One week left to put in submissions to Federal Nuclear Inquiry
There’s only 1 week until submissions close for the ‘Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia’.
Coalition members hold the numbers on the Committee and it’s important that they hear opposing voices.
Make a submission!
Please write your own submission or use our online proforma here.
Submissions can be emailed to Environment.Reps@aph.gov.au
Or posted to: Standing Committee on Environment and Energy
PO Box 6021, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT 2600
Nuclear power is a dangerous distraction from real movement on the pressing energy decisions and climate actions we need. Rather than fuel carbon emissions and radioactive risk through domestic coal power plants and the export of coal and uranium, Australia should embrace the fastest growing global energy sector ‒ renewables ‒ and become a driver of clean energy thinking and technology. Renewable energy is affordable, low risk, clean, and popular. Nuclear is simply not. Our shared energy future is renewable, not radioactive.
For more information, see report: Nuclear Power – No Solution to Climate Change – ACE Nuclear Free Collective, Friends of the Earth Melbourne
Melbourne Event this Wednesday: Is nuclear power a solution to climate change?
When: Wednesday 28 August 2019, 6.30-8pm
Where: Yami Lester room, Friends of the Earth Office, 312 Smith St, Collingwood
https://www.facebook.com/events/2570886793009022/
The Federal Government has announced an inquiry into nuclear power, the Victorian and NSW Parliaments are conducting similar inquiries and conservative ideologues are promoting nuclear power. At this event, Prof. Tilman Ruff and Dr Jim Green will bust some of the myths around nuclear power and we’ll show some short films about Chernobyl and other less-known nuclear accidents.
Come along with your questions about nuclear power and enjoy free soup and hot drinks!
Speakers:
Prof. Tilman Ruff (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Australia and Medical Association for Prevention of War) will speak about the public health impacts of nuclear power.
Dr Jim Green (Friends of the Earth) will launch a new Friends of the Earth report, Nuclear Power – No Solution to Climate Change (nuclear.foe.org.au/climate)
+ short films about Chernobyl and other less-known nuclear accidents
+ Q&A
RSVP here
Contact: ace@foe.org.au, 0417 318 368
New South Wales Parliament inquiries on uranium, nuclear, and energy
Dan Monceaux shared a link. Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch South Australia , 1 Aug 19 https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052/
1. Uranium Mining and Nuclear Facilities (Prohibitions) Repeal Bill 2019 (Submissions close 18 October 2019)
2. Sustainability of energy supply and resources in NSW (Submissions close 15 September 2019)
To 9 July Nuclear and Climate News Australia
The TV mini-series “Chernobyl” has reminded the world of something that the insurance industry fully understands: even if the probability of a nuclear accident is very small, the consequences of a nuclear accident are very big.
Two current events highlight the risks of nuclear disaster:
14 sailors died in a heroic effort to avert a planetary catastrophe, in a fire accident on a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea.
Earthquakes in Southern California raise anxieties about the safety of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Station. The Quake That Could Make Los Angeles a Radioactive Dead Zone. What are the risks at closed San Onofre during a big earthquake?
AUSTRALIA
NUCLEAR.
- Australia would be wise not to mindlessly follow USA into war against Iran.
- Is Napandee, (Jeff Baldock’s property) near Kimba the govt’s chosen site for expanded nuclear waste dump? Have the Nukunu Aboriginal people been consulted about proposed Wallerberdina nuclear waste suppository?
- New South Wales National Party formally adopts pro nuclear policy, Australian unions reject Industry Super’s backing of the nuclear industry . News Corpse comes out with a weird pro nuclear ramble.
- Why Australia should absolutely not contemplate getting nuclear weapons. Not Impressed with Professor Hugh White’s pro nuclear weapons stance.
- Former Environment Minister rejected department advice and approved uranium mine day before election called,
- Uranium contamination in groundwater in an Adelaide suburb.
CLIMATE. Australia now emitting record greenhouse gases.
RENEWABLE ENERGY Victoria rooftop solar rebate in hot demand, with July quota filled in just days. Victorian wind farm to power massive new recycling plant.
The raid on journalist’s home by armed federal police.
INTERNATIONAL
Far from stopping climate change – nuclear reactors are being stopped by climate change.
Special UN meeting to discuss Iran: Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany try to keep nuclear deal.
United Nations warns that climate crisis disasters are happening at the rate of one a week and work is urgently needed to prepare developing countries for the profound impacts. Rich countries are not immune.
Renewable energy racing ahead, close to beating nuclear power.
