I know that this site is dedicated to matters nuclear – but right now, very short on nuclear news for Australia. Well, that’s because nothing much is happening, not on the surface anyway. No doubt the federal government is working on softening up the South Australian public, and indeed, the public in other states, on the idea of transporting Lucas Heights’ nuclear reactor’s highly toxic radioactive poo f or 1000s of miles to Barndioota, SA. They keep up the pretense that it’s just “medical wastes”
Anyway, nuclear in Australia has all gone a bit quiet since the debacle of the shonky South Australia Nuclear Fuel Chain Royal Commission.
However, Australia’s nuclear lobby crusades on. Crusader Ben Heard is off to South Africa, to give their failing nuclear lobby a boost that they so desperately need. He’s prettied up the logo of his pro nuclear front group, with a leafy background -( probably not enough to convince the punters that nuclear is green.)
March 1, 2017
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The Australian’s war on renewables, The Australian newspaper has not 
allowed facts to get in the way of a good story in its sustained war on renewable energy. Norm Sanders reports. Independent Australia, 27 Feb 17
BY SEPTEMBER 2016, the coal lobby’s PR campaign was stalled — “clean coal” wasn’t selling. It was an obvious oxymoron, like “military intelligence”.
Then the South Australian Blackout gave the coal miners an unexpected break. Never mind that the blackout was caused by two tornadoes which blew transmission towers over. This was a golden opportunity to attack the renewables which are threatening the coal industry.
The Australian jumped in with gusto and began an extraordinary deluge of articles, editorials and cartoons denigrating renewables and the Labor State governments which supported them. Continue reading →
March 1, 2017
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AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, media |
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Trump Again Attacks Media as White House Bars NYT, CNN & BBC from Gaggle https://www.democracynow.org/2017/2/27/headlines/trump_again_attacks_media_as_white_house_bars_nyt_cnn_bbc_from_gaggle FEB 27, 2017
President Trump again escalated his self-declared war on the media, while speaking at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, on Friday.
President Donald Trump: “A few days ago, I called the fake news the enemy of the people. And they are. They are the enemy of the people, because they have no sources. They just make them up when there are none.”
That’s Trump, speaking the same day the White House took the unprecedented act of barring The New York Times, CNN, Politico, the Los Angeles Times, the BBC and several other news organizations from an off-camera briefing known as a gaggle. Several right-wing news outlets were allowed to attend, including Breitbart, The Washington Times and One America News Network.
March 1, 2017
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Victoria solar feed-in tariff more than doubles to 11.3c/kWh, REneweconomy,By Giles Parkinson on 28 February 2017 More than 130,000 solar households in Victoria will benefit from a steep increase in their solar feed-in tariff in 2017/18, and will receive a minimum 11.3c/kWh for their exports back to the grid, up from 5c/kWh currently.
March 1, 2017
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California introduces its own 100% renewable energy bill, Inhabitat, 22 Feb 17, VIEW SLIDESHOW Massachusetts recently introduced a bill to derive 100 percent of the state’s energy from renewables, and now California is following suit. A new bill introduced by state Senate leader Kevin de León would require the state to obtain 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2045.
Under de León’s bill, SB 584, California would need to reach 50 percent renewable energy use by 2025, five years earlier than the state’s current target of 2030, and cease using fossil fuels completely by 2045.
Related: Massachusetts lawmakers sponsor 100% renewable energy bill
In 2016, the state obtained 27 percent of electricity via wind, solar, and other clean sources, and California’s deserts offer potential spaces for more renewable energy plants. The solar industry has created 100,000 jobs in California. Experts say the state could reach the 100 percent goal since costs for solar and wind power are falling – in many areas of the state solar is already the cheapest option, according to The Desert Sun………
Massachusetts recently introduced a similar bill, but it’s slightly more ambitious than California’s. Under the 100 Percent Renewable Energy Act, Massachusetts would transition to obtaining all their electricity from renewable energy by 2035, and would grant sectors like heating and transportation a 2050 deadline. The California bill gives its state’s electricity sector an extra ten years to reach that 100 percent target. http://inhabitat.com/california-introduces-its-own-100-renewable-energy-bill/
March 1, 2017
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100 per cent renewable energy network affordable, secure and ‘off the shelf’: study, ABC News, AM By Caroline Winter, 27 Feb 17, Australia can build an affordable and secure electricity network with 100 per cent renewable energy, using existing technologies, according to research by the Australian National University (ANU).
