While Cumbrian MPs Blindly Agitate for More Uranium Mining to Feed More Nuclear New Build, Indigenous Australians are celebrating Halt to Poisoning of their Lands
On By mariannewildart, https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2024/08/07/while-cumbrian-mps-blindly-agitate-for-more-uranium-mining-to-feed-more-nuclear-new-build-indigenous-australians-are-celebrating-halt-to-poisoning-of-their-lands/
Here in Cumbria MPs, most especially the new MP for Sellafield (apologies, MP for Whitehaven and Workington, Josh MacAlister) are agitating for new nuclear build on the floodplain of the River Ehen next to the bursting at the seams Sellafield nuclear waste site. New nuclear, even the so called “Small Modular Reactors” (actually near the size of the original Calder Hall reactors) would require new uranium – this is not a “home grown” or “clean” industry as its cheerleaders claim, the profligate amounts of uranium, high tensile steel, copper and a whole smorgasbord of toxic chemicals are shipped in and they outstrip any other industry in quantities and toxicity.
The start of the toxic uranium fuel cycle begins on the lands of indigenous peoples worldwide. In Australia a battle has been raging to stop ever more uranium mining, this time at Jabiluka. Now that battle has been won but the MP for Whitehaven and Workington wants indigenous peoples worldwide to carry on paying the price of polluted waters, poisoned lands and damaged health in order to continue with nuclear business as usual despite the fact that nuclear power’s most long lasting legacy is not “free electricity” far from it, energy bills will go up because successive governments’ have had an obsession with funding the nuclear industry at any price even asking consumers now to pay the price before they recieve any electricity and for generations after to try and ‘keep the wastes safe’.
“The announcement has been made that the mining lease will not be extended and the process to get Jabiluka into world heritage and Kakadu National Park can begin. A big shout out to the Traditional Owners, the @Mirarr for standing strong for this for generations, and thousands of people around the country standing with them.”
Meanwhile here in Cumbria this is what the local press fizzingly tell us “Cumbrian leaders put pressure on NDA over land at Moorside for SMRs. A letter signed by more than 100 political, business and union leaders is calling for urgent action to resolve land issues at Moorside so that new nuclear power stations can be built. Whitehaven and Workington MP Josh MacAlister wrote the letter, which has been signed by fellow Cumbrian MPs Julie Minns and Markus Campbell-Savours, local members of the House of Lords, Cumberland Council leader Mark Fryer, trade union leaders in the nuclear industry and dozens of local business leaders. Mr MacAlister says that unless urgent action is taken to resolve issues about land use at Moorside, west Cumbria will lose out in a competitive process that is now underway. Mr MacAlister says GBN will only select sites that have enough land available and the NDA (who own Sellafield) want to use much of the Moorside site for other decommissioning purposes. This has resulted in an impasse that, if left unresolved, will leave Cumbria behind in the race for new nuclear. The NDA says it is working with the government to consider how the land at Moorside may be used to enable new nuclear energy facilities, while taking into account how it might need to utilise the land in order to successfully deliver its mission. Mr MacAlister said: “In my first few weeks as an MP I’ve met with ministers, the NDA, GBN and leading industry figures. It’s become clear that there’s been a conspiracy of silence for years over plans for new nuclear in our area.In Cumbria 7th Aug 2024 https://www.in-cumbria.com/news/24501223.cumbrian-leaders-put-pressure-nda-land-moorside-smrs/“
No doubt Josh MacAlister MP for Whitehaven and Workington will be absolutely delighted to hear that as is the way of all ruthless corporations, yesterday “Mining company Energy Resources Australia (ERA) has launched legal action against the Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments over a decision not to renew its lease over the Jabiluka uranium mine. Surrounded by Kakadu National Park, the site at Jabiluka is one of the world’s largest and richest uranium deposits.”
