To December 4- Australian climate and nuclear news
The world is at the crossroads as U.N. Climate Change Conference takes place in Poland. Many experts think that we have passed the point of no return. UN Climate Conference faces the daunting need for the world to quit coal. World Bank funding for action on climate change, and for adaptation to climate change. David Attenborough urges world leaders to LEAD .
Nuclear power, touted as the solution to climate change, is on fact, only a hindrance to action on climate change.
AUSTRALIA
With bushfires and floods, Australia now ranks in the top 10 world’s natural disaster counntries.
Bushfires, Climate Change, and Nuclear Sites – how the threats of climate and nuclear merge.
Release of Federal Inquiry Report into community contamination from toxic chemicals.
NUCLEAR. Nuclear authorities planning for NUCLEAR PROCESSING at Kimba or Hawker dump site! Government Divides Hawker and Kimba Communities While Hiding Suitable Alternate Radioactive Waste Sites. Community excluded from Australia’s nuclear waste dump Community Consultation. Concerned citizens of Kimba petition the Senate to remove Kimba site from radioactive waste site shortlist. Woomera a more suitable site for a nuclear waste dump – Senator Rex Patrick. Was Woomera rejected as nuclear dump site, because the plan is to later IMPORT NUCLEAR WASTE?
Western Australia’s uranium promise: 10 years later it’s a complete flop. Report casts doubt over the viability of the Mulga Rock project.
CLIMATE. Total fire ban South Australia -(including Flinders) a dangerous place to put a nuclear waste dump? Multiple bushfires on Yorke Peninsula South Australia. Queensland experiencing fires of unprecedented fury, similar to California’s wildfires. Western Australia set for a scorching summer.
Schoolkids say -Climate change is the biggest threat to our futures, not striking from school. Yes, Prime Minister, I’m striking from school: consider it a climate lesson. School students who went on strike for climate action are more likely to have successful careers. Australia’s climate action schoolkids – more intelligent, better informed, than Australia’s government. Australia’s Resources Minister Matt Canavan scorns children who protest for climate action. Weird responses of righteous fury, against students who protested about about climate change.
Michael West shows the obstacles to Adani actually starting the Carmichael coal project. Queensland Premier sceptical that Adani coal mine will ever eventuate. Adani’s announcement they are ‘ready to go’ must be reality tested.
Climate change and the Great Barrier Reef. Research on Australia’s climate history. Al Gore to conduct climate leadership training in Brisbane.
Noongar traditional owners challenge settlement that will extinguish native title. Native title win for Nanda people in Western Australia.
False claims against Julian Assange pave the way for USA to imprison him (DOES AUSTRALIA NOT CARE?)
RENEWABLE ENERGY South Australia now supplying electricity to Victoria, as wind power surges. Renewables to be providing 80 per cent of electricity market by 2030. UK company chooses Sydney for Australian HQ . Why coal – and not renewables – is root cause of surging Australia power prices. Milestone – Australia renewables output hits 9GW for first time. Top solar postcodes of Australia – state by state. Clean Energy Council calls for NSW renewables target, as another state election looms.
World Bank – $200 billion for action on climate change, emphasis on adaptation
World Bank to raise $200 billion to fight climate change SBS News 4 Dec 18 The World Bank Group will spearhead a five-year, $200 billion investment to fight climate change. The World Bank has unveiled a $200 billion in climate action investment for 2021-25, adding this amounts to a doubling of its current five-year funding.
The World Bank said the move, coinciding with a UN climate summit meeting of some 200 nations in Poland, represented a “significantly ramped up ambition” to tackle climate change, “sending an important signal to the wider global community to do the same.”
Developed countries are committed to lifting combined annual public and private spending to $100 billion in developing countries by 2020 to fight the impact of climate change — up from 48.5 billion in 2016 and 56.7 billion last year, according to latest OECD data.
Southern hemisphere countries fighting the impact of warming temperatures are nonetheless pushing northern counterparts for firmer commitments.
In a statement, the World Bank said the breakdown of the $200 billion would comprise “approximately $100 billion in direct finance from the World Bank.”