So how would it work?
The study details plans for a zero-emissions grid which would rely on wind and solar technology, supported by pumped hydro storage.
It could be set up with inexpensive, currently available, “off the shelf” products and eliminate the need for coal and gas-fired power……
Professor Andrew Blakers from the ANU said wind and solar can be that replacement, with the support of off-river pumped hydro, where reservoirs at different altitudes can be used to store and generate power……..http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-27/100-per-cent-renewable-network-possible/8306482
March 1, 2017
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International team reports ocean acidification spreading rapidly in Arctic Ocean, EurekAlert, 28 Feb 17, UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE Ocean acidification (OA) is spreading rapidly in the western Arctic Ocean in both area and depth, according to new interdisciplinary research reported in Nature Climate Changeby a team of international collaborators, including University of Delaware professor Wei-Jun Cai.
The research shows that, between the 1990s and 2010, acidified waters expanded northward approximately 300 nautical miles from the Chukchi slope off the coast of northwestern Alaska to just below the North Pole. Also, the depth of acidified waters was found to have increased, from approximately 325 feet to over 800 feet (or from 100 to 250 meters).
“The Arctic Ocean is the first ocean where we see such a rapid and large-scale increase in acidification, at least twice as fast as that observed in the Pacific or Atlantic oceans,” said Cai, the U.S. lead principal investigator on the project and Mary A.S. Lighthipe Professor of Earth, Ocean, and Environment at UD.
“The rapid spread of ocean acidification in the western Arctic has implications for marine life, particularly clams, mussels and tiny sea snails that may have difficulty building or maintaining their shells in increasingly acidified waters,” said Richard Feely, NOAA senior scientist and a co-author of the research. Sea snails called pteropods are part of the Arctic food web and important to the diet of salmon and herring. Their decline could affect the larger marine ecosystem.
Among the Arctic species potentially at risk from ocean acidification are subsistence fisheries of shrimp and varieties of salmon and crab.
Other collaborators on the international project include Liqi Chen, the Chinese lead principal investigator and scientist with the Third Institute of Oceanography of State Oceanic Administration of China; and scientists at Xiamen University, China and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, among other institutions…….
Arctic ocean ice melt in the summer, once found only in shallow waters of depths less than 650 feet or 200 meters, now spreads further into the Arctic Ocean.
“It’s like a melting pond floating on the Arctic Ocean. It’s a thin water mass that exchanges carbon dioxide rapidly with the atmosphere above, causing carbon dioxide and acidity to increase in the meltwater on top of the seawater,” said Cai. “When the ice forms in winter, acidified waters below the ice become dense and sink down into the water column, spreading into deeper waters.”https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-02/uod-itr022717.php
March 1, 2017
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http://wanganjagalingou.com.au/traditional-owners-v-adani-in-federal-court-today-then-to-canberra-to-discuss-native-title-amendments/ Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) Traditional Owners Council 27 February 2017:
“Traditional owners fighting the Carmichael megamine are on the front foot this week, challenging in court the native title process which allowed the Qld Government to issue a mining lease without their consent, and meeting with Federal MPs to present arguments why the Government’s amendments to the Native Title Act threaten the rights of Traditional Owners and fail to deal with the real issues arising from the recent McGlade decision.
“Senior spokesperson for the Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J)
Traditional Owners Council, Mr Adrian Burragubba, says,
“The W&J Family Council have voted three times since 2012 to reject Adani’s sham deal, while the National Native Title Tribunal gave the green light to the Qld Government to issue Adani with a mining lease, after the mining company applied to have our decision overridden.
This is the crux of our appeal before the full bench of the Federal Court on Monday”.
