Coal and nuclear – in it together promoting global warming. Theme for April 16
It’s really hard to estimate the full carbon footprint of the nuclear industry . Greenhouse gases are emitted in all stages of the lifecycle of a nuclear reactor: construction, operation, fuel production, dismantling and waste disposal. Leaving out any of these five stages will bias estimates towards lower values. The last two contributions, dismantling and waste disposal are particularly difficult to estimate. Not many commercial reactors have been fully decommissioned.
The ever repeated claim that nuclear power is emissions-free is simply not true.
Without subsidies for coal and nuclear The free market would choose the path to the most cost effective and cleanest sources of energy which would include wind, solar, small-scale hydro, geothermal, energy efficiency, tidal, and certainly not nuclear or “clean coal.”
The fossil fuel and nuclear industries are in this public deception together. Indeed, nuclear power is in itself a fossil fuel industry, depending on mining uranium (or thorium, which is then converted to uranium). The coal industry is confident of continuing for several decades, and then handing over to the nuclear industry, as coal runs out. The nuclear industry is happy about this, because it takes decades to get reactors set up and running.
Where these two toxic industries are also in agreement is in the aim to slow down, preferable stifle, the development of clean, and cheaper renewable energy sources, especially wind and solar power.
They also like the scenario promoted in the nuclear advertising film “Pandora’s Promise” – that is the endless growth of energy use. Coal and nuclear advocates do not like the idea of energy efficiency, energy conservation.
Greens lock in behind new push to ban nuclear weapons
9 Apr 16 The Australian Greens today launched a campaign calling for Julie Bishop to support a global treaty to ban nuclear weapons.
In December last year, 138 countries voted at the UN General Assembly in favour of supporting a humanitarian pledge for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. Australia did not support this vote.
Greens co-deputy leader and nuclear spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam said nuclear weapons are the most destructive on earth.
“In 1972 the world banned biological weapons, in 1993 we banned chemical weapons, in 1997 we banned land mines, and in 2008 we banned cluster munitions. This campaign calls for Australia to join 138 countries in the UN General Assembly to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons,” he said.
“The risks are real and the consequences are catastrophic. The best protection against nuclear war is eliminating nuclear weapons.
“At this year’s UN Working Group on Nuclear Disarmament, Australia has an opportunity to stand with the majority of other countries and call for a global treaty banning nuclear weapons.”
Fact Box:
- There are more than 15,000 nuclear weapons belonging to just 9 countries
- In December 2015 the UN General Assembly voted on a Humanitarian Pledge for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. 138 countries voted in favour, 29 voted against and 17 abstained. Australia voted against the motion.
- In 2016 there will be three meetings of the UN Working Group on Nuclear Disarmament where there will be a push to develop a global treaty banning nuclear weapons
- In Janurary 2016 the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists kept the doomsday clock at 3 minutes to midnight – citing the growing threat of terrorism, climate change and nuclear weapons as the core reason for the threat rating. The Doomsday Clock was at 3 minutes to midnight at the height of the cold war.
- This week the International Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has launched the “Black Mist White Rain” tour with Aboriginal women from South Australia and the Marshall Islands to discussing the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons.
See the campaign page here http://grns.mp/ban-the-bomb
Paris climate agreement to be signed by Australia
Australia to sign Paris agreement on climate change, ABC News 7 Apr 16 By environment reporter Sara Phillips Australia will be among the first countries in the world to sign the Paris agreement on climate change, with a “very senior” representative being sent to a signing ceremony in New York later this month, according to government sources. Continue reading
Ignorance about radiation, in the self styled “Pro Nuclear Environmentalists (PNEs)”
Australian ‘ecomodernist‘ academic Barry Brook says the Chernobyl death toll is less than 60. Ben Heard, another Australian ‘ecomodernist’ (in fact a uranium and nuclear industry 
consultant), claims that the death toll was 43.
Evidence of PNE ignorance abounds. For the most part, PNEs had a shaky understanding of the radiation/health debates (and other nuclear issues) before they joined the pro-nuclear club, and they have a shaky understanding now.
the WHO, IAEA and other UN agencies estimated 9,000 deaths in ex-Soviet states in their 2005/06 reports, and more recently UNSCEAR has adopted the position that the long-term death toll is uncertain.
