Lucas Heights (terrorism target) gets security upgrades
Security upgrades at Lucas Heights nuclear reactor not influenced by trespasser scare, SMH, August 25, 2015 Henry Belot Canberra Times Reporter
Security upgrades at Australia’s oldest nuclear reactor were not triggered by the arrest of five men caught loitering outside the site last year, according to officials.
The men were arrested and questioned in September after parking their vehicles within 100 metres of the security gates to the Lucas Heights reactor in southern Sydney.
The group were eventually released without charge but their actions led police to question why they had strayed onto restricted Commonwealth land.
In response to a question on notice, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation chief executive Dr Adrian Paterson said security upgrades in October were not prompted by the scare.
“Control room operations were outsourced to one of Australia’s largest security firms with significant expertise and experience in control room monitoring,” an ANSTO spokesman said.”ANSTO’s first responder safety function was also outsourced to a private company.”
The spokesman said both changes were made after a detailed review of security arrangements and after consultation with the Australian Federal Police. “The changes have been successfully implemented and are delivering improved operational outcomes as well as cost savings,” he said.
“The AFP continues to be responsible for the 24-hour-a-day physical protection of the ANSTO site as well as armed first response.”
Dr Paterson said ANSTO received regular briefings from the intelligence community and their security posture could be strengthened quickly in response to specific threats……..
In 2001, Greenpeace activists gained entry to the Lucas Heights complex and unveiled banners claiming nuclear power was “never safe”…….
. The Lucas Heights site will also receive a shipment of radioactive waste returned to Sydney from France this year, after being sent to Europe for processing in the 1990s.
According to legal requirements, the waste must be returned from France by December with more waste set to be returned from Britain in 2017……….
ANSTO marketing material states the returning waste is equivalent to one third of a shipping container.
The cost of transferring waste from Britain is expected to cost nearly $27 million over four years, while the return of waste from France has been funded in budgets since 2010…….. http://www.smh.com.au/national/security-upgrades-at-lucas-heights-nuclear-reactor-not-influenced-by-trespasser-scare-20150825-gj71pv.html#ixzz3jrTJrpgg
Huge wildfires disaster in Siberia
Massive wildfires transform Siberian paradise into disaster area Mashable, Andrew Freeman 25 Aug 15 Dozens of large wildfires are burning out of control around Lake Baikal in Siberia, which is the world’s largest freshwater lake by volume and the deepest lake, at more than 5,300 feet deep. The Lake Baikal area is a popular recreational area during the summer, with campgrounds and cottages surrounding the shoreline.
Because of the composition of the soil in this part of the world, these fires are spewing unusually high amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, thereby contributing to global warming.
The region has seen drier and milder than average weather this year, and a combination of natural and manmade fires have led to a cataclysmic scene, with thick smoke seen from space and orange-tinted skies on the ground.
In July, the Lake Baikal area was one of the most unusually mild areas on Earth, according to NASA data as well as information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Fires have been burning off and on in this area since April, when farmers traditionally burn dried grass to help fertilize the soil. However, this year, many agricultural fires in this region got out of control, killing at least two dozen people and destroying several villages.
The smoke even made it across the Pacific Ocean, making for red sunsets in the Pacific Northwest, which is now suffering through it’s own wildfire calamity………http://mashable.com/2015/08/24/massive-fires-are-surrounding-the-worlds-deepest-lake-in-siberia/
Australia’s bushfire and flood danger, as climate change accelerates
Climate system changing faster than expected: Climate Council, ABC Radio Angela Lavoipierre reported this story on Tuesday, August 25, 2015
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The Climate Council says the case for the link between climate change and severe weather events has become much stronger. In a new report the Council states that the world’s climate system is changing more rapidly than expected.
ANGELA LAVOIPIERRE: The Climate Council’s report gives a snapshot of the changes so far to Australia’s climate, as well as changes it expects over the coming century.
The Council’s professor Will Steffen paints a grim picture.
WILL STEFFEN: One of the things that we can say is that we’re already seeing some impacts. Heat waves are lasting longer and starting earlier.
We’re seeing in the south-east of the country high bushfire danger weather has increased significantly over the last 30 years. We’ve seen that sea level has risen about the global average around Australia. That’s led to a threefold increase in coastal flooding.
ANGELA LAVOIPIERRE: And then, there’s what’s to come.
WILL STEFFEN: If we keep, if the globe keeps emitting fossil fuel emissions like we are now, we could see up to a metre of sea level rise around Australia. That could for example make a one in a hundred year flooding event in Sydney a daily event……..http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4299445.htm
Radioactive Waste: Information for communities
Beyond Nuclear Initiative, August 21, 2015
Download Radioactive waste information leaflet (highres)
Download Radioactive waste information leaflet (lowres5)
A shortlist of sites to be considered for hosting the first national radioactive waste facility will be announced in the coming weeks.