“Spokespeople for W&J, Mr Burragubba and Ms Murrawah Johnson, will also visit Canberra this week to meet with key Federal MPs about the Government’s Native Title Act Amendment Bill and explain the failures of the native title process.
Labor and The Greens voted against rushing the Bill through the House of Representatives last week. The Bill is now being scrutinised by a Senate committee which is due to report on 17 March 2017. … “
March 1, 2017
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Energy Department issues scathing evaluation of nuclear project WP, By Steven Mufson February 28 The Energy Department has delivered a blunt assessment of the work done by one of the world’s biggest companies in the nuclear business: “Unsatisfactory.”
For a decade, CB&I Areva MOX Services has been under contract with the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration to design, build and operate a facility near the Savannah River in Aiken, S.C.
Yet the project — designed to convert weapons-grade plutonium and uranium into a mixed oxide fuel for commercial nuclear power plants — has been running far beyond budget and way behind schedule. Estimates now put the price tag at $17 billion.
On Dec. 5, the NNSA completed a scathing evaluation that branded several of the company’s claims about the state of the project “misleading” and “inaccurate.” The agency said CB&I Areva’s claims that the project is 70 percent complete “are patently false.” A separate September 2016 Energy Department report said construction was only 28 percent complete……
CB&I Areva is a venture created as a combination of Chicago Iron & Steel and the French nuclear giant Areva. The company did not return calls for comment……
One of the project’s sharpest critics Tom Clements, director of the public interest group Savannah River Site Watch, obtained the December NNSA assessment through a Freedom of Information Act request. He called the evaluation “devastating.”
“I have never seen an asessment like that. It all but calls them liars,” he said……
the Obama administration continued to say the MOX plant at Savannah River wasn’t practical. What started as a $620 million project in 1999 with a 2006 starting date has become a $17 billion project still decades away from a start state. By some estimates, it would require a $1 billion a year appropriation, which the Obama administration said was unlikely at best…..
The assessment said that while the contractor boasted of “zero order non-compliance,” in fact the NNSA found evidence of non-compliance.
Overall, the NNSA awarded nothing from the $2.7 million available for a bonus payment to the contractors. It said, “there continued to be a lack of transparency and openness in external communications with key project stakeholders by the contractor including continued release of misleading and inaccurate project information.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/energy-department-issues-scathing-evaluation-of-nuclear-project/2017/02/28/8af4d11a-fd2c-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html?utm_term=.4b6e8e136ee6
March 1, 2017
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At the Vatican, a call to avoid ‘biological extinction’ ‘http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2016/feb/biological-extinction-ehrlich-dasgupta Nothing less than a reordering of our priorities based on a moral revolution can succeed.’
Download Partha Dasgupta’s and Paul Ehrlich’s working paper on the sixth great extinction here.Feb. 27, 2017 By Environmental Health News Staff
Experts in biodiversity and extinction are gathering at the Vatican this week to discuss biological extinction—and how to save the natural world on which we all depend.
The conference focuses on the alarming signs, from various branches of science, that we are outstripping out planet’s ability to sustain us. It follows on Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si, calling for better care and concern for “our Common Home,” as well as an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report suggesting we are on a course to destroy up to 40 percent of biodiversity on Earth by century’s end.
The conference is co-sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Science and the Pontifical Academy of Social Science.
“Our desire for enhanced consumption grows more rapidly than our population, and Earth cannot sustain it,” the sponsors say. “Nothing less than a reordering of our priorities based on a moral revolution can succeed in maintaining the world in such a way as to resemble the conditions we have enjoyed here.”
Among those presenting during the three day conference are Partha Dasgupta of Cambridge University and Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University, who make the case that we are experiencing the sixth mass extinction of plant and animal life the globe has seen—with considerable consequences for humanity.
The authors have given Environmental Health News permission to post a draft of their paper online. It’s a working paper for the Pontifical Academy workshop and will be revised before eventual publication. You can download it here.
“In sum, the driving force of extinction, the ultimate cause of the current sixth mass extinction crisis is much too high a level of aggregate consumption – produced by human numbers multiplied by too high a level of consumption among the rich,” they write. “But demand cannot exceed supply indefinitely.”