Around one third of the remaining funding will come from two World Bank Group agencies with the rest private capital “mobilised by the World Bank Group.”……..
Much of the climate action financing is being set aside for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, notably through development of renewable energy strategies.
However, the World Bank stated that “a key priority is boosting support for climate adaptation,” given the millions of people already battling the consequences of extreme weather.
“By ramping up direct adaptation finance to reach around $50 billion over (fiscal) 21-25, the World Bank will, for the first time, give this equal emphasis alongside investments that reduce emissions,” the bank stated.
Given the urgency to act in the face of sea level rise, flooding and drought “we must fight the causes, but also adapt to the consequences that are often most dramatic for the world’s poorest people,” said World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva.
The countries whose representatives are meeting at the UN climate summit which opened Sunday in the Polish city of Katowice are seeking to make good on commitments made in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
That agreement saw countries commit to limiting global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius and to the safer cap of 1.5C if at all possible. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/world-bank-to-raise-200-billion-to-fight-climate-change
REPORT CASTS DOUBT OVER THE VIABILITY OF THE MULGA ROCK URANIUM PROJECT
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Vimy Resources has relied on heroic assumptions about prices, unfounded optimism about a booming nuclear industry, and has ignored regulatory risks and mine closure costs in its Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for the proposed Mulga Rock uranium mine to the east of Kalgoorlie, a new report by the Australia Institute has found. The report, commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and the Conservation Council of WA (CCWA), will be released tomorrow as shareholders gather at Vimy Resources AGM in Perth. Dr Cameron Murray of The Australia Institute said, “The report clearly shows that, based on plausible assumptions about exchange rates and uranium prices, the proposed Mulga Rock uranium mine is unprofitable. “The Mulga Rock DFS is ambitious to the point of heroic. The projections for the future role of nuclear power are extremely optimistic, and the economic assessment of the project’s position in the global uranium marketplace fails to accurately reflect the international situation,” Dr Murray said. CCWA Nuclear Free Campaigner Mia Pepper said, “This report is a reality check for shareholders making investment decisions that would not only adversely affect their back pocket, but also impact a unique part of WA’s backyard.” “Vimy Resources is putting a brave face on a speculative roll of the dice,” said ACF Nuclear Free Campaigner Dave Sweeney. “The company lacks finance, full approvals, social licence, and a market. Having a gamble is hardly news in the mining sector, but gambling with the product that fuelled Fukushima and always generates long lived radioactive waste is not acceptable, and will be actively contested.” For the full report go to http://www.ccwa.org.au/nuclearfreewa scroll down to Reports. |
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Queensland heatwave set to continue until mid-week, bushfires keep raging
ABC, 3 Dec 18 By Laura Gartry and Andree Withey 
Key points:
- A community meeting will be held on North Stradbroke Island as authorities monitor bushfire threat
- Three “watch and act” warnings are in place for Captain Creek, Lowmead and Curtis Island
- The fire has now burnt through more than 520,000 hectares………https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-03/queensland-bushfire-crisis-continues-into-second-week/10573460
David Attenborough urges world leaders to LEAD – on climate change action
 Our greatest threat’: David Attenborough’s grim warning on climate Naturalist David Attenborough has told delegates at a UN conference the world is facing the end of civilisation if it does not unite to tackle climate change. SBS News, 4 Dec 18 British broadcaster and environmentalist David Attenborough has urged world leaders, meeting in Poland to agree ways to limit global warming, to get on and tackle “our greatest threat in thousands of years”.Known for countless nature films, Attenborough has gained prominence recently with his Blue Planet II series, which highlighted the devastating effect of pollution on the oceans.
