#Nuclear stooge Senator Bob Day not able to dismantle Australia’s law against establishing nuclear facilities
the ARPANS Act 1998 – 1A Section 10 includes :
10 Prohibition on certain nuclear installations
(1) Nothing in this Act is to be taken to authorise the construction or operation of any of the following nuclear installations:
(a) a nuclear fuel fabrication plant; (b) a nuclear power plant;
(c) an enrichment plant;
(d) a reprocessing facility.
(2) The CEO must not issue a licence under section 32 in respect of any of the facilities mentioned in subsection (1).
(2) Clause 12, page 8 (lines 14 to 22), omit the definition of nuclear installation, substitute: nuclear installation means any of the following:
(a) a nuclear reactor for research or production of nuclear materials for industrial or medical use (including critical and sub-critical assemblies);
(b) a plant for preparing or storing fuel for use in a nuclear reactor as described in paragraph (a);
(c) a nuclear waste storage or disposal facility with an activity that is greater than the activity level prescribed by regulations made for the purposes of this section;
(d) a facility for production of radioisotopes with an activity that is greater than the activity level prescribed by regulations made for the purposes of this section
Nuclear fan Senator Bob Day pushes to scrap Australia’s law on nuclear facilities
Push to scrap nuclear power plant ban in Australia THE AUSTRALIAN AUGUST 18, 2015 A push to scrap federal laws that ban nuclear power plants in Australia is due to be voted on today, amid calls for MPs to support expanding the uranium industry ahead of the findings of a royal commission.
An amendment to the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Bill was tabled in the Senate yesterday by Family First senator Bob Day.
The change would abolish section 10 of the ARPANS Act which bans construction of certain nuclear installations, including nuclear fuel fabrication plants, nuclear power plants, uranium enrichment plants, and reprocessing facilities.
Senator Day said the change was needed to position the country — and his home state of South Australia — to take advantage of a potential nuclear industry.
A royal commission is underway to investigate the state’s role in the nuclear fuel cycle, with industry invited to submit business cases for building a value-added uranium sector…….
The federal government has made a submission to the royal commission highlighting the benefits of Australia’s nuclear activities.
“Australia has a strong reputation as a global supplier of uranium for peaceful purposes and we already benefit from our nuclear research and the provision of life saving radiopharmaceuticals that help diagnose and treat serious illnesses,” Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said.
However, the government is not expected to support the change.
The current restriction under the ARPANS Act was established in 1998 after an amendment moved by the Greens, which was supported by both major parties. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/push-to-scrap-nuclear-power-plant-ban-in-australia/story-fn59niix-1227488202358
Fukushima: the cost in lives lost
Fukushima: thousands have died, thousands more will die, Ecologist, Dr Ian Fairlie 17th August 2015 Summing up Fukushima
“………About 60 people died immediately during the actual evacuations in Fukushima Prefecture in March 2011. Between 2011 and 2015, an additional 1,867 people [2] in Fukushima Prefecture died as a result of the evacuations following the nuclear disaster [3]. These deaths were from ill health and suicides.
From the UNSCEAR estimate of 48,000 person Sv, it can be reliably estimated (using a fatal cancer risk factor of 10% per Sv) that about 5,000 fatal cancers will occur in Japan in future from Fukushima’s fallout. This estimate from official data agrees with my own personal estimate using a different methodology.
In sum, the health toll from the Fukushima nuclear disaster is horrendous. At the minimum
- Over 160,000 people were evacuated most of them permanently.
- Many cases of post-trauma stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety disorders arising from the evacuations.
- About 12,000 workers exposed to high levels of radiation, some up to 250 mSv
- An estimated 5,000 fatal cancers from radiation exposures in future.
- Plus similar (unquantified) numbers of radiogenic strokes, CVS diseases and hereditary diseases.
- Between 2011 and 2015, about 2,000 deaths from radiation-related evacuations due to ill-health and suicides.
- An as yet unquantified number of thyroid cancers.
- An increased infant mortality rate in 2012 and a decreased number of live births in December 2011.
Non-health effects include
- 8% of Japan (30,000 sq.km), including parts of Tokyo, contaminated by radioactivity.
- Economic losses estimated between $300 and $500 billion.http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2989686/fukushima_thousands_have_died_thousands_more_will_die.html
Tianjin explosion shows cost of placing economic development ahead of environment
Tianjin blast must trigger real change in China, The Age, August 18, 2015 Hopefully, the thundering fireballs and devastation at Tianjin have shocked China’s authorities – and others in the world
China’s economic advances have come at a terrible cost to its environment.
The evidence is in its air, in the rivers and coastal waters, and in the vast tracts of farmlands so contaminated with heavy metals and pesticides that some senior offi- cials have warned they should never be used for food production. In 2014, a report by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection noted almost 20 per cent of the country’s arable land is polluted.