The list of nominated areas has not been made public; however, we know from media reports that sites have been nominated in Western Australia and also in the Kimba region (Eyre Peninsula) in SA.
This information sheet has been produced by a number of environment groups with support from public health organisations.
Please download it (click links above) and share the information with family, friends and contacts in affected areas.
http://beyondnuclearinitiative.com/radioactive-waste-information-for-communities/
Canning voters are urged to reject Liberals’ war on solar energy
The solar council is planning a nationwide marginal seats campaign at the next election.
The government has directed the CEFC – which it unsuccessfully tried to abolish – to stop investments in rooftop solar, but changes to the investment mandate remain under legal uncertainty.
Canning byelection: solar industry urges voters to reject Liberals ‘war on solar’, Guardian, Lenore Taylor, 25 Aug 15
Solar Council letterboxes all electors in Western Australia’s seat of Canning encouraging them to vote for Labor, the Greens or the Palmer United party The solar 
industry is letterboxing all electors in the crucial West Australian Canning byelection urging them to vote against the Liberal party on 19 September in response to the Abbott government’s “war on solar”.
The Solar Council leaflet states: “Installing solar helps Western Australians cut a typical power bill by up to 65%. The federal government is targeting solar by slashing the renewable energy target. We will support any political party with a good solar policy.”
The council has invited all party leaders and candidates to a public forum on 13 September
– a week before the byelection that could affect Tony Abbott’s hold on the Liberal leadership – to explain their solar policies. Continue reading
Radioactive thorium persists, found in residential properties near nuclear plant
Nuclear Waste Taints St. Louis Suburb, Radioactive thorium found at residential properties is linked to nuclear-weapons work done decades ago , WSJ, By JOHN R. EMSHWILLER Aug. 23, 2015Radioactive contamination has been discovered at three residential properties in the St. Louis area, adding fuel to a long-running controversy about how much damage was done to the environment and possibly people’s health by nuclear-weapons work performed there decades ago. Continue reading
President Obama promotes rooftop solar energy – (contrast with PM Abbott)
US President Barack Obama unveils measures to encourage solar power use, SMH, August 25, 2015 GARDINER HARRIS. The Obama administration has announced a slew of small measures designed to encourage the use of solar power in the US hours.
The measures included making an additional $US1 billion ($1.4 billion) in loan guarantee authority available in an existing federal program for the kind of residential rooftop solar projects that have become popular in places like California.
But none of the announced measures would provide the impact on the solar industry of the Clean Power Plan, which was announced this month and requires states to cut carbon emissions by an average of 32 per cent. That plan provides strong incentives for much of those reductions to come from the development of renewable energy resources – exactly what executives at the conference in Nevada are looking to sell.
“We’re going to make it even easier for individual homeowners to put solar panels on their roof with no upfront cost,” President Barack Obama told the summit. “A lot of Americans are going solar and becoming more energy-efficient not because of tree huggers — although trees are important, just want you to know — but because they’re cost-cutters.
With the nation’s new electrical needs growing only modestly, renewable power executives are depending on electric utilities finally retiring their aging coal-fired power plants and replacing them with renewable power sources. That process is happening anyway, but the administration’s power plan is expected to accelerate it……..http://www.smh.com.au/environment/us-president-barack-obama-unveils-measures-to-encourage-solar-power-use-20150825-gj71e8.html#ixzz3jsRuU7g4
Radioactive caesium persists in ocean floor near Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Accident: Cesium contamination persists in ocean floor near Fukushima Daiichi site http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265931X1530031X Journal of Environmental Radioactivity Volume 148, October 2015, Pages 92–110
Highlights
- • The majority of radiocesium is transported in the particulate fraction.
- • The contribution of the dissolved fraction is only relevant in base flows.
- • Significant transfer of particulate-bound radiocesium occurs during heavy rainfall.
- • Radiocesium deposited in floodplains may be remobilized, inducing contamination.
- • Transdisciplinary approach is required to quantify radiocesium transfers.
- Abstract Continue reading
Citigroup analysis finds that renewable energy IS cheaper than fossil fuel energy
Giles Parkinson: Why wind and solar are already better value than fossil fuels.When radio shock jock Alan Jones got the cost of wind energy so horribly wrong in front of a million or so viewers on ABC TV last month, he did more than misplace a decimal point. He repeated an often-made misunderstanding about the costs of energy, and why renewables are already better value than fossil fuels. …
Jones admitted his error, but he remained unbowed on his view of wind energy and renewables in general. Like the Coalition government, its advisors, and other opponents of renewable energy, including elements of the Murdo ch media, Jones is convinced that renewable energy will cause overall consumer costs to soar. But he is wrong about that too.
Citigroup has published a detailed analysis of the costs of various energy sources, and it concludes that if all the costs of generation are included then renewables turn out to be cheaper than fossil fuels and a “benefit rather than a cost to society.”
