Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items

Businesses and State governments lead the transition to renewable energy

Guardian 26th Oct 2020, Future historians will no doubt remember 2020 as the year of Covid-19. But according to veteran climate campaigner Bill McKibben, they may also view it as a turning point, the year the world moved decisively towards “the transition everyone knew we needed to make”. McKibben told the recent Global Smart Energy Summit 2020 has been a year of “extraordinary convergence”, from the images of Australia’s bushfires, seen around the world on New Year’s Day – “like something out of Hieronymus Bosch” – to unprecedented developments such as China’s commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2060, the EU’s pledge to make its Green Deal and Є100bn Just Transition Fund the centrepiece of post-Covid recovery, and the US $15tn divested from fossil fuels.

Closer to home, there’s extraordinary convergence between business and state governments on the need to speed up Australia’s energy transition.

Tim Reed, president of the Business Council of Australia, wants a “national, bipartisan commitment to net zero emissions by 2050”. Most states have already made this commitment, and South Australia is leading the pack. The state’s energy and mining minister, Dan van Holst Pellekaan, says SA will aim for 100% net renewable generation by 2030. Rapidly expanding wind, solar and battery storage capacity in SA’s Upper Spencer Gulf region will play a key role in achieving that aim.

But energy transitions are not just about panels, turbines and targets. They’re processes of social as well as technological change. Unless local people see jobs and other benefits for their communities, there’s a danger support will falter, and the legitimacy of Australia’s energy transition will be undermined.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/26/as-south-australia-now-knows-local-jobs-must-be-a-priority-in-the-clean-energy-transition

October 27, 2020 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy | Leave a comment

South Australia’s global milestone -100 per cent of energy demand met by solar panels alone

October 27, 2020 Posted by | solar, South Australia | Leave a comment

The pandemic and the prospect of zero interest present a massive opportunity for clean energy development.

October 27, 2020 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy | Leave a comment

As coronavirus cases plummet, it’s time to ask: Is Australia ready for the third wave?

“They are so beaten up by the lockdowns and by the fear messages that they are saying “I don’t want to do anything”.”

Yet notwithstanding the testing, the tracing, the social distancing, masking, mathematical modelling, quarantining and investment in public health, Australians will continue to live with COVID-19 for the foreseeable future.

As coronavirus cases plummet, it’s time to ask: Is Australia ready for the third wave?  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-25/coronavirus-preparing-for-the-third-wave/12802070 By Catherine Taylor

An uncomfortable question looms over Australia’s steady exit from its second major outbreak of coronavirus: are we ready for the third wave?

Health experts say it’s a question with an equally uncomfortable answer: a third wave remains a real threat and without a tested vaccine all we have is our self-control, and luck, standing between us and a fresh outbreak.

“We should not expect that we can beat this wave, and then it’s done. It’s the beginning of the next phase,” says Professor Jodie McVernon, an expert in epidemiology, vaccinology and public health at the Doherty Institute, who has been working in isolation for months “like a princess in a castle” from the front room of her Melbourne home.

Professor Raina MacIntyre — head of the Kirby Institute’s biosecurity program — goes further: “The only really feasible exit strategy at this stage is vaccination otherwise we’ll continue to face the risk of third, fourth, fifth and sixth waves.

There is a recipe for reducing risk

Continue reading →

October 25, 2020 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, health | Leave a comment

Australia’s submarine deal with a corrupt French company

 

Meanwhile, in Australia, the submarine deal continues. In February last year, after two years of negotiations, the government signed a ‘strategic partnership agreement’ with Naval Group. The signing took place despite the emergence of two more investigations into Naval, including alleged corruption on a 2009 submarine deal with Brazil and a significant security breach where complete plans of the new Scorpène submarines Naval had provided to India were apparently leaked from within Naval. 

Strong anti-corruption measures essential

Vast amounts of Australian taxpayers’ money are being handed to military industrial companies, including Naval Group, in contracts. Yet the perennial lack of transparency in defence procurement, blanket secrecy surrounding Australian weapons exports, and a pervasive “culture of cosiness” between government and industry all continue.

