“This is renewable energy, don’t be afraid:” Chris Bowen taunts Coalition in House of Reps — RenewEconomy
Labor’s Chris Bowen brandishes a solar panel in Parliament, telling the Morrison government not to be afraid of renewable energy. The post “This is renewable energy, don’t be afraid:” Chris Bowen taunts Coalition in House of Reps appeared first on RenewEconomy.
“This is renewable energy, don’t be afraid:” Chris Bowen taunts Coalition in House of Reps — RenewEconomy
ACT says it receives 42 proposals for ground-breaking Canberra Big Battery — RenewEconomy
A plan to build a 250MW Canberra Big Battery attracts strong interest for the biggest aggregation of distributed batteries in the country. The post ACT says it receives 42 proposals for ground-breaking Canberra Big Battery appeared first on RenewEconomy.
ACT says it receives 42 proposals for ground-breaking Canberra Big Battery — RenewEconomy
Solar and battery projects added to Gippsland’s bold renewables push — RenewEconomy
An 80MW solar and battery project proposed for Victoria’s Gippsland region by group looking to establish an Australian Renewables Academy in Sale. The post Solar and battery projects added to Gippsland’s bold renewables push appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Solar and battery projects added to Gippsland’s bold renewables push — RenewEconomy
Australia’s energy R&D is a mess: Putting fossil fuels in the driver’s seat won’t help — RenewEconomy
Australia’s funding for climate research has shrunk to nearly nothing since LNP took power. Now it’s directing what little is left to fossils, and it’s a sad moment for ARENA. The post Australia’s energy R&D is a mess: Putting fossil fuels in the driver’s seat won’t help appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Australia’s energy R&D is a mess: Putting fossil fuels in the driver’s seat won’t help — RenewEconomy
June 16 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “Marine Protected Areas Key To Our Future” • If we want our ocean to stay productive, we need to step up now. For decades, the ocean has been absorbing much of global warming’s heat, so it’s warmer and more acidic than ever. Marine life is searching for cooler waters, harmful algae are blooming, and vital habitats […]
June 16 Energy News — geoharvey
Resources Minister Pitt changes nuclear waste Bill in the effort to gain Labor’s support.
Nuclear waste storage facility legislation changed in bid to gain Labor support, secure Kimba site” – The Advertiser 14th June 2021.
“A nuclear waste storage facility in regional South Australia is one step closer, [really?] with the Federal Government making changes in a fresh bid to get the controversial plan through parliament.
Napandee Farm near Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula was named as the preferred site in February 2020 but draft laws to establish the facility have been stalled in parliament for months .
The federal Opposition won’t back the bill in its current form because naming the site in legislation, rather than declaring it by a ministerial decision, prevents a possible future legal challenge to the location.The federal government is now proposing changes that would reinsert the possibility for a judicial review, in a bid to win Labor’s support and get the laws through the Senate.
Under the changes, a site would no longer be specified but three previously short-listed locations – Lyndhurst in New South Wales, Napandee near Kimba, and Wallerberdina in the Flinders Ranges – would be included in the bill and the minister would then be required to declare the site…….
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese’s frontbench is due to consider the amendments on Monday night and the bill may go before the Senate in the next two weeks.
Indigenous associations, including the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation, have been opposed to the site because traditional land owners who did not live in the area were excluded from a 2019 ballot to gauge community support for the site.
Kimba Mayor Dean Johnson said the community just wanted a decision.“We just look forward to a resolution so our community can move forward,” Mr Johnson said. He welcomed changes to the draft laws if it would secure Labor’s support, and said the minister should declare the site “as soon as possible”…
Australian Conservation Foundation Nuclear Free Campaigner David Sweeney said Mr Pitt had “finally accepted the reality” the proposal did not have support and needed to be revised.
“The return of legal review is important but it is extraordinary that the Minister ever thought its removal was reasonable,” Mr Sweeney said.“A day in court is a fundamental right and to seek to remove this was deeply flawed – as is the government’s wider plan.”…….
