Antinuclear

The week that has been in Australian nuclear news

SBS TV showed “The Sugar Conspiracy” on 6th Sept.  This documentary revealed the tactics of the International Sugar Association, in PR over decades, showing that fructose (sugar) does not cause dental decay, diabetes, obesity, heart disease. They convinced health authorities, governments, media, by spending $billions on propaganda that just shed doubt on medical facts about fructose.

Familiar story?  the Tobacco corporations did the same thing – just shed doubt for decades, on the facts in cigarette smoking and lung cancer.  The Asbestos companies did it for decades about mesothelioma. The Fossil Fuel companies successfully shed doubt on the science about global warming.

The Sugar documentary just reminded me that all the Nuclear lobby needs to do, is to shed doubt on the science about ionising radiation. Just delay the truth – and keep on with the business!

Well – I digress, but I enjoyed it!

AUSTRALIA

South Australia’s Nuclear Fuel Chain Royal Commission. ( a few) SUBMISSIONS:

•  Questionable Integrity of Royal Commission examined in  Submission by Yurij Poetzl.
• ENUFF’s submission the the RC  raises objections to its whole modus operandi.
• City of Port Adelaide Enfield notes poor prospects for New Nuclear Technology.
• Geoff Russell’s pro nuclear submission claims that falls from solar rooftop are a bigger danger than the Fukushima nuclear situation.

Hearing held on Sept 9th. Anna Skarbek told Commisison hearing about the opportunities for renewable energy. Ross Garnaut told Royal Commission of ever cheaper solar photovoltaic electricity, but got his facts wrong about uranium enrichment.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA. Walkatjurra Walkabout still on the road and going well.

CLIMATE CHANGE. Tony Abbott’s deceptive spin about the Paris Climate Targets. Tony Abbott has ‘a very good story to tell’ Pacific Islanders, about climate change    Naomi Klein here , says “Australia is full of climate heroes”, also  and calls new nuclear power plants a ‘distraction from real climate action‘

INTERNATIONAL

“Everything I was Dreaming of is Gone” — How Climate Change is Spurring a Global Refugee Crisis to Rapidly Worsen.

CSRP 2015 – The Fifth Citizen-Scientist International Symposium on Radiation Protection

International conferences in Hiroshima: call for disarmament measures is weakened by USA, Britain and Canada.

Nuclear lobby’s wishful thinking about Small Modular (SMR) and Generation IV reactors.

‘Climate Change Fix” chosen as 2015 theme by World Nuclear Association.

JAPAN.

• Record rain overwhelming Fukushima’s nuclear station’s drainage pumps.
• Fukushima Daiichi drainage system enters operation.
• Scrutinising Japan’s government PR about The Reopening Of Nahara Fukushima.
• Japan’s Monju nuclear reprocessing reactor, plagued by safety errors, offline for most of 20 years.  
• Significant setback to Japan’s #nuclear revival.
• In Japan’s hot summer, solar power ramped up its contribution to electricity.

KAZAKHSTAN’s disaster of dead animals near Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site.

FRANCE heading towards a nuclear industry phaseout?

USA. Outrageous decision of USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to cancel research on cancer-nuclear links. Nuclear Regulatory Commission prevents hearing on Fermi nuclear plant. Nuclear Regulatory Commission scraps public rulemaking on weak GE containments. St Louis suburb anger about radioactive landfill. Washington State sues US Energy Dept over Hanford workers made sick by toxic fumes.

UK. EDF admits Hinkley Point Nuclear Station won’t be ready by 2023.

CHINA. Anxieties in China over the safety of the nation’s nuclear power programme.

ISRAEL. Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu again under house arrest.  Vanunu discussed Israel’s nuclear program on primetime TV.

September 11, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina reviews