‘Unprecedented’ climate extremes are everywhere. Our baselines for what’s normal will need to change
November 28, 2024 , https://theconversation.com/unprecedented-climate-extremes-are-everywhere-our-baselines-for-whats-normal-will-need-to-change-244298
Extreme temperature and rainfall events are increasing around the world, including Australia. What makes them extreme is their rarity and severity compared to the typical climate.
A region’s “climate” is defined by a 30-year average of mainly rainfall and temperature. Increasingly, these climate definitions have become less appropriate – we need to look at events over shorter time periods to gain a more accurate picture.
We can see this in the recent worldwide proliferation of extreme flooding and prolonged heatwaves.
Using southern Australia as a prime example, our newly published research in Academia Environmental Sciences and Sustainability shows that machine learning techniques can help identify key climate drivers, supporting a redefinition of climate in a warming world.
Increasing ‘flash’ events
In Australia, eastern coastal regions of Queensland and New South Wales continue to receive record downpours and flash floods, interspersed by dry periods of a few months to a few years.
In stark contrast, southern coastal regions are drying and facing more extreme heatwaves. With already parched vegetation and catastrophic fire dangers, this region is experiencing drought conditions due to decreased cool season rainfall and increased temperatures.
Notably, flash droughts and flash floods have adversely affected both agricultural crop yields and grazing pasture quality. Flash droughts greatly reduce moisture for germination. Flash floods ruin crops close to harvest time.
The problem with these “flash” events is just how difficult they are to forecast. To make more accurate seasonal and annual predictions for rainfall and temperatures, we need to update our climate models. But how do we know which climate drivers need to be included?
Seeking a new normal
To keep track of typical climate conditions and provide context for weather and climate forecasts, the World Meteorological Organization uses a set of data products known as climatological standard normals.
They define climate as averages of monthly, seasonal and annual weather-related variables such as temperature and rainfall, over consecutive 30-year periods.
Climate normals can be used to assess how typical of the current climate a particular event was in a given location. It’s how we arrive at temperature anomalies.
For example, to tell whether a year was relatively “hot” or “cool”, we look at the anomaly – the difference between the average temperature for the calendar year in question, compared to the climate normal.
But extreme variations are now occurring in periods of ten years or even shorter. Consequently, multiple increases and decreases can cancel each other out over a 30-year period. This would hide the large changes in statistics of weather variables within that period.
For example, large rainfall changes in average monthly, seasonal and annual amounts can be hidden within 30-year averages. Global warming often amplifies or diminishes the impacts of multiple climate driver phases within approximately ten-year periods. When averaged over 30 consecutive years, some information is lost.
What did we find?
Over the past decade or so, machine learning (where computers learn from past data to make inferences about the future) has become a powerful tool for detecting potential links between global warming and extreme weather events. This is referred to as attribution.
Machine learning techniques are simple to code and are well-suited to the highly repetitive task of searching through numerous combinations of observational data for possible triggers of severe weather events.
In our new study, machine learning helped us untangle the dominant climate drivers responsible for recent flash flood rainfall on the east coast of Australia, and a lack of rainfall on the southern coast.
Along the southern coast, the cool season from May to October is typically produced by mid-latitude westerly winds. In recent years these winds were farther away from the Australian continents, resulting in the recent drought of 2017–19 and flash drought of 2023–24.
In contrast, after the 2020–22 La Niña, the east coast continues to experience wetter conditions. These come from generally higher than average sea-surface temperatures off the east coast and Pacific Ocean, due to the presence of onshore winds.
Machine learning identified the dominant drivers of the scenario above: the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the Southern Annular Mode, the Indian Ocean Dipole, and both local and global sea surface temperatures.
A key finding was the prominence of global warming as an attribute, both individually and in combination with other climate drivers. Climate drivers and their combinations can change with increasing global warming over shorter periods that contain extremes of climate. Hence, the use of 30-year periods as climate normals becomes less useful.
Finding regional attributes for better forecasting
Climate models often disagree on the climate drivers likely to be relevant to extreme events.
A key feature of machine learning is the ability to deal with multi-source data by identifying regional attributes. We can combine possible climate-driver predictors with high-resolution climate model predictions, especially after the climate model data are downsized to cover specific regions of concern. This can help with extreme event forecasting at a local scale.
Scientists are continuously developing new methods for applying machine learning to weather and climate prediction.
The scientific consensus is that global warming has dramatically increased the frequency of extreme rainfall and temperature events. However, the impacts are not uniform across the world, or even across Australia. Some regions have been more affected than others.
Currently there is no single alternative definition to the traditional 30-year climate normal, given the variable impacts across the planet. Each region will need to determine its own relevant climate time period definition – and machine learning tools can help.
5 December – STOP PETER DUTTON’S NUCLEAR REACTOR THREATS -PROTEST – ADELAIDE outside Federal Government’s Inquiry into nuclear power generation in Australia.
DATE: Thursday, 5 December 2024
TIME: 8am to 9am ‒ peaceful protest outside. Then the hearing will begin at 9am.
