Nuclear news – week to 16 November, Australia and more
As in last week. the media continues to be preoccupied with the American presidential situation, and after all, that IS pretty important. The really big global stories are the global coronavirus and climate change.
Still, nuclear issues continue – simmering tensions in nuclear weapons states, and the remarkably co-ordinated promotion of Small Nuclear Reactors to governments around the world, in both rich and developing countries. The nuclear-news.net site will now have to stick to just NUCLEAR news.
Some bits of good news – Vaccine Alliance Raises $2 Billion to Buy COVID Shots for Poor Nations. Renewable Energy Defies COVID-19 Downturn To Hit Record Growth in 2020.
AUSTRALIA
Why the Antinuclear.net site will now stick to examining NUCLEAR issues.
Federal nuclear waste dump plan for Kimba, South Australia
Senate dumps on the Australian government’s radioactive waste plan. The Australian government can still bully its way to imposing a Kimba nuclear waste dump. Karina Lester speaks out: ”Traditional owners’ voices not heard and rights stripped over nuclear waste dump”. Minister Pitt on Kimba nuclear waste dump plan – inept, badly briefed, or just plain lying? Planned nuclear waste dump at Kimba has absolutely nothing to do with the production of nuclear medicine. Doctors call for an open independent review of nuclear waste production and disposal.
Australian govt’s Kimba nuclear waste dump plan will be torpedoed in the Senate. Relief in Kimba, that Labor and crossbench Senators want a fair process on nuclear wastes. Uncertainty over Kimba nuclear waste dump as farmers go to Canberra to oppose it.
Senator Sam McMahon enthuses about Generation IV nuclear reactors for the Northern Territory.
Australian government ponders nuclear submarines.
Since Penny Sackett, Australia’s Chief Scientists have moved further towards the extractive industries. Previous Chief Scientist not a fan of Small Nuclear Reactors
CLIMATE. Australia’s freedom of information system hides climate documents.
INTERNATIONAL
Hibakusha renew their push for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Julian Assange ‘targeted as a political opponent of Trump administration and threatened with the death penalty’.
Topics in today’s “Nuclear” headlines on Google News.
Doctors call for an open independent review of nuclear waste production and disposal
One of the first principles of toxic waste management is to reduce production.
Non-reactor production of nuclear medicine is increasing, and produces very little radioactive waste. Australia should be partnering with countries like Canada, to research non-reactor production of the commonest nuclear medicine isotope Technetium.
16 Nov 20, The Medical Association for Prevention of War is calling for an open independent review of nuclear waste production and disposal in Australia, to create a careful evidence based long term best practice plan.
The recent deeply flawed proposal for a federal nuclear dump and store at Kimba now looks unlikely to get support in the Senate.
It was a cheap storage plan for highly radioactive waste that stays radioactive for more than 10,000 years- an interim facility with no longer term plan. It effectively dumps the problem on future generations of South Australians.
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency chief executive Dr Carl-Magnus Larsson, at a Senate inquiry in June 2020, said: “Waste can be safely stored at Lucas Heights for decades to come.”
MAPW Vice-President Dr Margaret Beavis said, “We have plenty of time to properly review and plan a disposal facility that meets international best practice standards. The recent proposal did not meet those standards.
Contrary to disgraceful and dishonest government scaremongering, there is no threat to nuclear medicine in Australia. I and other MAPW members regularly rely on nuclear medicine in our clinical practice.”
We call on the government to commit to an open independent review of both production and disposal of nuclear waste.
One of the first principles of toxic waste management is to reduce production.
Non-reactor production of nuclear medicine is increasing, and produces very little radioactive waste. Australia should be partnering with countries like Canada, to research non-reactor production of the commonest nuclear medicine isotope Technetium.