Leaders of the world, you must lead,” said the naturalist, given a “People’s seat” at the two-week UN climate conference in the Polish coal city of Katowice alongside two dozen heads of state and government. “The continuation of our civilisations and the natural world upon which we depend, is in your hands,” he said. “Climate change is running faster than we are and we must catch up sooner rather than later before it is too late.” Attenborough told the delegates: “Right now, we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale. Our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate Change.”………. Representatives of some of the most powerful countries and biggest polluters were conspicuous by their absence, and the United States is quitting the UN climate process. To maximise the chances of success in Poland, technical talks began on Sunday, a day early, with delegates from nearly 200 nations debating how to meet the Paris target of limiting global warming to between 1.5 and 2.0 degrees Celsius (2.7 and 3.6 Fahrenheit). Michal Kurtyka, Poland’s deputy environment minister and president of the talks, said that without success in Katowice, Paris would not be a success, as it had only decided what was needed, not how it could be done. Moreover, the wider political environment had changed. “The wave of optimism and global co-operation that carried us to and through Paris has now crested, broken and is now tumbling,” he told delegates. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/our-greatest-threat-david-attenborough-s-grim-warning-on-climate |
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Behind the scenes, it’s the military, not civilian energy, that want Small Modular nuclear Reactors
the decision to pursue Molten Salt Nuclear Reactors (MSRs )may not be based on market laws. For MSRs to succeed, they will likely be developed with appropriate political support and military funding.
If a nation wants an unlimited power supply for cutting-edge military technologies, then the MSR is indeed a very good candidate.
small modular reactors fitted with MSR technology could effectively supply electricity at remote military bases.
When a technology has some potential, the military sector can provide appropriate funding to quickly prototype products, which won’t necessarily have commercially viable features
Molten Salt Reactors: Military Applications Behind the Energy Promises, POWER,12/02/2018 | Jean-Baptiste Peu-Duvallon The commercial nuclear power sector has evolved with great help from the military-industrial complex. Research and development funded for the purpose of national defense has resulted in advances directly applicable to the power industry. For molten salt reactor designs to succeed, political support and military dollars may again be necessary. Continue reading
False claims against Julian Assange pave the way for USA to imprison him (DOES AUSTRALIA NOT CARE?)
Indeed, we could see those articles as pivotal in the current hostile environment against Assange; the purpose of which is presumably to prepare the way for the extradition of Assange to the US. Meanwhile, the Mueller inquiry into alleged links between US president Donald Trump and Russia – and Assange – is gaining headlines on an almost daily basis. And there is evidence that Assange has been secretly indicted and that an extradition request is imminent.
In such an environment, media outlets must provide hard evidence to substantiate allegations, and not simply fall back on anonymous ‘sources’ (usually code for spooks). The people these allegations target deserve better, and so do readers
Former diplomat challenges ‘fake’ Guardian claims about Julian Assange meeting Paul Manafort The Canary 3rd December 2018 A former consul and first secretary at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London has spoken out against a “fake story” from the Guardian. Speaking to The Canary, Fidel Narváez insisted that the claim that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is entirely false. Continue reading
Weird responses of righteous fury, against students who protested about about climate change
The weirdest right-wing takes on the student climate protest , Australia’s free speech warriors took a righteous stand against children fighting for their future. Crikey, KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN DEC 03, 2018 After years of apocalyptic headlines and government intransigence on climate change, the sight of thousands of high school students packing Sydney’s Martin Place last Friday provided a jolt of much-needed hope for the future. Armed with loudspeakers, and some incredibly creative posters, the strike — which also took place in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Coffs Harbour, Bendigo and other city centres — represented part of a global surge of student-led climate change protests.
It also caused a surge of righteous fury among conservative politicians and commentators; a feeling that was not shared by most Australians who are more worried about climate change than ever, and increasingly are in favour of more renewable energy. Here’s a selection of the responses from those who chose to take a stand against the children advocating for their future: … (subscribers only)
https://www.crikey.com.au/2018/12/03/student-climate-protest-takes/
South Australia now supplying electricity to Victoria, as wind power surges
 Victoria now relying on SA for power as wind production rises and coal plants close, Adelaide Now Daniel Wills, State Political Editor, The Advertiser December 3, 2018 Green-powered South Australia is now sending Victoria more electricity than it takes back as wind production surges, leading energy experts to warn that more storage is the key to keeping the local grid stable.
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Nuclear authorities planning for NUCLEAR PROCESSING at Kimba or Hawker dump site!