Mr Sweeney said there was no compelling case to move intermediate level waste from ANSTO’s site to Kimba, and it had been opposed by the traditional owners.He added the reintroduction of Wallerberdina, which was ruled out in 2019, showed the government was “making policy on the run”.
Most South Australians “don’t want the country’s nuclear waste dump in our backyard,” Senator Hanson Young said.She also raised concerns the amendments opened the door to the minister selecting the Flinders Ranges site.Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young said it appeared the Federal Government and Labor had done a deal to pass the bill.
“We will use all mechanisms available in the Senate over the next two weeks to stop this bill passing, and I suspect our fellow crossbenchers will do the same,” she said.”
Is China covering up a nuclear leak?
US assessing reported leak at Chinese nuclear power facility, By Zachary Cohen, CNN, June 14, 2021
The US government has spent the past week assessing a report of a leak at a Chinese nuclear power plant, after a French company that part owns and helps operate it warned of an “imminent radiological threat,” according to US officials and documents reviewed by CNN.
The warning included an accusation that the Chinese safety authority was raising the acceptable limits for radiation detection outside the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong province in order to avoid having to shut it down, according to a letter from the French company to the US Department of Energy obtained by CNN.
Despite the alarming notification from Framatome, the French company, the Biden administration believes the facility is not yet at a “crisis level,” one of the sources said.
While US officials have deemed the situation does not currently pose a severe safety threat to workers at the
plant or Chinese public, it is unusual that a foreign company would unilaterally reach out to the American government for help when its Chinese state-owned partner is yet to acknowledge a problem exists. The scenario could put the US in a complicated situation should the leak continue or become more severe without being fixed.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/14/politics/china-nuclear-reactor-leak-us-monitoring/index.html
Chris Hedges: Julian Assange and the Collapse of the Rule of Law
“Lliving in truth in a despotic system is the supreme act of defiance. This truth terrifies those in power.”
Chris Hedges: Julian Assange and the Collapse of the Rule of Law — Rise Up Times Julian exposed the truth. He exposed it over and over and over until there was no question of the endemic illegality, corruption and mendacity that defines the global ruling elite.
Chris Hedges gave this talk at a rally Thursday night in New York City in support of Julian Assange. John and Gabriel Shipton, Julian’s father and brother, also spoke at the event, which was held at The People’s Forum. By Chris Hedges / Original to ScheerPost
BY MODERATOR June 11, 2021 This why we are here tonight. Yes, all of us who know and admire Julian decry his prolonged suffering and the suffering of his family. Yes, we demand that the many wrongs and injustices that have been visited upon him be ended. Yes, we honor him up for his courage and his integrity. But the battle for Julian’s liberty has always been much more than the persecution of a publisher. It is the most important battle for press freedom of our era. And if we lose this battle, it will be devastating, not only for Julian and his family, but for us.
Tyrannies invert the rule of law. They turn the law into an instrument of injustice. They cloak their crimes in a faux legality. They use the decorum of the courts and trials, to mask their criminality. Those, such as Julian, who expose that criminality to the public are dangerous, for without the pretext of legitimacy the tyranny loses credibility and has nothing left in its arsenal but fear, coercion and violence.
The long campaign against Julian and WikiLeaks is a window into the collapse of the rule of law, the rise of what the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls our system of inverted totalitarianism, a form of totalitarianism that maintains the fictions of the old capitalist democracy, including its institutions, iconography, patriotic symbols and rhetoric, but internally has surrendered total control to the dictates of global corporations.
I was in the London courtroom when Julian was being tried by Judge Vanessa Baraitser, an updated version of the Queen of Hearts in Alice-in Wonderland demanding the sentence before pronouncing the verdict. It was judicial farce. There was no legal basis to hold Julian in prison. There was no legal basis to try him, an Australian citizen, under the U.S. Espionage Act. The CIA spied on Julian in the embassy through a Spanish company, UC Global, contracted to provide embassy security. This spying included recording the privileged conversations between Julian and his lawyers as they discussed his defense. This fact alone invalidated the trial. Julian is being held in a high security prison so the state can, as Nils Melzer, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, has testified, continue the degrading abuse and torture it hopes will lead to his psychological if not physical disintegration.
