Uranium to be transported across Nullarbor Plain all the way from Yeelirrie to Port Adelaide
They will ship uranium across the Nullarbor through Pt Adelaide. I understand that Pt Adelaide and Darwin are the only ports they can ship out of, as Fremantle refuses. That extremely long journey will put up the cost of the uranium which as I understand is still very low.
The yellowcake highway to Port Adelaide , The Adelaide Advertiser
Uranium produced from a controversial West Australian mine approved a day before the federal election was called will be exported from Port Adelaide……. (subscribers only)
Federal Environment Minister, Melissa Price, fails the environment with secretive Yeelirrie uranium approval.
South Australian aborigines again face a nuclear threat – as Federal Government plans a nuclear waste dump
Trident celebrations ignore Aboriginal victims of British nuclear weapons testing, Green Left, Linda Pearson, April 26, 2019 Issue 1218, Scotland New threat from nuclear waste dump
“………..Aboriginal communities in South Australia now fear that they will be forced to bear the risks of radioactive contamination again. The Australian government is currently considering three sites for the location of a national nuclear waste dump, two on Barngarla land, near Kimba, and one on Adnyamathanha land at Wallerberdina Station, near the Finders Ranges.
The dump will host nuclear material currently stored at different sites in Australia, plus waste from Britain pursuant to a 2012 agreement between the British and Scottish governments. The agreement relates to waste generated by the reprocessing of Australian nuclear fuel at Dounreay. However, that waste is to remain where it is and a substituted amount will be shipped from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing and decommissioning site, located on the coast of the Irish Sea.
The views of traditional owners have been sidelined throughout the process for choosing the dump’s location and Adnyamathanha’s traditional owners say that federal government contractors have already damaged sacred sites. As a result, two separate human rights complaints are outstanding in Australian courts.
Campaigners have called on the British and Scottish governments to halt the shipment while there is a risk that it will end up dumped on Aboriginal land without the consent of the Traditional Owners. However, the British government said the shipment “will comply with all relevant international laws” and the eventual destination of the waste is “a matter for the Australian authorities”. The British Environment Agency has so far failed to respond to requests to halt the shipment of waste from Sellafield.
The Scottish government has also failed to act to stop the shipment, despite expert advice it commissioned, which states that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and, ultimately, Scottish ministers could refuse to authorise the shipment on human rights grounds.
Britain’s plans to celebrate 50 years of at-sea nukes erases the experience of Indigenous people affected by nuclear weapons testing. Those experiences should be front and centre in any discussion about nuclear weapons, as ICAN recognised.
Instead of celebrating, we should be looking at ways to redress the past and prevent future harm. Britain should apologise for its nuclear weapons testing and pay adequate compensation to those affected. The shipment of nuclear waste from Sellafield should be stopped.
But there is only one way we can prevent more lives being destroyed by nuclear weapons and that is by eliminating them altogether. https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/trident-celebrations-ignore-aboriginal-victims-british-nuclear-weapons-testing
UN global assessment of the state of Nature – it’s not good
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In degrading Nature humanity harms itself, UN report warns, https://www.france24.com/en/20190425-degrading-nature-humanity-harms-itself-un-report-warns Diplomats and scientists from 130 nations gather in Paris next week to vet and validate the first UN global assessment of the state of Nature in more than a decade, and the news is not good.A quarter of 100,000 species already assessed are on a path to extinction, and the total number facing a forced exit from the world stage is closer to a million, according to an executive summary, obtained by AFP, of a 1,800-page scientific report three years in the making.
A score of 10-year targets adopted in 2010 under the UN’s biodiversity treaty — to expand protected areas, slow species and forest loss, and reduce pollution impact — will almost all fail, the draft Summary for Policy Makers reports.
