SCARCELY ACCURATE: NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE ROYAL COMMISSION ‘ISSUES PAPER’ INACCURATE
Nectaria Calan, 13 July 15, Friends of the Earth have informed Royal Commissioner Kevin Scarce and the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission of a significant inaccuracy in Issues Paper 1, regarding the current and future legal framework for the nuclear industry in South Australia. According to the Royal Commission, the Issues Papers are intended to provide factual information and background to assist the public in making submissions.
Issues Paper 1, which deals with the exploration, extraction and milling of uranium, states that Aboriginal sites of significance are protected by the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988.
“This is not the case for BHP Billiton, South Australia’s biggest miner,” explained Nectaria Calan of Friends of the Earth Adelaide. “Under the Indenture Act, which applies solely to BHP Billiton, the company’s Olympic Dam mine and some 15, 000 square kilometres of the surrounding Stuart Shelf, are exempt from the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988. This exemption would also apply to any future expansion of uranium mining by BHP Billiton at Olympic Dam or in the surrounding area.”
“This inaccuracy is significant as it misrepresents existing regulatory and legal arrangements and potential arrangements in the future, issues on which the Issue Paper invites public comment,” said Ms Calan. “The largest of the two operating uranium mines in the state is exempt from the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988, alongside a further 15, 000 square kilometres of South Australia. BHP Billiton is also the most likely candidate for the expansion of uranium mining, also the subject of Issues Paper 1. It is negligent to omit that this company is subject to a different legal framework than other companies operating in the state.”
“We have requested that the Royal Commission address this mistake, adequately publicise the required corrections, and extend the upcoming deadline for submissions to allow people to consider the new information that the Royal Commission should provide. The public cannot make submissions based on inaccurate information.”
N.B. Legal details are provided as an appendix.
For comment contact: Nectaria Calan 0432 388 665 Friends of the Earth Adelaide
Appendix
Legal details: Continue reading
Mirrar people call on Abbott government to secure Kakadu National Park from further uranium mining
Traditional owners ask Abbott government to fix stand-off over Ranger uranium mine, SMH. July 12, 2015 – Peter Ker Resources reporter The traditional owners of the land on which the Ranger uranium mine is built have challenged the federal government to guarantee that no future mining will occur on the Ranger and Jabiluka mineral leases, and to begin preparations for the sites’ inclusion in Kakadu National Park.
In rare comments that do not bode well for the operator of the mine, Energy Resources of Australia (ERA), the Mirarr traditional owners indicated they would not agree to an expansion of the Ranger mine in the future, despite ERA seeking to keep that option open.
More than a month after ERA’s major shareholder, Rio Tinto, declared it did not support the Ranger expansion project, the uranium miner continued to push that barrow, and confirmed on Friday it had asked the federal and Northern Territory governments for an extension of its lease beyond 2021 so that it might reconsider the mine expansion if commodity prices improved.
Mirarr spokesman Justin O’Brien said the comments continued the “intense uncertainty” that had surrounded ERA’s future.
He called for certainty from the Abbott government. Continue reading
What happens when radiation spreads throughout the ocean currents of the Pacific?
Fukushima: The Extinction-Level Event That No One Is Talking About, Collectively Conscious, July 15 by Satyapriya Source: dougmichaeltruth.wordpress.com“……….Roughly 72% of the Earth is made up of water, and if you look at a global map, you can see that all of the world’s oceans are connected; it’s essentially one ocean. So what happens when two of the planet’s large bodies of water are rendered lifeless? Since roughly 90% of Earth’s life is contained in the oceans, and two-thirds of the planet is water, what happens when the oceans die? What happens when we can no longer fish the oceans for food? The answer is simple: When the planet’s oceans die, all life on Earth will follow, but who cares? There’s a game on tonight, or some stupid shitcom that insults the intelligence.
What level of cognitive dissonance is adhered to that causes people to look away from painful truths? How is it that people can convince themselves that everything is just fine when we are staring our very extinction in the face? How many actually give a shit? Far too few unfortunately. The fact that the world’s top scientists have no idea how to contain the radiation at Fukushima speaks volumes about what happens when a species develops technologically yet does not operate with wisdom. They destroy themselves.
Has humanity made its decision that it will simply bow down and allow the few, through psychopathy and corporate greed to drive the planet into its very extinction? Is it game over for life on planet Earth?
We are certainly headed in that direction, but why would I want to face this painful truth and find my center when Miley Cyrus is on TV sucking off a blow up doll in her latest piece of shit video?
