Australia’s week in nuclear news
South Australia Royal Commission into nuclear industry expansion. Governor Hieu Van Le has signed off to mark the official start of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission. Note the word “cycle”. That word already implies a circular process, which is indeed the intention of the nuclear lobby. Their story is that nuclear waste will be transformed into fuel for fleets of new (untested) Small Modular Nuclear Reactors. Waste problem solved!
But no. The promised geewhiz little reactors that Australia is supposed to buy en masse, DO themselves produce highly toxic wastes, and will themselves eventually become radioactive corpses requiring burial.
So -rather than a nuclear fuel cycle, Premier Weatherill’s plan would mean a nuclear fuel chain – around our necks!
So far just one Commissioner appointed – the pro nuclear Kevin Scarce. The Term of Reference do not include examining the uranium industry, nor South Australia’s global nuclear role, nor the connection with nuclear weapons. Already it is implied that the proposed nuclear waste dump will be on Aboriginal land.
South Australian voters reject expansion of nuclear industry
A number of articles on these issues are on my website http://www.anti-nuclear.net – under the categories “South Australia” and “politics” (Also note – USA Nuclear lobby looking for tax-payer funded guinea pigs to test their new gimmicks).
National. Nuclear waste that originated in Lucas Heights is due to return to Australia soon. Why don’t people realise the distinction between the relatively small amounts of nuclear waste (originating at Lucas Heights) that Australia is contracted to take back, and the greedy dream of some to import nuclear wastes from other countries?
On a positive note – The Senate voted “Yes” to Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon’s motion, backing a local Councils’ a solar powered initiative in western New South Wales. On a negative note, Family First Senator Bob Day won enough Senate support to formally welcome the nuclear commission, with his motion passing 34 to 33. I think that he’s carrying his religious fervour for the nuclear family too far!
Queensland . French nuclear giant AREVa (itself in financial trouble) has permanently abandoned its plans to mine uranium in Queensland- due to the new government’s policy and to the ever slumping uranium market. New Labor govt says no to uranium mining.
In New South Wales, only one company has taken up the government’s invitation to get an exploring license.New South Wales’s Labor would turn Hunter Valley into a renewable energy hub
Australian Capital Territory rejects hosting radioactive waste dump
Media. Vanuatu cyclone disaster. Australian media seems to have decided that it’s not nice manners to mention climate change having any connection.
Renewable Energy Target impasse continues. That’s the way the Abbott govt likes it – slowly killing investment for future development. Greens Senator Larissa Waters strongly advocates for keeping the RET
Australia lost $1.8 billion in foreign investment through Abbott govt’s opposition to renewable energy
Flannery: Abbott Govt’s approach to renewable energy “grim”http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/energy-outlook-is-pretty-grim/2579950/ Hamish Broome | 20th Mar 2015 “GRIM” is how climate scientist, author and Climate Council member Tim Flannery describes the Abbott Government’s approach to climate change and renewable energy.
The outspoken scientist was interviewed ahead of his keynote speech at the Byron Solar Revolution Symposium this Saturday afternoon.
While everyday Aussies had embraced rooftop solar at an unprecedented rate, at a Federal level the commitment to big projects was in reverse, Professor Flannery said. “We’re doing very badly. We’ve been left way, way behind. Particularly in terms of clean energy technology,” he said.
Prof Flannery said as a result of the Federal Government’s “backward” stance on the Renewable Energy Target the nation had lost out on $1.8 billion in foreign investment into large-scale renewable projects in 2014 alone.
“At current settings, things are looking pretty grim,” he said. “We have a very high reliance on a very polluting, antiquated electricity system. Some of our coal-fired stations are the most polluting in the developed world.”
But amid all this negativity, Byron Shire Council has pledged to become a “zero emissions” council by 2020, while Lismore City Council has made a similar commitment.
Plans are afoot to launch a community-owned regional electricity retailer, and at least two other medium-sized renewable projects are planned in Lismore and Mullumbimby.