Planned nuclear waste dump at Kimba has absolutely nothing to do with the production of nuclear medicine
Peter Remta, 16 Nov 20, Referring to Minister Keith Pitt’s media release of 9 November 2020 regarding the round table conference on nuclear medicine – it still fails to answer and explain how precisely will nuclear medicine be affected by not having a national waste management facility at Kimba.
It is well known that nuclear waste is currently stored in over 100 different locations throughout Australia most of which has been generated through nuclear medical treatment and is classified as low level waste. However as Minister Pitt has himself acknowledged it would be very doubtful if the national facility managed to get 30% of that waste for storage and
disposal.
How will the production of nuclear medical material by ANSTO at Lucas Heights be affected by the failure to have the waste facility at Kimba?
The proposed facility at Kimba has nothing to do with and will not affect the production of nuclear medicine by ANSTO and to suggest otherwise is totally false and deliberately misleading.
It is no more than clutching at straws in order to convince senators who are opposed to the Bill for the waste facility presently before the Senate to change their minds. It is an insult to their intelligence.
The only thing that will affect the production of nuclear medicine by ANSTO is its own inherent problems with the nuclear medicine facility plant at Lucas Heights which keeps breaking down and having trouble despite the
huge cost of planning and building it.
Again that has nothing to do whatever with the proposed waste facility at Kimba other than perhaps to demonstrate the inefficiency of ANSTO and confirm the dangerous nature of the reactor waste which is completely unsuitable for storage at Kimba before ultimate disposal.
Despite many repeated requests, Senator Pitt has not explained how nuclear medicine will be affected should the waste facility not to be built at Kimba,
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Relentless lobbying by Small Nuclear Reactor companies still doesn’t make them economic or safe
Telegraph 14th Nov 2020 ”………Rolls-Royce, via a relentless lobbying campaign over the past 
few years, seems to have convinced the Government that its “mini-nukes” project is a runner. It claims billions are needed from taxpayers to underpin investment in a new production line that will reduce the costs and risks compared with bespoke new reactors such as the £22bn monster at Hinkley Point C.
There are plenty of reasons to be sceptical that even with its nuclear submarine experience, Rolls and its partners can pull it off. The technology is unproven anywhere and – as anti-nuclear campaigners argue – more reactors inevitably mean more potential points of failure. Nuclear power has a poor record of delivering its budgets too…….”
Julian Assange ‘targeted as a political opponent of Trump administration and threatened with the death penalty’
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Julian Assange ‘targeted as a political opponent of Trump administration and threatened with the death penalty’ Evening Standard. By Tristan Kirk. @kirkkorner
09 September 2020, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been targeted as a “political opponent” of President Trump’s administration and threatened with the death penalty, the Old Bailey heard today.
Professor Paul Rogers, a lecturer in peace studies at Bradford University and specialist on the ‘War on Terror’, said Assange’s opinions put him “in the crosshairs” of Trump’s top team. Giving evidence to Assange’s extradition hearing this morning, he said he believes the prosecution case is part of a drive in the United States to target “dissenters”. “In my opinion Mr Assange’s expressed views, opinions and activities demonstrate very clearly ‘political opinions’”, he told the court. “The clash of those opinions with those of successive US administrations, but in particular the present administration which has moved to prosecute him for publications made almost a decade ago, suggest that he is regarded primarily as a political opponent who must experience the full wrath of government, even with suggestions of punishment by death made by senior officials including the current President.”………
Professor Rogers, in his witness statement, said Assange’s work involved exposing secrets that the US government wanted to keep hidden, he had been in conflict with the Obama administration, but there was “no question” that Assange had been targeted as a political opponent by Trump’s officials. “The opinions and views of Mr Assange, demonstrated in his words and actions with the organisation WikiLeaks over many years, can be seen as very clearly placing him in the crosshairs of dispute with the philosophy of the Trump administration”, he said. Assange’s legal team argue that a decision was taken under President Obama not to prosecute the Wikileaks activist, but that move was overturned under Trump. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/julian-assange-donald-trump-administration-old-bailey-hearing-a4543656.html?fbclid=IwAR3Rj4n0Lzlt5GmE1lXZXoMVDsOS5BdT9sEKgj82SCmMnpNLFQ6ZfEzVUOI |
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International leading experts opt for 100 per cent renewables and reject nuclear power
Leading experts opt for 100 per cent renewables and reject nuclear power https://100percentrenewableuk.org/leading-experts-opt-for-100-per-cent-renewables-and-reject-nuclear-power
The undersigned believe that a future based on 100 per cent renewable energy underpinned by traditional and advanced energy efficiency and storage techniques is not only practicable, affordable, but immensely preferable to one that involves nuclear power. Renewable energy offers us a rapid path to net zero carbon transition that, unlike nuclear power, does not involve the need for decommissioning of radioactive plant, nuclear waste or concerns about safety or security threats. With this in mind we regard the prospect of the Government effectively offering unlimited sources of funding to EDF to build Sizewell C nuclear power plant with dismay and urge people to send in their objections to their MPs at this prospect.