October 24, 2020 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics international, secrets and lies | Leave a comment

Nuclear waste storage in Australia

Japan plans to dump a million tonnes of radioactive water into the Pacific. But Australia has nuclear waste problems, too   The Conversation,October 23, 2020  Tilman Ruff. Associate Professor, Education and Learning Unit, Nossal Institute for Global Health, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Margaret Beavis,  Tutor Principles of Clinical Practice Melbourne Medical School .  

 

October 24, 2020 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, Federal nuclear waste dump | Leave a comment

BHP’s rejection of uranium is a sign of the future

Wire 21st Oct 2020, The news this week that mining giant BHP will not continue with its long planned multi-billion dollar expansion of its Olympic Dam uranium and copper project is a sign that the market is turning against the controversial mineral.

It spells good news for the future of renewables but leaves the problem of leftover radioactive waste at Olympic Dam. There is no decision to change tack and mine the many many rare earths which also exist at the site.

http://thewire.org.au/story/bhps-rejection-of-uranium-a-sign-of-the-future/

October 24, 2020 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, uranium | Leave a comment

South Australian Parliament rejected Kimba nuclear waste dump, but Morrison govt could still impose it

It sounds good that this Motion passed  in SA Parliament Legislative Council – credit to Mark Parnell MLC & SA Greens.

This ‘No Nuclear Waste Dump in SA’ Motion passed with Greens, ALP and SA Best support (State Liberal gov opposed the Motion).
The Motion opposes a Nuclear Waste Dump at Kimba or anywhere else in South Australia and commits support to the integrity of the SA Nuclear Prohibition legislation”.
BUT –

Even though Mark Parnell’s motion in the South Australian Parliament was successful last week it may be an illusory outcome as it seems that the Commonwealth government will have the constitutional superiority to override state laws with regard to the nuclear waste facility at Kimba

This is because the Commonwealth will rely on the free trade provision under section 92 of the Constitution as to the transport interstate of the nuclear waste while its storage and disposal falls under the external affairs power of section 51(xxix) as the safe management and disposal of nuclear waste is regulated under international convention and treaty rights

Regrettably the High Court in recent years has based many of its decisions rejecting state legislation on a broad interpretation of the external affairs power which in some circumstances has lead to virtually nonsensical conclusions

For this reason it is still essential to prevent the government’s proposals being carried out by legislative action

October 22, 2020 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, Federal nuclear waste dump | Leave a comment

The Guardian was grossly unfair to Julian Assange. They could still make up for this.

The Guardian’s Silence Let UK Trample on Assange’s Rights in Effective Darkness  https://consortiumnews.com/2020/10/21/the-guardians-silence-let-uk-trample-on-assanges-rights-in-effective-darkness/?fbclid=IwAR16w5kNgLGJ3jyFI6QvKZmxJ5tn_LjZcD90a7FOG-ZQ8jaGzUYKlhnRT8M

October 21, 2020  On the eve of a demonstration outside the paper’s office in London, Jonathan Cook issues a statement about The Guardian’s abandonment of its former media partner.  By Jonathan Cook

Jonathan-Cook.net   WISE Up, a solidarity group for Julian Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning, is due to stage a demonstration outside The Guardian offices on Oct. 22 to protest the paper’s failure to support Assange as the U.S. seeks his extradition in an unprecedented assault on press freedom.

The date chosen for the protest marks the 10th anniversary of The Guardian’s publication of the Iraq war logs, leaked by Manning to Assange and which lie at the heart of the U.S. case to reclassify journalism exposing crimes against humanity as “espionage.”

Here is my full statement, part of which is due to be read out, in support of Assange and castigating The Guardian for its craven failure to speak up in solidarity with its former media partner:  

Julian Assange has been hounded out of public life and public view by the U.K.  and U.S.  governments for the best part of a decade.

