclear accidents. On February 13th, two leading material scientists announced that the pervasive and unexpected cracking could be related to corrosion from normal operation, with potential implications for reactors worldwide.
Greenpeace Belgium energy campaigner, Eloi Glorieux, said:
“What we are seeing in Belgium is potentially devastating for nuclear reactors globally due to the increased risk of a catastrophic failure. Nuclear regulators worldwide must require reactor inspections as soon as possible, and no later than the next scheduled maintenance shutdown. If damage is discovered, the reactors must remain shut down until and unless safety and pressure vessel integrity can be guaranteed. The nuclear industry, already in crisis, is faced with an ageing nuclear reactor fleet at increasing risk of severe disaster.” Continue reading
A global nuclear industry problem? Thousands of cracks in Belgian nuclear reactors
Tests revealed a stunning 13 047 cracks in Doel 3; and 3 149 cracks in Tihange 2
the Director General of the Belgian nuclear regulator, The Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC), admitted that, “This may be a global problem for the entire nuclear industry.
Thousands of cracks in Belgian reactors, potentially a global nuclear problem http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/cracks-in-belgian-nuclear-reactors/blog/52139/
Picture a 33 year-old asphalt road: weathered with time, bearing the cracks and crags of decades of harmless-seeming water trickling into its crevices, freezing, expanding, breaking up the road from within.
Most people wouldn’t want to trust their car to the safety of a road like this.
And it certainly isn’t the image anyone wants to invoke when talking about critical equipment in nuclear reactors.
Yet, on Friday the 13th, two leading materials scientists announced that the Belgian reactors, Doel 3 and Tihange 2, may be experiencing the nuclear equivalent in their reactor pressure vessels; essentially the piece of equipment that contains the highly radioactive nuclear fuel core being comparable to an old, busted up road.
Thousands of cracks have been discovered in the pressure vessels of both reactors. This component is required to be integrally sound, with no risk of failure, due to the potentially catastrophic nuclear disaster resulting from the failure of a pressure vessel. Continue reading
Magnitude 6.9 earthquake hits northeast Japan’s coast
Quake near Magnitude 7 hits off northeast Japan — Country’s strongest since 2013 — Felt along entire Pacific coastline, distance of over 1,000 kilometers — Followed by multiple aftershocks, one centered at Japan Trench — Official: Event related to massive 3/11 quake (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/quake-magnitude-7-hits-northeast-japan-strongest-hit-country-2013-felt-along-entire-pacific-coastline-1000-km-followed-multiple-aftershocks-one-centered-japan-trench-official-event-related?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
The Guardian, Feb 16, 2015: Japanese coastal towns evacuated as earthquake hits Pacific… Evacuations were ordered for towns closest to the coast in Iwate prefecture in Japan early on Tuesday morning after a strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 was recorded… The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning and Japanese broadcaster NHK warned residents a one metre-high wave was expected to hit the coast of Iwate. The quake was measured at a depth of about six miles and shook much of north-east Japan even being felt in Tokyo, 430 miles away.
NBC News, Feb 16, 2015: Japan’s Meteorological Agency cast the quake as an aftershock of the 9.0 temblor that rocked Japan on March 11, 2011… “Because the 3/11 earthquake had such a strong impact, and because it’s an area where it was affected by the 3/11 Earthquake, we are describing this as an ‘aftershock,’” said agency seismologist, Yasuhiro Yoshida… USGS wasn’t characterizing Tuesday’s quake as an aftershock, considering it a separate event.
- M6.7 — 02-16 23:06:27 UTC
- M4.7 — 02-17 00:50:02 UTC
- M4.6 — 02-17 01:15:02 UTC
- M4.9 — 02-17 02:29:51 UTC
- M4.3 — 02-17 02:45:12 UTC (Japan Trench)
The quake was felt from Chiba to Hokkaido, a distance of over 1,000 kilometers.
This is the most powerful earthquake to hit Japan since a M7.1 on Oct. 25, 2013.
Concern that the Nuclear Royal Commission is really about a radioactive trash import business
MARK PARNELL: Giving one week is a ludicrous short time frame.
NATALIE WHITING: The Premier, Jay Weatherill, has said he thinks it would be more likely that the commission recommend the establishment of a waste dump rather than power station.
Craig Wilkins from Conservation SA says that’s concerning.
CRAIG WILKINS: The only real market gap in the nuclear cycle is around receiving the world’s top nuclear waste. Certainly nuclear power and nuclear enrichment are just not feasible in the short term in our state. So that’s a big conversation. So I suppose part of our concern is that this inquiry is a bit of a Trojan horse for that agenda.