10,000 CSIRO barrels are stacked decaying within the Woomera Protected Area; & back in 2016 $29 million was budgeted for re-mediation.
CSIRO has been contacted numerous times by different folk seeking information about how that was progressing – no answer has been the firm reply…..
Well, Senator Rex Patrick recently released some documents he obtained under FOI, & within those we find, from an August 2017 DIIS facilitated meeting with very senior officers from CSIRO, ARPANSA, & Department of Defence :
“CSIRO estimates they have 10,000 drums of radioactive waste stored at Woomera. Initial reports indicate these drums represent 80% LLW and 20% ILW. There is both chemical and radiological waste, often mixed together. They have been directed by ARPANSA to undertake measures to characterise, separate, process as appropriate, and repackage. [my caps] HOWEVER, IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO UNDERTAKE SUCH MEASURES WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF THE CURRENT STORAGE FACILITY AT WOOMERA” p17
……. then on p18
“Preparing any appropriate part of the CSIRO waste at Woomera for transport to the NRWMF once we have clarity on what that facility will deal with (eg. LLW processing, ILW storage)”
So, at August 2017, we have the bosses of Federal agencies flagging the PROCESSING OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE AT THE NRWMF.
The affected communities have not been informed about that – only being told it would be STORAGE ONLY. Also, the ‘temporary’ ‘interim’ holding of ILW in a shipping container, potentially 100 years, requires replacement of the canisters after 40 years, so there would also need to be built what is known as a ‘hot cell’ to undertake that risky venture…
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2ed7ca0ef6oh1p5/AAB6UaL6iCMWFH2dzwv2q4VBa?dl=0&preview=Woomera+Letter+2.pdf
ENuFF[SA] https://www.facebook.com/sanuclearfree/
Climate change and why nuclear power can’t fix it
nuclear emits twice as much carbon as solar PV and six times as much as onshore wind.
Beyond Nuclear, 2 Dec 18 Nuclear power has no constructive role to play in climate change solutions. In fact, it is a hindrance.
Nuclear power does have a carbon footprint When nuclear power is said to have “zero emissions,” this refers only to the electricity generation phase and only to greenhouse gas emissions. There are emissions at this stage, especially heat and radioactivity. Certain emissions during reactor operations, such as carbon-14 in CO2 form and methane, are greenhouse gases.
However, there are plenty of carbon emissions involved in making a nuclear power plant a reality. Therefore, when discussing the carbon footprint of nuclear energy compared to other energy forms, the entire uranium fuel chain needs to be taken into account. In doing so, nuclear energy compares poorly to renewable energy and energy efficiency. Lifecycle emissions along the nuclear fuel chain occur through uranium mining and milling, transportation, plant construction, operation, reactor site decommissioning, and nuclear waste management.1
Life-cycle carbon emissions of a nuclear power plant When taking into account planning, permitting, construction, operation, refurbishing and decommissioning, a nuclear power plant emits at least 6-24 times more carbon-dioxide equivalent emissions than wind per unit energy produced over the same 100-year period.2
Life-cycle carbon emissions from the entire nuclear fuel chain How do we calculate this? Evaluating the total carbon output of the nuclear industry involves calculating emissions from every carbon-emitting phase of the uranium fuel chain, then dividing them by the electricity produced over the entire lifetime of the plant.3 Some of the most reliable analysis on this has been done by Dr. Benjamin Sovacool whose data we use here (see footnote 1).
Let’s take a look at the mean carbon emissions of each phase: Continue reading
Total fire ban South Australia – a dangerous place to put a nuclear waste dump?
Total fire bans declared for most of South Australia, The Advertiser, December 1, 2018 Total fire bans have been issued for most of South Australia on the first day of summer.
The Country Fire Service’s state operation centre is ready to react to any large fires today as the mercury soars to 30C across the state before a possible storm late in the afternoon.
A severe fire danger rating has declared for the following regions:
West Coast, Eastern Eyre Peninsula, Lower Eyre Peninsula, Flinders, Mid North, Yorke Peninsula, Riverland, Murraylands, Upper South East, Lower South East and Mount Lofty Ranges
The official bushfire season has also begun today for Kangaroo Island and will run until April.