Now he languishes in a small, airless cell in Belmarsh high-security prison in London — a victim of arbitrary detention, according to a UN working group, and a victim of psychological torture, according to Nils Melzer, the UN’s expert on torture.

If Judge Vanessa Baraitser, presiding in the Central Criminal Court in London, agrees to extradition, as she gives every appearance of preparing to do, Assange will be the first journalist to face a terrifying new ordeal — a form of extraordinary rendition to the United States for “espionage” — for having the courage to publish documents that exposed U.S.  war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Guardian worked with Assange and WikiLeaks on vitally important documents – now at the heart of the U.S.  case against Assange – known as the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs. The latter were published exactly a decade ago today. They were a journalistic coup of global significance, and the paper ought to be profoundly proud of its role in bringing them to public attention.

During Assange’s extradition hearing, however, The Guardian treated the logs and its past association with Assange and WikiLeaks more like a dirty secret it hoped to keep out of sight. Those scoops furnished by Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning enriched the paper financially, and bolstered its standing internationally. They also helped to pave its path into the lucrative U.S.  market.

Unlike Assange and Manning, The Guardian has suffered no consequences for publishing the logs. Unlike Assange and Manning, the paper has faced no retribution. While it profited, Assange continues to be made an example of — to deter other journalists from contemplating following in his footsteps.

The Guardian owes Assange.

  • It owes him a huge debt for allowing it to share in the journalistic glory of WikiLeaks’ revelations.
  • It owes him a duty of care as its partner in publishing the logs.
  • It owes him its voice loudly denouncing the abuse of a fellow journalist for doing the essence of journalism — holding the powerful to account.
  • It owes him and its own staff, and the young journalists who will one day take their place, its muscle in vigorously defending the principle of a strong and free press.
  • It owes him, and the rest of us, a clear profession of its outrage as the U.S. conducts an unprecedented assault on free speech, the foundation of a democratic society.

And yet The Guardian has barely raised its voice above a whisper as the noose has tightened around Assange’s — and by extension, our — neck. It has barely bothered to cover the dramatic and deeply disturbing developments of last month’s extradition hearing, or the blatant abuses of legal process overseen by Baraitser.

The Guardian has failed to raise its editorial voice in condemnation either of the patently dishonest U.S.  case for extradition or of the undisguised mistreatment of Assange by Britain’s legal and judicial authorities.

The paper’s many columnists ignored the proceedings too, except for those who contributed yet more snide and personal attacks of the kind that have typified The Guardian’s coverage of Assange for many years.

It is not too late for the paper to act in defence of Assange and journalism.

Assange’s rights are being trampled under foot close by The Guardian’s offices in London because the British establishment knows that these abuses are taking place effectively in darkness. It has nothing to fear as long as the media abdicates its responsibility to scrutinize what amounts to the biggest attack on journalism in living memory.

Were The Guardian to shine a light on Assange’s case — as it is morally obligated to do — the pressure would build on other media organizations, not least the BBC, to do their job properly too. The British establishment would finally face a countervailing pressure to the one being exerted so forcefully by the U.S.

The Guardian should have stood up for Assange long ago, when the threats he and investigative journalism faced became unmistakable. It missed that opportunity. But the threats to Assange — and the causes of transparency and accountability he champions — have not gone away. They have only intensified. Assange needs the Guardian’s support more urgently, more desperately than ever before.

Jonathan Cook is a former Guardian journalist (1994-2001) and winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. He is a freelance journalist based in Nazareth. If you appreciate his articles, please consider offering your financial support.

This article is from his blog Jonathan Cook.net. 

October 22, 2020 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, civil liberties, media | Leave a comment

OLympic Dam uranium mine – NOT the great white hope for South Australia

The Olympic Dam silver bullet is forever tarnished

 “From the BHP side BFX is dead and buried… I suggest a new name: “OD-PERHAPS” for short.”

It’s time to stop looking to one mine in the state’s Far North for the answer to our economic problems

BHP, and our politicians, should be wary of rolling out the “expansion” tag to a state weary of spin around Olympic Dam, writes Business Editor Cameron England.

