This Week’s Nuclear News in Australia
National: a new political party about to take off – the Renewable Energy Party – born in Lismore NSW, but destined for a national future.
Uranium to India. it gets to be a bit of a worry when Australian pro nuclear experts condemn this agreement as dangerously inadequate.
The secretive Trans Pacific Partnership moves along. People WILL notice it when their pharmaceuticals suddenly rocket up in price, and when U.S. corporations start suing Australian State and Federal governments.
Tim Wright, the Australian who leads in international nuclear disarmament conferences , is off to New York, to join prestigious speakers at – Symposium – The Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction, Feb 28 – March 1. It’s co-ordinated by another Australian, Dr Helen Caldicott – a prophet without honour in her own country, if ever there was one.
South Australia’s Royal Commission into Nuclear Power. Despite the very short time for submissions, comments, they did get 111 comments, – 70% against nuclear power, and with some excellent points. That page appears to have now disappeared from the Web.
Anyway, the South Australian government has no business in calling such a State Royal Commission on a matter that is clearly the province of the Federal government. It’s a national issue – a protected issue as a “A Matter of National Environmental Significance” under the National Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
It’s a vastly expensive exercise – the motivations here are not clear. Just looks as if Premier Jay Weatherill panicked at South Australia’s economic woes, and saw importing nuclear waste as a multi-$billion financial solution.
Meanwhile – back in the real world, South Australia continues to star as the nation’s renewable energy leader. There are not only its wind power success, and innovative small solar projects for home and business, but now, big solar is happening there.
Western Australia: World’s first wave-energy farm connected to grid is switched on.
South Australia faces choice of a Renewable or a Radioactive future
Rather than make SA a hub for renewable energy and other sustainable technologies (the state already derives 26 percent of its energy from wind power), the corporate board rooms are determined to press ahead with the most dangerous “alternative” available.
The Murdoch press, which previously defended the state from the imposition of a nuclear waste dump, has changed its tune accordingly. Its pages, usually dominated by climate change denying pens-for-hire, now carry bogus “carbon-free” claims for the water-guzzling, weapons proliferating, tax-payer supported nuclear power industry.
The Australian Financial Review refers to opponents of the nuclear industry as the “loony, left-progressive class”. The same editorial says the locating a dump for the world’s nuclear waste in SA would be an “act of good global citizenship” given that we supply the uranium. The dishonesty of this position is plain. A good global citizen wouldn’t have supplied the uranium in the first place.
A renewable or radioactive future http://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2015/1673/02-editorial.html South Australian Premier Jay 
Weatherill’s announcement that there will be a Royal Commission into the extension of the nuclear industry into enrichment, waste storage and nuclear power has rocked the state and sent shock waves across the country.
The Labor Party reversed its anti-uranium mining stance in the 1980s with a promise to limit to three the number of mines extracting and exporting the radioactive material. Kevin Rudd later lifted the cap to five. Widespread security and safety concerns in the community meant that political leaders had to step carefully in advancing the interests of the uranium industry.
Long decades of pressure from the industry via lobbyists, servants in academia, the media and the bureaucracy appear to have changed all that. There have always been advocates of hosting the riskier parts of the nuclear cycle, including nuclear-powered vessels and even nuclear weapons, but their views were considered extreme and hawkish. The SA Premier’s choice of an open-ended Royal Commission to inquire into the matter appears to be an effort to make the impending policy shift appear “scientific”, “arm’s length” and “impartial”. Continue reading
Australia sleep-walking into a bad deal with the secretive Trans Pacific Partnership
An Australian National University study of the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement found there was very little in it for Australia. A recent US department of agriculture study found it would deliver a zero economic benefit to Australia and a zero economic benefit to the United States. For smaller nations the economic benefits are bigger which may explain why they are eager to join and why the US is driving a hard bargain on intellectual property and the rights of its pharmaceutical industry
Trans Pacific Partnership. What’s the deal being negotiated in our name?, SMH, February 21, 2015 Peter Martin When The Lancet and the Australian Medical Journal editorialise against Australia’s next free trade agreement it’s a fair bet they are concerned about more than just trade.
