Nuclear and climate news in Australia this week
The global nuclear lobby is blitzing Paris, and the world, with propaganda, as the nuclear industry makes a concerted effort to hijack the Climate Summit.
As this email flies through cyberspace, some community groups and unions prepare to protest at Port Kembla, NSW, the arrival of radioactive trash on its return trip to Lucas Heights. However, the dock workers union, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) , will unload the wastes, without incident, as they recognise Australia’s obligation to take back the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor wastes reprocessed in France. The MUA makes it clear that they will not co-operate in the event of other nuclear wastes that might be imported separately as part of an international nuclear waste industry as proposed by the South Australia Nuclear Fuel Chain Royal Commission.
In tandem with the global nuclear PR, one of Australia’s most long term and most hypocritical nuclear pusher delivered a volley of support for importing nuclear wastes, and a volley of attack on anti-nuclear critics. Gareth Evans, enjoying world-wide prestige for his involvement in Nuclear Disarmament, has always promoted “peaceful” nuclear power. At the South Australian Nuclear Fuel Chain Royal Commission he rejoiced at the plan to import nuclear wastes – Australia would “stand very tall in the international community”. He dismissed safety concerns as “emotional” .
Dr Margaret Beavis of Medical Association for Prevention of War explained that a national waste dump is NOT NEEDED for medical nuclear wastes.
Yet another delay in radioactive cleanup of Sydney’s Hunter’s Hill.
Malcolm Turnbull in Paris: the dinosaurs are still in charge of climate policy. Australian govt’s contribution to UN Climate Summit – pro coal video “Coal is Amazing”! United Nations call on Australia to produce a consistent climate policy, not ‘mixed messages’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vGW49gJE-Q Greens expose the Australian govt’s ‘paltry’ contribution on climate change. Australia refuses to sign Paris communique on phasing out fossil fuel subsidies . No new money for Pacific Islands climate help: Australian govt just taking it from foreign aid.
Australian govt still will axe Australian Renewable Energy Agency despite ARENA’s big new project. City of Melbourne leads new renewable energy project.
Community and unions gather to protest arrival of nuclear shipment
Radioactive waste will be on the community’s radar on Saturday as trade 
unionists, environmentalists and local residents gather at Port Kembla to protest and monitor the first shipment of Australian radioactive waste returning from reprocessing in France.
After being unloaded the waste will be transported for storage in a new purpose built facility at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation’s Lucas Heights reactor site.
“Our members do not support the nuclear industry,” said Maritime Union of Australia’s Southern NSW Branch Secretary Garry Keane. “There is no totally safe way to transport or store waste which remains a danger and threatens communities for thousands of years.”
“Understandably no one else wants our nuclear waste – that is why it is coming back to Lucas Heights and we want to send a clear message that we won’t accept anyone else’s nuclear waste.”
The shipment comes as the federal government explores options for a national radioactive waste dump at one of six regional and remote sites across Australia. Civil society groups are calling for the waste to continue to be stored at Lucas Heights pending an expert and open examination of all future management options.
“Extended interim storage at Lucas Heights is the ‘least worst’ of the current waste management options,” said Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Dave Sweeney.
“If this material can be made at there then it can be stored there until a full review takes place. ANSTO has a secured and actively managed facility with the highest concentration of nuclear expertise and response capacity in Australia.”
The groups organising the community presence at Port Kembla have been active in sustained and successful campaigns with NT Traditional Owners opposing a planned national radioactive waste dump on their lands.
“The federal government’s current plan to transport this waste to one of six short-listed sites is contested and unnecessary,” said Beyond Nuclear Initiative coordinator Natalie Wasley.
“Communities at all of the proposed locations have already expressed concern and opposition to this plan. There is no need to rush and Minister Frydenberg should use this time to initiate a public and independent review of both waste production and responsible management options.”
French political and environment groups, Greenpeace and the Maritime Union of Australia have all raised significant concerns over safety and capacity of the BBC Shanghai, the ship carrying the waste returning from France, and the nature of the waste.
“When a shipment of solar panels comes through the port you don’t see hundreds of cops blocking highways and a national security operation,” said Arthur Rorris from the South Coast Labour Council.
“Communities the world over want to see the back of the nuclear industry so we don’t have to endure these unnecessary risks to public health, the environment and our national security.”
#NuclearCommissionSAust: expert recommends medical nuclear waste to be stored at LOCAL level, not centralised dump
Nuclear waste best stored locally, SA royal commission to be told by 
medical researcher, ABC News 3 Dec 15 By Nicola Gage Local disposal of nuclear waste in South Australia would be the best option for medical facilities and research, a radiation oncology researcher says.
Key points:
- Radiation researcher says medical waste should be stored locally
- Sending SA nuclear waste to Lucas Heights NSW is expensive, she says
- SA researchers could make use of some waste stored locally at a central facility
Professor Eva Bezak from the University of South Australia will give her evidence today to the state’s royal commission into the nuclear fuel cycle…..