Cameron England, Business Editor, The Advertiser, October 20, 2020 ,

South Australians can take today’s announcement from BHP that its expansion plans have been shelved again as a signal that it’s time to step off the Olympic Dam silver bullet train once and for all…………

hanging our hopes on a big bang – or even a small bang – expansion of the project as a pivotal turning point for the state’s economy is a fool’s game.

The initial $30 billion open pit expansion – which was shelved in 2012 – would genuinely have been a game-changer for the state.

It included plans for an open pit bigger than the Adelaide CBD, new ports, and a surge in annual royalties for the State Government. But it was not to be.

The BFX expansion – which was shelved today – was a more modest $3.7 billion proposal, and while the spending would have been a boon to the state, it alone would have not moved the dial in a significant way for the state’s economy.

A broadbased approach, based around SA being a great place to do business – which the government is actually pursuing – stands a better chance of being the tide which lifts all boats.

Unfortunately the idea of an Olympic Dam expansion seems to be enough to make state ministers lose their equilibrium.

Back in 2011, former Infrastructure Minster Pat Conlon, with the caveat that it wasn’t his decision to make, declared the project a “goer” and said “I can tell you, having been regularly updated by my colleague Kevin Foley, Olympic Dam is a goer, it will get a sign-off.

“I’m very, very confident we’ll start up soon.’’

It didn’t of course.

And now current Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan says, similar to the results from Pantene, it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen…..

From the BHP side BFX is dead and buried, although they are committed to an incremental $500 million smelter maintenance plan and do want to gradually increase production.

But what most people would understand is an “expansion plan” is off the cards for now.

BHP needs to learn to manage expectations around this project, in a state which does have a tendency to hope for silver bullet solutions.

They’re between a rock and a hard place with their obligation to keep investors up to date, and not get people too excited with projects that invariably have billion dollar price tags attached.

I suggest a new name: the Olympic Dam Project Evaluation, Risk, Holistic Analysis and Potential Scheme – or “OD-PERHAPS” for short.

 

October 22, 2020 Posted by | South Australia, uranium | Leave a comment

Kimba residents have been sold a lemon – dubious financial gain from nuclear waste dump

Sandra Kanck  Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch Australia, 22 Oct 20,

In The Saturday Paper 8/2/20 an article by Royce Kurmelovs about the Kimba nuclear waste dump was published.
Looking at it more than eight months on a couple of things stand out:
a) At that time $55 million had already been spent to ‘find a site and build community support’; and
b) Another $31m has been promised as part of a Community Benefit Scheme.
Two questions arise for me.
Who in the community has benefited from that initial spend of $55m? Shared round the community (except of course for the indigenous landholders who were deliberately excluded from the consultation), that’s roughly $88,000 per Kimba resident. However I suspect Kimba residents did not benefit, rather it was interstate consultants.
The promised extra $31m will not be made available until after the dump has been constructed. With a record federal budget deficit, what are the chances now of taxpayer money being directed towards this construction?
Maybe Kimba residents have been sold a pup.

October 22, 2020 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, Federal nuclear waste dump | Leave a comment

How ANSTO’s Synroc nuclear waste solution turned out to be a dud

October 22, 2020 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, technology | Leave a comment

Energy giant Engie supercharges green city development with support for EVs, hydrogen transport

Renew Economy 21st Oct 2020, French energy giant Engie backs Greater Springfield development, aiming to be ‘world’s greenest city’, with zero emissions transport plan. The post Energy giant Engie supercharges green city development with support for EVs, hydrogen transport appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A new city being developed in south-east Queensland aiming to become one of
the world’s greenest is set to get a boost, with a new roadmap launched with the backing of one of the world’s largest energy companies.

Greater Springfield, which is located around 30km south-west of Brisbane and has
grown to a population of 45,000 has released a new master plan that will see electric vehicle charging infrastructure and a hydrogen fuelled bus network rolled out, in an effort to create the ‘world’s greenest city’ by 2038.