The time for humanity to collectively wake up and come together is here and now! We can no longer put off the mess for future generations to mop up because at the rate we are going, the planet will be unable to support life and very may well become a dead rock resembling Mars. This is where we stand as a species. Does this sound paranoid? Maybe, but that does not negate the fact that it’s true! So as we bow our heads in quiet approval, our home is being destroyed and your children’s futures are being stolen right from under them. Sleep on, everything is OK, and raise your glass to the extinction of humanity! http://collectivelyconscious.net/articles/fukushima-the-extinction-level-event-that-no-one-is-talking-about/
Media and governments silent on Fukushima catastrophe, as no fix has been discovered
There has been a massive die-off of marine life along the west coast of the US, which has scientists “baffled.” Do you mean to tell me that scientists studying this death of the Pacific haven’t taken into account the possibility that it could be caused by the hundreds of tons of nuclear waste that has been pouring into the Pacific each day for the last four years?
Fukushima: The Extinction-Level Event That No One Is Talking About, Collectively Conscious, July 15 by Satyapriya Source: dougmichaeltruth.wordpress.com A massive earthquake of 9.0 magnitude struck off the coast of Japan, triggering a devastating tsunami, which left parts of the country in utter shambles. Official reports claim that 15,891 people lost their lives, 6,152 were injured and 2,584 were reported missing.
This was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded to have struck Japan, and the fourth most powerful in the world, since modern record keeping began in 1900.[1]This earthquake was so intense in magnitude, that it shifted Honshu, the main island of Japan by an estimated eight feet and actually shifted the Earth’s axis by between four and ten inches![2]
Japan is a nation containing many nuclear reactors which produce roughly 30% of the nation’s electricity.[3] The majority of operable nuclear reactors are right along the coast, in one of the most seismically active areas on the entire planet!
The powerful tsunami caused complete devastation of three of the six nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi facility, the cores of which melted within the first three days. In November 2011, the Japanese Science Ministry reported that radioactive cesium had contaminated 11,580 square miles of the land surface of Japan,[4] with an additional 4,500 square miles contaminated.[5]
The destroyed reactor sites have been dumping hundreds of tons of radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean, every single day for the past four years and the devastating results are now becoming plainly obvious. Radioactive cesium (an alkali metal) rapidly contaminates an ecosystem and poisons the entire food chain, and this waste offshoot has been detected in Japanese foodstuffs over a 200 mile radius of the Daiichi facility.[6]
Cesium and other radioactive waste products are bioaccumulative, meaning that they accumulate in an organism at a rate faster than the organism can eliminate it. Of course the Japanese government and TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) have blatantly lied about the amount of radioactive waste that has been leaking into the Pacific, however, the devastating results have been impossible to ignore.
I’ve wondered since the beginning of this disaster-which has already shown to be far worse that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine, in 1986-why the world’s top, leading scientists have not come together to figure out how to stop the leaking radiation. The reason is because no one knows how to deal with this catastrophe. Continue reading
The Rainbow Warrior protest still inspires peaceful activism to save our planet
Almost without fail governments and corporations have underestimated ordinary people and the power they wield. No one believed that people taking to the street, to boats, to pen and paper and even the payphone on the corner back in 1985, could change the global policy on nuclear testing. But they did.
So, what will we say thirty years from now? Will the idea of cooking our planet be as insane as it was to nuke it? Will the voices of the millions of people worldwide have got through? I believe it will. Not because the politicians acted, but because the people will decide.
30 years on from Rainbow Warrior bombing environment voices are still needed http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2015/07/10/4270685.htm DAVID RITTER ABC Environment 10 JUL 2015 Today marks the 30th anniversary of the bombing of protest vessel, the Rainbow Warrior. As much as ever, small voices need to join a chorus to show our leaders what is right. IF A POLITICIAN were to suggest testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific today, they would rightly be thought to have lost their minds; be out of step with reality and the common good, and certainly at odds with the global mindset.
Thirty years ago, it was a different time and the exploding of nuclear bombs beneath the Pacific Ocean was routine. But it was even then not acceptable, and it did not go unchallenged.
On this day three decades ago, a dozen courageous people were preparing to sail from Auckland in the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior. They planned to put themselves in the test zone at Mororoa Atoll, in opposition to the planned detonation. They carried with them the hopes and voices of many more people from around the world.
The ship had already been working in the Pacific before arriving in New Zealand. The crew had been evacuating the entire community of 350 people from the island of Rongelap to a less contaminated island — effectively making them nuclear refugees from the US nuclear test program that had gone on there during the 1950s. The Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira’s powerful images of the horrific impact of previous tests on their bodies and homes had been seen around the world.