Radiation harm deniers? Pro-nuclear environmentalists and the Chernobyl death toll, Ecologist, Dr Jim Green 7th April 2016 “……….the self-styled pro-nuclear environmentalists (PNEs). We should note in passing that some PNE’s have genuine environmental credentials while others – such as Patrick Moore and Australian Ben Heard – are in the pay of the nuclear industry.
James Hansen and George Monbiot cite UNSCEAR to justify a Chernobyl death toll of 43, without noting that the UNSCEAR report did not attempt to calculate long-term deaths. James Lovelock asserts that “in fact, only 42 people died” from the Chernobyl disaster.
Patrick Moore, citing the UN Chernobyl Forum (which included UN agencies such as the IAEA, UNSCEAR, and WHO), states that Chernobyl resulted in 56 deaths. In fact, the Chernobyl Forum’s 2005 report (p.16) estimated up to 4,000 long-term cancer deaths among the higher-exposed Chernobyl populations, and a follow-up study by the World Health Organisation in 2006 estimated an additional 5,000 deaths among people exposed to lower doses in Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Continue reading
Queensland pioneers electric car chargers – free for public use
Queensland’s first solar-powered electric car chargers available and free for public use http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-07/qld-first-solar-powered-electric-car-chargers-free-for-public/7307430 By Lexy Hamilton-Smith Queensland’s first solar-powered electric vehicle chargers have been installed on campuses of the University of Queensland at St Lucia and Gatton.
They charge 10 times faster than a home charger and will be free for public use. About 15 minutes of charging can provide a range of up to 70 kilometres.
UQ manager of Energy and Sustainability Andrew Wilson said it was a game changer.”The first inter city charger in Queensland enabling long distance electric vehicle travel outside of the city,” he said.”Hopefully this is the start of an electric vehicle highway throughout the state.”
Energy Minister Mark Bailey said sales of electric cars were currently slow, but said the Government would look into how it could develop the sector. “It is a bit like the chicken before the egg,” he said.
Electric cars start from around $50,000 but one sport version is selling for more than $400,000.
Tritium, which designed and built the Veefil charger in Brisbane, said the initiative would kick-start the electric vehicle revolution in Queensland. “It allows easy inter-city electric vehicle travel between Brisbane and Toowoomba,” chief executive David Finn said.
Mobile solar system – a boon to off-grid users
the combination of the financial and carbon benefits of solar with the flexibility and modularity of conventional diesel or gas power was “music to the ears” of off-grid electricity consumers. Systems can be provided on offtake agreements as short as five years
Mobile solar to take on diesel power http://www.smh.com.au/business/energy/mobile-solar-to-take-on-diesel-power-20160406-go0cbe.html April 8, 2016 Angela Macdonald-Smith Energy Reporter
Laing O’Rourke has successfully piloted a mobile solar-diesel project and is set to roll it out commercially under new subsidiary SunSHIFT, writes Angela Macdonald-Smith. Making solar power a realistic economic option for short-term projects that would otherwise wholly rely on polluting diesel energy is the mission of a new mobile solar system to be commercially rolled out by construction company Laing O’Rourke.
Outback mining sites, remote communities and disaster relief projects are all potential users of the system, which has been developed with the help of funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
The Australian arm of UK-based Laing O’Rourke has successfully piloted the moveable solar system, which it combined with diesel power back-up, and has set up a new clean energy business, SunSHIFT Pty, to commercialise it.
Plans for the launch of the system on the market are to be officially announced on Friday and Laing O’Rourke said it had already fielded inquiries for “multi-megawatt” systems, including some from 
emerging overseas economies.
ARENA chief executive Ivor Frischknecht said the plant’s ability to be rapidly set up, relatively cheaply moved and easily scaled up made it suitable for many off-grid applications where power was needed for only a few years. Continue reading
Science for The Public Good: if not CSIRO – then who?
If the CSIRO won’t do research for the public good, who will?, The Age, April 7, 2016 Les Field
Australian society will be the biggest loser if the organisation is forced to abandon its blue-skies work. Scientists in Australia’s universities and research organisations are responsible for ground-breaking inventions such as the world’s first effective influenza drugs; smart mathematics that enabled superfast Wi-Fi and the bionic ear. These have also been resounding commercial successes, and show that local discoveries can be profitable.