- Dr David Toke, Director, 100percentrenewableuk,
also Reader in Energy Politics, University of Aberdeen.
- Jonathon Porritt,
Founder, Director and Trustee, Forum for the Future
Co-Director of the Prince of Wales’s Business & Sustainability Programme
- Professor Tom Burke
- Founding Director of E3G
- Professor Peter Strachan
The Robert Gordon University
Aberdeen Business School- Dr Paul Dorfman
Founder and Chair Nuclear Consulting Group
Honorary Senior Research Associate UCL Energy Institute- Professor Bryan Wynne,
- Professor of Science Studies and Research Director of the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change
- Professor Andrew Stirling,
Professor of Science and Technology Policy,
University of Sussex
- Professor David Elliott,
Technology Policy Group
- The Open University
- Professor Stephen Thomas,
Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU)
University of Greenwich
- Professor Mark Jacobson,
Director of Atmosphere/Energy Program,
- Stanford University (USA)
- Professor Christian Breyer,
Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland)
- Shaun Burnie
Independent Nuclear Consultant
- Dr Ian Fairlie,
- Vice President CND
- Pete Wilkinson
Chairman, Together Against Sizewell C (TASC)
- Dr Philip Johnstone
Research Fellow
Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU)- Dr Mark Diesendorf
- Associate Professor and Deputy Director
Institute of Environmental Studies
UNSW Australia- Dr Stephen Connelly
Department of Town and Regional Planning
University of Sheffield- Dr Gavin Mudd
- School of Engineering
RMIT University
- Dr Monica Oliphant
Past President International Solar Energy Society
Register for FREE webinar on December 3rd on how Scotland can get ALL of its energy from renewables
Disposal plan all at sea? — Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
In late October pressure appeared to be mounting on the Japanese government to decide on a method of disposal for 1.2 million tonnes of radioactive wastewater from the former nuclear plant at Fukushima Daiichi Workers at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station work near above-ground storage tanks in 2013 11 November, 2020 As rain and […]
Disposal plan all at sea? — Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
Brutal Truth’: Fukushima’s Radioactive Water Threatens Life Worldwide, Warns Environmental Journo — Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
by Mohamed Elmaazi November 10, 2020 The after effects of the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant continues to be felt as Japanese authorities struggle to appropriately deal with contaminated radioactive water which, some of which is already being released into the Pacific Ocean, an environmental journalist explains. Robert Hunziker is a widely published […]
Brutal Truth’: Fukushima’s Radioactive Water Threatens Life Worldwide, Warns Environmental Journo — Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
Japan faces another Fukushima disaster crisis — Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
Collecting sea water samples near the damaged Fukushima nuclear power station. November 3rd, 2020, by Paul Brown A plan to dump a million tonnes of radioactive water from the Fukushima disaster off Japan is alarming local people. LONDON, 3 November, 2020 − The Japanese government has an unsolvable problem: what to do with more than […]
Japan faces another Fukushima disaster crisis — Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
Fukushima: Detecting Radiation at Japan’s 2021 Olympic Venues — Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
November 2, 2020 Fairewinds ongoing scientific research with Dr. Marco Kaltofen of WPI has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication in the Journal of Environmental Engineering Science. As soon as the Journal of Environmental Engineering Science has an online preprint link available, Fairewinds will release details and a link to the publication. Fairewinds ongoing Japan Project in this peer-reviewed […]
Fukushima: Detecting Radiation at Japan’s 2021 Olympic Venues — Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
NSW renewable energy plan seals death warrant for six gigawatts of coal — RenewEconomy
The NSW government’s renewable plan signals the death knell for many coal generators, and even the Loy Yang generators in Victoria will be struggling by 2030. The post NSW renewable energy plan seals death warrant for six gigawatts of coal appeared first on RenewEconomy.