VENUE: Hotel Grand Chancellor Adelaide, 65 Hindley St, Adelaide
The federal parliament’s nuclear power inquiry is holding a hearing in Adelaide next week, on Thursday, Dec 5.
Port Augusta is one of the sites being targeted for nuclear reactors by the Dutton Coalition. And wherever the reactors are built, there will be more pressure for nuclear waste dumping in SA.
Please join us outside the inquiry from 8am to 9am to voice our opposition to Dutton’s plan to build nuclear reactors, to prolong and expand the use of fossil fuels, and to derail the renewable energy transition. Please bring placards and banners.
Also, it would be great to have a decent turnout inside the hearing, beginning at 9am. The hearing schedule will be posted online and will include speakers for and against Dutton’s nuclear plans.
Frisson vs fission in nuke fantasy vs facts
What’s hot and what’s not in the contest of ideas? The Grattan Institute reckons SMRs are too hot to handle and renewables play it cool.
by MURRAY HOGARTH, 26 November 2024, https://thepolitics.com.au/frisson-vs-fission-in-nuke-fantasy-vs-facts/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGzOJ9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHdspzuMHENz02Lj8EZ5cQ2dLAjLtF07_Y9DOMfUzUO4galMDnSzr7KEP3w_aem_VAbXVviTwHaKR6W26dn-Rg
This week the quickfire Senate inquiry into a social media age ban has been hit with 15,000 submissions in a bit over 24 hours. Meanwhile, the months-long House select committee inquiry into nuclear energy is yet to hit 300.
Sure most of the social media age ban submissions will follow a template propagated by vested-interest outrage from Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, X/Twitter owner and now self-styled “First Bro” in the Trump US presidency team. But the raw numbers are a sobering reminder of what’s hot and what’s not when it comes to voter attention and the political sausage-making machine and, to borrow the new word of the year, the “enshittification” of our public policy decision-making.
Of course it’s not apples and apples to compare the social media age ban and the fate of the energy transition. The former is an impossibly subjective behavioural challenge for society, here and internationally, which could be rushed into law this week for pre-election political expediency. The latter is a far-reaching, fundamental matter of economic and environmental strategy for the nation, which will be decided one way or the other at a federal election by May at the latest.
Will it continue to be renewables-led with a gas top-up under the current Labor government? Or a switch to nuclear-led under a resurrected Coalition government, keeping dirty coal for longer and burning a lot more carbon-polluting gas for 15 to 20 years while reactors get legalised, planned and built?
Reality bites
The last time Australia had a national nuclear energy inquiry, in 2019, about 300 submissions were received, and a number of the same interested parties are back in similar numbers for the 2024 version of the debate which has been running for more than 60 years. The too-niche nuclear contest is like that. Ideologically enduring. Factually selective. Passionately partisan. Conducted largely removed from mainstream political sentiment or awareness of detail, and also remote from economic reality.
Yet it’s of monumental national importance, given that the energy transition will decide both the shape and success of the economy in the 21st century, and how we respond to the great global imperative of climate action and net zero decarbonisation by 2050. Which is where a relatively brief submission to the nuclear energy inquiry from the Grattan Institute, the widely respected independent public policy think-tank, becomes worthy of particular attention.
Titled “Nuclear energy for Australia? Not Plan A and probably not Plan B”, the Grattan submission has been written by energy experts Tony Wood and Alison Reeve, and it reflects a facts-over-fantasy approach to the question it poses. For starters, it considered the same question more than a decade ago, in 2012, and finds not much has changed. Except, that is, that the Liberal-National Coalition has put nuclear energy at the heart of its climate and energy election pitch, and is leading in the national polls.
Fraught with danger
Grattan says:
“Nuclear power generation is banned in Australia. The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998 and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 both prohibit nuclear power. Similar prohibitions exist under the laws of every state and territory. Recent interest in nuclear power and the initiation of this inquiry have been largely triggered by a proposal from the federal Coalition for nuclear power to be part of its policy platform for the next federal election.”
Cost and technology uncertainty was (and remains) the key barrier:
“Grattan’s headline conclusion in 2012 was that uncertainty about the probable cost of nuclear power in Australia would continue until there was a weight of practical experience in deploying current reactor designs in countries with similar economic and regulatory conditions. But unlike some other countries such as the UK, Australia could afford to wait for this to happen, because Australia has multiple options to ensure its overall energy security. Given this, Australia should wait to see the economics of new nuclear deployment in other countries before considering any commitment to build nuclear power plants here.”
Fast-forward to 2024 and the picture for nuclear, the Coalition’s Plan A, remains the same:
“Since the publication of that report in 2012, little has happened to change our views. The cost of nuclear has not improved over that time, and large-scale nuclear construction timelines continue to blow out.”
But what has changed dramatically is the cost and technology picture for renewables, although that’s not without its challenges:
“Since 2012, the cost of solar and wind generation has fallen dramatically and renewables’ share of power generation has increased from about 10% to about 40%. The pace of deployment has recently slowed, mostly due to challenges in building the transmission network capacity in areas where there is insufficient capacity to connect more distributed generation. These challenges have been caused by escalating costs, slow regulatory approvals, and failure to secure local social licence for this new infrastructure.”