But the focus of the five-day meet is not just pangolins, pandas, polar bears and the multitude of less “charismatic” lifeforms that humanity is eating, crowding or poisoning into oblivion. Rather, the spotlight is on the one species that has so ravaged Earth’s natural systems as to imperil its own existence as well. That, of course, would be us: homo sapiens. The accelerating loss of clean air, drinkable water, healthy soil, pollinating insects, protein-rich fish and storm-blocking mangroves — to name but a few of the dwindling services rendered by Nature — poses no less of a threat to humanity than climate change, according to the report, set to be unveiled May 6. “Up to now, we have talked about the importance of biodiversity mostly from an environmental perspective,” said Robert Watson, chair of the UN-mandated body that compiled the report, told AFP. “Now we are saying that Nature is crucial for food production, for pure water, for medicines and even social cohesion.” And to fight climate change, he added. Forests and oceans, for example, soak up half of the planet-warming greenhouse gases we spew into the atmosphere. If they didn’t, Earth might already be locked into an unliveable future of runaway global warming. And yet, an area of tropical forest five times the size of England has been destroyed since 2014, mainly to service the growing global demand for beef, biofuels, soy beans and palm oil. It would be like setting fire to a lifeboat while lost at sea in order to cook the fish one just caught. – Hidden impacts – “We need to recognise that climate change and loss of Nature are equally important, not just for the environment, but as development and economic issues as well,” Watson said. The way we produce our food and energy is undermining the regulating services that we get from Nature.” Set up in 2012, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) synthesises published science for policymakers in the same way the IPCC does for climate. Both advisory bodies are tied to UN treaties. But the Convention on Biological Diversity has always been a poor stepchild compared to its climate counterpart, and the IPBES — unlike the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — was added two decades later as an afterthought, making its authority harder to establish. For the public, “biodiversity” remains an abstract concept, and its impacts harder to see: species loss is invisible and remote compared to deadly heatwaves, superstorms and sea-level rise. “There is no question that the climate convention is stronger,” Watson said. “But our goal is to make sure that governments and the private sector really start to take biodiversity as seriously as they do climate.” – Species disappearing – One major finding of the report to be reviewed next week that might help do that is “an imminent rapid acceleration in the global rate of species extinction.” The pace of loss “is already tens to hundreds of times higher than it has been, on average, over the last 10 million years,” it notes. “Half-a-million to a million species are projected to be threatened with extinction, many within decades.” Experts on biodiversity are also trying to engineer a “Paris moment,” something equivalent to the 2015 climate treaty that set a hard target for capping global warming at under two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit). That could come next year in China at the next full meeting of the Convention on Biodiversity, they say. But the plan to save Nature — and humanity along with it — must be every bit as “transformative” as the changes proposed to avert a climate-addled future of human misery, said Watson. “The way we produce and use energy, with way we produce and waste food — all of that has to be looked at,” he said. “The global report will make the case that biodiversity is essential to a sustainable world and human well-being.” |
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Clandestine approval for controversial uranium mine is evidence Australia needs better environment laws
https://www.acf.org.au/clandestine_approval_for_controversial_uranium_mine, 26 APRIL 2019
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Radioactive risks last longer than any politician and deserve real assessment, not backroom fast-tracking. The Morrison Government’s quiet approval of a controversial uranium mine in Western Australia on the eve of the federal election being called is more evidence our national environment laws are broken, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) says. Environment Minister Melissa Price approved the Yeelirrie uranium mine on April 10, the day before the Prime Minister headed to Government House to call the 2019 federal poll. Ms Price did not announce the approval via a public release. Instead a notice was later placed on the Environment Department’s website. The mine had been previously rejected by the WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) because it could drive to extinction rare subterranean fauna species and do harm to other wildlife species like the Malleefowl, Princess parrot and Greater bilby. The Yeelirrie mine, which is in Ms Price’s electorate of Durack, is still being legally challenged on appeal by senior Tjiwarl native title holders and conservationists. Ms Price had previously told media: “My department advised that it was prudent to wait for the result of the WA Supreme Court proceedings before finalising the federal assessment [for Yeelirrie].” ACF Nuclear Free Campaigner, Dave Sweeney, said Yeelirrie could produce more than 35 million tonnes of radioactive mine waste, use up to 10 billion litres of groundwater, and require 2500 hectares of vegetation to be cleared for its nine-kilometre long open pit. “The lack of respect for the Australian people and due process demonstrated by this clandestine approval under the cover of a national election is astounding,” Mr Sweeney said. “The Western Australian EPA explicitly rejected this mine because it threatens rare native fauna with extinction and would harm other species. This prudent recommendation was overruled by the Barnett Government weeks before it lost the 2017 state election. “Now the Morrison Government has performed the same trick, approving it hours before a federal election was called. This was done without regard for the Tjiwarl Traditional Owners, on whose land the planned mine sits, or the people of Esperance, who could have radioactive material shipped through their port. “There are many with deep concerns about this project. Any move to mine at Yeelirrie will be actively contested. We thought the rushed approval of Adani’s plans to guzzle billions of litres of groundwater for its massive coal mine on the eve of the election was a new low. But somehow hours later this low point was dug deeper by Minister Price. “Radioactive risks last longer than any politician and deserve real assessment, not backroom fast-tracking. “For too long Australia’s environment laws have been abused and short-changed by politicians cutting deals that put the interests of big companies over nature, Traditional Owners and local communities. “The assessment of this project has been deficient. This rushed rubber stamp must be reviewed by any future federal government. “Australia needs new and stronger national environment laws that actually protect nature and take politics and undue influence out of approval decisions for major industrial projects. “These laws should be overseen by an independent national EPA that is charged with making approval decisions free from the interfering hand of big businesses and their politician mates.” |
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Coalition slammed over ‘misleading’ Adani billboard
Worse than GetUp’: Coalition slammed over ‘misleading’ Adani billboard, SMH, By Dana McCauley. April 25, 2019 The Morrison government has been accused of misleading Queensland voters in a seat set to benefit most from the controversial Adani coal mine, with a billboard that appears to show Labor leader Bill Shorten participating in a campaign to stop it.
Critics have condemned the billboard as a misuse of political advertising after Liberal National senator for Queensland Matt Canavan posted a photograph of it on social media, boasting it had “just gone up in Rockhampton to remind everyone – including Bill – what he actually said”.
“Labor just can’t be trusted,” Senator Canavan, who is federal Resources Minister, wrote.
The billboard is in the ultra-marginal electorate of Capricornia, held by Liberal National MP Michelle Landry, which would house the proposed mine.
It will be a key battleground at the federal election along with fellow north Queensland coal seats Dawson, Herbert and Flynn, as jobs, energy and environment policy firm up as key concerns for voters heading into the May 18 federal election.
Political advertising is covered by electoral rules that make it illegal to mislead citizens about how to cast their votes, such as in how-to-vote cards.
Progressive lobby group GetUp was forced to pull a satirical campaign advertisement depicting Tony Abbott as a lifeguard ignoring pleas to help someone drowning after a barrage of criticism.
Mr Shorten, who has previously said he did not support the Adani mine, repeatedly refused to explicity rule out a review of the project’s federal approval this week before firming up his position not to do so on Wednesday, saying: “We are not going to review Adani, full stop.”
The issue has caused ructions within the Labor Party and the unions that are bankrolling a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to install Mr Shorten as prime minister, with those in north Queensland campaigning for mining development in the Galilee basin.
The Queensland branch of the powerful Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union is demanding that all candidates sign a pledge outlining their support for coal jobs, while more than 30 unions have endorsed strikes by school students demanding that the Adani mine be stopped.
Labor candidates campaigning in marginal seats in Queensland have expressed support for coal mining, while those in Sydney and Melbourne have opposed it.
The Coalition campaign has been approached for comment. https://www.smh.com.au/federal-election-2019/worse-than-getup-coalition-slammed-over-misleading-adani-billboard-20190425-p51h51.html
Morrison govt approved Yeelirrie uranium mine just the day before calling the election
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Government approved controversial uranium mine one day before calling the election ABC News, 25 Apr 19, by national environment, science and technology reporter Michael Slezak, The Morrison Government signed off on a controversial uranium mine one day before calling the federal election, and did not publicly announce the move until the environment department uploaded the approval document the day before Anzac Day.