Government policy emphasises the importance of commercially focused research and rightly encourages researchers to fully capitalise on their discoveries. But, in our focus on innovation geared towards commercialisation, have we overlooked the tremendous value to our community of research done in the public interest?
It is in this context that the emails sent between CSIRO executives revealed this week are worrisome. The email trail suggested that, in early stages of planning, there was a contemplation of removing all public-good climate research from CSIRO – that “public good” was not considered to be sufficient reason for CSIRO to be carrying on research. While it is important to realise that CSIRO’s priorities will rightly change from time to time to reflect the challenges facing Australia, this sentiment does raise some difficult questions about its role in Australia’s overall science and research effort.
Some of the most critical challenges our society faces – such as combating epidemics of chronic disease or finding ways to better predict natural disasters, or improving our ability to live the good life while caring for our environment – have almost no prospect of generating a commercial return. Yet every Australian would attest to their importance, and recognise that research in these areas contributes greatly to the welfare of the community………
The larger question that must be asked is that if CSIRO is no longer to consider public-good research as a valid endeavour, then who does? Australia’s science and research effort is made up of many players, who all have distinct roles. A substantial contribution to public interest research is made by our universities, who produce much of the fundamental knowledge that innovations are based upon. However, most university researchers work on relatively short projects, dictated by grant cycles……
It is also important to consider that, in the absence of co-ordinated public-interest research, who will investigate uniquely Australian problems? Without the knowledge and expertise of CSIRO’s animal health laboratories, would we today have the vaccine to the Hendra virus that can prevent its passage from bats to horses and then to humans? Who could provide us with a picture of the sustainable limits of water use in the Murray-Darling river system? Who can tell us about the likely impacts of long-term climate change on our coastal cities and our vital agricultural industries? http://www.theage.com.au/comment/if-the-csiro-wont-do-research-for-the-public-good-who-will-20160407-go0p4r.html#ixzz45GxrXlQX
Americans confront the problem of mounting radioactive trash
“Don’t fall for an idea that this is unsafe to keep it where it is and now we have to move it. I would say it is unsafe, but it’s not going to be safer somewhere else.”
Meanwhile some attendees questioned whether a true consent-based siting process is possible and argued that no fully-informed communities would consent to hosting nuclear waste.
“It will be very hard to find communities that will be willing,” said Wasserman-Nieto. “We really need to stop the creation of this waste.
“I begged and pleaded with the Blue Ribbon commission, do not target Native American tribes again for these dumps,” . “This is an environmental injustice, this is radioactive racism.”
Energy Department Seeks Public Process for Nuclear Waste Storage, TruthOut, Friday, 08 April 2016 By Kari Lydersen, Midwest Energy News | Report Half a century ago when the town of Zion, Illinois agreed to site a nuclear power plant on its Lake Michigan shoreline, civic leaders felt they were helping to secure a clean and dependable energy source through the turn of the century.
They never intended to become a nuclear waste dump.
But since the Zion plant closed in 1998, waste has been stored on-site as it is at working and defunct reactors across the country. And since neither a permanent geologic repository nor proposed interim storage sites for nuclear waste have been created, the waste may remain in Zion for quite some time……..
city leaders decided it was worth it, in part because, “There was an understanding that when the operating license of the plant expired, these 400 acres would be returned to pristine condition,” Hill said. “That was the deal — it was an unwritten deal but that was the deal the people of Zion understood. There was never an understanding that once the plant closed the people of Zion would play host to a radioactive dump.”
The Chicago hearing is part of a new Department of Energy effort aimed at avoiding situations like the debacle surrounding efforts to build a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain and other controversies regarding the storage of nuclear waste. The process will include public comments in the Federal Register, public meetings around the country, webinars and small group meetings, with a summary of the findings to be published in late 2016.
The process builds on a Blue Ribbon Commission launched in 2010 to study the waste issue…….
A Voluminous Problem Continue reading
BHP Billiton in the Panama corruption papers
BHP Billiton And Wilson Security Linked To Panama Papers 04/04/2016. BHP Billiton, Wilson Security and a major electricity company in Australia are now targets of the Australian Tax Office, after leaked documents linked all three companies to a law firm in Panama and the British Virgin Islands. http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/04/04/bhp-biliton-wilson-security-panama-papers_n_9607990.html
Panama Papers: Australian companies BHP, Wilson security caught up in tax probe April 5, 2016. More than 800 wealthy Australians are being investigated by the Australian Taxation Office over their dealings with a secretive Panama-based law firm used by the rich to hide money.