Criminally lax regulations, corruption and widespread failures to enforce breaches of environmental laws add to the woes and fuel justifiable anger among Chinese people. But more than any other environmental disaster in China (and there have been far too many), the series of explosions that ripped through the major port of Tianjin last week galvanised attention on the awful risks of elevating profit goals and economic advancement above the environment and citizens’ safety……….. http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-editorial/tianjin-blast-must-trigger-real-change-in-china-20150817-gj19t1.html#ixzz3jClGQ9na
UK govt’s payola for overseas #nuclear companies (a warning for South Australia?)
It’s an anachronistic behemoth from the bygone age of energy dinosaurs when the world is rapidly moving towards distributed power via renewable energy. It’s far too costly, and is it even needed?
Tory privatisation scams (2): the Hinkley Point C nuclear payola guaranteed by UK 
taxpayers for Chinese investors http://www.michaelmeacher.info/weblog/2015/08/tory-privatisation-scams-2-the-hinkley-point-c-nuclear-payola-guaranteed-by-uk-taxpayers-for-chinese-investors/
NO economic argument for starting any nuclear facility in South Australia
An expanded nuclear industry in South Australia makes no economic sense http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/18/an-expanded-nuclear-industry-in-south-australia-makes-no-economic-sense Richard Denniss
The idea that the South Australian taxpayer should underwrite the cost of a nuclear waste dump or nuclear power station is as bizarre as it is expensive Some techno-optimists have managed to convince South Australians to bet on nuclear technology even as the rest of the world is walking away from its risk and cost.’ WMC Resources’ Olympic Dam uranium mine in the remote outback of South Australia.
The South Australian government is conducting a royal commission into expanding the nuclear industry in the state. If the pro-nuclear positions taken by the majority of the commission’s advisory committee are anything to go by, this would mean two things: expensive nuclear power, and expensive nuclear waste.The economic case for nuclear power is already shaky. Continue reading
Australia likely to cop it bigtime with extreme weather events
Global warming to drive quadrupling of extreme weather trifecta, study finds August 18, 2015 Peter Hannam Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald The worst combination of extreme weather patterns in the Indian and Pacific oceans will likely rise four-fold this century if greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current trajectory, leading researchers have said.
Australia’s already variable climate may be particularly susceptible to a punishing sequence of events. This starts with reduced rainfall sourced off the nation’s north-west, combining with a strong El Nino in the Pacific to intensify drought over the food bowl regions of south-eastern Australia, only to be followed by floods during a powerful La Nina event the following year.
That extreme and rare trifecta – similar to the combination that occurred during 1997-99 – will happen about once every 48 years compared with about once every 187 years in the past, research published on Tuesday in Nature Climate Change says. The research is based on more than 20 climate models.
But even weaker versions of the three elements are likely to have an amplified impact as background warming from climate change makes rainfall shifts and heatwave conditions easier to generate.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/global-warming-to-drive-quadrupling-of-extreme-weather-trifecta-study-finds-20150816-gj0f4o.html#ixzz3jD5l1Z42
Tony Abbott’s pointless accusations against environmental groups
Tony Abbott’s defence of the Carmichael coalmine is passionate but baseless, Guardian, Lenore Taylor, 7 Aug 15
Prime minister, ‘sabotage’ is something undertaken by enemy agents, not citizens testing the laws of the land.In yet another passionate defence of coal (in an interview with the Australiannewspaper), Tony Abbott has made so many inaccurate and questionable claims it’s hard to know where to start. Here are some of his statements, juxtaposed with facts.
If a vital national project can be endlessly delayed, if the courts can be turned into a means of sabotaging projects which are striving to meet the highest environmental standards, then we have a real problem in this nation … we have to remain a nation that gives people a fair go if they play by the rules.”
The prime minister seems to be suggesting those taking court action are doing something unpatriotic and wrong. In fact, the environmentalists trying to stop the Carmichael mine are playing by the rules – the laws made by parliaments and interpreted by courts.
“Sabotage” is usually something undertaken by enemy agents, not citizens testing the laws of the land. The Environmental Defenders Office is an organisation representing the views of many loyal Australians. A recent Essential poll found that 50% of Australians believe governments should prioritise support for renewables over the coal industry, including 39% of Liberal voters. Only 6% thought governments should prioritise support for coal. The federal court interprets the law.
In any event, the biggest danger to the Adani mine is its own business case, not environmental legal cases, as my colleague Joshua Robertson explained after the recent court decision. Continue reading
Abbott govt to remove right of environmental groups to legally challenge developments
Coalition to restrict green groups’ right to challenge after Carmichael setback, Guardian, Lenore Taylor, 18 Aug 15 [below – mining donations to Coalition]
Decision to place restrictions on environment groups that can bring legal action comes after federal court overturned approval for the Queensland coalmine The government will remove the right of most environmental organisations to challenge developments under federal laws unless they can show they are “directly affected” – a direct response to the federal court decision this month on Adani’s Carmichael coalmine.