NATALIE WHITING: He says it has been difficult getting a submission up in the time frame
AUDIO Nuclear Royal Commission moves forward in SA MARK COLVIN: A royal commission is the biggest, most thorough, but often most expensive way Australia has of investigating an issue. ABC Radio P.M.
But in South Australia, just a week after the surprise announcement that of a royal commission into developing a nuclear industry, submissions on what the terms of reference should be are already closing. There’s been some criticism of that short time frame. Continue reading
ERA uranium miner posted profit losses for past 4 years
The ERA full year report for 2014 shows sales revenue up from $356.1 million in 2013 to $379.2 million, however nets profits have dropped from -$135.8 million to -$187.8 million.
Production has copped a beating as the Ranger begins to reach the end of its mine life, down to 1165 drummed tonnes in 2014, compared to 2960 in 2013 and 3710 in 2012.
The Ranger mine will continue mining until 2021, with full rehabilitation required by 2026, and has spent $378 million on rehab and water management over the past 2 years……http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/uranium-miner-era-posts-new-profit-losses
Small Nuclear Reactors for Australia would require same planning as large, proponents conclude
INFRASTRUCTURE, GOVERNMENT AND RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS FOR BOTH LARGE AND SMALL MODULAR REACTOR POWER PLANTS IN AUSTRALIA PART 1- INFRASTRUCTURE 1,2 JAMES BROWN, 1,2 STEFAAN SIMONS and 1,2ANTHONY D. OWEN 1 International Energy Policy Institute (IEPI), UCL Australia, Adelaide, Australia 2 University College London, UK e-mail: james.c.brown@ucl.ac.uk
Abstract This paper considers the minimum infrastructure, construction and waste resource requirements for Australia to deploy both large reactors and small modular reactors to be licensed in the near term, including NuScale, mPower and Westinghouse SMR. The requirements for other types of small modular reactors are provided in some of the comparisons to broaden the range of estimates.
Preliminary estimates suggest that FOAK large and small reactor plants would likely have similar land, infrastructure, fuel and waste requirements per MWe capacity under current regulatory regimes.
This is somewhat in contrast to the perception that SMRs allow for faster approvals, siting and deployment of power plants requiring less infrastructure and resources. However, in the U.S. the development of regulatory approaches for SMR licensing continues, in order to take into account the various designs, modularity, collocation features, and size of the emergency planning zone (EPZ).
This paper concludes that there are sound arguments for reducing the regulatory requirements due to the inherent safety features of new reactor designs.
However, it would be prudent, though, for governments to proceed with nuclear infrastructure and regulatory planning on the basis that the regulatory requirements for SMRs will not be significantly different to large nuclear power plants, until sometime after they have been commercially deployed.
While this paper acknowledges that SMRs may provide some financial benefits over larger reactors, it is argued that there is little difference in the scale of preparations required to develop Australia’s nuclear that there is little difference in the scale of preparations required to develop Australia’s nuclear power programme capabilities in the near term……..ttp://www.jnrd-nuclear.ro/images/JNRD/No.7/jnrd-7_art1.pdf
NSW Independent member for Barwon pushing for renewable energy
Barwon Independent Candidate pushing for renewable energy and agricultural expansion Tuesday, 17 February 2015 Courier, The Independent Candidate for Barwon has a vision for the North West that doesn’t include mining but rather focuses on the expansion of agriculture and the construction of renewable energy systems.
Rohan Boehm toured Rowena, Pilliga, Burren Junction and Wee Waa last week sharing his ideas with over 200 people but also gauging which issues the communities feel are most important.
He says he’s been told improving water security and developing sustainable industries are top priorities for the communities he visited.
“Farmers and townsfolk are concerned about threats to their water supply in the long term,” Mr Boehm said.
“The most important thing about water security is to make sure we don’t have a coal seam gas industry, because nothing will impact more on water than coal seam gas.
“There’s simply no way that the company will guarantee that the
water resources will not be affected or won’t be polluted.”……..
Rohan Boehm also believes the north west is an ideal location for the construction of renewable energy systems.
“This region is the best in Australia in terms of access to population and space to install systems to generate renewable energy, this area could power Australia with renewable energy.”
The NSW State Election will be held on March 28. In the lead up to the election Wee Waa News will feature Greens, Christian Democrats and Labor candidates, as well as the current member, Kevin Humphries and their vision for the electorate. http://www.thecourier.net.au/news-feed/item/2871-barwon-independent-candidate-pushing-for-renewable-energy-and-agricultural-expansion
Australia loses jobs as the Abbott government attacks renewable energy
By leaving the current target in place and providing an assurance that they support renewable investment the government could make a tangible and significant step to help restart an industry that will stimulate employment.Renewable energy is popular, and job growth is essential. Committing to the existing Renewable Energy Target would be a good first step for policy makers on all sides to show they are serious about creating Australia jobs rather than fighting ideological battles.