Professor Bezak said South Australia’s nuclear waste currently was stored at the state’s hospitals and universities. She said it was expensive to send waste to New South Wales for storage at a facility at Lucas Heights.
“If we want to get rid of the waste in South Australia at the moment, we basically have to pay other companies for services to remove the waste and store it elsewhere,” she said…….
Professor Bezak said she hoped there would be a measured community response to the royal commission’s findings, with its final report due next May. “We should be applying science, common sense, we should be looking at the needs of the society,” she said.”We should be looking at what is the best way to safely produce the isotopes and to safely store any radioactive waste.”
The royal commission’s public access sessions will continue until the middle of this month and some early findings are expected to be released in February.
A fourth round of regional community meetings is currently being held by the royal commission, at Renmark, Berri and Port Pirie. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-03/nuclear-medical-waste-best-stored-locally-sa-researcher-says/6996626
Nuclear industry hoping for another ‘renaissance’ through Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Coalition
did you know that Bill Gates is a co-founder and current Chairman of the innovative nuclear energy company TerraPower? The Washington State-based company launched in 2006 and although the US is unlikely to prove fertile ground for nuclear energy investment in the near future, TerraPower is already well on its way to putting down stakes in China.
COP21 Gets A Spark Of Nuclear Energy From Breakthrough Energy Coalition https://cleantechnica.com/2015/12/03/cop21-gets-spark-nuclear-energy-breakthrough-energy-coalition/ December 3rd, 2015 by Tina Casey
The Intertubes have been buzzing with news of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, the latest venture by US billionaire and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Introduced earlier this week at the COP21 Paris climate talks as a companion to the equally newsworthy Mission Innovation initiative, the new coalition harnesses the dollar power of the Earth’s billionaires to accelerate the clean energy revolution.
If your definition of clean energy includes nuclear energy, then you have a lot to cheer about because that seems to be a main focus of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition’s interest. Continue reading
Illawarra unions will unload Lucas Heights returning nuclear wastes, but oppose international waste imports
Illawarra unions will join Port Kembla protests as ANSTO’s nuclear waste arrives on Saturday http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/3535216/well-unload-our-waste-but-no-one-elses-mua/?cs=300 Ben Langford, 3 Dec 15 Illawarra unions have made it clear their members will work to unload the shipment of Australian nuclear waste coming home from France, but will not handle any other nations’ shipments that governments may decide to accept.The cargo ship BBC Shanghai is due to arrive in Port Kembla on Saturday morning with about 10 tonnes of waste which had been reprocessed in France.
The dock workers union, the Maritime Union of Australia, said its members would unload the shipment of reprocessed waste without incident.
But MUA southern NSW branch secretary Garry Keane said that was because it was Australia’s waste, and they would not accept waste shipments from another country.
“Our members do not support the nuclear industry,” he said. “There is no totally safe way to transport or store waste which remains a danger and threatens communities for thousands of years.
“Understandably no one else wants our nuclear waste – that is why it is coming back to Lucas Heights and we want to send a clear message that we don’t accept anyone else’s nuclear waste.”
South Coast Labor Council secretary Arthur Rorris said the precautions being taken showed the risks. “I don’t remember this level of police operation being required for the last imported shipment of solar panels,” he said. “The fact that we have this operation tells us that this is very dangerous, and we now have it confirmed that we have plutonium in the waste.”
“We reluctantly accept that we have a responsibility to accept our own waste,” the ACF’s Dave Sweeney said.
“But we comprehensively draw the line against any sniff of international waste.”
Greenpeace, the MUA, SCLS and other anti-nuclear groups will protest at Port Kembla harbour when the shipment arrives.
ANSTO says the shipment is “intermediate-level” waste in accordance with international standards but Greenpeace said the French classification system, which names the shipment as “high-level” waste, is more appropriate.
The Federal Government is spending $30 million to repatriate the waste.
A major police operation is planned for the weekend, with an exclusion zone around the harbour from 5am to 3pm Saturday, and police guarding the shipment as it is trucked through Wollongong to Lucas Heights, likely early on Sunday.
Uranium enrichment a severe nuclear weapons proliferation risk
Uranium enrichment akin to “bomb starter kits”: IN Daily 3 Dec 15 A former federal Foreign Minister has warned South Australia’s nuclear royal commission against pursuing domestic enrichment, saying the technology was akin to “bomb starter kits”. Gareth Evans, who was Labor’s Foreign Minister in the 1980s and ‘90s and later Deputy Leader of the party, told a public hearing of the commission today there was “no good reason at all for Australia to go down the enrichment path”, arguing instead that to “actively foreswear that path … would be a positive contribution”.
He said there were “very obvious proliferation risks associated with allowing any state to develop its own enrichment capability, because of the obvious reality that the technology required is … exactly the same technology that’s involved in enriching up to weapons grade”.