28 July Film Event Adelaide: “The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons”.
Film Event hosted by Womens International League for Peace and Freedom WILPF_SA
Sunday 28th July 2pm at 99 Osmond Tce Norwood presenting the Premier Adelaide screening of the recently released (June 2019) “The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons”.
This 59 minute documentary film takes the viewer through a brief history of nuclear bombs and the anti-nuclear activism that has pushed to eliminate them ever since their invention, including moving testimony from Hiroshima bomb survivor, Setsuko Thurlow. It moves into a consideration of the humanitarian initiative that successfully challenged the dominant security discourse and the historic steps taken since 2010 to turn the treaty from a dream into a reality. The key roles of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, who won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts, and the International Committee of the Red Cross are highlighted. The story is told through interviews with 14 experts in their fields.
Why is it not OK for Iran to build a bomb: but ‘reasonable’ that OZ consider such?
Recent xenophobic pontification by local academe needs to be called out for what it is ~ Warmongering.
ENuFF[SA]
Office Admin
https://www.facebook.com/sanuclearfree/
Friday 22 March: “Facing Up to Federal Government -Targeting of South Australia for Nuclear waste Storage – What are the Options?”
By: David Noonan B.Sc., M.Env.St.
Independent Environment Campaigner
On: Friday 22 March, 6:45 for a 7:00 PM start
At: Public Schools Club, 207 East Terrace, Adelaide
Held by: MAPW (SA)
Talk to Scope Nuclear waste Plans, Responses and Options:
Federal gov. nuclear waste plans are prohibited under SA law, are contrary to Advice of Nuclear Safety Committee, arguably compromise Safety & Security in SA, disproportionately affect Indigenous people, intend to impose ANSTO nuclear fuel waste shipments through either Whyalla or Port Pirie and to indefinitely store irradiated nuclear fuel waste above ground at either Hawker in iconic Flinders ranges or Kimba on Eyre Peninsula agricultural region;
See Background Article & Briefer:
“ANSTO nuclear waste to compromise safety and security in SA” (FOE Aust News, Dec 2018)
https://www.foe.org.au/ansto_nuclear_waste_to_compromise_safety_and_security_in_sa
Briefer (Nov 2018):
https://nuclear.foe.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Noonan-Nov2018-SAdump-safety-security.pdf
RSVP to Amanda Ruler – amanda.ruler@mapw.org.au
by March 19 2019.
Dr Amanda J Ruler is SA Branch Co-coordinator, Medical Association for Prevention of War & National Vice President, Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia).
ENuFF[SA]
Office Admin
https://www.facebook.com/sanuclearfree/
Public Meeting in Melbourne: Keep Western Australia Uranium Free!
Jim Green .Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch South Australia, Please join us for a public meeting on Wednesday, March 13, from 6.30‒8pm in Melbourne.
Special Guest speakers:
— K‒A Garlick ‒ Nuclear Free Community Campaigner, Conservation Council of Western Australia
— Dave Sweeney ‒ Nuclear Free Campaigner, Australian Conservation Foundation
— Dr Jim Green ‒ National Nuclear Free Campaigner ‒ Friends of the Earth Australia
WA is currently facing the threat of uranium mining. Several Tjiwarl Traditional Owners have joined with the WA Conservation Council to mount a legal challenge to prevent mining at Yeelirrie ‒ a proposal twice rejected by the WA EPA because of unacceptable risks of species extinction. Please join us to hear about this important legal challenge and the broader resistance to uranium mining in WA and across Australia.
Hosted by Friends of the Earth Melbourne
312 Smith St, Collingwood (Friends of the Earth office)
Wednesday, March 13, 6.30‒8pm
Snacks provided.https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052/
livestream on December 16: What next in the fight to free Julian Assange?
Meeting -Sydney – Sunday 16 December: Facebook Livestream viewing in Melbourne:The information vindicates the fight waged by Assange and his defenders against an arrest warrant, issued against him in 2010, obligating him to answer “questions” over false allegations that he had committed sexual assault in Sweden. The allegations were fabricated in order to provide ammunition for various pro-US layers to discredit Assange and to create the conditions for him to be rendered to a country that could rapidly extradite him to the US. The American ruling elite is determined to make an example of Assange by putting him on trial for “espionage” or “conspiracy,” in order to intimidate every journalist and whistleblower. Continue reading
The Royal Nuclear Show — exhibition on in Victoria
Public works: Royal Nuclear Show, THE AUSTRALIAN, By BRONWYN WATSON, DECEMBER 7, 2018
“……….Screen-printing workshops across the country, such as Redback Graphix, Earthworks Poster Collective and the Tin Sheds, created posters that adorned cafes, telephone poles, university campuses, libraries and virtually any public space. They had slogans such as No Nukes No Tests, No More Hiroshimas, and End Uranium Mining. At the time, perception of a nuclear future was seen as progressive and positive, with governments and industry trying to promote nuclear experimentation as necessary to the nation’s security and beneficial to humanity.