“Translated into the language of equity, humanity’s enormous success in recent decades is very likely to have been a down payment for future failure.”
March 1, 2017
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Government green bank receives funding request for $1.2 billion coal-fired power plant, The Age, Adam Morton Amy Remeikis 28 Feb 17 The Turnbull government’s push for taxpayers to finance new coal-fired power stations is facing its first test after an application for support was lodged with the national green bank.
Clean Energy Finance Corporation chief Oliver Yates told a Senate estimates hearing that the agency received an email on Friday from an unidentified company requesting a loan for a proposed $1.2 billion, 900 megawatt coal plant with carbon capture and storage.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the plan, but energy industry experts noted the size and estimated cost were similar to a previous proposal by former mining magnate and MP Clive Palmer for a generator in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.
Speaking to Fairfax Media on Monday night, Mr Palmer said he had “retired” and directed questions to Waratah Coal managing director Nui Harris. But he said the company had spent $20 million on a similar plant under the Gillard government and the project was in a “high state of readiness”.
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is banned from financing capture and storage technology, which involves burying the greenhouse gas emitted in burning coal underground. Dropping the ban would require a challenging change in legislation – a step likely to be opposed by Labor and the Greens.
Mr Yates said he believed new coal plants were not commercially viable unless the government was willing to indemnify the owner for the life of the plant.
He said the indemnity would need to cover any future climate change policy – an unquantifiable sum covering decades – and potential delays in construction due to protests.
Mr Yates, a former Macquarie Bank executive director who is stepping down as head of the finance corporation, said he was not aware of any bank that would be willing to lend to a project that may not be viable.
“I don’t see that as a sensible risk position for the taxpayer to take,” he said.
“If a private sector participant wants to go and build anything – they want to build a theme park, want to build the Eiffel Tower – it may not be economically sensible, but they are entitled to go and do it if they want to.”…….
Mr Yates said among the risks facing coal proposals was the falling cost of renewable energy. Coal generators would need to compete to sell the electricity they produced.
An analysis by consultants Bloomberg New Energy Finance recently found new coal plants, with emissions up to 25 per cent lower than Australia’s existing plants, would be more expensive than gas, wind or solar power. Adding carbon capture and storage would dramatically further increase the cost. ……. http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/government-green-bank-receives-funding-request-for-12-billion-coalfired-power-plant-20170227-gume05.html
March 1, 2017
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Grassroots Aboriginal movement in NSW
squashes ‘Recognise’ Sovereign Union http://www.sovereignunion.mobi/ 24 February 2017:
“Grassroots Aboriginal people from New South Wales have rejected recognition in the Australian Constitution in favour of Aboriginal Sovereignty, the need for Treaties and for government to enter discussions with First Nations.
“‘It is heartening to know that the Recognise Regional Meeting, organised by the Referendum Council and the New South Wales State Land Council, held in Dubbo on 17 and 18 February 2017 voted to reject First Nation Peoples’ recognition in the colonial constitution from Britain and instead asserted Sovereignty and the need for Treaties and for the government to talk with First Nations,’
Ghillar, Michael Anderson, Convenor of the Sovereign Union, said. …
“Lynda Coe, a Wiradjuri representative at the Dubbo meeting, said:
“‘Proud to say the agenda in Dubbo this weekend was Sovereignty/Treaty … the dialogue around constitutional reform and recognise squashed by the grassroots movement!
The consensus from those who attended agreed that the process of invite only meetings did not provide clear representation of nations in New South Wales nor did the process give authority of those attending to speak on behalf of their nations as per our procedures.
The majority of those attending raised … the issue of Sovereignty/Treaty be addressed by Governments rather than the ‘yes vote’ for constitutional reform and/or recognise.'”