Attorney general George Brandis took the plan to cabinet “under the line” on Monday and it was approved by the Coalition party room on Tuesday, where Tony Abbott said he wanted to use the issue to prove Labor was “torn between workers and greens”, whereas the Coalition was always on the side of the “hard-working and decent” workers.
Brandis said the government would seek to repeal section 487 (2) of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act and “return to the common law”. The government says “vigilante” green groups have been “sabotaging” development, jobs and growth by “lawfare” – unfair and improper use of the courts………
Abbott repeated the claim that the Adani mine would bring 10,000 jobs to Queensland even though the company’s own financial officer told a court this was not true and only 1,464 jobs would be created.
He told his party room “green activists” were “sabotaging” projects that could be bringing growth and jobs to Australia. The approval of the $16bn Carmichael mine, to be located in Queensland’s Galilee Basin region, was set aside earlier this month following a legal challenge by the Mackay Conservation Group. Continue reading
Godzilla El Niño’ Plus Carbon Pollution Equals Global Warming Speed-Up #Auspol
NASA oceanographer Bill Patzert called the intensifying El Niño, “Godzilla.” A NOAA research scientist called it “Bruce Lee” in July, and, by August, she said that what’s coming is “Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious.”
Whatever you call it, the short-term burst of regional warming in the tropical Pacific (from the monster El Niño) combined with the strong underlying long-term global warming trend means that 2015 will easily be the hottest year on record — blowing past the record just set in 2014. And if the global temperature pattern repeats that of the last super El Niño (1997-1998), then 2016 could well top 2015 record. Here’s why.
First, as a 2010 NASA study explained, the 12-month running mean global temperature tends to lag the temperature in the key Niño 3.4 region of the equatorial Pacific “by 4 months.” El Niño (and La Niña) are typically defined as positive (and negative) sustained sea surface temperature anomalies…
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Australia’s Photovoltaic Institute ahead of Google with software tool for estimating solar savings
Google allows households to calculate solar system savings, but Australia beats them to it, Business Spectator TRISTAN EDIS , 18 Aug 15, Google has unveiled a software tool that assists home owners to estimate how much they could save on their energy bill from placing solar panels on their available roof space. Yet Australia’s Photovoltaic Institute had already developed a similar tool some time ago.The Google tool, known as Project Sunroof, uses high resolution aerial maps to estimate the suitable roof space of a building that could host solar panels, and then calculates the amount of energy these panels would produce and associated power bill savings. It does this taking into account the amount of solar radiation for that geographic location and then adjusts for factors such as roof orientation and shade from nearby buildings and trees. At present the tool is only available for the US locations of the San Francisco Bay Area, Fresno in central California and the North-east coast city of Boston.
However the Australian Photovoltaic Institute has designed almost precisely the same tool, releasing it several months ago. Called the Live Solar Potential Tool, it is a free to use tool that operates in a similar manner to Google Earth, allowing anyone to zoom in on a specific household and then estimate how much energy a given area of the rooftop would be likely to generate with solar panels……..http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2015/8/18/solar-energy/google-allows-households-calculate-solar-system-savings-australia-beats
Jeff McMullen on Aboriginal custodianship of Australia
You may see the Prime Ministerʼs litany of stupidity as merely a series of gaffes but I believe that his words point to a more troubling insensitivity, a failure to comprehend the strengths of Aboriginal culture and the resilience displayed throughout the longer timelines of history. I am thinking again of Bill Gammageʼs appraisal of Aboriginal “farming without fences”, the custodianship that created the sweet grasses that so delighted the English pastoralists. The mosaic of fire-stick farming and management of resources over many millennia is worthy of our admiration, not mere acknowledgement
Custodianship in the 21st Century Green Left, Saturday, August 15, 2015 By Jeff McMullen, Darwin Vincent Lingiari’s fight for land rights shows it is possible to win.
The great power of Vincent Lingiariʼs story is that it teaches us how this land sings to us all, how it holds us and nurtures us. This is the common ground that we share.
When the Gurindji leader and his people walked off Wave Hill Station, camping by the Victoria River and then eventually by Wattie Creek at Dagaragu almost half a century ago, they understood that the land was their birthright and their destiny.
The Old Man also knew in his wisdom that a sharing of the living environment, a responsible Custodianship of the land, was the key to the common good for all Australians. With patience, humility and extraordinary dignity, Vincent Lingiariʼs fight for genuine Land Rights shows us how it is possible to unite and inspire enough Australians to move the country towards a legal settlement that is fair in the eyes of most reasonable people.
This is a priceless lesson as Australians once more contemplate many different views on recognition of the rights and rightful place of the First Peoples. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 