One artist who emphasised these issues in her poster prints was Toni Robertson, whose work, The Royal Nuclear Show — 3, is on show at the Burrinja Dandenong Ranges Cultural Centre in Upwey, Victoria. Produced while Robertson was an artist-in-residence at the Experimental Art Foundation in Adelaide in 1981, it depicts a dystopian post-nuclear carnival where crowds wander past a billboard with a baby sleeping and sucking a bottle. On the baby’s pillow is written Bomblet. The billboard reads: “Meet the nuclear family, Bomblet the baby nuke. He’s so like his dad! This little boy was conceived as a low yield, tactical weapon for use in limited theatre war.” “Little boy” was the name given to the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
……. Gallery and exhibition curator JD Mittmann says this work “really resonates quite strongly with me. It is really a statement of the time, but I think not much has changed in some ways. We are still sold nuclear technology, especially as a solution to climate change problems. Certainly, it is important to remember how dangerous these things are, and so I think this print might have been from 1981 but if you had 2011 underneath it, it would work in just the same way.” https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/public-works-royal-nuclear-show/news-story/aa2b2b7a2a0dd38f6f6efcc61d15d081
28 November: Anti-Nuclear Coalition (ANC) delegation to meet with Department of Industry Innovation and Science
Anti-Nuclear Coalition South Australia, No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia, 22 Nov 18
Support this meeting and protest the national nuclear waste dump outside DIIS offices, 26 Franklin St, November 28 2018 between 12:45 – 2:00 pm.
Background:
Last September the ANC requested meetings with several politicians, including state members Koutsantonis and Minister for Resources & Energy Pellekaan.
Koutsantonis initially agreed and a meeting was arranged. It was cancelled at the last moment with no explanation. On the other hand, Pellekaan initially declined our request, but after a protest outside Premier Marshall’s office and a second letter, a half-hour meeting was granted. Five members of the ANC met with the Minister at Parliament House on Nov 14. A report of that meeting will be ready soon.
Federal Minister Canavan was also asked to meet with members of the ANC and he agreed, but in Canberra. Eventually he delegated bureaucrats charged with running the NRWMF consultation to meet three members in Adelaide on November 28.
At this meeting, we will raise the following:
1. How closely have the Federal Minister and the DIIS worked with state counterparts to inform them of plans for the national radioactive dump? (SA politicians, media and the public, generally, remain confused and poorly informed, or wilfully ignorant.)
2. Former Minister for Energy Josh Frydenberg has said that a radioactive waste dump is a matter of “national significance”. We agree. A national dump IS NOT ONLY A LOCAL ISSUE! We will request DIIS organise a public meeting in Adelaide to ensure that state politicians, media and the public also have the opportunity to hear about the proposal and to question the agencies responsible.
3. Where is it located, what quantity and what does the Department of Defence radioactive waste consist of?
4. After several decades of debate and aborted plans for dumping radioactive waste, why is there still no full inventory and no acceptance criteria for the current proposal available? Why should any community be asked to consider hosting a dump without this basic information?
5. Re the “temporary storage” of intermediate level waste (ILW) ARPANSA’s licence arrangement with ANSTO for the current temporary storage of ILW at Lucas Heights is ‘until a permanent repository is sited and built’. Under no circumstances should it be moved to yet another “temporary” site – for up to 100 years, according to the regulator, ARPANSA .
6. How long does DIIS consider is the lifetime of the canisters containing the ILW. What facilities would there be at the proposed NRWMF to re-package the waste should it be necessary?
7. How long does DIIS consider it would take to site and build a permanent dump for ILW?
We consider that the proposal to build a NRWMF in South Australia is illegal under the SA Nuclear Waste (Prohibition) Act.
If you believe that this dump is a matter for all South Australians, be at 26 Franklin St Nov. 28th 12:45
CONTACT YOUR ALP MEMBERS TO SAY NO NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP
likely that they will be running the show after the next election. It is looking unlikely that Minister Canavan will be able to select a site for the waste dump before then. [ed: because the govt doesn’t want it to be an election issue]Labor Fringe 16 – 18 December Adelaide, SA
16 – 18 December Adelaide, SA Welcome to Fringe 2018! “Labor is at its best when we are the party of ideas and action” ‘Labor Fringe will bring together organisations, advocates, professionals and members of the public from across the nation to debate, connect, promote and share ideas that will shape the future of Australia.