Prof Flannery said it was a “no-brainer” that regional communities were keen on renewable energy, because they could keep their profits local instead of funding “head offices” in the capitals.
And he said solar technology was making huge strides to support the move.
“We’re just seeing now the new storage units coming on to the Australian market at a price most people can afford,” he said.
Australia should be taking advantage of its massive solar resource, Prof Flannery said, pointing out the world’s solar technology leader was Germany, but even its best solar region was worse than our worst – in south-west Tasmania.
The dangers of radioactive waste transport to nuclear waste dumps
Radioactive Waste Dump Transport Safety, Liability, & Aquifer Concerns in Texas – “LLW” 2011 Mining Awareness Plus, 20 Mar 15 From Public Citizen.org: “Jan. 3, 2011
Federal Judge’s Green Light on
Nuclear Waste Dump Is Bad News for Texans
More Than 6,200 Citizens Flooded Texas Radioactive Waste Commission
With Comments, Concerns About Expansion of Waste Dump…….potential transportation routes would take nuclear waste from the Gulf Coast area on Interstate 10 through Houston and San Antonio; waste from southern states would be trucked on I-20 and I-30 though Dallas and Forth Worth; Midwestern and Northeastern waste would be driven on I-40 and I-27 though Lubbock and Amarillo; and waste from Western states would be driven though the cities of El Paso and Odessa taking I-10 and I-20, according to Martin Resnikoff of Radioactive Waste Management Associates………
The commission proposed rules earlier in 2010 for such an expansion but withdrew them after receiving more than 3,000 comments from the public, most of them adamantly opposed to importation. On Nov. 3, the morning after the elections, the commission announced the rules would be re-posted with only minor changes……….
From Public Citizen.org:
“PUBLIC CITIZEN AND WE TEXANS PRESS RELEASE
Medina’s concern about taxpayer liability is spelled out in the report produced by Public Citizen’s Texas office. It finds that if the Andrews County dump site were to leak, the cleanup cost could be anywhere from three to 50 times the amount set aside by the site operator, Waste Control Specialists (WCS). The report cites two examples of radioactive leaks – one in 1984 in near Karnes City in South Texas between San Antonio and Corpus Christi that garnered a $384 million cleanup bill, and another in 1983 at a site in New York called West Valley with an estimated cleanup cost of $5 billion.
“The people of Texas are at risk from a leak at the site, which is located dangerously near the Ogallala Aquifer and is only 150 feet from known groundwater sources,” said Ali Rawaf, a researcher with Public Citizen who authored the report, “The Repository and the Risks: A Report on the Andrews County Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Site.”
“What’s more, under HB 2184 or SB 1504 we would expect a substantial increase in radioactive transportation accidents, and the state is simply not prepared to deal with that possibility at an emergency response level or at a financial liability level. More than 4,000 trucks a year carrying radioactive waste will soon be rumbling down Texas highways, and if this legislation passes it will mean even more trucks spreading radioactive risk through the state.”
The report claims that in the event of a transportation accident involving radioactive waste, Texas would have only $500,000 available to cover emergency response, health care and property damage costs. Public Citizen says that amount is far too little…….
Read the Full Report:http://www.citizen.org/documents/Radioactive%20Waste%20Disposal%20Report2.pd
Victorian Labor government makes regulations easier for wind farms
Australian state of Victoria open for wind energy business http://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/article/australian-state-of-victoria-open-for-wind-20150320 Robin Whitlock Friday, 20 March 2015 The Victorian State Government in Australia has made some regulatory changes in order to make the state more attractive to wind farm developers.The changes will help to unlock billions of dollars in investment, providing a bipartisan deal can be reached on Australia’s Renewable Energy Target (RET). The director of the Clean Energy Council (CEC), Russell Marsh, said that under restrictive rules introduced by the previous government, a coal mine could be built closer to homes in the state than a wind turbine.