When total fire bans are declared, well prepared and actively defended houses can offer safety during a fire.
But the Country Fire Service warns that if residents do not have a bushfire survival plan, leaving early before a fire start is the safest option.
CFS State Duty Commander Nick Stanley told ABC radio certain activities that could cause a fire risk are banned during the fire danger season…..
Multiple bushfires on Yorke Peninsula South Australia
Bushfires in SA after lightning hits https://www.sbs.com.au/news/bushfires-in-sa-after-lightning-hits
A band of lightning moving across South Australia is believed to be the cause of multiple bushfires, in particular on the Yorke Peninsula at Minlaton. 2 Dec 18 Multiple fires are burning in South Australia and are believed to have been caused by a band of lightning moving across the state.
The most serious fire is on the Yorke Peninsula at Minlaton, the SA Country Fire Service said.
Just before 3pm, the CFS was telling nearby residents to “leave if the path is clear to a safer place” however the authority now says the rate of spread of the fire has halted.
However the CFS says it’s concerned that could change when the wind changes in a few hours.
“The CFS has concern that when the wind change arrives, there may be an increase in fire behaviour,” a warning message said.
“People east of the fire ground need to remain alert to this wind change and enact their Bushfire Survival Plan.”
There are smaller grass fires near Ettick in the Murraylands district, the Globe Derby Trotting track in the northern Adelaide metro area, Kangaroo Island, Hindmarsh Island, Kanmantoo, Barabba and Long Plains.
There is a total fire ban for most of the state.
UN Climate Conference now meeting, but climate change is probably now irreversible
Portrait of a planet on the verge of climate catastrophe As the UN sits down for its annual climate conference this week, many experts believe we have passed the point of no return, Guardian, by Robin McKie, 2 Dec 18
On Sunday morning hundreds of politicians, government officials and scientists will gather in the grandeur of the International Congress Centre in Katowice, Poland. It will be a familiar experience for many. For 24 years the annual UN climate conference has served up a reliable diet of rhetoric, backroom talks and dramatic last-minute deals aimed at halting global warming.
But this year’s will be a grimmer affair – by far. As recent reports have made clear, the world may no longer be hovering at the edge of destruction but has probably staggered beyond a crucial point of no return. Climate catastrophe is now looking inevitable. We have simply left it too late to hold rising global temperatures to under 1.5C and so prevent a future of drowned coasts, ruined coral reefs, spreading deserts and melted glaciers.
One example was provided last week by a UN report that revealed attempts to ensure fossil fuel emissions peak by 2020 will fail. Indeed the target will not even be reached by 2030. Another, by the World Meteorological Organization, said the past four years had been the warmest on record and warned that global temperatures could easily rise by 3-5C by 2100, well above that sought-after goal of 1.5C. The UK will not be exempt either. The Met Office said summer temperatures could now be 5.4C hotter by 2070.
At the same time, prospects of reaching global deals to halt emissions have been weakened by the spread of rightwing populism. Not much to smile about in Katowice.
Nor will the planet’s woes end in 2100. Although most discussions use the year as a convenient cut-off point for describing Earth’s likely fate, the changes we have already triggered will last well beyond that date, Continue reading
The reasons why France must close multiple nuclear reactors
Backstory: Macron To Close Multiple Nuclear Reactors, But Why Now? https://cleantechnica.com/2018/11/30/backstory-macron-to-close-multiple-nuclear-reactors-but-why-now/?fbclid=IwAR0tO9BXT4FaNEuhnwexaC6cf4V6jj6cJLnQeiZPdA91t7SrrmL5n7xtRHg November 30th, 2018 by Michael Barnard
President Emmanuel Macron of France depressed nuclear executives globally in late November 2018, announcing the planned retirement of 14 of 58 reactors by 2035. This was still less than was promised in his election campaign, but represents a major internal political battle, as well as a major change of France’s circumstances.
This has been an emerging story for several years.