‘The 48th Australian Labor National Conference will be held from Sunday 16 – Tuesday 18 December 2018 at the Adelaide Convention Centre, and the Fringe Program runs alongside the action on Conference Floor.
‘Fringe 2018 will comprise of 80 events that explore diverse and integral issues facing Australia, it will form an integral part of Labor’s highest decision-making platform.
‘Fringe 2018 provides an incomparable opportunity for organisations to showcase and launch integral ideas and conversations to a large and diverse Labor audience.
‘Fringe presents innovative and creative policy proposals, thought-provoking speakers and powerful debates on the ideas and organising challenges facing Labor and Australia.’
Our Vision Fringe is essential to Labor’s ongoing commitment to a culture of ideas. We are proud to bring together organisations and individuals who are passionate and committed to Labor values and ensuring a better Australia.
‘Fringe provides an exciting platform for all Labor Party members and supporters to share their ideas and visions for the future, whilst being able to hear from our Party leaders and inspiring organisations that continue to fight for change.’
The Power of the Documentary Utopia
“Includes a special introduction from John Pilger“
‘Utopia is an epic production by the Emmy and Bafta winning film-maker and journalist John Pilger.
‘Drawing on his long association with the first people of Australia, his homeland,
Utopia is both an epic portrayal of the oldest continuous human culture and
an investigation into a suppressed colonial past and rapacious present.
‘One of the world’s best kept secrets is revealed against a background
of the greatest boom in mineral wealth.
Has the ‘lucky country’ inherited South African apartheid?
‘Utopia tells a universal story of power and resistance in the media age
driven by old imperatives and presented as liberalism.
‘This session will be Introduced by John Pilger … ‘
Saturday 3 November: Adelaide. Rally – Don’t Dump on South Australlia
Don’t Dump on SA Rally on Kaurna Land at Parliament House, North Terrace, Adelaide at 11.30am on Saturday 3rd November.
Last week we found out that the Barngarla Injunction hearing will go back to court on 30 January 2019. Here is a link to a statement from DIIS (the Department of Industry Innovation and Science). Yesterday there was an article in The Advertiser saying that the Minister’s decision may be delayed until next year.
Join in supporting the Radioactive Waste submission to Department of Industry, Innovation & Science
1.This month
For international nuclear news go to https://nuclear-news.net/
Ethics, Nuclear Power, and Global Heating – theme for December 2019
Ethics of Nuclear Energy Abu-Dayyeh (P.hD) Amman – H.K. of Jordan Ayoub101@hotmail.com E_case Society (President) www.energyjo.com [Extract]
“……2- Health Risk Analysis
If “risk” is defined as the product of probability of an accident happening with its severity, we ought to start this title by considering first major commercial nuclear accidents of level 7 on the INES scale, as a priority in analysis, so we must consider 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe where “Emissions from Chernobyl reactor exceeded a hundredfold the radioactive contamination of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki”(10).
The latest New York Academy report on Chernobyl catastrophe has published horrendous facts of more than a million causalities; the new book concludes: Chernobyl death toll: 985,000, mostly from cancer (11). A paper by Kristina Voigt and Hagen Scherb also showed that after 1986, in the aftermath of Chernobyl, around 800,000 fewer children were born in Europe than one might have expected. The overall number of “missing” children after Chernobyl could have reached about one million (12); not to mention that the researchers have not covered all countries in their count!
According to UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation), adding to the latter casualties, between 12,000 and 83,000 children who lived in the vicinity of Chernobyl were born with congenital deformations, and also estimate that around 30,000 to 207,000 genetically damaged children were born worldwide (13). Amongst the interesting findings was that only 10% of the overall expected damage was actually seen in the first generation; the worse is yet to come with the offspring. A similar research on butterflies around Fukushima has yielded a similar result which will be discussed later.
As for the level 6 on the INES scale, it is classified as a serious nuclear accident that includes the accident at the Kyshtym facility in Russia in 1957, unfortunately not much research was published! on level 5, accidents with wider consequences include United Kingdom Windscale facility in the year 1957, Chalk River – Canada in 1952 and the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, after which the USA only licensed few new reactors; At present, only three nuclear reactors are being constructed in the United States: Watts Bar 2 reactor (1180 MW) which started decades ago, and was put on hold till 2007, expected by the IAEA to commercially operate in 2015. Another two reactors; vogtle 3 and Summer 2 of 1200 MW each, are expected to operate in 2017(14).
The Fukushima-Daitii nuclear accident in Japan on March 2011 is also classified as level 5. However, nuclear accidents of level 4 with local consequences include a long list, so are levels 4,3,2 and 1; a non-ending list of accidents(15).