The U.S. government directed, as Craig Murray so eloquently documented, the London prosecutor James Lewis. Lewis presented these directives to Baraitser. Baraitser adopted them as her legal decision. It was judicial pantomime. Lewis and the judge insisted they were not attempting to criminalize journalists and muzzle the press while they busily set up the legal framework to criminalize journalists and muzzle the press. And that is why the court worked so hard to mask the proceedings from the public, limiting access to the courtroom to a handful of observers and making it hard and at times impossible to access the trial online. It was a tawdry show trial, not an example of the best of English jurisprudence but the Lubyanka.
Now, I know many of us here tonight would like to think of ourselves as radicals, maybe even revolutionaries. But what we are demanding on the political spectrum is in fact conservative, it is the restoration of the rule of law. It is simple and basic. It should not, in a functioning democracy, be incendiary. But living in truth in a despotic system is the supreme act of defiance. This truth terrifies those in power………..https://riseuptimes.org/2021/06/14/chris-hedges-julian-assange-and-the-collapse-of-the-rule-of-law/
Why Utah really does not need Bill Gates’ small nuclear reactors
What Bill Gates and co. would like us to forget is that even the these geewhiz new small reactors are still based on that old carbon-releasing fuel chain –
Yes, there is a need to clean up our power generation to curb climate change — the sooner the better. But Williams points to a recent study that determined the lifecycle emissions with nuclear — mining, milling, transporting and storing the fuel and building and decommissioning the plants — far exceed other alternative energy sources.
Cox is eager for a nuclear future. Utahns should tell him why we’re not, says Robert Gehrke, https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2021/06/14/cox-is-eager-nuclear/ With safer, cleaner, cheaper alternatives, nuclear power may not make the most sense for Utah, By Robert Gehrke , June 15, 2021,
In Wyoming last week, an announcement was made that could mark a resurgence in the long-stymied nuclear energy industry.
Officials announced plans to build a new 345 megawatt nuclear power plant in the state that could, at its peak, generate enough electricity for all of the households in Wyoming with room to spare.
What makes this announcement different is the array of power players behind the project. It’s a partnership between Warren Buffett-owned Pacificorp and Bill Gates-owned Terrapower that has the backing of President Joe Biden’s Energy Department and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon.
It also has the support of Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who praised the project as “a huge announcement” that “will have big implications for Utah in the future.”
“We look forward to similar partnerships in the years to come,” the governor said.
It’s not necessarily a new position. Cox’s predecessor, Gov. Gary Herbert, supported nuclear energy, as did his predecessor, Gov. Jon Huntsman.
But the Wyoming announcement ups the stakes dramatically, moving it from concept to something more concrete and forcing Utahns to confront critical questions nagging nuclear power: Is it safe? Is it cost-effective? And is it right for Utah?
Safety has always been the issue dogging nuclear power. Whether it’s Three Mile Island or Chernobyl or Fukushima, you surely have some nuclear disaster as a touchstone framing you perception of the energy.
The good news, according to Michael Simpson, chair of the Material Science and Engineering department at the University of Utah, is that the Natrium reactors that Terrapower hopes to build in Wyoming are generally safer than the old water-cooled reactors.
The Terrapower plant would be cooled with sodium, which transfers heat better than water, meaning it is less likely to melt down (like Chernobyl) or explode (like Fukushima).
Years ago, Simpson said, researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory did an experiment with a sodium-cooled reactor where they shut off the sodium coolant and instead of heating, the reactor slowly cooled and the reaction stopped.
Others dispute the safety claims, however. Earlier this year, the Union of Concerned Scientists issued a report that said the sodium reactors are unproven and raise other safety issues — for example, the sodium can burn if exposed to air.
“When it comes to safety and security, sodium-cooled fast reactors and molten salt-fueled reactors are significantly worse than conventional light-water reactors,” said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety for UCS.