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/why-wind-and-solar-are-already-better-value-than-fossil-fuels-16022 &http://www.dailyclimate.org/t/-71650010666671461
US tax-payer money used to promote nuclear lobby
Lockheed Martin Nuclear Subsidiary Fined for Paying Lobbyists with Federal Funds, TIME, Patrick Malone / Center for Public Integrity Aug. 24, 2015 The Sandia Corporation has agreed to reimburse the Energy Department after allegedly spending federal funds on lobbying instead of national security. A private corporation that operates a U.S. nuclear weapons laboratory agreed on Aug. 21 to pay the federal government $4.79 million to settle Justice Department allegations that it illegally used taxpayer money to lobby for an extension of its management contract.
The payment by the Sandia Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin that operates Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, resolved claims that the corporation violated two laws that bar such a use of federal funds. Continue reading
A bit like #NuclearCommissionSAust ? US #nuclear company using govt money to get more govt money.
Lockheed Martin fined for using government money to lobby for more government money, http://theweek.com/speedreads/573689/lockheed-martin-fined-using-government-money-lobby-more-government-money The Week, Bonnie Kristian, 25 Aug 15,
Defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin has agreed to pay a fine to settle charges that the company illegally lobbied for a major government contract using federal funds. Lockheed targeted members of Congress and the Obama administration from 2009 to 2014, using money that had been allocated for research in a previous federal contract.
This is not the first time the contractor has used tax dollars to lobby for additional income. The Energy Department investigation that exposed these lobbying habits suggested Lockheed “felt empowered [to lobby this way] because it had improperly directed federal funds to similar activities in the past.”
The contract Lockheed unethically sought was worth $2.4 billion annually, and the company’s 2014 revenues totaled $45.6 billion — but the settlement payment was just $4.7 million. It’s a “slap on the wrist for the world’s biggest defense contractor to pay,” according to Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, who argues that Lockheed “engaged in deep and systemic corruption” which should result in criminal prosecution.
How Cheap Will Solar Get? #Auspol
If current rates of improvement hold, solar power will be incredibly cheap by the time it’s a substantial fraction of the world’s electricity supply, writes famous author and thinker Ramez Naam. According to Naam, electricity cost is from now on coupled to the ever-decreasing price of technology. That is profoundly deflationary and disruptive.
It’s now fairly common knowledge that the cost of solar modules is dropping exponentially. I helped publicize that fact in a 2011 Scientific American blog post asking “Does Moore’s Law Apply to Solar Cells?” The answer is that something like Moore’s law, an exponential learning curve (albeit slower than in computing) applies. (For those that think Moore’s Law is a terrible analogy, here’s my post on why Moore’s Law is an excellent analogy for solar.
Solar electricity cost, not solar module cost, is key
But module prices now make up less than half of the price of…
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August 24 Energy News
World:
¶ In Australia, rather inconveniently for the Coalition’s intentions to reduce its support for renewable energy, the Government’s commissioned modeller found the same answer as several other energy market analysts had before them: slashing the Renewable Energy Target would actually INCREASE consumers’ and businesses’ power bills. [Business Spectator]
Wind turbines in Azerbaijan.
¶ Azerbaijan’s State Agency on Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources is conducting test trials on a new wind plant Yeni Yashma. Simultaneous testing of 18 of a total of 20 turbines of the power plant is underway. The wind plant Yeni Yashma, with a capacity to generate 50 MW, is located in Khizi region of Azerbaijan. [AzerNews]
¶ China’s use of coal is falling. After decades of explosive growth, Chinese coal use fell by as much as 3.5% last year. Some of that is due to a slowing economy, but a representative with…
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Dennis Matthews on “Uranium – Twisting the Dragon’s Tail” final episode
Dennis Matthews, 24 Aug 15 Watched the final episode tonight. The Canadian-Australian physicist comes up with the inevitable physicists conclusion, we need nuclear energy. This program takes the cake for outright sneekiness. After looking at the aftermath of Chernobyl and Fukushima any normal person would have no alternative but to conclude that nuclear is a non-starter.
Along the way, the physicist-turned-journalist contradicts himself when he acknowledges that in cases of (ionising) radiation it is difficult to make a connection between cause and effect and that (like asbestos) the deaths may come many years after the event, yet a few minutes later he definitively claims that no one was killed by (ionising) radiation at Fukushima. This is straight out of the nuclear industry handbook.
He also interviewed a pro-nuclear medical researcher who was allowed to state unchallenged that low doses of (ionising) radiation MAY be good for you and that the human species has adapted to background ionising radiation. Given that we have, at the moment, no way of distinguishing many cancers and birth defects caused by ionising radiation from those caused by other agents (e.g., chemical) then these are outrageous statements and do no credit either to the medical researcher or to the scientific credentials of the journalist.
All-in-all a fairly crude attempt to sway public opinion. Given its timing I would have to conclude that this is another piece of pro-nuclear propaganda timed for the Scarce debacle.
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 