Toxic spill might raise insurance costs for uranium transport from planned BHP new mine
it was unclear whether the incident would raise premiums for miners
By far the biggest user of the railway will be BHP Billiton, which, if it approves its expected expansion of the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia, will run a train a day from the mine to Darwin. …..
OZ Minerals’ insurance claim for derailment loss may face complication over pollution BY: MATT CHAMBERS The Australian January 02, 2012 OZ Minerals may recoup through insurance some of the losses from the up to 1200 tonnes of copper concentrate that disappeared into the Northern Territory’s Edith River last week after a train derailed. In an announcement to the stock exchange on Thursday, OZ said the value of the lost concentrates was between $US7 million ($6.85m) and $US8m, or about 4 per cent of its 2010-11 underlying net profit of $189m. Continue reading
Northern Territory train derailment raises danger of uranium transport in tropical weather
Audio Questions raised over toxic goods transport in the Northern Territory ABC Radio AM December 29, 2011 While government officials are investigating the cause and the environmental impact of a serious train derailment in the Northern Territory, a Territory Environment group has raised questions over the safety of transporting uranium in tropical weather conditions.
Michael Coggan MICHAEL COGGAN: Forty-eight hours after floodwaters swept part of a large freight train into the Edith River and cut off the Stuart Highway north of the Top End town of Katherine, several investigations are underway into the cause of the train derailment and the environmental impact of tonnes of copper concentrate spilled into the flooded Edith River from the freight train.
Jim Grant is the head of the Northern Territory Environment Department. JIM GRANT: Well it’s not a highly toxic substance but it’s not to be ingested or inhaled. We think it’s washed all over the place…..
MICHAEL COGGAN: Environment Centre director Stuart Blanch says the accident shows why dangerous goods including uranium oxide should not be carried on the Alice Springs to Darwin railway.
STUART BLANCH: A much bigger risk to Top End rivers would be derailment of trains carrying uranium oxide from the Roxby Uranium Mine in South Australia. The Territory Government should call a halt on approving the transport of more and more trains of uranium oxide up to Port Darwin until there are really adequate, safe measures in place to stop such a derailment ever happening with uranium on the track.
MICHAEL COGGAN: But Chief Minister Paul Henderson doesn’t want to speculate about the implications for the transport of uranium in the Northern Territory…. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-29/questions-raised-over-toxic-goods-transport-in-the/3750842?section=nt
Australian government’s planned nuclear waste dump breaks international safety standards
The government’s policy on the most hazardous radioactive waste is to store it in a large above-ground warehouse — indefinitely!
Contrary to the government spin therefore, the Federal Government’s policy on radioactive waste management is not a disposal solution to the most hazardous form of radioactive waste in Australia. This places the Australian Government in breach of its international treaty obligations, but, more importantly, does not eliminate the risks to humans and the environment.
Australia’s lazy plan to dump nuclear wastes – `Solution’ brings more problems By DR PETER KARAMOSKOS Northern Territory News 10 Dec 11 THE proposed radioactive waste repository at Muckaty was determined less on scientific and public health criteria and more on opportunity. Indeed, Muckaty was not even identified as a preferred site in the NT in the original site selection process.
But the contention that is most in error is that the radioactive waste to be disposed of there is largely nuclear medicine waste. Nearly all such waste is actually short-lived and decays in local storage, and is subsequently disposed of safely without need for a repository.
While some medical-related radioactive waste requires appropriate disposal, it is only a very small proportion of the waste intended for the repository. The vast bulk of the waste that is intended to be disposed of at Muckaty is Lucas Heights nuclear reactor operational waste, and contaminated soil (10,000 drums) from CSIRO research on ore processing in the 1950s and 1960s. This waste requires isolation from the environment for up to 300 years (deemed low-level waste).
More hazardous waste (deemed intermediate level waste) arises from further Lucas Heights reactor operational waste, reprocessed spent fuel rods and residues from mineral sands processing. Intermediate-level waste requires isolation from the environment for thousands of years, most usually in an engineered disposal site up to a few hundred metres underground, as specified by the “Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of
Radioactive Waste Management” a legally binding treaty of which Australia is a signatory. We also participate in the development of these international safety standards. Continue reading
Aboriginal homelands vulnerable to land grab, as Northern Territory Intervention is widened
As part of the 2007 “intervention” legislation, Aboriginal land granted under the 1976 Land Rights Act was compulsorily acquired by the government through five-year leases. These will be replaced with “voluntary” forty-year leases that remove all previous restrictions on how town camp and “Community Living” land could be used.
Over the past four years the government has attempted to press local communities to sign long-term leases by cutting funds for essential services to the homeland communities.