Then there is the waste issue. The proponents of the sodium reactors contend that they would burn more of the fuel, producing less waste. Again, UCS disputes that and argues the waste that would be generated would pose nuclear proliferation and possible terrorism risks.
Then there’s the economics of nuclear power.
Recently, South Carolina completely scrapped a water-cooled nuclear plant that had been in the works for years. Some $9 billion was squandered sparking lawsuits by investors and ratepayers demanding their money back.
Rocky Mountain Power’s own figures released in 2019 put the cost of nuclear power at $95 per megawatt hour, compared to around $25 to $30 per hour for solar. Some cost projections are lower, some are higher, but none put nuclear in the same ballpark as solar, raising the obvious concern that we’ll be on the hook for the added expense one way or another — either as ratepayers or as taxpayers subsidizing the more costly power source.
There’s also a larger question, according to Scott Williams, executive director of HEAL Utah, an environmental group that has opposed nuclear power: Do we need it?
Yes, there is a need to clean up our power generation to curb climate change — the sooner the better. But Williams points to a recent study that determined the lifecycle emissions with nuclear — mining, milling, transporting and storing the fuel and building and decommissioning the plants — far exceed other alternative energy sources.
But the TerraPower reactor isn’t expected to come online until 2028 and, as we saw in South Carolina, when it comes to building nuclear power plants, the projections often are unrealistically optimistic.
With battery technology improving and rooftop solar expanding and getting cheaper, there’s no reason to gamble on nuclear, Williams said, other than centralized generation benefits Rocky Mountain’s shareholders.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” he said. “If you’re looking at it objectively, to say it’s better to put a bunch of money into a technology that not only isn’t proven, but has been proven to fail time and time again.”
And we have to take into account our state’s history with nuclear energy that is nothing short of radioactive itself, from the miners and uranium mill workers sickened by their exposure to radiation, to the thousands upon thousands of Utah Downwinders stricken with various cancers as a result of nuclear weapons testing in Nevada, to the decade-long battle to beat back a nuclear waste storage facility in Utah’s desert.
So do we scrap the whole nuclear idea? Not necessarily.
But if Utah wants to venture down the nuclear energy path, these questions and a host of others have to be thoroughly researched and addressed. We’re not there yet and until we are, the cheerleading from the Biden administration and Gov. Cox feels premature.
Queensland’s state owned coal plants may never again be profitable, new analysis finds — RenewEconomy
QCC report says many state owned government coal generators may never regain profitability in the face of increased competition from renewables. The post Queensland’s state owned coal plants may never again be profitable, new analysis finds appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Queensland’s state owned coal plants may never again be profitable, new analysis finds — RenewEconomy
The stunning potential of wind and solar, essential to meet 1.5°C climate target — RenewEconomy
To meet Paris targets, world must phase down existing fossil fuel production. Happily, renewables are more than ready for the challenge. The post The stunning potential of wind and solar, essential to meet 1.5°C climate target appeared first on RenewEconomy.
The stunning potential of wind and solar, essential to meet 1.5°C climate target — RenewEconomy
Faking climate action will be the main game at major gas conference — RenewEconomy
A massive gas industry conference marks an acceleration in efforts to create weak, ineffective climate ‘targets’ to mask huge fossil expansion. The post Faking climate action will be the main game at major gas conference appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Faking climate action will be the main game at major gas conference — RenewEconomy
June 14 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “Tracking The Transition: The ‘Forgotten’ Emissions Undoing The Work Of Australia’s Renewable Energy Boom” • A working paper from Australian National University shows that despite emissions reductions in the electricity supply and elsewhere, and transport, industry, and buildings sectors are dragging Australia backwards on emissions. [pv magazine Australia] Rooftop PV system in Australia […]
June 14 Energy News — geoharvey
Australian and other nuclear news this week
Climate ‘tipping points’ could push us past the point-of-no-return after less than 2 degrees of warming.
Some bits of good news – G7: World leaders promise one billion Covid vaccine doses for poorer nations.