Ghillar said:“‘Whilst we may wonder why the Commonwealth government is now spending
millions and millions of dollars on a brain-washing campaign, the answers for this can be found in Commonwealth and State legislation everywhere, for example in the Native Title Act, Amendments to the Western Australian Heritage Act, the New South Wales Crown Lands Act, the New South Wales Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, and the list goes on. …
“‘The recent meeting in Dubbo made it very clear that we are independent sovereign Nations and continue to be such in the present and to this extent call for negotiated Treaties as opposed to constitutional recognition. Continue reading →
March 1, 2017
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Dennis Matthews 1 Mar 17, Excessive emphasis on electricity supply overlooks the important role of demand in keeping the lights on.
In years of drought the South Australian public showed that it is capable of rising to the challenge by conserving water. Thanks to information and incentives from the SA Government the public demonstrated great resilience and resourcefulness.
What applies to water also applies to electricity but the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) is sending the wrong signals (The Advertiser, 1/3/17). Instead of encouraging consumers to conserve electricity AEMO is encouraging business as usual.
As amply demonstrated in the last five months, this is putting SA at the mercy of the electricity industry.
Conserving electricity is as simple as conserving water; in summer, turn up the air-conditioner thermostat by a degree or two, in winter do the opposite.
The SA Government can do its bit by providing information and incentives for electricity conservation measures such as double-glazed windows. This will decrease the demand for air-conditioning in summer and heating in winter.
March 1, 2017
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Adani director appointed to body overseeing mining giant’s coal port despite conflict of interest warning http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-27/adani-director-appointed-government-body-overseeing-coal-port/8301104 Exclusive by the National Reporting Team’s Mark Willacy and Alexandra Blucher 27 February 2017:
“The Queensland Government appointed an Adani company director to chair the authority overseeing the Abbot Point coal port, despite being warned of “potential conflicts of interest”.
Key points:
“It’s undoubtedly a conflict of interest,” said law professor on Mr Fish’s appointment
Treasurer’s office confirms it knew of Mr Fish’s directorship and that he “disclosed potential conflicts of interest prior to his appointment”
But Mr Fish’s link to Adani was not disclosed publicly by the Treasurer when he was appointed … “
March 1, 2017
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Startup Allume lets solar panels be ‘shared’ by strata dwellers, AFR by Michael Bailey, 1 Mar 17 Providing solar power to apartments is an expensive and onerous problem which a Melbourne startup claims to have cracked.
Allume, a 2016 graduate of the Melbourne Accelerator Program, is patenting a 50 centimetre by 25 centimetre box its founders say. will allow solar power to be distributed and billed to individual apartments, without the expense of changing the building’s existing metering infrastructure.
Apartment residents wanting solar power have to date had two options, according to Allume co-founder Cameron Knox.
They could band together to install an ’embedded network’, where one meter channels electricity to the whole apartment block. However this requires everybody in the block to agree to sign up, and involves a “regulatory overhead” that renders most installations unviable………
Individual apartment owners could also connect to their own panels but even if their neighbours agreed to grant them the roof space, Mr Knox said the upfront cost of wiring a single flat would exceed $3000 and likely lead to inefficient use of the panel, with a much longer ‘payback period’ than that enjoyed by owners of standalone houses.
Under Allume’s system, not every apartment owner has to sign up and an installation is usually viable with as little as six customers, Mr Knox said.
Allume’s box costs $490 upfront for every apartment whose connection is housed within, so $4900 if 10 units in a block sign up to get solar power. The startup then charges $4.99 per apartment per month for access to its billing application programming interface, which includes a direct debit service.
In return residents get access to solar power for an average 16 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with the average retail power cost of 24 cents/kWh. The purchaser – whether it be the body corporate, or an external financier – is charged only the wholesale cost of the power and makes enough margin for the ‘payback period’ on Allume’s deal to range between six to eight years.
“Solar power purchase agreements typically last for 25 years, so that’s a lot of years of free revenue stream,” said Mr Knox.
Allume worked with the Australian Energy Regulator to get a ‘retail exemption licence’ allowing it to sell energy to landlords, who can then on-sell to tenants…… http://www.afr.com/leadership/entrepreneur/startup-allume-lets-solar-panels-be-shared-by-strata-dwellers-20170228-gun689#ixzz4a2ajEQB2
March 1, 2017
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Antinuclear 