B stands for bad news
Nor does Grattan see the case for nuclear being enhanced or saved by the new, as yet commercially unproven technology, focus on small modular reactors (SMRs), which it dubs Plan B:
“Although more than 80 designs are in development, their economic competitiveness is still to be proven in practice. Recent work by the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering suggests a mature market for SMRs is unlikely before the mid to late 2040s. This means they are no quicker an option for Australia than is large-scale nuclear.”
What is needed, according to Grattan, is a major, very objective overhaul of the national electricity market (NEM) to make it fit for purpose in a new energy era:
“The review must be approached as a co-design exercise between consumers, industry and politicians, drawing on the deep expertise of the market bodies. It has to acknowledge and accommodate political and physical realities as well as technocratic theory. It cannot be held hostage by ministers insisting that various technologies must be in or out.”
Apparently reading Grattan’s collective mind — although really just responding to a blindingly obvious and long overdue need — Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced today exactly such a review of Australia’s main electricity grid and market, led by an expert independent panel, to run for 12 months.
Grattan also takes an even-handed view of long-term political failure by Australian governments to come to grips with the real issue for climate and energy: decarbonisation:
“The single biggest challenge facing energy markets is decarbonisation. And yet, with a couple of honourable exceptions, governments are consistently shy about stating explicitly what this means and by when it should happen.”
The 2019 nuclear energy inquiry, dominated by the then-Coalition government, found in favour of a shift towards nuclear. The 2024 version, dominated by the Labor government, and just months out from an election, will inevitably find itself opposing such a shift. All of which will make Australians not much the wiser. In this debate, even more than most, the role of independent experts and fact-based analysis is more important than ever.
A footnote
Former NSW Liberal treasurer and energy minister Matt Kean participated in a debate last night organised by Macquarie University in Sydney around the topic “Australia’s Future Energy Mix — Is Nuclear Part of the Solution?” As though in some parallel political universe, where Liberals can be renewables champions and climate action true-believers, Kean is now the Labor-appointed chair of the Climate Change Authority, which advises the government on emissions targets. He warned that waiting 20 years for nuclear power would destine Australia to a less reliable, more expensive, dirtier energy future, saying:
“And let me tell you what that looks like. It looks like a breakdown of our precious ecosystems and biodiversity. Just look at the Great Barrier Reef and the coral bleaching that is going on there that is going to be baked into the system. Look at the Arctic ice sheets. Look at sea level rise, and look at the fact that large tracts of Australia will be uninhabitable because they are unlivable. That’s what the science tells us. And the science is not something that’s happening in the future. It’s happening now.
“I was the treasurer of NSW. It’s those that say the cost of taking action on climate change is too high. Let me tell you, I had to foot the bill because we hadn’t taken action on climate change to fund the worst natural disaster event that we’ve ever seen in the Lismore floods that followed the worst bushfires the country had ever seen, the Black Summer bushfires that followed the worst drought our nation had ever seen. So anyone sitting there saying, oh, you know, the cost of taking action on climate change is too much. Let me tell you, the cost of not acting on climate change will be far, far greater. How we get to net zero matters just as much as the goal itself.”
He may be an ex-politician now, if not forever, but Kean remains the nation’s best political communicator on the climate crisis and energy challenge by far.
Greens welcome Victorian government ending agreement with Elbit
Guardian, 28 Nov 24
The Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri has welcomed the news the Victorian government has ended its agreement with weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems:
Relentless community pressure has forced Victorian Labor to end its partnership with Elbit – a company whose drones killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and countless Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. It shouldn’t have taken this long for Labor to cut its ties with genocide.
She questioned why the government hadn’t announced the Elbit decision since writing to the Labor MP Bronwyn Halfpenny last week:
This is an important step in the right direction, but why are Labor still leaving Victorians in the dark, they clearly have something to hide. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2024/nov/28/australia-politics-live-climate-super-social-media-ban-senate-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-question-time
ABC chair Kim Williams says investment in national broadcaster the best counter to ‘flood’ of misinformation
ABC, By political reporter Jake Evans, 27 Nov 24
In short:
Kim WIlliams has called for more investment in the ABC to combat a splintering of information online.
The ABC chair also endorsed the government’s attempts to ban children and teenagers from social media, saying they are particularly vulnerable to misinformation.
What’s next?
A federal government bill to ban young people from social media is before parliament.
The ABC’s chair, Kim Williams, has warned Australia is being “flooded” with misinformation and disinformation, just days after the federal government abandoned a bill to force social media giants to tackle harmful content on their platforms.
In an address to the National Press Club, Mr Williams said misinformation must be countered, and doing so would require extra investment in journalism — as well as a commitment by news organisations to objectivity.
“That’s why since taking the job of chair of the ABC, I have been insisting that all our journalists adhere, always, to the highest standards of objectivity and professional ethics,” Mr Williams said.
“We do not serve causes at the ABC, we serve the truth. This is non-negotiable.”
Williams says operating revenue at ABC has fallen $150 million in real terms
The ABC chair said operating revenue for the national broadcaster had fallen by 13.7 per cent in real terms over the past decade, the equivalent of an annual reduction of $150 million.