Key points:
The Yeelirrie Uranium mine, located 500 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, requires both federal and state approval. The state approval of the proposed mine is still being fought in the state’s Supreme Court by members of the Tjiwarl traditional owners. In 2016, the West Australian Environment Protection Agency advised the mine not be approved, concluding it posed too great a risk of extinction to some native animals. The former Liberal Barnett government controversially approved the mine in 2017, just weeks before it lost the West Australian election. Canadian company Cameco, the world’s largest uranium producer, is seeking to develop the uranium mine, which would cover an area 9km long and 1.5km wide. It would involve the clearing of up to 2,422 hectares of native vegetation. It is also approved to cause groundwater levels to drop by 50cm, and they would not completely recover for 200 years, according to Cameco’s environmental reports. A spokesperson for Environment Minister Melissa Price said the approval was subject to 32 strict conditions to avoid and mitigate potential environmental impacts. Traditional owner of the area, Tjiwarl woman Vicky Abdullah, said she was surprised by the announcement, and was hoping for the project to be rejected. “It’s a very precious place for all of us. For me and my two aunties, who have been walking on country,” she said……. Ms Price has declined an interview with the ABC. …… Dave Sweeney, an anti-nuclear campaigner at the Australian Conservation Foundation, said the timing suggested the decision was political. “We need decisions that are based on evidence and the national interest, not a company’s interest or not a particular senator’s or a particular government’s interest,” he said. “This reeks of political interference, rather than a legal consideration or due process.” The approval is one of several controversial moves the Government made before entering caretaker mode, where such decisions would be impossible, including approving Adani’s two groundwater management plans for its proposed Carmichael coal mine. At a federal level, both Labor and the Coalition support the development of uranium mining in Australia…….. The company said the mine was expected to produce up to 7,500 tonnes of yellow cake concentrate over a 15-year period. Over its life, the mine would produce around 36 million tonnes of radioactive waste, which would be stored at the site. The West Australian EPA’s recommendation to block the mine was based primarily on the impacts the mine would have on animals that live in groundwater, called stygofauna. Dr Tom Hatton, chairman of the West Australian EPA, said there was more stygofauna in the area near the mine “than anywhere else in the northern Goldfields”. “The stygofauna habitat at Yeelirrie is particularly rich, with 73 species recorded,” Dr Hatton said in 2017. The federal approval is conditional on Cameco producing a groundwater management plan, which manages the risks to those animals. It also has a number of other conditions, including surveys to confirm reports of night parrots in the area, and if they are found, a night parrot management plan would be required. Ms Abdullah told the ABC she and her family have used the area for years to hunt and camp. “Where are all the next generation of our kids going to go,” Ms Abdullah asked……. Ongoing court challengesIn October, it was reported that Ms Price would not approve the mine before the court case in Western Australia was resolved. “My department advised that it was prudent to wait for the result of the WA Supreme Court proceedings before finalising the Federal assessment,” she reportedly told the Kalgoorlie Miner. “This ensures that we know the state decision is valid and we can avoid overlapping with any state approval conditions.”…….https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-26/government-approved-uranium-mine-day-before-election/11047252 |
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Yeelirrie has a low grade of uranium, and Cameco has closed McArthur River mine with a much higher grade
It’s not worth wiping out a species for the Yeelirrie uranium mine, SBS, BY GAVIN MUDD “……. So are the economic benefits worth wiping out a species?
Short answer: no. But let’s, for a moment, ignore these subterranean animals and look at whether the mine would be beneficial.
Yeelirrie is one of Australia’s largest uranium deposits – and yet it has a low grade of 0.15 per cent (as uranium oxide). This refers to the amount of uranium found in rock. For comparison, the average grade of uranium mines globally is normally 0.1 to 0.4 per cent of uranium oxide (with some higher and others lower).
And Cameco’s Cigar Lake and McArthur River mines in Canada have typically been 15-20 per cent of uranium oxide. Despite such rich ore, McArthur River was uneconomic and closed indefinitely in early 2018.
What’s more, the future of nuclear power is not bright. According to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, the number of nuclear reactors under construction around the world is at its lowest point in a decade, as renewable energy increases. The amount of nuclear electricity produced each year is flat. And nuclear’s share of global electricity is constantly falling behind renewables……..https://www.sbs.com.au/news/it-s-not-worth-wiping-out-a-species-for-the-yeelirrie-uranium-mine
Bill Shorten questions Environment Minister Melissa Price’s shonky Yeelirrie uranium deal
Labor questions ‘shonky’ WA uranium mine deal, Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten wants to know why Environment Minister Melissa Price approved a controversial WA uranium mine, labelling it a “shonky deal”. SBS 26 Apr 19, Labor leader Bill Shorten says the government has to explain its “shonky” approval for a controversial uranium mine in Western Australia, which occurred the day before the federal election was called.
