Uranium mine- Australia’s largest water guzzler – it’s criminal in a dry climate

Olympic Dam Mine: Largest User of Energy in S. Australia; Largest User of Australia’s Precious Water Resource – The Great Artesian Basin 31 Friday Jul 2015 by miningawareness The largest single user of electricity in South Australia is the Olympic Dam uranium, copper, gold, silver mine. Almost 60% of the energy in South Australia comes from renewables! Why would they need nuclear? Why a “Royal Commission”? They clearly want nuclear power so that they can sell their uranium to make energy to mine more uranium. Furthermore, the wise shun uranium, so to keep mining it in Australia, they need to dump it on Australia in the form of depleted uranium from enrichment, nuclear power, and the too often forgotten nuclear waste, to go with the radioactive tailings which they already have.

The largest user of underground water in the Southern Hemisphere is the Olympic Dam! Australia has a generally dry climate, and is highly dependent upon the same groundwater, underground aquifer, which is pumped for mining and most assuredly polluted by mining. Wikipedia says the Olympic Dam mine is the largest industrial user of underground water in the Southern Hemisphere. But, no single individual would use so much, so it much be the largest single user. Thus, it is also the largest single user of Australia’s precious Great Artesian Basin water.

Nuclear anything is even more dangerous in a dry climate, so prone to bushfires, and even fire tornados! Using up the precious water resource of the Great Artesian Basin by uranium, or any other mining, is criminal….https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/olympic-dam-mine-largest-user-of-energy-in-s-australia-largest-user-of-australias-precious-water-resource-the-great-artesian-basin/

2 Comments »

Errata. It is actually almost 1/3rd of the energy for SA is from renewables. You may want to adjust your post. The following info was already on the post. The solar page says 31.5% and the wind 27%, which is almost 60%. However, the solar page actually says 31.5% renewables and the wind page 27% wind. Thus, it’s almost one third. The good news is that there is an absolutely huge solar potential, as seen on the map at the post. The bad news is that this was a grievous math blunder and shows that it’s always important to double check everyone’s work, and that it’s bad to do numbers when tired. My apologies. On the solar energy page: “During 2012-13, South Australia produced 31.5% of the state’s total energy production from renewable energy.” https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/water-energy-and-environment/energy/energy-supply-and-sources/renewable-energy-sources/solar-energy/solar-energy-in-south-australia On the wind energy page: “The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) estimates that in 2012-13 approximately 27% of the state’s energy production came from wind power.” https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/water-energy-and-environment/energy/energy-supply-and-sources/renewable-energy-sources/wind-energy/wind-energy-in-sa

Comment by miningawareness | August 2, 2015 | Reply
While the SA government web site says “31.5% of the state’s total energy production from renewable energy” and “27% of the state’s energy production came from wind power”. Actually it is saying production and not use. I found the original mistake wondering if they meant electricity or total energy, but in writing this I realised that this is production and not energy use. Australia and the USA could both be totally run off of solar and wind. The UK will have to be more creative and have mixed renewables.

Comment by miningawareness | August 2, 2015 | Reply