The Trans Pacific Partnership is the biggest free trade agreement hardly anyone’s ever heard of. Bubbling along below the radar for half a decade, it’s about to become solid. It is set to deliver much more money and power to US pharmaceutical companies, to criminalise the use of technology in ways that presently don’t attract jail time and to set up outside tribunals to reconsider decisions already made by Australian courts. Continue reading
India’s secret uranium enrichment – could produce thermonuclear weapons
India nuke enrichment plant expansion operational in 2015 – IHS BY DOUGLAS BUSVINENEW DELHI Fri Jun 20, 2014 (Reuters) – India is expanding a covert uranium enrichment plant that could potentially support the development of thermonuclear weapons, a defence research group said on Friday, raising the stakes in an arms race with China and Pakistan.
The revelation highlights a lack of nuclear safeguards on India under new Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while sanctions-bound Iran faces minute scrutiny in talks with world powers over its own nuclear programme.
New units at the Indian Rare Metals Plant would boost India’s ability to produce weapons-grade uranium to twice the amount needed for its planned nuclear-powered submarine fleet, IHS Jane’s said.
The facility, located near Mysore in southern India, could be operational by mid-2015, the research group said, basing its findings on analysis of satellite imagery and public statements by Indian officials.
“Taking into account all the enriched uranium likely to be needed by the Indian nuclear submarine fleet, there is likely to be a significant excess,” Matthew Clements, editor of IHS Jane’s Intelligence Review, told Reuters.
“One potential use of this would be for the development of thermonuclear weapons.” No comment was available from the Indian government press office or the foreign ministry. Pakistan reacted with consternation, with a senior aide to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif saying the news underscored India’s “established hegemony”…….http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/06/20/india-nuclear-idINKBN0EV0JR20140620
Delays – costs- the future for the nuclear industry is looking bleaker
Is There Any Hope Left For Nuclear Energy? By Nick Cunningham, Oil Price.com , 19 February 2015 “…… the IEA notes that the nuclear industry is going to need to demonstrate that it can build new power plants on time and within budget. On this objective, the industry is failing miserably. Nuclear power plants have often suffered from cost overruns and delays, one factor (among many) that put the industry into a decades-long lull beginning in the early 1980’s. The so-called “nuclear renaissance” was thought to put an end to these problems with a new generation of designs and modular construction. So far, it hasn’t played out that way.
One of the showcases of the nuclear renaissance was a reactor to be built by Areva in Finland. Using a new generation technology, the reactor would boast enhanced safety systems and demonstrate lower cost and more timely construction. However, after starting construction in 2005 and slated to be completed in 2009, several delays have pushed off its completion and dramatically inflated costs. Areva now hopes to complete the project by late 2018, more than a decade behind schedule and perhaps at double its initial estimated cost.
In the United States, President Barack Obama has placed a lot of faith in the nuclear renaissance, granting loan guarantees to two new nuclear reactors now under construction in Georgia. he reactors will use the Westinghouse AP1000, a new design that promises simplification and safety that will cut down on construction times…..
Unfortunately, in January 2015 Southern Company, the owner of the Georgia reactors, announced that their completion would be delayed by 18 months and cost an additional $720 million. The reactors could end up being completed of three years behind the initial schedule. As the first newly licensed nuclear reactors in three decades, the inability to complete the project on time could put a chill on the already moribund construction queue. Even Southern Company’s CEO, who has been a big proponent of nuclear power, downplayed the possibility his company would expand beyond Vogtle. …..
even in China reactors are being delayed. China’s most advanced reactor project announced its second delay in January. The project, using similar designs to the AP1000, may not be completed until 2016, three years behind schedule.
Meanwhile, a tidal wave of nuclear reactors will close down over the next 20 years as their operating licenses expire. There are 98 GW of nuclear capacity operatingin the U.S., many of which will see their lives end by the 2030s. And there are only about 5 GW under construction at this stage. In that context, there are huge question marks about the long-term viability for nuclear power in the United States…….it is unclear if even China can make up for the shrinking industry presence in the West, let alone meet the IEA’s ambitious scenario for 2050. http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Is-There-Any-Hope-Left-For-Nuclear-Energy.html
In Lismore a new political party starts off – to tackle climate change
Political party forms in Lismore to tackle climate change Darren Coyne, Echo Net Daily, 19 Feb 15, A new political party focused on tackling climate change is being formed by a group of north coast residents. The Renewable Energy Party plans to stand candidates in every state and territory at the next Federal election in 2016.