The Rainbow Warrior never left Auckland. French secret service agents detonated two bombs below the water line, close to midnight, sinking the ship at the dock and killing Fernando. He was 35 years old and had two small children.
State-sponsored terrorism stopped that voyage, but it did not stop the protests. Continue reading
ICAN/Amnesty International joins with British Nuclear Test Veterans’ Association
Moulton man speaking out against nuclear testing 2 July 2015 http://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/news/community/features/moulton-man-speaking-out-against-nuclear-testing-1-6842581
Doug Hern can speak of the devastation of nuclear weapons – and he does so on a regular basis in his position with the British Nuclear Test Veterans’ Association.
His latest presentation was last week, when he was a speaker at an ICAN/Amnesty International campaigners’ meeting attended by delegates from all over the world.
Doug is also liaising with a producer from BBC2 who is proposing to work on a documentary recording the Maralinga detonations in Australia.
He says: “Thirty seconds after detonation the blast is 20 miles across. It is travelling at the speed of sound.
“I am one of the few out of the 22,500 that have managed to live a productive and reasonably healthy life, but I do feel now the legacy of the tests at Christmas Island is catching up with me.”
Stop Tony Abbott pulling the plug on Australia’s renewable energy industries
Senator Larissa Waters, 13 July 15 It’s absolute madness.
We must stop this attack on our climate, renewable energy and our future.
Yesterday morning we found out that the Abbott government had ordered the Clean Energy Finance Corporation not to make any more investments in wind power projects. By yesterday evening, it was revealed that PM Abbott had also pulled the plug on investment in rooftop solar.
Tell Environment Minister Greg Hunt and PM Abbott to stop their war on renewables!
Farmers have been betrayed twice this week by the Liberal-National Coalition: first with the approval of the massive Shenhua Watermark coal mine in the middle of some of most fertile, food-producing land; and now making the future less certain for farmers who choose to make a stable income from hosting wind turbines.
It has to stop.
This government tore down our carbon price, gutted our renewable energy target and now has waged an absurd war on renewable energy — make sure the Abbott Government knows just how many Australians oppose their anti-renewable, anti-science agenda.
PM Abbott is handcuffing us to the coal age, and condemning Australians, our Pacific Island neighbours and people right across the world to worse health, a loss of species, damage to our natural environment and to our agricultural land and water.
Please, tell the government to stop this reckless war on wind and solar.
Tony Abbott now attacking rooftop solar power industry
“By knocking off wind and solar, the only thing that you leave there is the high-risk stuff,” he said. “They’re trying to make it as difficult as possible for the CEFC.”
Abbott government extends renewable energy investment ban to solar power, Guardian, Shalailah Medhora 12 July 15 Clean Energy Finance Corporation banned from investing in small-scale solar projects in move industry claims is ‘revenge politics’ that will strangle the sector A directive banning the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) from investing in existing wind technology will also apply to small-scale solar projects, a move that will effectively throttle the industry, the Australian Solar Council said.
The federal government on Sunday confirmed that the $10bn CEFC will no longer invest in wind power, instead focussing on “emerging technologies”.
“It is our policy to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation because we think that if the projects stack up economically, there’s no reason why they can’t be supported in the usual way,” Abbott told reporters in Darwin. “But while the CEFC exists, what we believe it should be doing is investing in new and emerging technologies – certainly not existing windfarms…..
it has emerged the government’s investment directive also applies to small-scale solar technology like rooftop panels that generate up to 100 kilowatts of power. Continue reading
Australia’s Prime Minister revs up his attack on the wind farm industry
Abbott escalates war on wind, The Age, 11 July 115 Adam Gartrell EXCLUSIVE: Tony Abbott has been warned he is putting international investment at risk after ordering the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation not to finance new wind power projects. Tony Abbott has dramatically escalated his war on wind power, creating a new cabinet split and provoking a warning he is putting international investment at risk.
Fairfax Media can reveal the government has ordered the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation not to make any new investments in wind power projects. Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann have issued the so-called green bank with a directive to change its investment mandate, prohibiting new wind funding. It’s understood the directive was issued without the approval or knowledge of Environment Minister Greg Hunt, angering the minister. The decision is another blow for the multibillion-dollar wind industry, which has just started to recover from the uncertainty created by the government’s Renewable Energy Target review. Analysts say $8.7 billion is expected to be invested in wind power in the next five years, while the corporation has invested about $300 million in wind projects to date.
And international investors are warning the government’s move sends a bad message about how safe it is to do business in Australia.
The directive is just the latest salvo in the government’s attacks on the wind industry.
