Brussels plans to saddle UK with EU nuclear waste Britain’s impending split from Euratom indicative of complexity of Brexit, Ft.com by: Arthur Beesley in Brussels and Andrew Ward in London, 4 May 17 Britain will be on the hook for large volumes of dangerous radioactive waste — some of it imported from the rest of Europe — under proposals by Brussels to transfer ownership of a range of nuclear materials to the UK after it leaves the EU.
Almost 130 tonnes of plutonium stored at Sellafield in Cumbria is among the nuclear material that would formally shift to UK control, according to draft documents issued by Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator. All “special fissile material” — forms of uranium and plutonium used in nuclear fuels and some of the resulting waste — within the EU are technically owned by Euratom, the pan-European regulator of civilian nuclear activity.
Mr Barnier’s provisional negotiating position calls for a Brexit agreement to “ensure, where appropriate, the transfer to the United Kingdom” ownership of “special fissile material” currently controlled by Euratom within the UK. Such an agreement would make the UK legally responsible not only for its own nuclear material but also reprocessed spent fuel imported over several decades from Germany, Sweden and elsewhere for recycling at Sellafield. “What was a joint European legacy now becomes a UK home brew, with potentially dire economic consequences for the UK given the sheer expense and weight of this radiological inventory,” said Paul Dorfman, honorary senior researcher at the Energy Institute at University College London……..
Mr Barnier’s proposal for the UK to assume “all rights and obligations associated with the ownership of [fissile] materials or property transferred” is seen in Brussels as a necessary housekeeping exercise to remove Euratom’s claim on nuclear fuel used in UK power stations as well as uranium isotopes used in radiotherapy. But it highlighted the uncertainty facing Britain’s nuclear industry — responsible for about a fifth of domestic electricity generation — in the run-up to Brexit. Euratom is a separate legal entity to the EU but is governed by EU institutions and the UK government says it has no option but to leave both at the same time. A UK government spokeswoman said: “Leaving Euratom is a result of the decision to leave the EU as they are uniquely legally joined.”
As well as nuclear fuel and reprocessed waste, the UK would also take ownership of Euratom property used to safeguard the material, such as inspection and monitoring equipment, according to the EU proposals. The negotiation directives, which are subject to the agreement of the 27 remaining member states, were published on Wednesday as Mr Barnier set out his hardline opening position for talks with London…….
https://www.ft.com/content/4cd8a146-3039-11e7-9555-23ef563ecf9a
May 5, 2017
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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/04/17/clinic-ukraine-chernobyl-30th-anniversary-health-impact/82892592/
THERE ARE 2,397,863 PEOPLE REGISTERED WITH UKRAINE’S HEALTH MINISTRY TO RECEIVE ONGOING CHERNOBYL-RELATED HEALTH TREATMENT. OF THESE, 453,391 ARE CHILDREN.KiKim Hjelmgaard , USA TODAY There are 2,397,863 people registered with Ukraine’s health ministry to receive ongoing Chernobyl-related health care. Of these, 453,391 are children — none born at the time of the accident. Their parents were children in 1986. These children have a range of illnesses: respiratory, digestive, musculoskeletal, eye diseases, blood diseases, cancer, congenital malformations, genetic abnormalities, trauma.
KIEV, Ukraine — Daryna Bizilya, 10, wants to be a singer. During a visit with her and about a dozen other children at Ukraine’s largest medical clinic for people living with the consequences of Chernobyl, that’s what she did: She sang.
Bizilya walked directly into the middle of the room, signaled to her friend in the corner holding a cellphone to crank up its digital beatbox, and just went for it. She sang with feeling, dramatic facial expressions and large, sweeping arm gestures that occasionally ended with a clenched fist.
This clinic had an elaborate name, even by former Communist-bloc standards — the Institute of Specialized Radiation Protection of the Ukraine Population. It was full of sick children whose entire lives had only known illness. Continue reading →
May 5, 2017
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https://www.coffscoastadvocate.com.au/news/getting-the-government-out-of-bed-with-adani/3173564/ Keagan Elder https://www.coffscoastadvocate.com.au/profile/KElder/ 3 May 2017:
“On Wednesday, Coffs Coast Climate Action Group joined forces with concerned residents
at a protest outside of Federal member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker’s office.
“Coffs Coast Climate Action Group spokeswoman Liisa Rusanen said the
purpose of the demonstration was to call the Federal Government “out of bed with Adani”.
“About 60 demonstrators gathered around a makeshift bed with an effigy of Mr Hartsuyker and chanted in unison, “What do you want? Stop Adani.’ … “
May 5, 2017
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http://wanganjagalingou.com.au/federal-resources-minister-senator-matt-canavan-is-misrepresenting-wangan-and-jagalingou-people-again/ 4 May 2017:
“Federal Resources Minister, Senator Matt Canavan, is misrepresenting Wangan and Jagalingou people again, as he and his National Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, come down hard on Westpac.
