ARIUS ASSOCIATION’s Submission to #NuclearCommissionSAust confuses ethics with greed
AriusAssociation Submission to the Royal Commission on Management, Storage and Disposal of Nuclear and Radioactive Waste
Arius is a a non profit body, (but friendly to the nuclear industry). It addresses nuclear waste disposal. It details structures and measures needed. Arius relies heavily on information from [the failed South Australian] Pangea Project. Its purported aim is for an “ethical project” – ‘to fulfil our ethical responsibilities to future generations’
Arius is upbeat about economic advantages, upbeat about safety and security. It appears to be complacent about a safe uneventful future for nuclear industry.
Nowhere does Arius discuss the historic disasters of the nuclear industry, its intrinsic connection with nuclear weapons proliferation, not the increasing risks of terrorism.
In discussing nuclear waste from an ethical point of view, the option of just stopping making the stuff is not considered.
Despite Arius’ confidence in nuclear industry waste disposal technology, they are ware of the implications:
” The Extremely Long Times that must be considered Repository safety analyses are routinely carried out for a million years into the future. These time scales challenge the conventional basis for the design of technological systems. Designs for such systems are usually based on a combination of past experience and theoretical projections, which can be supported by testing and observations of performance on relevant time scales. Because it is not possible to test and observe the engineered components of a repository over representative time scales, a repository’s safety would ideally be guaranteed by natural processes that have already demonstrated their performance over millions of years.”
However, their central theme seems to be to enthuse over the financial benefits to South Australia.
David Bowman’s Pro Nuclear Submission – Nuclear waste dump to help wildlife!!
Submission to the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission Professor David Bowman, School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania
EXTRACT
“I believe there is scope to use uranium mining and nuclear waste storage as a source of funding to tackle the urgent challenge of biodiversity, and particularly the threats to our unique and threatened Australian mammal fauna in the longer term
…….Australia’s insularity, tectonic and political stability make it an ideal setting for high-level nuclear waste storage. Uranium mining and waste storage could potentially provide a funding base for an internationally significant conservation intervention throughout outback Australia. To provide this capital and revenue, I suggest the expectations of mine site restoration are changed from attempts to restore mined areas to their original condition, and instead focus on containing pollution from these sites.
Savings should be invested in establishing at least ten very large predator-proof exclosures (> 500 km2) in the surrounding unmined landscapes in outback Australia. Further, exhausted sites associated with mining in geological stable and arid areas like Olympic Dam could be used for high-level nuclear waste disposal. Income associated with storage of nuclear waste, and the requirement they are managed over the long term (> 100 years), would provide funding for ongoing Aboriginal ranger programs to manage country throughout outback Australia…..”
Golder Associates – another pro nuclear Submission to #NuclearCommissionSAust
You can access this one from http://nuclearrc.sa.gov.au/submissions/?search=Submissions.
Golder Associates Submission on Management, Storage and Disposal of Nuclear and Radioactive Waste. An engineering company, its aim is to show how they have designed and developed projects, and worked with Indigenous and local communities.
Worked with Pangea , ANSTO , AREVA, Ontario Power Generation, They set out an Adaptive Phase Management approach. Set out process for building support with indigenous communities.
Highly misleading to say that Lucas Heights nuclear reactor is mainly for medical uses
it would be highly misleading to attribute this predominantly to medical isotope production given the broad range of uses of the HIFAR and MOATA reactors over the last 60 years.
waste will be deposited in the repository? Less than 1% is medical waste (leftover radium and some disused sources). Most states and territories each only have a few cubic metres of low level medical waste.Anti nuclear pro renewables Party in landslide win in Taiwan.
Many articles on the Net today, about the dramatic win in Taiwan’s elections, for Ing-wen Tsai and her DPP Party . But why so far nary a mention of the role of her anti nuclear stance in that election. ?
Independence-minded opposition wins Taiwan election, Irish Times, 17 Jan 16
“…….“Regardless of how you voted, the exercise of democratic expression was the most important meaning of this election,” Ms Tsai said in a news conference.