After winning government in 2022, the Albanese government extended the ABC’s funding terms from three years to five years, a long-running request of the broadcaster.
The renewed funding deal also included an additional $103.8 million over five years to maintain programs that were expiring, including the ABC’s enhanced news gathering scheme, which supports regional journalist positions, and ABC Audio Description, which provides accessible screen content for blind and vision-impaired audiences.
Earlier this year, a $70 million hole was opened in the ABC’s annual budget after social media giant Meta decided it would no longer honour the Morrison-era News Media Bargaining Code, and refused to pay for the news media content on its site.
“As our nation has become richer, our nation’s broadcaster has become much poorer,” Mr Williams said.
He also made note that commercial newsrooms were suffering in the internet age, and “the knife is now scraping the bone”.
He said a generation of journalists had been swept away, and now industry revival must begin at the ABC.
Mr Williams said additional funding could be used to expand fact-checking capability, more and better children’s programs, and to open new newsrooms in suburban and peri-urban locations, among other things.
“As the waters of misinformation and disinformation rise, the continuing existence of the ABC as a trusted source of the truth will help save our democracy from the populist damage going on elsewhere,” the chair said.
The federal government had attempted to legislate requirements for social media companies to combat misinformation and disinformation on their platforms and give powers to the Australian Communications and Media Authority to enforce the laws.
But the bill was dumped after widespread opposition and criticism from legal experts it could lead to unintentional suppression of true content and free speech……………………………………… https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-27/abc-chair-calls-for-funding-to-combat-misinformation/104651438
Ecology be damned -we won’t know what’s hit us after January 20th
Sorry I’m such a pessimist. Don’t pay too much attention to my stuff – I am hoping that I’m wrong, anyway !
BUT – I have previously written about the speed with which Donald Trump could turn the USA into an absolute dictatorship. I compared this process to the process by which Adolf Hitler took just seven and a half weeks, using legal means, to change his parliamentary position from a relatively powerless role to one of complete control. Opponents didn’t know what hit them: it was so fast.
The other insidious thing about Hitler’s early regime was that, in the first years, the workers had never had it so good. Hitler was never voted in as leader, but became popular once in. Trump has some popularity already – and perhaps will get more of it?
Meanwhile – Dharna Noor scrutinised the agenda for Project 25 – and it is scary stuff.
Project 2025, was convened by the notorious rightwing, climate-denying thinktank the Heritage Foundation, which has ties to fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch. Called the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, it is meant to guide the first 180 days of presidency for an incoming Republican president.
Earth Justice sets it out in detail:
Project 2025 is 900 pages, and 150 of them are about how to destroy the environment. This deregulatory agenda, written by former Trump government officials and Heritage Foundation staff, would strip away our rights to clean air, clean water, and a healthy planet.
Earth Justice takes a legal approach: – We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer. When we go to court, we get results. We go to court to defend the planet and its people.
What a terrific organisation! And they have had many victories in the past.
Never needed more than today – Earth Justice has over 200 attorneys lined up with strategies to counter Donald Trump’s administration with it plans to shred environmental protections.
BUT – is Donald Trump a jump ahead of them?
What Donald Trump is – is a wrecker! He apparently has a sort of artistic instinct directed towards wrecking humanity’s collective institutions – and first among the institutions to be wrecked – is the Law. He’s already managed to manipulate himself into the kingly position of being above the law – “immunity from prosecution”
Unfortunately, Trump has many greedy and ambitious sycophants, all too willing to carry out the manipulations needed to destroy human rights and environmental protections. Today I note one important example – Project 2025 calls for massive changes to Hanford nuclear cleanup – to weaken the rules on nuclear radiation.
Earth Justice, and we who care about the planet, are out there in our millions. I do hope that somehow we can organise, and prevent the planetary destruction that the new American government intends to carry out.
Australian nuclear news headlines 25 November to 2 December.
Headlines as they come in:
- Australia’s top environment groups – Submission to Government Inquiry into Nuclear Power .Generation in Australia
- The Green List: Peter Garrett on the ‘high-risk’, ‘cruel joke’ of nuclear energy
- Frisson vs fission in nuke fantasy vs facts
- Greens welcome Victorian government ending agreement with weapons company Elbit.
- Emergency leaders say nuclear reactors pose unnecessary risk.
- Canada’s nuclear waste organisation joins forces with the Australian Radioactive Waste Agency
Emergency leaders say nuclear reactors pose unnecessary risk
November 27, 2024, by: The AIM Network, Emergency Leaders for Climate Action. https://theaimn.com/emergency-leaders-say-nuclear-reactors-pose-unnecessary-risk/
NUCLEAR REACTORS WOULD introduce significant and unnecessary risk to Australian communities and emergency responders, including firefighters already stretched by escalating climate fuelled disasters, warns Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) in a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into nuclear power generation in Australia.
Greg Mullins, speaking on behalf of 38 former fire and emergency service chiefs from across Australia said: “Our firefighters are on the frontlines of escalating climate fuelled disasters, like bushfires and floods, fuelled by climate pollution. They’re not trained or equipped to deal with nuclear emergencies that could arise from nuclear reactors or the transportation and storage of radioactive waste.”