“Once you get into that game, you are in the business of having bomb starter kits,” he said, observing that “a world that’s anxious to avoid proliferation … ought to be anxious to avoid further spread of bomb starter kits”.
He also questioned the commercial viability of enrichment without a significant number of domestic reactors.http://indaily.com.au/news/local/2015/12/02/uranium-enrichment-akin-to-bomb-starter-kits-gareth-evans/
Australia no longer a responsible nation regarding uranium and proliferation risks
Australia’s retreat from nuclear responsibility http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/12/02/comment-australias-retreat-nuclear-responsibility Australia’s new uranium sales deals are derelict and dangerous, writes Dave Sweeney. 2 DEC 2015
The deal is in direct conflict with a finding in September by a government-controlled Parliamentary review that “Australian uranium not be sold to India” until unresolved safety, security, legal and nuclear weapons issues were addressed.
The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) recommended that no uranium sales take place at this time or under the current terms of the Australia-India Nuclear Co-operation Agreement.
It further argued that uranium must not be sold to India until key checks and balances including evidence of improved safety, monitoring and regulatory standards, the establishment of an independent Indian nuclear regulator and full separation of the military and civil dimensions of India’s nuclear sector were put in place.
Despite this clear call for caution only two months later in late November the federal government issued a response that “the Government does not accept the Committee’s recommendation that exports of uranium to India should be deferred” and further announced that all formalities had been completed so that ‘uranium exports can begin immediately’. Continue reading
Global warming is intensifying wildfires (making nuclear facilities even more dangerous)
New research finds that global warming is intensifying wildfires, Guardian, John Abraham, 3 Dec 15
A new study finds a human fingerprint in growing California wildfire risks A new paper was just published which provides a glimpse into the future of wildfires. The paper is titled “Extreme fire season in California: A glimpse into the future?” It was published as the second chapter of “Explaining Extreme Events of 2014” which is from by the American Meteorological Society and it is available here. The lead-in summary to the article is very much to the point. It states,
The fire season in northern California during 2014 was the second longest in terms of burned areas since 1996. An increase in fire risk in California is attributable to human-induced climate change.
The authors, Jin-Ho Yoon and colleagues make the point that California has been under drought conditions since 2012 and that the drought worsened recently. As is obvious, drought exacerbates the threat from wildfires. Last year, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection saw many more fires than have occurred in the prior five-year averages……
The authors then project into the future and ask what the current trends portend over the next few centuries. The predicted results are striking. We can expect to see increases in the drought index, the area under extreme threat of fires, and the days of fire danger. The following statement from the report provides a great summary.
The increase in extreme fire risk is expected within the coming decade to exceed that of natural variability and this serves as an indication that anthropogenic climate warming will likely play a significant role in influence California’s fire season…..http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/dec/03/new-research-finds-that-global-warming-is-intensifying-wildfires
Malcolm Turnbull in Paris: the dinosaurs are still in charge of climate policy
As usual with climate politics, most Australians have little understanding of just how out of touch the Turnbull government is compared to other major nations……
large numbers of Liberal and National Party politicians put their conservative loyalties ahead of rational science and the self-interest of their country. They don’t believe climate change is real, and they’ll do everything in their power to stop Malcolm Turnbull (or anyone else) from doing something about it.
Australia’s Prime Minister is in Paris for the COP21 global climate change conference.
I suppose we should be grateful he is there at all. One struggles to imagine what Tony Abbott might have said and done at such an event. Abbott was always at his worst when the opportunity came to sow discord and create hostility; at the very least, we can be thankful that the decidedly more urbane and diplomatic Turnbull is there in the place of his predecessor.
Sure enough, Turnbull told delegates that Australia now comes to the talks “with confidence and optimism.” That is indeed a different approach to Abbott’s love affair with fossilised carbon.
Turnbull also made some very modest announcements. He pledged Australia to the final years of the Kyoto protocol – an agreement that is lapsing anyway, but which will allow Australian firms to resume purchasing overseas carbon abatement permits, potentially a big saving for the government’s Direct Action spendathon.
$800 million is also being promised to developing nations for climate adaptation. In keeping with the Coalition’s well-demonstrated contempt for foreign aid of any kind, the money is being taken from the existing foreign aid pot, already savaged in recent budgets. In contrast, Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged $2.5 billion.
Unfortunately, friendly gestures and some modest announcements leave Australia well behind the rest of the world when it comes to climate action.
For instance, Continue reading
Paris announcement: Fossil Fuel Divestment Reaches $3.4 Trillion Globally
Fossil Fuel Divestment Reaches $3.4 Trillion Globally New Matilda, By Thom Mitchell on December 3, 2015 The President of the Rockefella Brothers Fund sees fossil fuel investments as increasingly risky, and the former Development Minister of France is heralding a “cultural shift” in financial markets. Thom Mitchell reports.
Over 500 funds managing nearly three and half trillion dollars have joined the global fossil fuel divestment movement, a panel of environmentalists and financial heavyweights announced at the United Nations climate change summit in Paris today. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 