Australia: Labor to extend NT “intervention” for a decade, World Socialist Website, By Susan Allan, 12 December 2011 The Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard is intensifying its social austerity cutbacks with a raft of proposed new laws that continue the Northern Territory (NT) “intervention” for another ten years and expand its punitive measures to include all welfare recipients, indigenous and non-indigenous alike, Australia-wide. Continue reading
Australia’s Northern Territory allows free groundwater to mining companies, not to any other users!
Mataranka residents surprised by mining’s right to ground water, ABC Rural News, By Steven Schubert, 02/12/2011 Members of a committee formed to develop a water plan for the Northern Territory town of Mataranka say they were never told mining operations could gain unrestricted access to ground water.
Mining operations don’t require a licence from the water controller under the NT Water Act, while other users have to apply for an allocation of ground water. Committee member Hamish McFarlane says if a mining project is formed near the town, there could be less water for irrigators and other users.
“Keeping in mind that you said before that the Water Act gives priority to mining, if a mining company came in here at this point in time and took the consumptive pool there would be no growth in Mataranka outside the mining industry.”… http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201112/s3382086.htm
Australian government policies force Aborigines off homelands (convenient for the nuclear industry)
As Amnesty International has noted, the Government has decided to direct virtually all funding and investment in the Northern Territory to 21 “growth towns”. Thus, the 500 communities, which have about 35 per cent of the NT’s Indigenous population, were allocated $7.1 million out of the $672 million housing program. They note that “the Commonwealth Government has transferred the responsibility for homelands to the Northern Territory Government, whose own policy
clearly states no new homes on homelands in the Northern Territory”.
The result will be to force Indigenous communities from the land that has “social, cultural and economic significance to them”.
Destroying Indigenous communities and cultures, The Drum, Michael Brull , 1 Dec 11, Jenny Macklin has just delivered her second reading speech for the new intervention legislation. She had sought to soften the ground for this by announcing the new “evidence” which she claimed vindicated her measures, in the absence of any evidence of improving socio-economic conditions. Continue reading
Doctors say Alice Springs at risk from transport of radioactive waste:
Alice Springs, 28
November 2010: An Alice Springs-based team of doctors has completed a study of the potential risks of transport of radioactive waste materials, and has launched a fact sheet to explain the findings. Co-author, MAPW member Dr Tom Keaney, believes that this work is timely, with the proposed waste repository at Muckaty currently the subject of a major national debate.
- Read the MAPW Fact Sheet on transport of radioactive waste
- Read the media release by MAPW Northern Territory Branch
- Read the MAPW fact sheet: Q&A on the nuclear waste – explaining what it is planned to bury, or store, at the Muckaty site. http://www.mapw.org.au/news/alice-springs-risk-transport-radioactive-waste-mapw-nt-members
Non Government Organisations support Aboriginals, urge repeal of punitive Intervention legislation
“The compulsory nature of income management and its blanket imposition (in combination with other changes, such as local government reform, shire amalgamations and losses of local councils; changes to CDEP; the loss of the permit system; and changes in land tenure) are likely to have contributed to people’s feeling of a loss of freedom, empowerment and community control.”.
Aboriginals of Australia: NGOs Urge Government to Repeal Intervention Legislation Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) 26 Nov 11 Despite government-sanctioned reports that ‘welfare quarantining’ has resulted in the disenfranchisement of indigenous communities in their own affairs, Canberra has voted to extend the legislation. NGOs are particularly concerned with the development of a measure which would suspend welfare payments to parents whose children exhibit recidivism in low school attendance. Continue reading
An unexpected green upside to new USA military base in Australia?
When the case for renewables is made on the grounds of national security, the arguments of climate denialists and delay merchants are bombed back to the Stone Age. ….
as the U.S. Marine Corps demonstrates, energy conservation and renewable energy are now critical national security concerns.
Will President Obama Send Green Marines to Darwin?, Renewable Energy World, By Dan Cass ,November 18, 2011 President Barack Obama was in Australia this week and upset China and Indonesia with the annoucement of an increased military presence in this country, including 2500 US Marines to train and provision equipment in Darwin.
When the U.S. Marine Corp establish themselves a new home in Darwin, they will bring some seriously green equipment and ideas to our shores. This is because in the three years of his Presidency, Barack Obama has actively led the U.S. Department of Defense to embrace renewable energy and a strategic awareness of climate change…. Continue reading
Australia: Northern Territory Government tries to shut down protest against uranium transport
Protesters air uranium transport fears, ABC News, 17 Nov 11 The Northern Territory Government has tried to shut down a protest in Alice Springs. People were meeting to protest about the increased uranium that will pass through the town if the South Australian Olympic Dam is expanded.
The protest comes as dam developers BHP Billiton holds its annual general meeting in Melbourne today. Protester Lauren Mellor says she feels people do not know about the extra uranium that will be travelling through the town.