The ELCA submission highlights that nuclear reactor emergency planning and management has not been addressed by proponents of nuclear energy and emphasises that Australian emergency services lack the experience and resources to handle potential nuclear emergencies.
“Australian emergency services would have to be built up from scratch to respond to nuclear disasters, with no costings or plans in place to achieve this. There are no fully staffed urban fire service stations near the proposed sites for nuclear reactors, and it’s neither feasible nor reasonable to expect volunteer bushfire fighters to handle such high-risk emergencies,” said Mr Mullins
“I oversaw the deployment of Australian firefighters to assist in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that led to the Fukushima disaster, where the chaos and devastation caused by nuclear failures was stark. First responders, many of them civilian firefighters, were thrown into situations they weren’t trained for. That’s not a risk we should take in Australia, no matter how remote.
“There are no safety or environmental frameworks in place to manage the risks of nuclear reactors or to safely transport and store radioactive waste in Australia.
“Placing nuclear reactors in disaster-prone areas like Latrobe, Lithgow, Singleton, and South Burnett would add to the burden emergency services already face responding to worsening bushfires, floods, and storms.
Beyond the safety risks, former Commissioner Mullins called the proposal a “dangerous distraction” from the energy solutions Australia urgently needs right now. “Every coal-fired power station will shut down before a single watt of nuclear power can enter our system. Nuclear reactors simply cannot be built quickly to address the urgent task of slashing pollution and reducing climate disaster risks right now.
“Our communities and emergency services are bearing the brunt of worsening disasters driven by burning coal, oil and gas. We don’t have the luxury of waiting decades for new power stations, we must slash climate pollution now to protect Australians. Australia can’t afford to risk our energy security, economy and safety on a nuclear fantasy when renewables can cut pollution today and help ensure a safer future for our kids.”
About Emergency Leaders for Climate Action: We are 38 former senior Australian fire and emergency service leaders who have observed how climate change is driving increasingly catastrophic extreme weather events that are putting lives, properties and livelihoods at greater risk and overwhelming our emergency services.
Canada’s nuclear waste organisation joins forces with the Australian Radioactive Waste Agency
World Nuclear News, November 25, 2024
Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization said it recently signed a
new co-operation agreement with the Australian Radioactive Waste Agency
at a ceremony in the Australian Parliament in Canberra. The NWMO and
ARWA will collaborate on a range of issues related to the safe
management of radioactive waste, including the important topic of
reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
The NWMO said it was honored to
learn from the experiences of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait
Islanders during the visit and it “looks forward to a relationship of
partnership and knowledge-sharing”.
Coalition-linked nuclear expert questioned by parliament over coal industry ties
by political reporter Tom Lowrey, 22 Nov 24, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-22/coalition-nuclear-expert-questioned-coal-funding/104629770
In short:
A Labor-led committee has questioned a nuclear expert with close links to the Coalition over whether he made a potentially misleading statement to parliament over his funding for research.
Adjunct professor Stephen Wilson told a committee hearing he had not received funding from the “fossil fuel” sector, but government MPs are pointing to comments that contradict that.
What’s next?
Professor Wilson has denied that he “personally received payment from ‘fossil fuel’ companies” to fund his work looking into nuclear power.
A nuclear expert from the University of Queensland and a conservative think-tank have been questioned over possibly misleading parliament over funding for his work.
Parliamentary officials, writing on behalf of the Labor-led committee looking into nuclear power, have written to adjunct professor Stephen Wilson to clarify his ties to the coal industry.
In response to questions from the ABC, Professor Wilson said he had not “personally” received funding from the “fossil fuel” sector for his work on nuclear power.
Professor Wilson gave evidence to the inquiry last month in his capacity as a nuclear expert with the Institute of Public Affairs, a conservative think-tank.
He has been regularly cited by the Coalition as an advocate for the technology, which forms the centrepiece of the Coalition’s energy policy heading into the next election.
Professor Wilson travelled to North America with shadow energy minister Ted O’Brien on a nuclear study tour in 2023, including meetings with executives from nuclear giant Westinghouse.
He has also spoken at events with Mr O’Brien, criticising the current government’s renewables-led energy approach and talking up the potential of nuclear power.
During the evidence Professor Wilson gave to the nuclear inquiry in October, he was asked if he had “accepted donations from the fossil fuel industry to fund your research on energy”.
“No, I have not,” he replied.
n a letter sent this week, officials have pointed to comments made by Professor Wilson in a speech delivered to an IPA event in mid-2023.
In a transcript of the speech, Professor Wilson describes his work with the IPA’s energy security research program, and thanks donors for their support.
“I have taken on the challenge of working with Scott [Hargreaves] and the IPA staff, supported and encouraged by the far-sighted group of donors that Nick Jorss is bringing together,” he said.
Mr Jorss is the executive chairman of coal miner Bowen Coking Coal, and chair of lobby group Coal Australia.
The letter seeks “clarification on what appears to be contradictory information on the issue of donorship”.
The committee now questioning Professor Wilson was set up by the government in the House of Representatives to scrutinise nuclear power, which the Coalition has committed to ahead of the next election.