“It is important to get the balance right between attracting renewable energy investment to Victoria and ensuring that the voice of communities is heard when building a wind farm” Mr Marsh said. “But the restrictions introduced by the previous government simply drove wind farm companies to other states and robbed Victoria of investment and job opportunities in regional communities. New wind farm applications virtually dried up after these new measures were introduced.”
Mr Marsh added that it is fantastic to see the Andrews Government recognising the need for change and acting to address some of the most draconian parts of the former governmental legislation, which is clearly a step in the right direction.
The changes will mean that the 2 kilometre setback distance between houses and wind turbines will be reduced to 1 kilometre. The Planning Minister will decide on wind farm applications and local councils will be responsible for regulating new and existing wind farms. The ongoing review of the national RET by the Federal Government has led to an 88 percent reduction in investment in large renewable energy projects such as wind farms across the country over the course of last year. The RET remains the industry’s highest priority and bipartisan support for a strong RET needs to be secured in order to return investment and stability to the renewable energy industry. According to Mr Marsh, once this happens, the industry can look forward to working with the Victorian Government to build renewable energy infrastructure and pass the many benefits of that onto rural and regional parts of the state.
In turn, this will provide direct employment and will also provide flow-on benefits to local contractors, suppliers, shops, restaurants, accommodation providers and much more while wind farms are being constructed.
For additional information: Clean Energy Council Victorian Government
National protests against plans to close remote Aboriginal communities
#SOSBlakAustralia call goes out across the land to save remote Indigenous communities, Crikey MARIE MCINERNEY | MAR 19, 2015 A day of action to protest plans to close remote Indigenous communities in Western Australia ended up not only trending nationally on Twitter but hit the streets in real-life, with rallies across Australia, from Derby and Roebourne to Townsville and Tasmania.
The largest protest was, understandably, in Perth, fuelled by Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s “lifestyle choice” comments last week. They also prompted this call today by Close the Gap campaign co-chairs Mick Gooda and Kirstie Parker for the governments to re-engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, saying the decisions being made about remote communities are “highly damaging and a breach of inherent rights”.
Such was the growing momentum on the issue that Premier Colin Barnett addressed the rally in Perth – see The West Australian’s report and other media coverage of the protest (and 2015 Close the Gap day events):……
Below is a selection of the #SOSBlakAustralia tweets that captured virtual and real-life protest through the day, from organisations and individuals, including high profile sports and arts figures. Not even a pending cyclone was going to stop them: [tweets reproduced here] http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2015/03/19/sosblakaustralia-call-goes-out-across-the-land-to-save-remote-indigenous-communities/
USA Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s deceptive rules on radiation safety
US NRC Radioactive Dilute and Deceive Scam – Comment Deadline June 22nd (Extended) Mining Awareness Plus, 18 Mar 15 US NRC Comment Deadline extended to 22 June 2015:https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/11/20/2014-27519/radiation-protection http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=NRC-2009-0279-0098
The most strange and deadly scam, which the US NRC is running, is the dilute to deceive scam, where they actually tell the nuclear industry (and labs) that if they dilute the radionuclides with a certain amount of water (or air), then it is ok to put it into the rivers, ocean, air and even into regular sewerage drains! This is what they call “effluent concentration”. Even then the amounts allowed exceed amounts allowed under the EPA’s Clean Water Act, though it doesn’t really matter because what matters is how much radionuclide is actually emitted into the environment and how many months, years, decades, centuries, it’s going to stay there……..
The disgusting truth is that research on ionizing radiation has been ongoing since 1895. At the beginning of the nuclear age, focus was on how dangerous radiation was. Many animal and even human experiments have been done. The human experiments were both official experiments and unofficial making the population at large act as guinea pigs. They have known from the beginning the dangers. Somewhere along the way they seem to have switched from doing experiments to see how dangerous it was to doing endless experiments in an attempt at proving that it is safe. Despite their efforts to prove the contrary, they have only succeeded in proving that ionizing radiation is even more dangerous than their early results showed. As the National Academy of Science has stated endlessly in their BEIR reports, there is no safe dose of ionizing radiation. Increased dose is increased risk. This is even more true for high-LET internal alpha radiation and high LET neutrons.