In one year only (2008), according to an IRSN report, 205 accidents were recorded in nuclear facilities (safety and environmental), a noticeable 56% increase compared to the accidents recorded in 2005 which accounted for 131 accidents only. A typical example of those accidents is the leakage of 20 m3 of radioactive water from Socatri facility at Tricastin – France. Some of the radioactive water followed rain water drainage into the eco-system while the rest radioactive water seeped underground polluting the soil and under-ground water aquifers (16).
Since March 2011 funds of hundreds of billions of dollars are being allocated by TEPCO, the Tokyo Electricity Company, as to cover for the direct damages of the Fukushima disaster; however, the scale of damage on biodiversity and genetic disorders is not clearly understood.
The early mutations of butterflies around Fukushima are alarming as the mutations disorders have been increasing with the offspring. Mutations caused by Fukushima disaster radiation had affected 12% of adult pale grass blue butterflies in the surrounding area two months after the March 2011 disaster. When that batch mated, it produced an offspring with an 18% mutation rate. In the following generation, mutations were found in 34% of the butterflies born. In September 2011, a new study disclosed that the adult butterflies displayed 28% mutation rate and their offspring had a whopping 58% mutation rate (17).
In a similar study on mice after 25 years of the Chernobyl catastrophe, it yielded the following outcome: “The rate of mutation amongst the field mice is one hundred thousand times higher than normal” (18).
Another environmental damage connected with the nuclear industry is thermal pollution which is basically the form of water pollution that refers to degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature. The main cause of thermal pollution is attributed to one particular industry, or to be more precise to nuclear power plants that use water as a coolant. After this water has been used as a coolant it is returned to the natural environment at a higher temperature. This change in water temperature decreases the amount of oxygen in the water which can lead to negative ecological effects.
Less oxygen in the water can harm fish population, as it can increase the metabolic rate of fish population and other aquatic animals so that they would more likely eat a lot more food in a shorter period of time than if their environment was not changed. This change can lead to imbalance in the food chain, thus resulting in significant long-term damage to many aquatic ecosystems.
Warmer water temperatures are known to lead to reproduction problems for many aquatic animals, and can further cause huge bacteria and plant growth. Warmer waters can even lead to algae bloom resulting in a consequent loss of more oxygen in the water. However, this damage is likely to be ethically benign compared to the mutations that result from radioactivity.
As for the effects of radioactivity on humans, scientists from the universities of Moscow and Leicester examined blood samples from 79 families, the parents of who had been living within a 300 km radius of nuclear reactors. The scientists were surprised by children born between February and September 1994 as cases of mutations had doubled (19). Peter karamoskos, a nuclear radiologist, quotes the following: “There is a linear dose-response relationship between exposure to ionizing radiation and the development of solid cancers in humans. It is unlikely that there is a threshold below which cancers are not induced”(20). Radiation can cause the breakdown in chromosomes, causing Down’s syndrome in babies as well as mental and physical disorders. Children exposed to radiation have a higher risk to develop leukemia (21).
Higher incidence of leukemia in UK children has been reported in the environment of the Sellafield (Windscale) fuel reprocessing facility in England (22-23), not far from the Dounreay reprocessing plant in Scotland (24-25), and also in similar children who lived within a few kilometers from the Aldermaston or Burghfield military weapons facilities in England (26). In a comprehensive survey done by Forman et al(27) and Cook-Mozaffari et al (28-29) reported excess mortality rate due to leukemia and Hodgkin’s disease particularly in young persons living in the vicinity of fourteen nuclear facilities, eight of them electricity generating nuclear plants.
In the United Kingdom, studies of populations living near nuclear power plants have yielded mixed results. Ewings et al (30) found increased incidence of leukemia and lymphoma in young persons near the Hinckley Point power station. Clap et al (31) reported an excess incidence of leukemia in men in five towns near the Pilgrim nuclear power station in Massachusetts.
Free Julian Assange, before it’s too late. Sign to STOP the USA Extradition
Make a submission about the radioactive waste dump!
The Federal Government wants to put a National Radioactive Waste Facility in Kimba or the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. The Department is calling for submissions and says these will be “one of the factors the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia may take into account when determining broad community support for the Facility.” If you live outside the ballot area, a submission is the only way to have your say! It only takes a minute to voice your opposition – use our online proforma submission and add whatever comments you like.
Submissions can be made by: Email: radioactivewaste@industry.gov.au Post: The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. National Radioactive Waste Section. GPO Box 2013, Canberra ACT 2601| More information
FEDERAL. Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia Read the published submissions on the Parliamentary website. Read the SUMMARIES of submissions here.