Following a meeting at the Lismore Worker’s Club this week, the political hopefuls announced they were in the process of signing up the 500 members required to form the party.
Campaign manager Jim Moylan said membership was not likely to be a problem. ‘Aussies are really passionate about climate change,’ Mr Moylan said.‘Our Facebook page has gone-off like a skyrocket. All we did was set up a news-feed to climate change news – and a big audience appeared.’
Mr Moylan told Echonetdaily that the micro-party would act as ‘better angels’ to The Greens and other left-leaning parties……..
Party founder Peter Breen, a former independent member of the New South Wales Parliament, and a former member of both Labor and the Liberal parties, will be national coordinator of the party. Mr Breen, a resident of Byron Bay, said the party had good prospects.‘Of course they will take us seriously. We are well funded, well organised and mainstream,’ Mr Breen said.
‘We have advertising people, political insiders, fund-raisers, social media specialists and other professionals.
‘The Renewable Energy Party wants science and the public interest to dictate the terms of the climate debate – not coal, gas and oil companies.’
Following the Lismore meeting, the fledging party released the following statement.
‘Renewable energy needs grass roots representation. More than a million households in Australia now use solar energy and we are getting a very bad deal from the major energy companies who all own coal mines.
‘Currently, Australians are paying as much as $1,000 per year for electricity and gas connections – before we even turn on our appliances. On top of that, the major energy companies pay 6 to 8 cents for solar power exported to the grid while charging four times that amount for customers to buy it back”
‘In the UK, politicians are talking seriously about phasing out fossil fuels, but Australian politicians are talking about phasing out renewable energy. The Renewable Energy Party hopes to bring a consumer’s perspective to the debate in Australia.’
‘The Renewable Energy Party will speak on behalf of the many Australians who believe that climate change is simply the most important issue we face. We support the 97 per cent of climate scientists who say man-made climate change is real and we need to do something serious about the predicted global temperature rise.
‘According to the International Monetary Fund, Australia’s implicit subsidies to oil, coal and gas companies are worth 1.8 per cent of GDP, or about $23 billion annually. Subsidies to the renewable energy industry are small beer by comparison.
‘The Renewable Energy Party has been formed to highlight the differences between the favourable treatment given to the fossil fuel industries by government and the difficulties faced by the emerging renewable energy industry.
‘It is also a fact that renewable energy creates more jobs per unit of energy delivered than fossil or nuclear fuels. Action on climate change is our best hope for better present and a more promising future,’ the statement concluded.http://www.echo.net.au/2015/02/political-party-forms-lismore-tackle-climate-change/
Radioactive cesium-137 still carried across Europe from Chernobyl forest fires
Chernobyl Radiation Still Blows Across Europe http://www.earthweek.com/2015/ew150220/ew150220b.html Lingering fallout in the soil around Ukraine’s crippled Chernobyl nuclear power plant is still spreading over parts of Europe when local wildfires lift the contamination into the atmosphere.
Nearly 30 years after arguably the world’s worst nuclear accident, a new study led by the Norwegian Institute for Air Research used satellite images from 2002, 2008 and 2010 to detect three fires in the forests of Ukraine and Belarus near Chernobyl.
The findings were then compared with measurements of radioactive cesium-137 deposited on the area, and fed into models of air movements and fires.
Smoke from the fires was found to have carried between 2 and 8 percent of the cesium-137 in the soil as far south as Turkey and as far west as Italy and Scandinavia.
Even though the contamination was at nearly insignificant levels by the time it reached those areas, the researchers said better forest management and construction of fire breaks could help cut down on the Chernobyl area fires.
But they say the radiation seems to be inhibiting the decay of leaf litter on the ground that can help spark the blazes. The contamination may have killed off the key insects and microorganisms that promote natural breakdown of the leaves.
New Australian Political Party coming – the Renewable Energy Party
Renewable Energy Party Seeking Australian Federal Registration http://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-news/renewable-energy-party-em4693/ A new political party is committed to an Australia powered by 100% renewable energy by 2050 and to scrutinising the fossil fuel industry’s gravy train of subsidies.