Josh Macalister MP is the smiling assassin agitating to rip uranium out of the earth to fuel new nuclear on land next to Sellafield (on the flood plain of the river Ehen). Nice!
EDF extends heat-related warning cuts at 3 nuclear plants
This warning from France is a warning to Australia, too. France, the poster boy for nuclear power, is being affected by global heating – making its nuclear reactors less effective and more expensive with rising temperatures.
Australia, a water-short continent, will be even more vulnerable to climate change affecting a nuclear industry
(Montel) French utility EDF has extended by two days a warning of power output curbs at three nuclear power plants – totalling 10 GW – along the river Rhone in southeastern France from tomorrow until Friday next week due to high temperatures.
Reporting by: Muriel Boselli, 08 Aug 2024, https://montelnews.com/news/f1e0a4b4-61b8-4d45-8027-d549192b910e/edf-warns-of-heat-related-cuts-at-3-nuclear-plants-10-gw
EDF could curb output at 3.6 GW Tricastin, 3.6 GW Bugey and 2.6 GW St Alban, the state-owned utility said on Thursday.
Weather service Meteo France has forecast temperatures to intensify in southeast France over the next few days, with peaks reaching 35C.
At some power plants, EDF uses river water to cool reactors. However, it could reduce output if river water temperatures or levels are too warm or too low.
Separately, EDF has extended a capacity cut warning at its 2.6 GW Golfech nuclear power plant in southwest France by three days to 17 August, due to warm temperatures.
Australian nuclear news headlines 8- 12 August
Headlines as they come in 8- 12 August
- The AUKUS operations are stalled because Australia cannot meet the nuclear waste disposal requirements of the non-proliferation treaty regime.
- Australia indemnifies US and UK ‘against any liability’ from nuclear submarine risks
- Australia, US, UK sign nuclear transfer deal for AUKUS subs – AUSTRALIA RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SPENT FUEL WASTES
- Nuked – The Submarine Fiasco that Sank Australia’s Sovereignty
- Call to end nuclear power ban brings heated reaction in Australia
- Peter Dutton’s nuclear lies
- Australian government would like the lucrative import of UK and USA nuclear waste ? But there’s a hitch
- Defence Minister Richard Marles insists AUKUS milestone won’t force Australia to accept foreign nuclear waste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjvsrgiY2b8
- Australia is still finding out what it doesn’t know about its secretive AUKUS deal.
- Buck-passing inside the murky arms trade
- Australia is still finding out what it doesn’t know about its secretive AUKUS deal
- Australia makes undisclosed ‘political commitments’ in new AUKUS deal on transfer of naval nuclear technology.
- Nuclear shift in updated AUKUS deal
- Australia’s acceptance of nuclear material from the US and UK has been officially approved as part of an updated AUKUS agreement.
- AUKUS Revamped: The Complete Militarisation of Australia
- Australia being turned into ’51st US state’ – ex-PM.
- Marles denies sinister meaning in AUKUS ‘political commitments’
- Lawyers for Peace Open Letter to the Prime Minister
- Friends of the Earth Nuclear Free Art Auction 2024
- While Cumbrian MPs Blindly Agitate for More Uranium Mining to Feed More Nuclear New Build, Indigenous Australians are celebrating Halt to Poisoning of their Lands
- A revised AUKUS agreement. Dunno what it means yet.
- Hidden in mainstream Olympic Games news – an incisive comment on nuclear costs!.
- Western Australia rules out uranium mining policy change amid nuclear energy push from Peter Dutton.
- Peter Dutton rules out Kalgoorlie-Boulder as potential nuclear reactor site in Coalition’s power plan.
- Peter Dutton’s ‘nuclear policy’: It’s ‘unclear’ at best
Western Australia rules out uranium mining policy change amid nuclear energy push from Peter Dutton
ABC Goldfields / By Jarrod Lucas, 8 Aug 24
In short:
WA Mines Minister David Michael has ruled out any change to the Cook government’s long-standing policy on uranium mining.