BHP Billiton and a security firm that guards major government buildings are among hundreds of Australian names linked to a Panama law firm that helps the rich hide money. …
Four Corners claimed that BHP used Mossack Fonseca offices in the British Virgin Islands to register five companies linked to its aluminium, diamonds, steel and finance arms. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/04/04/panama-papers-australian-companies-bhp-wilson-security-caught-tax-probe
Panama Papers Update: Law Firm Mossack Fonseca Listed BHP Billiton’s Two British Virgin Islands Companies As ‘Mandatory High Risk’ April 4, 2016. Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, which is at the center of a massive leak, assessed BHP Billiton Ltd.’s two companies in British Virgin Islands as “mandatory high risk” after the Anglo-Australian mining giant authorized the businesses to receive huge sums of money, the Guardian reported Monday. The exposé related to Mossack FonsecaSunday revealed widespread international corruption connected to offshore tax shelters. http://www.ibtimes.com/panama-papers-update-law-firm-mossack-fonseca-listed-bhp-billitons-two-british-virgin-2347746
The Panama Papers: BHP Billiton’s face-off with Mossack Fonseca April 4, 2016. A financial representative for BHP Billiton threatened to fire notorious Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca if it went ahead with a due diligence investigation. http://www.afr.com/news/policy/tax/the-panama-papers-bhp-billitons-faceoff-with-mossack-fonseca-20160329-gntasr
BHP-owned companies triggered ‘high risk’ alert at Panama law firm April 4, 2016. Mossack Fonseca flagged concerns about two of mining giant’s companies in British Virgin Islands because ‘authorised capital is higher than the norm’ http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/04/bhp-owned-companies-triggered-high-risk-alert-at-panama-law-firm
Panama Papers: ATO investigating more than 800 Australian clients of Mossack Fonseca April 4, 2016. The Australian Taxation Office is investigating more than 800 high net wealth Australian clients of the controversial Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, which is the focus of an unprecedented leak of tax haven records released globally.
More than 11.5 million documents have been leaked from Mossack Fonseca’s files, revealing the secrets of hundreds of thousands of clients – including several thousand Australians – covering a period over almost 40 years, from 1977 until as recently as last December.
The release of the documents on Monday follows a 12-month investigation by media groups including The Australian Financial Review, led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in Washington. http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/panama-papers-ato-investigating-more-than-800-australian-clients-of-mossack-fonseca-20160403-gnxgu8.html
Australian companies, taxpayers exposed after Panama Papers leak April 5, 2016. Australian companies BHP Billiton and Wilson Security are among those named in the massive document leak, detailing tax dealings of companies and people from around the world.
The cases are part of a leak of 11.5 million documents from Panama-based firm Mossack Fonseca, which reveals how the rich, including political leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, hide their money. https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/31269205/australian-companies-taxpayers-exposed-after-panama-papers-leak/
Australian companies BHP Bilton and Wilson Security among those named in Panama papers leak exposing the use of offshore tax havens
- Australian Tax Office is investigating dealings of 800 high net individuals
- It follows massive leak of Panama papers from law firm Mossack Fonseca
- Secret documents show how law firm allegedly helped clients evade tax
- Treasurer Scott Morrison says government is cracking on tax avoidance
The Australian Taxation Office is investigating more than 800 Australians after a massive leak of financial data revealed how 12 current or former world leaders, a host of celebrities and the global rich are using offshore tax havens to hide their wealth.
Australian-linked organisations and business leaders named in the huge leaks include BHP Billiton, Wilson Security, Gold Coast based company director Ian Taylor, and Hong Kong’s richest man and Australian energy market owner Li Ka-Shing, ABC’s Four Corners reports. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3522798/Australian-companies-BHP-Bilton-Wilson-Security-named-Panama-papers-leak-exposing-use-offshore-tax-havens.html
BHP, Vale; Tailings failures haunt miners
Miners around the world are digging bigger tailings pits. The recent Brazil dam collapse won’t be the last.- (subscribers only)
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/bhp-vale-tailings-failings-haunt-miners/news-story/7d61bbbf1dbc54cce54a8a0b2bc099c6
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 