This is occurring while renewable energy companies such as TrustPower, Infigen Energy and Pacific Hydro are suspending further investments in Australia because of the uncertainty around the RET. Continue reading
As Australia phases out renewable energy, UK phases out coal
UK to phase out coal as Australia phases out renewable energy, Business Spectator TRISTAN EDIS 16 FEB,
The leaders of the UK’s three main political parties – Tories, Labour and the Liberal Democrats – have chosen to put efforts to address climate change above politics.
Prime Minister David Cameron from the Tories, Labour leader Ed Miliband and the Deputy PM and leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg have put out a joint statement – which echoes comments by US President Barack Obama – declaring that climate change is one of the most serious threats facing the world. According to the statement they argue climate change is not only a threat to the environment but, also, “national and global security, to poverty eradication and economic prosperity”.
The agreement is a major step forward because, while it might be vague on policy detail, it sets out some long-term principles that are critical to support investor confidence in low carbon energy infrastructure involving billion-dollar price tags and with lifetimes of several decades. It makes a stark contrast with Australia where investors (other than mums and dads buying solar systems) have abandoned power generation as a result of Tony Abbott tearing up the political consensus that had been achieved on pricing carbon and the Renewable Energy Target.
The agreement sets out that, irrespective of who wins the UK election in May, all three parties agree to:
- Phase out the use of coal in power generation (unless emissions are captured and stored) while accelerating the development of an energy efficient, low carbon economy;
- Continue the practice as set out under the UK’s Climate Change Act of having an independent institution (the Climate Change Committee) plan out carbon pollution budget constraints between now and 2050 with the aim of achieving an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels.
- Seek a legally binding international agreement to limit temperature rise below 2 degrees………..
Just recently the chief executive of the Australian division of major global bank BNP Paribas commented on Australia’s rewind of climate policies: “It makes some international investors more reserved about coming to Australia under those circumstances.”
As an illustration, when the Abbott Government announced that its review of the Renewable Energy Target would put everything on the table, including complete abolition of the scheme 15 years short of its end date, it left investors stunned. The head of the review, Dick Warburton, then made the extraordinary statement to media outlets that he would actively consider the possibility of not just abolishing the scheme, but also leaving investors in existing plant worth billions of dollars without compensation. For the investors involved this represented a loss of 50% of their revenue, a result far worse than anything proposed under the original mining tax put forward in the Henry Review……..
the safest thing for investors to do is sit on their hands or look elsewhere, to places like the UK.
Follow @TristanEdis https://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2015/2/16/policy-politics/uk-phase-out-coal-australia-phases-out-renewable-energy
Minerals Council wants environmental groups to be stripped of charity status
AUDIO: Minerals Council calls for green groups to be stripped of charity status ABC Radio The World Today Tim Lamacraft reported this story on February 16, 2015
ELEANOR HALL: The peak lobby for the New South Wales mining industry is calling for green groups to be stripped of their charity status. The Minerals Council says activists are masquerading as environment organisations and should not receive special tax treatment.
Critics say it’s an attempt to squash free speech.
Tim Lamacraft has our report……..
SIMON LONGSTAFF: When the NSW Minerals Council makes this claim, I’d really be cautious to know whether or not their membership supports this.
There’s some very large international companies, like BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto there, and I’d be quite personally surprised if they supported this kind of call.
The second thing I’d be wanting to think about is who’s actually making the call, and in the case of the Minerals Council from New South Wales, they are a body which is an industry association, they have an interest to promote things like subsidies, tax relief for mining and a whole lot of other benefits and clearly anything which seems to stymie the progress of their members……..
PHIL LAIRD: Minerals Council have had a history of trying to silence people who oppose different projects that are put up.
They’ve only just recently put a strategy in to try and remove the planning assessment commission in New South Wales, the independent decision maker, after two mines had been rejected.
What they see is how farmers and others who have a charity that’s working on their behalf to put forward their concerns about mining and for the Minerals Council this is something that they don’t want to see.
I think that these guys are trying to shut down free speech on behalf of multimillion dollar mining companies who are basically exporting our wealth overseas. http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2015/s4180628.htm
Canberra company wants to sell drone submarines with radiation detectors
Canberra company pitches drone submarines to defence and law enforcement February 17, 2015 Henry Belot Canberra Times Reporter A company describing itself as Canberra’s “homeland security specialist” is hoping to sell drone submarines with sonar technology and radiation detectors to the Australian military and federal police. ….. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-company-pitches-drone-submarines-to-defence-and-law-enforcement-20150217-13h09b.html
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 