Elimination of the Cold War’s Nuclear Heritage: 20 years of international cooperation.The G7 meeting of world leaders made some progress on action about the pandemic and climate change. But they ignored that other global menace,nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear war. Well, not entirely – as they managed to bring the world closer to war, with the focus on ”standing up to China”.
AUSTRALIA
- Australia’s incompetent leadership – continued subservience to American militarism.
- The unrealistic push for nuclear reactors helps the coal and gas industries to hang on. ANSTO’s desperate and dishonest spin to promote the nuclear industry.
- Dr Jim Green gives an update on the Australian government’s new strategy to get a nuclear waste dump at Kimba, South Australia. Change in Resource Minister Keith Pitt’s strategy: what’s next for his Kimba nuclear dump project? Samantha Chard, General Manager, Australian Radioactive Waste Management Agency – doubletalk about nuclear waste transport. An outline of the recent years in the history of South Australia targeted for an international nuclear waste dump..
- Murdoch’s NewsCorpse trying hard to get the Australian Government to privatise the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
- Remote communities affected by uranium in drinking water.
INTERNATIONAL
“IT’S VERY PROFITABLE to prepare for omnicide,” A People’s Guide to the War Industry -5: Portfolio of Conflicts. Growing support for the nuclear ban treaty in public opinion polls , voters and lawmakers in NATO’s 30 countries. Nuclear energy – Nuclear weapons – the inseparable link. Nuclear weapons numbers building up again. The world’s narrow escape from nuclear war.
We don’t need nuclear power to tackle climate change – Jonoathon Porritt. Nuclear energy – The solution to climate change?
Pacific Ocean was once a garbage dump for nuclear waste, now Japan’s doing it again.
Is Bill Gates ‘a nice man in a jumper’ or a power-hungry egotist?
ANTARCTICA. Fears Antarctic glacier could melt faster as it speeds up and ice shelf ‘rips apart’.
Change in Resource Minister Keith Pitt’s strategy: what’s next for his Kimba nuclear dump project?
On Tuesday 15th June, Resources Minister Keith Pitt is introducing a revision to the the National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Specification, Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020.
The purpose of the original Bill was to make sure that a site near Kimba, South Australia, would become the dump for nuclear waste from ANSTO’s nuclear reactor in Sydney. AND that there could not be any court action taken against it. That site would be ”set in stone”
Mr Pitt has chickened out a bit, seeing that the Senate was likely to reject that Bill. Hence the change – this new amendment The amendment restores the three shortlisted South Australian sites (Lyndhurst, Napandee, and Wallerberdina) as being open for consideration. (This is despite Wallerberdina (the Flinders Ranges site) having been ruled out of consideration in December 2019 by former Minister Canavan. )
”The Bill No longer specifies a site” – listed in supplementary explanatory memorandum https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6500&fbclid=IwAR2F-HOZX_TNR1r_kYXbB8sM3R-UwZNZRQ7X1hU34z9MTnLot3aRJcEFKVs
‘‘New section 34A ensures that the payment of the Community Fund is linked to a site declaration, rather than to a site specified in legislation” This would appear to cast some doubt on the ambitions of the Kimba District Council etc?
How does this amendment affect the chances of the Bill being passed in the Senate?
Well, Federal Labor being traditionally wishy washy on nuclear issues, this change might be enough to win the support of Labor, and thefore be passed.
Once the Bill is passed, what then?
Minister Pitt can then exercise his power to formally declare the site at Napandee, Kimba, as the site for the radioactive waste facility.
What then?
Well, various possibilities.
Concerned citizens in the the local Kimba community could seek some government grant to pay for their own independent assessment and review .
The plan still requires, and might not qualify for, a licence from ARPANSA, to ensure that the site meets the requirements, geological etc, for interim storage of nuclear wastes, and more permanent storage of low level radioactive wastes.
The Barngarla people, and perhaps others, will file a legal challenge to the site selection.
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/
Appeal for Australian Government’s Actions on Japan’s Dumping Nuclear Wastewater into Sea
28June. Introducing: Ban School – about the U.N Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
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
—
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