Professor Wilson has been cited by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in speeches making the case for the Coalition’s proposed pivot to nuclear power.
In a speech in July last year, Mr Dutton quoted Professor Wilson calling on Australia to “prepare real options to deploy nuclear energy … in case we need them.”
The ABC contacted Professor Wilson with questions over the sources of his funding, and whether he had misled the committee.
In response, he denied having directly receiving funding from ‘fossil fuel’ sources for his work.
“I have not personally received payment from ‘fossil fuel’ companies for my research into the need for Australia to embrace carbon-free, nuclear energy,” he said.
“I have advocated strongly for years, in my own capacity, for energy policy to be developed and implemented on a rational basis.
“As an energy engineer and economist with 30 years’ experience in the economics and dynamics of energy systems around the world, and electricity and resources markets, I understand how vital it is for Australia to have energy security. Encouragingly, more and more Australians are starting to share this view.”
Week to 25 November – nuclear and related news
Some bits of good news –‘My Life Changed Completely’: How Kenya Turned Us vs. Them Into Water for All.
The global energy transition will cost a lot less than we think.
He’ll try, but Trump can’t stop the clean energy revolution.
China’s desertified land area shrinks by 65 million mu since 2012.
TOP STORIES. Trump’s Cabinet Picks Aren’t Looking Good For Peace In Ukraine. On Way Out, Reckless Biden Allows Deep Russia Strikes.
UK Sees Privatization ‘Opportunities’ in Ukraine War
Beyond one million
years: The intrinsic radiation hazard of high-level nuclear wastes.
The 1.5C Climate Goal Is Dead. Why Is COP29 Still Talking About It?
Nuclear fusion: neither imminent nor relevant to climate change.
Climate. ‘The sixth great extinction is happening‘, conservation expert warns – ‘Window of time to save climate is closing’. Climate crisis to blame for dozens of ‘impossible’ heatwaves, studies reveal. ,COP29: Baku breakthrough disappoints, but should still trigger a fresh wave of climate finance.
Noel’s notes. Danger of a nuclear catastrophe as Ukraine sends missiles to Kursk area in Russia
AUSTRALIA. Albanese government gives firm ‘no’ to joining UK-US agreement to advance nuclear technology, Signing US/UK nuclear deal would shred Australia’s credibility: Turnbull. Trump, AUKUS and Australia’s Dim Servitors. Nuclear is not really back. More Australian nuclear news at https://antinuclear.net/2024/11/20/australian-nuclear-news-headlines-18-25-november/
NUCLEAR ITEMS
| CLIMATE. Nuclear reactor cooling systems threatened by global heating. |
| CIVIL LIBERTIES. Germany and US Are in a Race to the Bottom on Suppressing Pro-Palestine Speech. USA. House Passes Chilling ‘Nonprofit Killer’ Bill With 15 Democrats Voting ‘Yes’. |
| ECONOMICS. Nuclear Industry Association members seek to expand into weapons sector. Great British Nuclear to put £1.8bn worth of mini-nuke contracts up for grabs. Shares in nuclear reactor company OKLO bite the dust. The enriched uranium market is all at sea, with USA the largest importer of Russian material ALSO AT …https://wordpress.com/post/nuclear-news.net/292122 |
| EMPLOYMENT. East Suffolk Council offering grants to convert homes to accommodate nuclear workers.. |
| ENERGY. Big batteries and EVs to the rescue again as faults with new nuclear plant cause chaos on Nordic grids.Solar power: Germany’s national, federal highways could host 54 GW of PV. |
| ENVIRONMENT. Thornbury MP fights for Hinkley Point environmental protections. Somerset church would ‘become’ island if ‘ham-fisted’ Hinkley saltmarsh plans go-ahead. |
| HEALTH. Gender and Ionizing Radiation: Towards a New Research Agenda Addressing Disproportionate Harm ALSO AThttps://nuclear-news.net/2024/11/23/1-a-gender-and-ionizing-radiation-towards-a-new-research-agenda-addressing-disproportionate-harm/ ‘Starmer – meet us before it’s too late,’ nuclear test veterans say. Britain’s Nuclear Bomb Scandal: Our Story review – how the UK’s atomic testing programme devastated lives. Radiation: Call to Action! Stop LANL Tritium Venting and Protect the Most Vulnerable. Why iodine pills are not a silver bullet to protect against nuclear radiation. NFLA submarine champion raises concerns over Clyde Tritium contamination. |
| LEGAL.International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0hLXFsYW8oPilgrim Worker Claims He Was Poisoned by Radiation.Regulators update guidance on contamination of ground and water on nuclear licensed sites. |
| MEDIA. NY Times killed investigation of Israeli hooligans, internal email reveals – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7dcM22hPOENew Book. The Scientists Who Alerted Us To The Dangers of Radiation. |
| POLITICS. Russia’s Revised Nuclear Doctrine and the NATO-Russia Ukrainian War. Who Is Authorizing Biden’s Nuclear Brinkmanship While The President’s Brain Is Missing? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zeoPWJ_s3s Biden’s Missile . Crisis: Trump’s Election Is Also a Win for Tech’s Right-Wing “Warrior Class”. Iran warns West: abandon pressure or face more uranium enrichment. What would Iran do: A race to the bomb or a deal with Trump? Immoral Senate votes down resolutions to end US weapons fueling Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Scandal-ridden company SNC Lavalin, now calling itself AtkinsRéalis, strongly lobbying Ontario government to build its Candu nuclear reactors. Norfolk MP criticised for ‘anti-nuclear’ stance for Bacton. |
| POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY. High-Precision, Long-Range NATO Missiles Against Russia: Why Now? Iran has offered to keep uranium below purity levels for a bomb, IAEA confirms.European states vow to arrest Israeli PM. US one shy of becoming an Ace in blocking genocide ceasefire resolutions in UN. In 14-1 UN Security Council Vote, Lone US Veto Kills Gaza Cease-Fire Resolution. Trump opposes Israel annexation of West Bank, Republican sources say. Households receive chilling leaflet urging them to prepare for war and grim nuclear attack. |
| SAFETY. Power Out at Ukraine Atomic Plants After Russian Missile Strikes. Congress wants to turn the nuclear regulator into the US industry’s cheerleader—again. Reading road sees suspected nuclear warhead convoy. Japan / Blow For Nuclear Programme As Regulator Blocks Tsuruga-2 Restart. |
| SECRETS and LIES. UK Defence secretary to seek ‘missing’ nuclear test records. |
| SPINBUSTER. Nuclear Propaganda Exposed. Nuclear hype ignores high cost, long timelines. |
| TECHNOLOGY. Why EDF’s Hinkley C nuclear power plant will probably not be running before 2035.Will New Brunswick choose a “small, modular” nuclear reactor – that’s not small at all (among other problems)? Nuclear ‘Renaissance’ Recalls Past Boondoggles, Legacy of Failures. |
| WASTES. Decommissioning: Hunterston B decommissioning approved |
| WAR and CONFLICT. Report: Ukraine Fires British Storm Shadow Missiles Into Russia. Report: Biden Allows Ukraine To Strike Russia With Long-Range US Missiles.Russia Says US Missile Defense Base in Poland Is a Potential Target. Israeli strikes hit ‘component’ of Iran’s nuclear programme: Netanyahu. UN report is shows threat of nuclear war is ever present. |
| WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES.Report: US and European Officials Discussed Giving Ukraine Nuclear Weapons. Fleet of drones is spotted over major US airbase in Britain where they are building facilities to house nuclear weapons. |
Submissions to Parliamentary Inquiry into nuclear power generation in Australia – (Part one).
The Committee will inquire into matters referred to in the resolution of appointment and is required to present its final report by no later than 30 April 2025. https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Select_Committee_on_Nuclear_Energy/Nuclearpower
Submissions to this Inquiry have now closed, and are being published at https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Select_Committee_on_Nuclear_Energy/Nuclearpower
So far, 202 submissions have been published. My plan is to go through them all. So far, I have read through just the first 20 submissions 19 by male writers, one female. 12 were opposed to nuclear power, 7 were in favour of nuclear power, and one was unable to be read.
Arguments were around topics of energy needs, indigenous concerns, environmental impacts, and radioactive waste. I plan to outline these as I read through more submissions.
Nuclear is not really back
Think the Cop29 climate summit doesn’t matter? Here are five things you should know,
Adam Morton in Baku, Guardian, Sat 23 Nov 2024
…………………………………………………..Some media outlets went to great lengths this week to claim that nuclear energy was at the centre of Cop29 talks, and Bowen had been embarrassed by Australia not signing up to a UK-US civil nuclear deal.
Take it from a reporter on the ground: this has no basis in fact.
The UK made a mistake by listing on a press release Australia and another nine countries that it said it expected would sign up to a Generation IV International Forum on nuclear. That sentence were quickly removed once it was pointed out that no one had checked and it wasn’t true. Instead, Australia will continue as an observer, as it was in the forum’s previous iteration.
The slip-up had no obvious impact on the relationship between the countries – Bowen and his UK counterpart, Ed Miliband, held an event to sign a renewable energy agreement shortly after the story broke. And nuclear has been barely visible as an issue at the talks.
Thirty-one countries have signed up to a side pledge to triple nuclear power capacity by 2050, with six new countries joining at Cop29. But the global focus is renewable energy. Cop28 agreed global investment in renewables needs to be tripled by 2030, and the bulk of the non-fossil energy investment is going that way.
Only one country that signed the pledge to triple nuclear, Slovakia, has started work on planning a new plant in the past year. And those plants take about 20 years to build…………………………………………………………. fact.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/22/think-the-cop29-climate-summit-doesnt-matter-heres-five-things-you-should-know
Consultation, full disclosure, and an environmental audit: Nuclear Free Local Authorities’ triple demand of Australian government over nuke sub waste dump down under
the NFLAs have raised our fundamental objections to any siting of nuclear powered, and possibly nuclear armed, submarines at Garden Island as a violation of Australia’s legal commitments as a signatory to the Treaty of Rarotonga, which established a South Pacific nuclear free zone. The proposal will increase military tensions with China and make Rockingham a target for a counterstrike should war break out.
a White House paper states that Australia ‘has committed to managing all radioactive waste generated through its nuclear-powered submarine program, including spent nuclear fuel, in Australia’.
