BHP wants to remove Federal and State laws on uranium mining
BHP cool on hot uranium demand, The Weekend Australian p.2 REBECCA PUDDY, 22 Aug 2015 BHP Billiton has warned that the future doubling of global demand for uranium will not necessarily lead to increased investment at its Olympic Dam mine.
The mining company said the commercial return from the Olympic Dam deposit in the north of South Australia was driven primarily by copper production, together with a combination of commodity prices and other market factors.
“Therefore increased demand for uranium may not in and of itself lead to increased investment in the Olympic Dam deposit,” the company said in its submission to South Australia’s Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission.
BHP Billiton’s warning comes after it announced this month that 380 workers would be sacked as part of an operational review to cut costs.
An expansion plan for Olympic Dam was put on hold three years ago, although South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill hinted this month that a modified plan to expand the mine remains on the cards, with trials of an alternative heap-leaching technology progressing more rapidly and successfully than expected. This comes as demand for uranium is tipped to increase.
The International Energy Agency world energy outlook states that there are currently 437 operating nuclear power reactors in the world with 378 gigawatt capacity.
With a further 68 reactors being built, the agency forecasts nuclear capacity will increase to 624GW by 2040. “In the long run, additional supply of primary uranium will be required to meet the expected demand,” it says.
“With steady demand increases, the market deficit is expected to be filled by a range of potential projects.”
BHP Billiton’s submission to the royal commission focuses its attentions on the regulatory burdens placed on it by state and federal governments. It recommends the removal of uranium mining from the list of Matters of Environmental Significance in the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act.
The commission is due to report early next year.
South Australian govt warned by atomic test veteran not to expand nuclear industry
Maralinga British atomic test veteran warns State Government against nuclear expansion in SA, ABC News By Mike Sexton, 22 Aug 15 A veteran of the British atomic tests at Maralinga has warned the South Australian Government against flirting with a nuclear fuel cycle.
Avon Hudson served with the RAAF at Maralinga during the so-called minor trials when radioactive material including plutonium was atomised and, in the process, spread across the sandy desert country.
“It is alright when everything goes okay, but we know they don’t,” he said.
“If we get more and more nuclear power stations then the law of averages is we will see more accidents.” In the 1970s Mr Hudson became a whistleblower by going public with what he knew of the secret trials.
He also became an advocate for the servicemen who had been exposed to radiation during weapons testing in the 1950s and 60s.
He said the men were given little or no protection against the harmful exposure.
“I was handed over like a pick and shovel would be handed over for someone to do a job,” he said.
“[There were] no safeguards, no nothing.”
Mr Hudson estimated of the 8,000 Australian servicemen at Maralinga fewer than 500 remained alive today.
Now in his late seventies he is retired and living in the South Australian town of Balaklava, but continues to agitate against the use of nuclear energy and weapons……..Mr Hudson believed the dangers posed by nuclear energy outweighed the advantages, including the possibility of nuclear fuel being used to manufacture weapons……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-20/veteran-warns-sa-government-against-nuclear-expansion/6711642
Vanessa Rauland, renewable energy advocate, is Greens candidate for Canning by-election
Greens name renewable energy advocate Vanessa Rauland as Canning by-election candidate, ABC News, 23 Aug 15 The WA Greens have named a renewable energy advocate as their candidate for the Canning by-election.
Vanessa Rauland, a small business owner and a lecturer at Curtin University, will run in the September 19 federal by-election brought on by thesudden death of Liberal MP Don Randall last month.
Ms Rauland said it was important to give voters a Green option.
“We know it could be a long shot to win this by-election, but we’re always trying to push up the vote and allow people to have the the option to vote Greens,” she said.
“We’ve seen it in Melbourne recently, the Greens took a seat from the Liberals there.
“Right across the board, Labor and Liberal have failed our community, from climate change to equal marriage to data retention.”