The US EPA has a “clean water” water “standard” for drinking water, though it has none for water emissions from nuclear facilities – which makes no sense. Who, if anyone, pays to clean up the difference between radionuclides emitted by nuclear facilities and that allowed in drinking water?…..
the NRC needs to recall that its name is the Nuclear Regulatory Agency and so its job is to regulate the industry, rather than to work for the nuclear industry. Its job is to help the EPA keep a high safety standard for water, air, soil. They both appear to have forgotten or be oblivious to their purpose, which is to protect the people and environment from radionuclides from the nuclear industry.
Nuclear Facilities also are allowed to emit so many radionuclides, that it takes 50 pages to list them, including plutonium 239 to the air, along with the water. But, like the water, to talk about concentrations in the air – as opposed to amounts – is really meaningless for anything but the shortest-lived radionuclides. ……. https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/03/18/us-nrc-radioactive-dilute-and-deceive-scam-comment-deadline-march-24th/
Israel has nuclear weapons – USA’s Pentagon finally admits this
It’s Official: The Pentagon Finally Admitted That Israel Has Nuclear Weapons, Too The Nation, William Greider on March 20, 2015 “…… After five decades of pretending otherwise, the Pentagon has reluctantly confirmed that Israel does indeed possess nuclear bombs, as well as awesome weapons technology similar to America’s.Early last month the Department of Defense released a secret report done in 1987 by the Pentagon-funded Institute for Defense Analysis that essentially confirms the existence of Israel’s nukes. DOD was responding to a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by Grant Smith, an investigative reporter and author who heads the Institute for Research: Middle East Policy. Smith said he thinks this is the first time the US government has ever provided official recognition of the long-standing reality.
It’s not exactly news. Policy elites and every president from LBJ to Obama have known that Israel has the bomb. But American authorities have cooperated in the secrecy and prohibited federal employees from sharing the truth with the people. Continue reading
Fracking produces radioactive wastes
Radioactive isotopes that contaminate fracking industry waste and its machinery include radon, radium-226, uranium-238, and thorium-232. According to the Health Department’s website, these long-lived radioactive pollutants come in six forms:
* “Produced water” which is injected underground but later brought to the surface as waste;
* “Sulfate scales,” which are hard, insoluble deposits that accumulate on frack sand and inside drilling and processing equipment;
* Contaminated soil and machinery;
* Filter socks, contaminated by filtering “produced water”;
* Synthetic “proppants” or sand; and
* Sludge and “filter cake” solids of mud, sand, scale and rust that precipitate or are filtered out of contaminated “produced water. They build up in “filter socks,” and in waste water pipes and storage tanks that can leak
Fracking Radiation– North Dakota Considers Weaker Landfill Rules, Less Oversight , CounterPunch, MARCH 19, 201 by JOHN LaFORGE Radioactive waste produced by hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is making headlines all over gas land, particularly in North Dakota’s booming Bakken gas and oil field. Continue reading
Canada capable of switch to 100% renewable energy by 2035 – scientists
Complete shift to renewable energy within Canada’s reach, academics say IVAN SEMENIUK AND SHAWN MCCARTHY TORONTO and OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail, Mar. 18 2015, Canada could shift entirely to renewable sources of electricity by 2035 and eliminate 80 per cent of its greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century, says a group of Canadian academics that is aiming to spur government action on climate change.
To get there, they recommend a national carbon-pricing plan, and greater effort to move electricity produced from low-carbon sources such as hydro dams across provincial borders.
In a 56-page policy document scheduled for release on Wednesday, more than 70 scientists, engineers and economists say Canada is in a more favourable position than most countries for a switch to renewable power, including large-scale hydroelectric. The most significant barrier is not technical or economic, but a lack of political will, they said. Continue reading
All ratepayers benefit from rooftop solar
Rooftop solar benefits all ratepayers http://safeenergy.org/2015/03/18/rooftop-solar-benefits-all-ratepayers/ Michael Mariotte The utility and fossil-fuel industries continue to spread a crude canard against the growing popularity of rooftop solar across America.