NFLA 22nd Nov 2024
With an international outlook and solidarity in mind, in response to a consultation by the Australian Federal Government, the UK / Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities have posted their objections to plans to station nuclear-powered subs and establish a waste dump in Western Australia.
As part of the AUKUS military pact established between Australia, the United Kingdom and United States, Australia intends to acquire a fleet of nuclear powered submarines, powered by reactors built by Rolls-Royce in Derby, as well as permitting Royal Navy and United States Navy nuclear submarines to operate from Australian naval bases.
In March 2023,the AUKUS Nuclear-Powered Submarine Pathway was announced by the three partners centred on the HMAS Stirling Naval Base on Garden Island in Western Australia’s Cockburn Sound. The Australian Government has allocated AUS $8 billion for base improvements.
Under the AUKUS ‘Force Posture Agreement’, from 2027, US Virginia Class submarines are to be stationed here, with British Astute submarines joining them on rotation in the 2030’s. Around this time, the base will also become the home port of Australia’s first nuclear powered submarines, with three and up to five Virginia Class submarines being purchased from the US (subject to Congressional approval).
The Federal Government has passed new legislation to allow for the domestic storage of nuclear waste from all these submarines, and in July after a limited consultation the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) issued a licence to the Australian Submarine Agency to prepare a nuclear waste storage site at the base. Without it, visiting United States and British nuclear-powered submarines could not undertake maintenance in Australia, so the nuclear dump is seen as essential to the pact.
The extent and nature of the waste to be stored, and for how long it would be stored, remains unclear. The Conservation Council of Western Australia (CCWA) complained to the regulatory authorities that: ‘The consultation documents provided no details about the volume of waste or how long it would be stored at the island. They also made confused and misleading claims about the types of low-level waste that would be accepted’.
Whilst regulators insist that it would be low-level waste, this claim has been refuted by critic Australian Green Senator David Shoebridge who said the Federal legislators were told in a Senate Estimates Hearing by the Australian Submarine Agency that it would include intermediate waste. It is also contradicted by a White House paper which states that Australia ‘has committed to managing all radioactive waste generated through its nuclear-powered submarine program, including spent nuclear fuel, in Australia’.
This waste would include US Virginia-class submarine reactors, which each weigh over 100 tonnes and contain over 200 kilograms of highly enriched uranium. Ian Lowe, an expert on radiation health and safety, told The Conversation in March 2023 that when the first three AUKUS submarines are at the end of their lives — 30 years from when they are commissioned — Australia will have 600 kilograms of ‘spent fuel’ and ‘potentially tonnes of irradiated material from the reactors and their protective walls’. The fuel being weapons-grade will require ‘military-scale security’.
Australian campaigners have also complained bitterly that the submarine base and the storage site are located in the wrong place.
Mia Pepper, Campaign Director at the CCWA, said that ‘Garden Island in one of the most pristine and diverse environments in the Perth region’ and that ‘This plan for both nuclear submarines and nuclear waste storage will inevitably impact access to parts of Cockburn Sound and Garden Island’.
And when responding to ARPANSA, the CCWA stated that the facility is ‘within an area of dense population’ and in the vicinity of ‘important and diverse heavy industrial facilities, including a major shipping port’. The CCWA also raised the ‘unaddressed community concerns regarding an accident’ on the site and complained about the ‘lack of transparency and rigour’ throughout the regulatory process.
Nor is there any long-term solution to storage. Garden Island would be seen as a temporary store, but it is unclear for how long. A Federal Government proposal to establish a nuclear waste dump at Kimba was resisted by local Indigenous people who launched a successful legal challenge to defeat the plan.
In its response to the consultation being conducted by the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, the NFLAs have raised our fundamental objections to any siting of nuclear powered, and possibly nuclear armed, submarines at Garden Island as a violation of Australia’s legal commitments as a signatory to the Treaty of Rarotonga, which established a South Pacific nuclear free zone. The proposal will increase military tensions with China and make Rockingham a target for a counterstrike should war break out.
We also called on the Federal Government to conduct a proper consultation and make a full disclosure of the facts, and requested that officials conduct a full environmental audit of the likely impact of the waste storage site…………………………………………. https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/news/consultation-full-disclosure-and-an-environmental-audit-nflas-triple-demand-of-australian-government-over-nuke-sub-waste-dump-down-under/
1 This month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
15 April – Zoom –Nuclear Power is Not the Solution
Apr 15, 2026 01:00 AM in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
Join the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) on Tuesday, April 14th for a timely webinar exploring the risks associated with nuclear power and challenging the myth that it offers a simple, safe, carbon-free solution to the climate crisis
21 April Webinar: No Nuclear Weapons in Australia
Start: 2026-04-21 18:00:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
End: 2026-04-21 19:30:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
Event Type: Virtual
A virtual link will be communicated before the event.
Host Contact Info: australia@icanw.org
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 