Corporate disinformation by the fossil fuel industries over decades
The climate deception dossiers: internal fossil fuel industry memos reveal decades of corporate disinformation http://apo.org.au/research/climate-deception-dossiers-internal-fossil-fuel-industry-memos-reveal-decades-corporate
8 July 2015
Source:
Union of Concerned ScientistsThis report presents seven “deception dossiers”—collections containing some 85 internal company and trade association documents that have either been leaked to the public, come to light through lawsuits, or been disclosed through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. While many of these documents have been analyzed by others (Oreskes 2011; Oreskes and Conway 2010; Gelbspan 1998), these dossiers offer the most complete and up-to-date collection yet available.
Excerpts of the documents are provided in the report’s appendices; the complete dossiers—totaling some 336 pages— are available online. Each collection of internal documents reviewed here reveals a separate glimpse of a coordinated campaign underwritten by the world’s major fossil fuel companies and their allies to spread climate misinformation and block climate action. The campaign began decades ago and continues today. The fossil fuel industry—like the tobacco industry before it—is noteworthy for its use of active, intentional disinformation and deception to support its political aims and maintain its lucrative profits.
The following case studies show that:
- Fossil fuel companies have intentionally spread climate disinformation for decades. The roots of the fossil fuel companies’ deception and disinformation run deep. Internal documents dating back to the early 1990s show a series of carefully planned campaigns of deception organized by companies and by trade groups representing the industry. As the scientific evidence concerning climate change became clear, some of the world’s largest carbon producers—including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Peabody Energy, and Shell—developed or participated in campaigns to deliberately sow confusion and block policies designed to reduce the heat-trapping emissions that cause global warming.
- Fossil fuel company leaders knew that their products were harmful to people and the planet but still chose to actively deceive the public and deny this harm. The letters, memos, and reports in the dossiers show that company executives have known for at least two decades that their products—coal, oil, and natural gas—cause harm to people and the climate.
- The campaign of deception continues today. With documents made public as recently as 2014 and 2015, the evidence is clear that a campaign of deception about global warming continues to the present. Today, most major fossil fuel companies acknowledge the main findings of climate science. Many even say they support policies to cut emissions. And yet, some of these same companies continue to support groups that spread misinformation designed to deceive the public about climate science and climate policy.
Brotherhood of St Laurence exposes Victoria’s unfair electricity charges
A critique of the Victorian retail electricity market http://apo.org.au/research/critique-victorian-retail-electricity-market Brotherhood of St Laurence 7 July 2015
The Brotherhood of St Laurence commissioned Bruce Mountain from Carbon and Energy Markets (CME) to investigate the Victorian retail electricity market.
Electricity costs have been rising across Australia’s National Electricity Market since 2007. In most Australian states rising network costs – the poles and wires – have been the primary cause of these price increases.
However, the Victorian case is different. Network costs are lower than in other states, and haven’t risen as much. High retail charges appear to be the cause.
The report and accompanying summary, released 7 July 2015, investigate the dynamics of the retail energy market and how that impacts on householders bills……..
Fossil fuel industry must ‘implode’ to avoid climate disaster, says top scientist #Auspol
‘The age of carbon is over’ and a transition to a greener economy is inevitable, says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, adviser to the German government and Pope FrancisAn “induced implosion” of the fossil fuel industry must take place for there to be any chance of avoiding dangerous global warming, according to one of the world’s most influential climate scientists.
Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, an adviser to the German government and Pope Francis, said on Friday: “In the end it is a moral decision. Do you want to be part of the generation that screwed up the planet for the next 1,000 years? I don’t think we should make that decision.”
Schellnhuber was speaking at a major science conference in Paris, taking place before a crunch UN summit in December, also in the city, at which nations must seal a deal on global warming. World leaders were sent a stark message in…
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Top End Beach under mock attack by US, Japanese, Australian troops
Photo: Soldiers from the US Marine Corps and Australian Army on the beach at Fog Bay during the Talisman Sabre exercise on the Top End coast. (Supplied: Facebook)
A deserted beach south-west of Darwin is “under attack” as part of the Talisman Sabre exercise involving United States Marines and Japanese and Australian Army soldiers.
Fog Bay, about 70 kilometres south-west of Darwin, is where the Talisman Sabre 2015 exercise is underway. The exercise is described by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) as a “biennial combined Australian and United States training activity, designed to train our respective military forces in planning and conducting Combined Task Force operations to improve the combat readiness and interoperability between our respective forces”.
Photo: A V-22 Osprey flies overhead during the Talisman Sabre exercise…
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1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 