“We’re protesting here today for the specific reason of the transport risks to people who are along this rail line that the radioactive ore will be carried on up to Darwin,” she said.”So here in Alice Springs we’re at the intersection where this radioactive ore, two trains a day will be coming through our town and putting the lives of people here at risk and also the environment in Alice Springs.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-17/protesters-air-uranium-transport-fears/3677478
The dangers of U.S. nuclear powered ships, military equipment, in Darwin
Weigh up all the costs of greater US defence role SMH, Jan Thornley, 14 Nov 11 Your [Sydney Morning Herald’s] front page juxtaposition of disturbing information on the continuing radioactive contamination at Maralinga and the imminent announcement of the US military expanding its presence in Australia should be a warning to us all (”Greens fury at US build-up”, ”Ten years after the all-clear, Maralinga is still toxic”, November 12-13).
Fifty-five years ago we allowed British nuclear weapons tests on Australian soil, which has left this toxic, dangerous legacy for the health of people and the environment. We should be aware of the cloak of secrecy and lack of debate that surrounded the planning and decision making for this sorry chapter in our history. We are entitled to open and transparent information of all potential risks Australia may face by hosting US defence personnel and equipment at facilities here.
Questions must be answered – for example, on the inherent dangers of nuclear-powered and armed vessels in our ports; uranium-based munitions for aircraft and tanks; the use of hazardous depleted uranium weaponry, and the possible adverse effects and ecological harm of the American military escalation in Australia. These questions should be vigorously debated in our Parliament and media as part of an informed, democratic process. http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/iran-a-tragedy-of-the-wests-own-making-20111113-1ndx3.html#ixzz1djIWVyRf
Indonesia not happy about planned big USA military base in Darwin
”Psychologically, it is not easy to have such a big presence on the doorstep, people in Indonesia still look at Australia with suspicion about hidden motives,”
Indonesia wants answers on US military plans, The Age, Daniel Flitton and Jessica Wright, November 12 2011 INDONESIA will seek an urgent explanation from Prime Minister Julia Gillard about plans to station US marines in Darwin, questioning the need for a military build-up on the country’s doorstep. Continue reading
Australia needing protection from nuclear China? – but keen to sell uranium to China
Hey China, come get our uranium, Northern Territory News, DAVID WOOD | November 8th, 2011 TERRITORY Resources Minister Kon Vatskalis has told Chinese mining conference delegates there were many uranium mining investment opportunities in the Territory for the next decade…..
Mr Vatskalis said since the start of a government strategy to increase Chinese investment, there had been 16 agreements signed between Chinese and Territory companies and 53 exploration licences granted to Chinese exploration companies with $157 million in publicly announced deals.
There have been 21 Chinese companies investment in exploration and mining in the Territory…
He said that there was great potential for uranium mines, with a prime example being a majority equity investment in the Energy Metal Bigrlyi project in the Ngalia Central Australian mine by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group…..
http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2011/11/08/271261_nt-business.html
While USA sells nuclear technology to China, Australia gets USA military base against China
The full range of U.S. naval ships is expected to rotate through the joint facilities, stopping for exercises as well as repairs and other shore work. Naval aircraft also will have access to a base in Darwin.
The increased U.S. presence will be a rotating force, one person said. In September, Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the enhance cooperation would be “more ships in, ships out; more planes in, planes out; more troops in, troops out.”….
U.S. to Build Up Military in Australia, WSJ, By LAURA MECKLER, WASHINGTON, 12 Nov 11—President Barack Obama will announce an accord for a new and permanent U.S. military presence in Australia when he visits next week, a step aimed at countering China’s influence and reasserting U.S. interest in the region, said people familiar with his plans. Continue reading
Anti nuclear protest against Obama at Darwin, Australia
Local activists plan Obama protest News.com.au 10 Nov 11 LOCAL activists angry at
US military bases in Australia are planning to protest US President Barack Obama’s trip to Darwin next week. Justin Tutty from Darwin Residents Against War says he expects at least 20 locals to stage a peaceful protest near Parliament when Mr Obama arrives on Thursday.
“Our message is that we don’t want US bases, we don’t want US nuclear warships in Darwin Harbour and we don’t want US troops in Darwin,” Mr Tutty said. There has been speculation Mr Obama will use the visit to make an announcement relating to increasing the US military presence in the Northern Territory.
Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith recently foreshadowed increasing the number of joint training exercises with America in Darwin and the US storing more equipment in the city for disaster and humanitarian assistance.
Already the US and Australia jointly run the Pine Gap spy base near Alice Springs in the Northern
Territory. Mr Tutty said there was little information about what a greater US presence in Northern Territory would mean.
“They have talked about a pre-positioning base and we are very sceptical about the nature of the base because of all the lies we have been told about Pine Gap,” Mr Tutty said.”For so many years they told us that Pine Gap was a communications base, but in the last few years it has come out about its offensive role and it was used to direct dozens of attacks on Iraq.” http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/local-activists-plan-obama-protest/story-e6frfku9-1226190123963#ixzz1dLAjnMoG
1 This month
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