The Renewable Energy Party’s founder is Peter Breen. Mr Breen is a defamation and media lawyer and former member of the New South Wales Parliament (Legislative Council), the Labor and the Liberal parties.
According to the party’s constitution, two of its objectives are:
“a. To encourage and promote the use of renewable energy in Australia and to determine what regulatory changes, incentives, bonuses, subsidies and other forms of investment opportunity need to be given to the energy industry to enable all energy sources in Australia to be 100 per cent renewable by 2050.
b. To review the government subsidies and other public funding paid or tax and excise revenues foregone annually to oil, gas and coal companies in Australia to ascertain whether the funds would be better directed to different companies in order to achieve objective (a) above.”
The Renewable Energy Party aims to have some of the $23 billion in taxpayer funded subsidies paid annually to oil, gas and coal companies redirected to renewable energy. The support fossil fuel industries currently enjoy is equivalent to 1.8 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product.
Driving the campaign to recruit the number of members required for Federal registration is James Moylan. Mr. Moylan has been involved with minor parties and political lobbying for many years.
We have the ability, right now, to reinvent the way we generate, store and utilise energy,” says Mr. Moylan. ” We can, as human beings, reduce our impact on the planet, and repair the damage already done. And because we can do it, we are obliged to do it, for ourselves and for our children.”
According to comments made by Mr. Moylan following a RenewEconomy article on the party, the REP knows it will never run a government.
“Smaller parties such as the REP are there to help the Greens (and the rest of the Parties) stay in contact with the aspirations of the people and keep faith with their own promises.”
The party will strive to have candidates in every state and territory at the next federal election.
Australian government gave Jeffrey Lee an OBE, but not a house, when he gave his land to Kakadu
Jeffrey Lee’s Koongarra – where love for land trumps love for money, Crikey,
BOB GOSFORD | FEB 16, 2015 “I have said no to uranium mining at Koongarra because I believe that the land and my cultural beliefs are more important than mining and money. Money come THE words projected on a big screen at the final plenary session of the World Parks Congress in Sydney late last year said it all: “I could be a rich man today. Billions of dollars … You know, you can offer me anything, but my land is a cultural land,” read the script accompanying an image of Jeffrey Lee on his land at Koongarra which is now incorporated into the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.
Jeffrey Lee, the senior Traditional Owner of the Djok clan, speaks for the 12,000 hectares of land which used to comprise the former Koongarra Project Area. It contains an estimated 12,000 tonnes of high grade uranium which the French nuclear and mining company, Areva, has long been trying to access and develop.
Mr Lee told thousands of delegates to the World Parks Congress of his decision to gift the land at Koongarra to the World Heritage estate, rather than reap a fortune in royalties if it had been mined for uranium. And he told them of his modest request to the Australian Government for help to build a house on his country.
Alas, it seems that the Government is not prepared to reciprocate his generosity……..
“I don’t want the Government to forget me. They came to visit me; they congratulated me on my hard work and said they will support me in this. The Government knows how hard I worked, they gave me an Order of Australia and I’m happy for that. Now I just want a commitment from them for a house so I can live on that country that I fought for.”
Jeffrey Lee was granted an Order of Australia award in January 2012.
The citation said: “For service to conservation and the environment in the Northern Territory, particularly through advocacy roles for the inclusion of the Djok Gundjeihmi country as a World Heritage area within Kakadu National Park.”
Land Rights News asked the Federal Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, whether he was considering assistance for Mr Lee to build an outstation on his country. The reply, from his Parliamentary Secretary, Simon Birmingham, was far from positive…… “Unfortunately, there is no Australian Government funding available to construct an outstation at Koongarra, but we are helping where we can……..http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2015/02/16/jeffrey-lees-koongarra-where-love-for-land-trumps-love-for-money/
Western Australian Premier would not meet Aboriginal land councils about remote communities
Colin Barnett turned down invitation to meet Aboriginal land councils, Guardian, Calla Wahlquist, 20 Feb 15
Councils called meeting with WA premier because they had received no offer of consultation over plans to pull funding from remote Aboriginal communities The Western Australian premier, Colin Barnett, turned down an invitation to meet Aboriginal land councils about a government proposal to close up to 150 of the state’s remote communities, one day before telling parliament he would consult Aboriginal people closely. Continue reading
Big Solar is now paying off for Big Corporations
At corporations, the mentality has shifted from being willing to spend a little more money to use green power to viewing the shift to green power as a way to save money.
renewable energy—for so long a flaky, small-scale enterprise—has developed into an industrial-strength solution that affords big companies the opportunity to lock in the cost of electricity over a period of 20 to 25 years
Each of these new, large-scale transactions will displace and obviate the need for power produced from fossil fuels.