There is an effective ban on mining the mineral in WA, where only one uranium mine is permitted to operate.
Peter Dutton says the ban is “ideologically based” and should be overturned.
Western Australia’s mines minister has rejected calls from federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton to overturn the state’s long-standing ban on uranium mining and insisted that future energy needs will be met by renewable sources.
The state has had an effective ban on mining the nuclear fuel since Labor was swept to power in 2017, while Mr Dutton has made nuclear power development the centrepiece of the Coalition’s energy policy.
Speaking on the sidelines of this week’s Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Mr Dutton said the WA policy should be scrapped.
But WA Mines Minister David Michael, who attended the final day of the forum, poured cold water on the idea and said the state government’s stance on uranium would not be changing anytime soon.
“WA Labor, for two elections, has committed to not approving any uranium mines and there is no intention to change that policy,” Mr Michael said……………………………………………………………………………………..
Mr Michael said he spoke with officials from Deep Yellow at Diggers and Dealers and believed renewables such as wind, solar and battery storage were a safer bet than uranium.
“I think it’s more important to focus on critical minerals in terms of the renewable future,” he said.
“We know that renewable energy is what the world moves to sooner or later.
“We know that’s what we need to tool up for in WA, and we’re doing it.”…………………………………………………………. more https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-08/wa-uranium-mining-policy-to-stay-despite-nuclear-energy-push/104196130
US, UK (and Australia) boycott Japan nuclear bomb memorial after Israel snubbed
The Mayor of Nagasaki said that there was a possibility of protests against the Israeli presence over it’s war on Gaza.
The New Arab Staff & Agencies, 07 August, 2024
Ambassadors from Western countries – including the US and UK – will skip a ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki after Israel was snubbed, officials said Wednesday.
Nagasaki’s mayor said last week that Israel’s ambassador Gilad Cohen was not invited to Friday’s event in the southern Japanese city because of the risk of possible protests over the Gaza conflict.
The US and UK embassies said on Wednesday their ambassadors would not take part as a result and that their countries would be represented by lower-ranking diplomats.
Media reports said Australia, Italy, Canada, and the EU, who together with the US, UK, and Germany signed a strongly worded joint letter to Nagasaki’s mayor last month, would follow suit.
US ambassador Rahm Emanuel will not attend “after the mayor of Nagasaki politicised the event by not inviting the Israeli ambassador”, an embassy spokesperson told AFP.
nstead, Emanuel, 64, who was ex-president Barack Obama’s chief of staff, will go to a separate event at a temple in Tokyo, the spokesperson said.
Emanuel is fiercely pro-Israel, with his father being a former member of the Irgun, a Jewish paramilitary group that targeted British soldiers and Palestinian civilians in mandatory Palestine.
The British embassy said Ambassador Julia Longbottom would also not be in Nagasaki, adding that not inviting Israel “creates an unfortunate and misleading equivalency with Russia and Belarus – the only other countries not invited to this year’s ceremony”.
A spokesperson for the French embassy said its number two would attend, telling AFP that the “decision not to invite the representative of Israel is regrettable and questionable”.
The European Union’s ambassador would not take part “due to his agenda” and the bloc would be represented by a lower-level diplomat, a spokesperson told AFP.
The German embassy told AFP that the head of its political division would attend, with the decision made “in light of the absences and availability” of senior embassy staff………………………………………………………………………………….https://www.newarab.com/news/us-uk-boycott-japan-nuclear-bomb-memorial-after-israel-snubbed
All six UK Astute-class nuclear submarines stuck in port for repairs
ALL six of the UK’s Astute-class nuclear submarines are stuck in port
– Faslane included – for repairs. The Royal Navy currently has no
working docks for repairs, which has led to the fleet’s newest subs not
conducting a single operation village this year. HMS Ambush — which is
stationed at Faslane – has not sailed for two years.
The National 6th Aug 2024
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 