Canadian-owned Yeelirrie uranium mine, about 500km north of Kalgoorlie, was given the tick of approval by Environment Minister Melissa Price on 10 April, according to an Environment Department document.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison triggered the 18 May election on 11 April……
Labor’s environment spokesman Tony Burke says no detail is known about the approval and is accusing Ms Price of being in hiding.
“I want to find out what on earth has happened,” he told ABC radio……
Greens senator Jordon Steele-John is calling on Labor to tear up the “absolutely disgraceful” approval if it wins government. …..https://www.sbs.com.au/news/labor-questions-shonky-wa-uranium-mine-deal
Extinction Rebellion skillfully used civil disobedience to sound the alarm on the climate emergency
The Greta Thunberg effect: her visit to London in 2 minutes
Why the climate protests that disrupted London were different, Extinction Rebellion skillfully used civil disobedience to sound the alarm on the climate emergency., VOX By Thousands of activists unleashed strategic disorder in London for 10 days to draw attention to the accelerating climate crisis. In costume and in tents, they barricaded roads and bridges at major city landmarks, with more than 1,000 peacefully submitting to arrest.
The coordinated direct actions across the city were organized by Extinction Rebellion, a movement founded last year to demand a more aggressive climate target from the British government: net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.
With a core message that climate change is an “emergency” that threatens the survival of the human species, Extinction Rebellion sounded a shriller alarm than past climate protests. Members also deployed ostentatious, nonviolent tactics — such as gluing themselves to the Waterloo Bridge — at a scale that “has never been done before,” according to Alanna Byrne, a press coordinator with Extinction Rebellion.
“We know we have disrupted your lives,” the group said Wednesday in a statement. “We do not do this lightly. We only do this because this is an emergency.”
Extinction Rebellion’s urgency and energy on climate change is aligned with a wave of youth climate activism bubbling up in Europe, the United States, and beyond — including a series of student strikes, led by the riveting Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old from Sweden……..
not all Londoners were unhappy with the disruption, and many tweeted about how much they enjoyed the opportunity to participate.
Extinction Rebellion protesters in London have three key demands
The protestors want three things from the UK government:
- For climate change to be treated as an emergency
- A commitment to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025
- The creation of a citizen assembly for climate action
“We don’t want to be doom and gloom, but we also think it’s really, really important to use emergency messaging,” said XR’s Byrne. “One of the major problems that we have is that so many people are not aware of the crisis we’re in and we want the government to be talking about it.”
While the UK government is already mired in Brexit negotiations that have continued to drag on, protestors argue that climate change poses an even bigger threat to the long-term health and security of the country and deserves the same, if not more, political attention.
Extinction Rebellion protesters in London have three key demands
The protestors want three things from the UK government:
- For climate change to be treated as an emergency
- A commitment to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025
- The creation of a citizen assembly for climate action
“We don’t want to be doom and gloom, but we also think it’s really, really important to use emergency messaging,” said XR’s Byrne. “One of the major problems that we have is that so many people are not aware of the crisis we’re in and we want the government to be talking about it.”
While the UK government is already mired in Brexit negotiations that have continued to drag on, protestors argue that climate change poses an even bigger threat to the long-term health and security of the country and deserves the same, if not more, political attention.
………in this moment of crisis, young leaders will keep reminding us of how resourceful humans can be in the face of a challenge. “Sometimes we just simply have to find a way. The moment we decide to fulfill something, we can do anything,” Thunberg said. “And I’m sure that the moment we start behaving as if we were in an emergency, we can avoid climate and ecological catastrophe. Humans are very adaptable: We can still fix this.”
Can the UK fix it to the tune of net-zero emissions by 2025? Why not try? https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/4/24/18511491/climate-change-protests-london-extinction-rebellion
Government’s approval of Yeetlirrie uranium mine is bad news for the Liberal Coalition
Yeelirrie uranium mine approval all pain no gain for Coalition THE AUSTRALIAN, Nick Evans, 26 Apr 19,
Environment Minister Melissa Price’s last-minute approval of a major West Australian uranium mine has bought the federal government a world of political pain over a mine that is unlikely to be built in the next decade….. (subscribers only)
A Gripping History of the Nuclear Disaster at Chernobyl
 In “Midnight in Chernobyl,” Adam Higginbotham offers a thorough and readable account of one awful night in the Ukraine and its consequences. UnDark, 04.26.2019 / BY Henry Fountain, WHEN A REACTOR at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded and burned 33 years ago, it generated a radioactive cloud that contaminated parts of the Soviet Union and Europe before dissipating. But the accident also created a fog of misunderstanding and confusion — in large part the result of a deliberate coverup by Soviet authorities — that has been slower to lift. Even three decades later, thorough authoritative accounts of the world’s worst atomic-power disaster are few and far between .