Big Solar: Renewable energy finally makes sense as a utility—and that’s why it’s becoming a threat to coal. http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_juice/2015/02/apple_kaiser_permanente_solar_investments_renewable_energy_is_finally_a.html
Once the technologies were proven, and the costs began to come down, investors and operators stepped in. Companies put up plants, and then made deals with utilities to buy the output—often at a price above the cost of electricity created by coal plants. Utilities complied in part because of state requirements that they source a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable sources.
Now we’re entering a new stage. Companies in sectors such as technology, health care, and consumer products—all big consumers of power—are striking deals to purchase huge amounts of renewable energy from newly constructed plants
This is different than companies putting up a solar array, or buying some carbon offsets, or making token greenness gestures. They are conjuring into existence new infrastructure that can’t help but replace coal. Continue reading
South Australia: huge solar project from Origin Energy
Origin Energy to build Australia’s biggest rooftop solar array http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/origin-energy-build-australias-biggest-rooftop-solar-array-78459 By Giles Parkinson on 19 February 2015
Origin Energy and Zen Energy Systems are to build a 3MW solar system on the rooftop of the old Mitsubishi factory in Tonsley, Adelaide, in what will be the largest rooftop solar array in the country.
The awarding of the contracts was announced by the South Australian government this week. The intention to build the array was first announced late last year. Origin Energy will own the rooftop array and sell the output to the tenants of the Tonsley high tech centre (artists impression to the right), under a power purchase agreement that it is looking at replicating elsewhere in the country.
Indeed, Origin Energy managing director Grant King says the company is “changing its view” on electricity markets, and is particularly interested in the economics of utility-scale solar in Australia.
“We are working hard to understand economics of utility scale solar in Australia,” King told an analysts briefing.
Origin has also revealed it has bought a 40 per cent stake in the 69MW Javiera solar project in Chile (pictured right), which is being built by SunEdison in the Atacama desert, without subsidies, and will supply electricity mainly the nearby Los Pelambres copper project.
Origin Energy says this will also help it understand the economics of large-scale solar – both in international markets, and in Australia.
Zen – a tenant in the Tonsley complex – has been awarded the installation and maintenance contract.
“It’s a great job to get to ramp up our capacity and profile with a number of multi-megawatt jobs in the pipeline currently evolving for ZEN around Australia,” managing director Richard Turner said.
South Australia Innovation Minister Kyam Maher said the tender for the 3MW solar project had attracted a huge response from tenderers. “Tonsley is fast gaining a reputation as an innovation precinct with a focus on sustainability and urban renewal, so it’s not surprising that a project of this size has attracted significant interest,” he said.
Climate Change Minister Ian Hunter said the project would add to South Australia’s credentials as a national leader in renewable energy.
Hunter noted that South Australia has 41 per cent of the nation’s operating wind farm capacity and one in four households have rooftop solar panels.
“If South Australia was a nation, we would rank second only to Denmark as the world leader in terms of installed wind power on a per capita basis,” he said.
Origin’s head of energy markets, Frank Calabria, said the company was delighted to be named preferred partner for the innovative Tonsley project, which will see Origin build, own, and retail the electricity generated by the 3MW solar array.
“We are excited about this project, which will be the largest rooftop solar array Origin has installed, as it builds on our solar leadership and demonstrates our renewed focus on our solar business.
1.This month.
Julian Assange could be released on 20th May
The video on Palestine that got Yanis Varoufakis BANNED from Germany
Keep U.S. military expansion out of Australia
Petition EN5543 – Call for termination of the US-Australia Force Posture Agreement
Antinuclear 