NSW renewable energy plan seals death warrant for six gigawatts of coal — RenewEconomy
Minister Pitt on Kimba nuclear waste dump plan – inept, badly briefed, or just plain lying?
Peter Remta, 14 Nov 20, THE HON KEITH PITT MP Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia Member for Hinkler MEDIA RELEASE 12 November 2020
NATIONAL RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT FACILITY
‘‘The National Radioactive Waste Management Facility is a vital piece of national infrastructure, which will support the ongoing development of our nuclear medicine and research industries.”
He still fails to explain how and why
All of this waste is classified as intermediate level waste although when France returned the reprocessed spent fuel to Australia it classified it as high level waste
There has not been any suggestion by either ANSTO or ARPANSA that this waste is causing any lack of storage space or other problems at Lucas Heights.
What difference does that make?
Australian government completely inept in selecting Kimba nuclear waste dump
Relief in Kimba, that Labor and crossbench Senators want a fair process on nuclear wastes
No Radioactive Waste Facility for Kimba District– 14 Nov 20 · We are reassured by this week’s events that there are still many in Australian politics who believe in a fair process. The lack of support from Labor and crossbench Senators for the Government’s proposed Bill to legislate Kimba as the chosen site for the national radioactive waste dump is certainly a relief to us.Biden and Harris include fantasy of ”small nuclear reactors” in an otherwise progressive climate policy
the Biden-Harris agenda lists small modular reactors under its “game-
changing technologies.” In a way, that’s correct. Diverting money into small modular reactors will be game-changing. It will put us firmly on the road to climate failure.
The good news is that nuclear power does not play much of a role in the Biden-Harris plan. But the bad news is that, when it comes to nuclear power, the Biden camp has indeed chosen fiction over science.
In Promoting New Nuclear Power, Biden-Harris Back Fiction Over Science, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/11/13/in-promoting-new-nuclear-power-biden-harris-back-fiction-over-science/ BY LINDA PENTZ GUNTER Although possibly a sad comment on his predecessors, incoming U.S. president, Joe Biden, is offering the most progressive climate policy so far of any who have previously held his position.
As Paul Gipe points out in his recent blog, the Biden-Harris climate plan uses the word “revolution” right in the headline — a bit of a departure from the usual cautious rhetoric of the centrist-controlled Democratic Party.
But ‘revolution’ is proceeded by two words which let us know we are still lingering in conservative ‘safe’ territory. They call it a “clean energy revolution”, which Gipe rightly refers to as “focus-group shopped terminology.” He goes on Continue reading
1 This month
17 October, Free Public Talk on Nuclear Issues in South Australia
David Noonan will speak on public interest concerns over the new Roxby Downs Indenture Act 2026 on BHP copper-uranium mining and ore processing in SA, and on how AUKUS may face SA with a High-Level nuclear waste agenda.
Dr Jim Green will discuss international developments in the field of nuclear power including ‘small modular reactors’ and Generation 4 ‘advanced’ nuclear reactor concepts.
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