The city is one of Australia’s largest privately funded city developments, including a mix of residential and business districts, and has attracted a campus of the University of Southern Queensland.
Energy giant Engie supercharges green city development with support for EVs, hydrogen transport — RenewEconomy

October 22, 2020 Posted by | energy, Queensland | Leave a comment

Kevin Rudd’s vision for a green recovery out of the pandemic

New jobs, new industries, new wealth’: Kevin Rudd’s vision for a green recovery out of the pandemic

Former PM says Australia risks becoming ‘the complacent country’ and could suffer another recession if it remains tied to fossil fuels, Guardian,    Adam Morton Environment editor @adamlmorton, Tue 20 Oct 2020 Kevin Rudd has called for solar panels to be made compulsory on all new buildings and increased incentives to be offered to households that do not yet have them as part of a “genuinely green recovery” from recession.

Speaking at an Australian National University event on Monday, the former prime minister repeated his 2007 declaration that climate change was the “great moral challenge of our time” and accused the Morrison government of putting jobs and long-term living standards at risk by failing to deal with the issue as promised under the Paris agreement.

Rudd said the government could have used the coronavirus pandemic as a spur to accelerate the shift to becoming a zero emissions economy, but had instead used it as an excuse to delay action further. It was evidence Australia had become “the complacent country” on the issue despite the experience of last summer’s catastrophic bushfires, he said.

“Besides the United States under [Donald] Trump and Brazil under [Jair] Bolsonaro, we in Australia are the only major economy that does not take the need for action on climate change seriously. Nor do we recognise the economic opportunities that will come with that action. I would argue this is bad company to keep,” Rudd said as part of his keynote address at the Wilson Dialogue.

“I fear that seeking to untangle our carbon-intensive economy much later than the rest of the world could in fact be what causes the next recession in Australia as the global economy increasingly walks away from fossil fuel dependency.”

Rudd said his vision for a green recovery from the pandemic included large-scale investment in renewable energy to position as a clean energy superpower, saying there was evidence it could create “new jobs, new industries, new wealth” while providing clean energy at home and creating clean energy technology that could be exported……….

In his speech, Rudd urged people to “launch, collectively, a national fusillade against the Murdoch media”, which he said had been the “echo-chamber of climate change denialism for the best part of a decade”.  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/20/new-jobs-new-industries-new-wealth-kevin-rudds-vision-for-a-green-recovery-out-of-the-pandemic

October 22, 2020 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, energy | Leave a comment

Uranium: the mineral that never made sense now doesn’t even make dollars

Uranium: the mineral that never made sense now doesn’t even make dollars, 20 Oct 20,  News that BHP, the world’s biggest mining company, will not continue with the long planned multi-billion dollar expansion of its Olympic Dam uranium and copper project shows the clock is ticking on uranium, the Australian Conservation Foundation said today.

The planned expansion of the mine in northern South Australia enjoyed strong state and federal government support and was on Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s recent list of major projects to be fast-tracked.

“This move is further evidence of the deep market malaise surrounding uranium operations,” said Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Dave Sweeney.

“Today’s announcement shows that political access, spin and favours cannot change the realities of an ore body or the global commodity market.

“BHP has made a basic, hard-headed business decision not to proceed with this project.

“The global uranium price has been hammered since the Fukushima nuclear disaster and it is unlikely to improve. The sector has scant social license and is increasingly embattled.

“Today’s decision by BHP, coupled with Rio Tinto’s exit from operations at the Ranger mine in Kakadu, shows the clock is ticking on uranium, the asbestos of the 21st Century.

“South Australia’s energy, employment and economic options should not be tied to a continued dependence on high impact, low certainty resource projects.

“South Australia is well placed to lead the nation in renewable energy tools, technology and thinking.

“This decision may be the pivot needed to shift to a secure, sustainable contemporary economy.”

For context or comment contact Dave Sweeney on 0408 317 812

October 20, 2020 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, business, uranium | Leave a comment