The big four bank announced a new policy which cuts Adani out of any future lending.
“It would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious, the National Party talking climate action and Aboriginal rights, and giving economic advice to a commercial bank.
Here is the great ‘pork barreling’, coal burning and anti-land rights party of Australian history
arguing for Aboriginal advancement, and lecturing banks on climate policy and how to do business.
“All part of doing Adani’s bidding of course… Chairman Gautam Adani, made an unannounced visit to Queensland this weekend to reassure politicians “the decision would have no impact on plans for the multibillion-dollar mine.“ He met with Canavan.
“Quid pro quo, no doubt, for the Federal Government bending over backwards to change the Native Title Act to suit Adani’s interests.
“Canavan of course, like Mundine the week before, trotted out the convenient fiction as cover for trashing Aboriginal rights. Canavan claims Westpac “have also turned their back on the indigenous peoples of Queensland by this decision, because this mine in the Galilee Basin is supported by the Wangan and Jagalingou peoples. They met last year and voted on the mine, they voted on the mine 294 to one in support of it, yet that’s not good enough for Westpac”, he claimed in The Australian.
“Westpac didn’t make a decision based on Aboriginal rights one way or the other. W&J was the last thing on its business mind, sadly.
“But one more time for the record…
“Adani didn’t ‘negotiate’ and achieve the free prior informed consent of the W&J people. … “
May 5, 2017
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aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming |
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U.S. Wind Energy Installations Surge: A New Turbine Rises Every 2.4 Hours, Inside Climate News, The wind power industry just chalked up its strongest first quarter in eight years. Tax credits play an important role. Phil McKenna, 4 May 17, Every two and a half hours, workers installed a new wind turbine in the United States during the first quarter of 2017, marking the strongest start for the wind industry in eight years, according to a new report by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) released on May 2.
“We switched on more megawatts in the first quarter than in the first three quarters of last year combined,” Tom Kiernan, CEO of AWEA, said in a statement.
Nationwide, wind provided
5.6 percent of all electricity produced in 2016, an amount of electricity generation that has
more than doubled since 2010. Much of the demand for new wind energy generation in recent years has come from Fortune 500 companies including Home Depot, GM, Walmart and Microsoft that are buying wind energy in large part for its low, stable cost.
The significant increase this past quarter, when 908 new utility-scale turbines came online, is largely a result of the first wave of projects under the renewable energy tax credits that were extended by Congress in 2015, as well as some overflow from the prior round of tax credits. The tax credits’ gradual phase-out over a period of five years incentivized developers to begin construction in 2016, and those projects are now beginning to come online.
A recent
AWEA-funded report projects continued steady growth for the wind energy industry through 2020. Energy analysts, however, say that growth could slow after 2020 as the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) expires……..
A key driver in the early 2020s will be renewable portfolio standards in states like New York and California, which have both mandated that local utilities get 50 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
By the mid-2020s, the cost of unsubsidized onshore wind will be low enough to compete with both existing and new fossil-fueled generation in many regions of the U.S., Morgan said.
The report shows that Texas continues as the overall national leader for wind power capacity, with 21,000 MW of total installed capacity, three times more than Iowa, the second leading state for wind power installations. Over 99 percent of wind farms are built in rural communities; together, the installations pay over $245 million per year in lease agreements with local landowners, according to AWEA.
May 5, 2017
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http://www.sovereignunion.mobi/content/moving-cenotaph-frontier-conflicts http://nationalunitygovernment.org/pdf/2017/170501-SU-MR-AnzacFRONTIER%20WARS.pdf
‘It is reassuring that the Anzac Day March in Canberra has accepted the fact that the Frontier Wars Commemorations are now acknowledged.
We are not yet part of the formalities of the Anzac Day March itself,
but that the day may soon arrive when the Frontier Wars Commemorative March is accepted.
This is based on the fact that for the first time in history our diggers were acknowledged in the formal procession with an Elder carrying an Aboriginal Land Rights flag at the beginning of the March – with videos … ‘
Ghillar, Michael Anderson 1 May 2017:
” … an Elder carried an Aboriginal Land Rights flag at the beginning of the March and Defence Force men and women in uniform also carried the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flag and the Australian flags side by side as part of the formal March. This is very significant.
“Interestingly enough with the Diggers March being in the front four units and the Commemorative Frontier War March at the end, symbolically, like the Kangaroo and Emu on the Australian Trademark / “Coat of Arms” we had the whole of the colonial Defence Force wedged between us. … “
May 5, 2017
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Antinuclear 