A new book offers perhaps the clearest, and fullest, look at the catastrophe yet. Adam Higginbotham’s “Midnight in Chernobyl,” is a compelling and comprehensive account of one awful night in Ukraine and the consequences that were felt worldwide. Higginbotham’s observations, and his writing, are so sharp there is no need to overdo anything for dramatic effect. Told so clearly and in such detail, the story is dramatic — and horrific — enough. ….
Over the years, a few chronicles of the disaster by Soviet writers have reached Western readers, most notably “The Truth About Chernobyl,” by Grigori Medvedev, a former engineer at the plant, published in 1991. ……
That began to change last year when Serhii Plokhy, a Harvard historian, weighed in with “Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe.” But Plokhy’s work focused more on the political aftermath, including the downfall of the Soviet Union that followed just five years later, than on the details of the accident. Higginbotham, a British journalist, takes account of the political fallout as well, but the bulk of his book is about the accident and the response and cleanup — primarily the first seven months, which culminated with the rushed completion of the concrete-and-steel sarcophagus that entombed the remains of Unit 4. The author clearly has been captivated by the disaster for years. His interviews for the book began more than a decade ago, and include some of the key surviving characters. He was also aided by the recent declassification of much archival material, especially the deliberations of the various government tribunals that managed (or, more accurately, mismanaged) the response. Higginbotham introduces us to a few people who have never received much notice. Chief among these is Maria Protsenko, the architect of Pripyat, the city of nearly 50,000 that was built for the Chernobyl workers. Like most of the Soviet Union’s privileged atomic cities, Pripyat was a clean, comfortable place, a glorious testament to the Soviet system, and Protsenko’s job for seven years had been to make it even more glorious. Her world changed in an instant when the reactor exploded. Pripyat, just a few miles away, was heavily contaminated immediately, though it took the authorities a day and a half to order an evacuation. (This was just one of many examples of Soviet officialdom’s callousness and irresponsibility in handling the disaster. Another was telling the evacuees to plan to be away for a few days; in reality they would be gone forever.) It’s hard not to feel sorry for Protsenko, who in the space of 36 hours went from proudly planning Pripyat’s expansion to calculating how many buses would be needed to get its residents to safety. (Precisely 1,225, as it turned out.) Ever the dutiful technocrat, she rode the last one, zig-zagging across the ghost city to pick up stragglers. It’s this kind of detail that makes Higginbotham’s book so gripping. His accounts of the “liquidators,” or clean-up workers, are especially riveting — including the “bio robots,” men who had to clean lethally radioactive debris off the roof of the plant by hand after mechanical robots failed, and the workers whose job was to enter the destroyed reactor building itself, hunting for the remaining uranium fuel in an effort to allays fears that another, potentially worse, explosion was possible. No aspect of the disaster and its aftermath are ignored. Higginbotham describes how members of a hunting and fishing association were enlisted to exterminate the dogs and other pets Pripyat residents were forced to leave behind. He recounts the woeful tales of plant operators and first-responding firefighters who lived their final days in a Moscow hospital, having been so heavily irradiated during the accident that they had no chance of survival. He devotes a full chapter to the unprecedented job of building the sarcophagus, which was constructed by thousands of workers, many of whom only toiled for a short time before being sent home, having reached radiation exposure limits. One task was almost suicidal: finding solid supports among the radioactive ruins for the massive roof beams that were lifted by crane operators working behind lead shields. …….. https://undark.org/article/a-gripping-history-of-the-nuclear-disaster-at-chernobyl/ |
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UK nuclear testing in Australia – Trident anniversary – no cause for celebration.