Ms Rauland said she would focus her campaign around renewable energy, arts and education issues……..http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-23/greens-name-canning-by-election-candidate/6718148
Death of highly respected Aboriginal anti nuclear activist Nabarula
Traditional owner and Muckaty anti-nuclear waste dump activist Nabarula dies in Tennant Creek ABC Alice Springs By Emma Sleath, 22 Aug 15 A senior traditional owner and activist against the proposed Muckaty nuclear waste facility has died in Tennant Creek.
The Warlmanpa elder, now known as Nabarula for cultural reasons, died on August 5.
Nabarula was part of an eight-year campaign against the Northern Land Council’s (NLC’s) nomination of Muckaty Station, 110 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, as a nuclear waste storage facility.
She was one of a group of traditional owners who took legal action against the NLC and the Australian government saying they were not consulted and did not consent to the proposal.
At a special sitting of the federal court at Muckaty, Nabarula threatened to “block the road and let the truck run us over” if the waste dump was approved.
In an out-of-court settlement, the Northern Land Council withdrew its nomination on June 10, 2014.
Nat Wasley, from the Beyond Nuclear Initiative, remembers delivering the news to Nabarula.
“I remember she did a little dance and put her fist up in the air,” Ms Wasley told 783 ABC Alice Springs.
“She was an extraordinary woman; I’m so proud and lucky to have known her.”
Nabarula’s family members were too distraught to speak to the ABC, asking Ms Wasley to speak on their behalf.
“There’s a lot of sadness and a lot of grieving,” Ms Wasley said.
“But there’s [also] a lot of joy in just pulling together photos and stories of her life …”
Ms Wasley said Nabarula was determined to fight the Muckaty proposal and did not falter throughout the long campaign.
“She was always making sure the young people were engaged and involved in the campaign events,” she said.
“But also with visitors … media, lawyers, interstate supporters, she always made time to sit down to meetings and to take people out bush if they wanted to.”
Earlier years……….http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-21/traditional-owner-and-muckaty-activist-dies-in-tennant-creek/6711306
Climate expert Connie Hedegaard in Australia to discuss Paris talks
Europe’s former Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard on Paris climate talks
In December this year, world leaders will gather in Paris in an attempt to nut out a global emissions pact.
Many countries, including Australia, have recently announced their pledges for reducing emissions post 2020.
But late last week, the EU warned that the technical talks were proceeding too slowly, and even lagging behind the political announcements.
Europe’s former and first ever Climate Commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, is in Australia for a series of speaking engagements.
Connie Hedegaard joins Fran Kelly on RN Breakfast.
“Our World is on Thin Ice” #Auspol #ClimateChange
Time is short but it is still possible to avoid a climate crisis, according to two new books, one each from either side of the Tasman. Tom McKinlay reports.There’s a crisis in Professor Tim Flannery’s house.
It sounds like it might have something to do with the sixth mass extinction.
That’s the mass extinction brought on by global warming, referenced in his new book, Atmosphere of Hope.
In it he quotes Elizabeth Kolbert’s 2014 study that confirmed the current global rate of extinction is about 1000 times greater than the normal or background extinction rate.
Inasmuch as we tend to hear of extinctions after the fact, they might be expected to involve whimpers rather than bangs.
Species quietly slipping out of existence as the environments that support them become slowly more hostile.
But what is going on at Prof Flannery’s place is something else.
There’s a cacophony, a determination to…
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New Energy Outlook 2015 #Auspol #ClimateChange
By 2040, the world’s power-generating capacity mix will have transformed: from today’s system composed of two-thirds fossil fuels to one with 60% from zero-emission energy sources. Renewables will command just under 60% of the 9,786GW of new generating capacity and two-thirds of the $12.2 trillion of investment.
Power Findings
The 5 shifts that will shake the global electricity system
Solar, solar everywhere. The further decline in the cost of photovoltaic technology will drive a $3.7 trillion surge in investment in solar, both large-scale and small-scale.
Power to the people. Some $2.2 trillion of this will go on rooftop and other local PV systems, handing consumers and businesses the ability to generate their own electricity, to store it using batteries and – in parts of the developing world – to access power for the first time.
Demand undershoots. The march of energy-efficient technologies in areas such as lighting and air conditioning…
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1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 