The lie goes something like this: Households and business that install photovoltaic panels are doing so at the expense of other electricity ratepayers because they are “subsidized” by those that don’t have solar panels.
The truth is this: Rooftop solar provides substantial benefits for everyone, regardless of who installs it. It helps power the homes and shops that adopt it, to be sure, but it has far-reaching benefits for other customers as well. If Jane Doe in Anywhere, USA, puts a solar panel on her roof, every other electricity ratepayer within the footprint of whatever regional grid Jane Doe is tied into will benefit as well.
Honest purveyors of utility-industry fact know this, of course, and say it quite often. So, more and more, does Wall Street. Continue reading
Prices of solar battery systems set to plunge
Munson sees Australia as one of the most prospective markets in the world. That’s because of its high electricity costs, huge grid, expansive geography, excellent solar resources, and the penetration of rooftop solar PV.
But it’s also because the industry – from regulators down to networks and retailers, partly as a result from the boom in rooftop solar and the prospects for battery storage – are beginning to rethink their business.
Why battery system costs may fall 3x faster than solar PV http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/why-battery-system-costs-may-fall-3x-faster-than-solar-pv-84344 By Giles Parkinson on 20 March 2015 Everyone, it seems, agrees that battery storage is the next big thing to affect global energy markets. What is not agreed upon is the timing. Some think this may happen in a few years, others in a decade or more. Some think it is happening now.
The big question for many is how quickly battery storage costs will fall in coming years. Will it be as dramatic as that of solar PV, which took everyone but a few solar savants off-guard and cut costs 80 per cent over a five-year period? Some – such as investment banking giants Deutsche Bank and UBS – say it will. Others say it is not possible.
Ken Munson, the founder and head of smart energy systems start-up Sunverge – which is backed by an Australian government-funded investor – is in no doubt that storage costs will fall. In fact, he thinks they could fall three times as fast as solar costs did. Continue reading
Bloggers vulnerable in Australia’s metadata retention bill.
George Brandis says Bloggers won’t be covered by Metadata Amendments MAR 18 by conspiracyoz Lanai Scarr www.couriermail.com.au BLOGGERS are unlikely to be covered by provisions protecting journalists in the government’s controversial metadata retention bill…… Prime Minister Tony Abbott yesterday agreed to amend the laws to ensure journalists be better protected under the bill amid fears investigative journalism would be stifled.
A further amendment will be moved requiring law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant to access journalists’ metadata to identify a source.
But Senator Brandis said bloggers would not be covered by the provisions. “I wouldn’t regard bloggers as journalists,” Senator Brandis told ABC radio……Independent Senator Nick Xenophon said there should be provisions in the amendment that would ensure a journalist would know when a warrant was being issued.
He said Australia should follow the lead of the US on the laws.
“(Whistleblowers) won’t come forward if they don’t know they will be protected.
“It will have a chilling effect on investigative journalism.”
Under the government’s new data retention laws which it hopes to pass in the next sitting fortnight, Australian phone and internet providers will be required to store various customer metadata for up to two years for law-enforcement agencies’ access.
No warrant will be required to access the data, just an agencies’ senior officer’s sign off……..http://conspiracyoz.com/2015/03/18/george-brandis-says-bloggers-wont-be-covered-by-metadata-amendments/
Australians should pressure govt for food labelling – on country of origin
Tell the Government you want to know where your Food comes from CHOICE http://conspiracyoz.com/2015/03/20/tell-the-government-you-want-to-know-where-your-food-comes-from/Thank you for taking action on better country of origin labelling.
What’s next? CHOICE wants to meet with Barnaby Joyce
in March to call for action on this issue.
Your support will help us illustrate that Australians want a clear
and more meaningful country of origin system.
Thanks,
The Campaigns Team.
To do even more good tell your friends!
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 