Trident celebrations ignore Aboriginal victims of British nuclear weapons testing, Green Left, Linda Pearson, April 26, 2019 Issue 1218, Scotland
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) General Secretary Kate Hudson said the plan is “morally repugnant” and the organisation is urging supporters to convey their opposition to Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson. Two Bishops and more than 20 priests have called on Westminster Abbey to cancel the service, which is set to take place on May 3……
The rhetoric of “deterrence” and “defence” is routinely invoked by nuclear-armed states to obscure the horrifying truth about nuclear weapons and justify national security doctrines that rely on them. Nuclear weapons are unique in their destructive power; “designed to indiscriminately kill and destroy thousands of innocent civilians”, as the Bishop of Colchester told The Times last week. This reality was recognised by most of the world’s countries, which voted to ban nuclear weapons in 2017.
Britain’s nuclear weapons program has already destroyed the lives of countless innocent civilians. More than 1200 Indigenous Australians were exposed to radiation during British nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 1960s, while many others were displaced. The effects continue to be experienced by their families today. Some are now calling on the British government to apologise for the testing, instead of celebrating Trident.
Nuclear testing in Australia
Britain conducted 12 major nuclear weapons tests in Australia at the Montebello Islands, and at Emu Field and Maralinga in South Australia.
After securing the agreement of the Australian government, the British established a permanent test site at Maralinga in 1955. Seven major and several hundred “minor” tests were carried out there, releasing 100kg of radioactive materials into the surrounding area.
The British and Australian governments of the day demonstrated a callous disregard for the lives of Aboriginal people that is characteristic of the settler-colonial mindset. Permission to conduct the testing was not sought from Aboriginal landowners and the Australian government decided they should not be informed of the risks.
When an Australian scientist asked British authorities about the potential danger to local Aboriginal people, the response was that “a dying race couldn’t influence the defence of Western civilisation”.
Many Aboriginal people were forcibly removed from their land prior to the tests, destroying their way of life. Others experienced serious health issues as a result of their exposure to radiation.
Yankunytjatjara man Yami Lester went blind after a “black mist” from the explosions enveloped his country. Others experienced skin rashes, diarrhea and vomiting. Today, Aboriginal communities in the area experience high rates of diseases associated with the effects of radiation poisoning.
Yami Lester’s daughter, Karina Lester, and her family played a crucial role in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). They collected and shared stories from the survivors of nuclear weapons testing that were instrumental in convincing 122 states that the only safe way to deal with nuclear weapons is to eliminate them.
ICAN won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to bring about the 2017 United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The historic treaty recognises “the disproportionate impact of nuclear-weapon activities on Indigenous peoples”. The British and Australian governments boycotted the UN negotiations, however, and have ruled out signing the treaty.
No cause for celebration
Karina Lester said “survivors of the British Nuclear Tests carried out on Australian soil in the 1950’s and 1960’s in South Australia’s outback are still haunted. The Indigenous communities still suffer with high numbers of deaths, cancers, respiratory illnesses and autoimmune disease.”
Several attempts to clean up the Maralinga site have been made by British and Australian governments, thanks to the campaigning of survivors like Yami Lester, but contamination at the site remains. In 1995, Aboriginal peoples received just £7.5 million for the loss and contamination of their land. Only £110,000 has been paid to five Aboriginal people to compensate for their exposure to radiation. A class action was blocked by Britain’s Supreme Court in 2013.
Karina Lester said that the affected communities “have had no apology for the wrongdoings on our traditional lands to this day. As the British Government celebrates 50 years with nuclear weapons, Australia’s Indigenous communities in South Australia wear the scars.”
Instead of celebrating, Lester said, “we Indigenous South Australians urge the British government to own up and apologise for your actions…………”https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/trident-celebrations-ignore-aboriginal-victims-british-nuclear-weapons-testing
Chernobyl at 33: More evidence of slow-moving ecological catastrophe
Chernobyl at 33: More evidence of slow-moving ecological catastrophe, Beyond Nuclear , 26 Apr 19 Chernobyl, the biggest nuclear plant disaster in history, marks 33rd anniversary
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Gallery: Chernobyl, the biggest nuclear plant disaster in history, marks 33rd anniversary EuroNews, Natalia Liubchenkova 26/04/2019 -Ukraine marks the 33rd anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the biggest one in the history of nuclear energy.
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1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 