France did a better job than most of building nuclear plants. They picked a single design and built a bunch of them over a relatively concentrated 20 years from about 1978 onward. It was a massive, state-funded, state-managed energy infrastructure initiative at a scale rarely seen. They dodged a bunch of the mistakes of other geographies somewhat by accident. They aren’t subject to earthquakes or tsunamis. They kept the technology highly standard. They developed a skilled workforce for building them and rewarded them well.
But the last nuclear reactor went live almost 20 years ago, the oldest ones are at end-of-life, and the skilled workforce only knows how to maintain and operate existing reactors now, not build new ones. The current President of France, Macron, used to be the Minister of Industry. He’s stated publicly that even he couldn’t find out how much the build-out actually cost, with the clear assertion that a bunch of actual costs were hidden.
“Nobody knows the total cost for nuclear energy,” he said. “I was minister for industry and I could not tell you.”
And France had to build nuclear to be load-following due to its over-reliance on a more usually inflexible form of generation. Nuclear is good for baseload up to 30–40%, but when it has to be turned on and off it gets a lot more expensive very quickly. France has the good fortune to have been able to export a lot of electricity to the rest of the EU for several years, but the energy mix on the continent is strongly favoring more flexible forms of generation.
And now, a few things have changed in the decades since France made its huge bet on nuclear generation in the Messmer Plan in 1974.
Renewables are dirt cheap, with Lazard’s latest figures bringing them in at 3–6 times cheaper than new nuclear. (Amusingly, Lazard still labels wind and solar as ‘alternative energy‘.) Europe is a leading geography for wind and solar, so skilled trades and supply chains all exist. Europe’s grid has strengthened and expanded over the past 30 years, so the need for a country to go it alone has diminished substantially.
The EU was founded in 1993 and France is an integral part of it, and that has two impacts. The first is that France’s energy independence policy that was part of the impetus for a massive nuclear fleet looks archaic in context of modern politics and economics. The second is that EU regulations forbid destabilizingly large governmental subsidies for energy, something which the Hinkley plant in the EU had to fight through. As Macron’s experience shows, it’s actually impossible for anyone to figure out how much any nuclear plant actually cost due to budget fudging. This last is true globally, by the way.
French attempts to build next-generation reactors are failing in multiple locations in France and elsewhere. The cost and budget overruns and construction failures are staggering.
And Chernobyl and Fukushima both happened since the French nuclear build-out began. Public support diminished substantially after those events, one on the same continent and one a world away.
France receives a greater percentage of its electricity from nuclear than any country in the world, at 72% close to 50% more than its nearest ‘competitor’, Slovakia. And it will diminish over the coming decades. Its last-built reactor will reach end-of-life in 2040 or so. It’s unlikely that it will be replaced. And it’s unlikely that more than a fraction of the aging reactors will be refurbished at all.
Wind, solar, a continent-scale grid, and open economic borders all contributed to the death of the French nuclear dream. It’s time for France to wake up and join the future, and it has. It voted in Macron, a politician who promised to reduce France’s nuclear fleet. He fought the entrenched bureaucracy and EDF, and while the new plans are slower than the promised ones, they are the right plans on a pragmatic timeline.
1.This month
For international nuclear news go to https://nuclear-news.net
of the week
Nuclear power cannot solve the climate crisis
PETITION https://www.alp.org.au/petitions/australians-dont-want-nuclear-power/
26 Feb – 24 April The Image is not Nothing (Concrete Archives) is a group exhibition that explores the ways in which acts of nuclear trauma, Indigenous genocide and cultural erasure have been memorialised by artists and others. It comes as the result of research by curators Lisa Radford and Yhonnie Scarce whose fieldwork has encompassed sites of significance including Auschwitz, Chernobyl, Fukushima, Hiroshima, Maralinga, New York, Wounded Knee and former Yugoslavia.
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Submissions to the Senate Committee Inquiry into National Radioactive Management Amendment Bill. 2020. Go to our summaries of significant submissions, conveniently listed in alphabetical order at Kimba waste dump submissions or see all submissions listed at Read the Submissions