Ms Tsai unseated Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang (KMT) nationalist party, which has ruled the island of 23 million people since “Generalissimo” Chiang Kai-shek fled there in 1949, with the exception of 2000-2008 when the DPP were in charge.
The DPP win was by a landslide margin. According to the China News Agency, Ms Tsai won the presidency with 56.1 per cent of the vote. The DPP also took control of the Executive Yuan parliament for the first time, taking 68 of the 113 seats compared to the KMT’s 35 seats…….http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/independence-minded-opposition-wins-taiwan-election-1.2499792
Taiwan election points to nuclear phase-out by 20231, Climate Home, 14/01/2016,
Ing-wen Tsai, who leads the presidential polls, envisions a ‘nuclear-free homeland’ with a bigger role for energy efficiency and renewables. By Megan Darby
Taiwan is facing a phase-out of atomic power, with nuclear sceptic Ing-wen Tsai tipped to win a presidential election on Saturday.
The island state’s three operating nuclear plants are due for retirement by 2023. A fourth, 90% built, was mothballed last year in response to protests from a public spooked by Japan’s Fukushima disaster.
Opinion polls predict a landslide victory for Tsai, with her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in with a chance of its first ever parliamentary majority……
Setting out her green energy platform in September, Tsai predicted NT$1 trillion (US$30 billion) of investment in the renewables sector.
“The time is ripe for Taiwan’s green energy development — what we lack is a government determined to see it through,” she said in remarks reported by the China Post…..
Tze-Luen Lin, energy and climate expert at National Taiwan University, expressed confidence the emissions targets were attainable…..http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/01/14/taiwan-election-points-to-nuclear-free-future/
What materials will go into waste repositary for Lucas Heights nuclear trash?
Radioactive waste in Australia, Medical Association for the Prevention 
of War (MAPW) 18 Jan 16 …………….Where does the radioactive waste to be deposited in this repository come from? The repository is designed for “low level” and “intermediate level” waste; as of 2014 a total of 4,906 cubic metres (m3 ).International Renewable Energy Agency aims for rapid measures to reduce greenhouse emissions
Some of those changes are already underway. Global clean energy investment attracted a record $329bn last year, according to a report released on Thursday by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
The report noted the rise in clean energy investment came despite the drop in oil prices.
Rapid switch to renewable energy can put Paris climate goals within reach http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/16/rapid-switch-to-renewable-energy-can-put-paris-climate-goals-within-reach
Increasing renewables to 36% of the global energy mix by 2030 would provide about half emissions reductions needed to hold warming to 2C, says International Renewable Energy Agency Guardian, Suzanne Goldenberg, 16 Jan 16
Countries can deliver on the promises of the historic Paris climate change agreement by rapid scaling up wind and solar power to 36% of the global energy mix by 2030, an international energy gathering will be told on Saturday.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) meeting in Abu Dhabi – the first major global gathering since Paris – is seen as an important test of countries’ readiness to put those plans into action. Continue reading
1.This month.
The Road to War brings a sharp focus to why it is not in Australia’s best interest to be dragged into a war with China which will almost inevitably go nuclear very quickly. The filmmaker has interviewed some of Australia’s senior foreign policy analysts who have vast experience behind them in analysing what really is going on here as the United States rattles its sabres with China. And sets us up to be its proxy, like the poor Ukranians have been fed into the Meatgrinder. So America can remain the Top Dog. The Road to War reveals how the United States through its spy base at Pine Gap and by stationing six nuclear capable B52 bombers in the Top End (without permission from the traditional owners) is making Australia a prime nuclear target if the current war of words suddenly melts down into full scale war.
The Road to War shows the implicit connection between Carbon emissions (the US military uses a whopping 70% of America’s annual petroleum to move its armies and vast War Machine around the globe to its 800+ military bases..but under a loophole wangled at Kyoto, the US military does not have to report its C02 annual emissions). The Road to War starts screening at selected cities and regional centres in March. See the trailer end for details.
Antinuclear 