Hawker community given telecommunications bribe, BUT THEY STILL CAN REJECT NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP ANYWAY
Communities at the centre of the radioactive waste management debate benefit from “goodwill” funding, Amy Green, Transcontinental, 26 Nov 18
Unreliable mobile phone coverage between Hawker and Leigh creek will soon be a thing of the past with the planned installation of a new mobile base station on Wonoka Hill.
Telstra will work with the Barndioota Consultative Committee (BCC), Regional Development Australia (RDA) Far North and the Outback Communities Australia (OCA) to improve telecommunications in the notorious ‘black spots’. The project has been bolstered by federal funding as part of the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility Community Benefit Program……
The federal government planned to make a decision on the future of the facility by the end of the year, but after continued delays – and a battle in the Supreme Court of South Australia – will now have to wait until after January 30…….
Australia’s transition to clean energy gets a boost with Victorian Labor’s whopping victory
Labor’s smashing win in Victoria a huge tonic for Australia’s clean energy transition, REneweconomy, 26 November 2018 The relief from Victoria’s stunning election result this weekend was palpable. Not just to those in the renewable energy and energy storage industries, but to anyone interested and concerned about the clean energy transition, tackling climate change, and with an eye to Australia’s economic and environmental future.
Earthquake close to Federal govt’s planned nuclear waste dump site – Kimba South Australia
Earthquake Felt In Cleve Kimba Area Last Night. 3.7 On The Scale.
Geoscience Australia said 13 reports of the tremor had been received from Whyalla. The tremor was magnitude 3.7 on the Richter scale at a depth of 10 kilometres.
It was felt as far away as Kadina on Yorke Peninsula.
A Geoscience spokesman at the National Earthquake Alerts Centre in Canberra said that In the past 100 years there had been more than 300 earthquakes in the region. …https://www.whyallanewsonline.com.au/story/5772041/tremor-hits-whyalla/
Friday November 30 – Australian students Strike For Climate Action
Students in each state capital and across 20 regional Australian centres will walk out of their classrooms this week to tell politicians that more of the same climate inaction is not good enough.
Here are some of the lessons they hope to teach.
‘If we really want a better planet Earth’ Continue reading
Revolving doors: Australian politicians move seamlessly from government to fossil fuel industries
Revolving Doors Top 24 Former Australian politicians with links to fossil fuel & resource extraction industries. https://www.michaelwest.com.au/revolving-doors-top-24/
Nuclear waste headed for rural South Australia – “too dangerous for Lucas Heights”
Australian Senate vote – a resounding NO to a nuclear power development Bill
Hanson supports Bernardi on Nuclear Energy: Senate says No https://scorchinghotnews.com/hanson-supports-bernardi-on-nuclear-energy-senate-says-no/?fbclid=IwAR3yUI10cm2ts_fz5uIs9UTA7m_ZhTYzFAfmfZK4ElGRkkP3TDx2mrNEC4s 29 Oct 18The PRESIDENT: The question is that the motion be agreed to.
Division Data Division: NOES 45 (38 majority) AYES 7 PAIRS 0
Ayes: F. Anning, C Bernardi, P. Giorgiou, P Hanson, D Hinch, D Leyonhjelm, TR Storer
Senator RUSTON- (who voted NO) – “ The government currently has no plans to review the ban on nuclear generation. ”
Senator BERNARDI (South Australia): I move: Continue reading
Labor to adopt Malcolm Turnbull’s National Energy Guarantee (NEG), and promote renewable energy – bigtime
Bill Shorten to adopt Malcolm Turnbull’s energy policy, pledges to throw billions at renewables, ABC 21 Nov 18 By political editor Andrew Probyn and political reporter Melissa Clarke Australian households will be offered federal rebates to install solar storage batteries under a federal Labor energy policy that will also direct billions of taxpayer dollars at solar, wind and hydro projects.
Key points:
- Labor to adopt Malcolm Turnbull’s National Energy Guarantee (NEG)
- Rebates for households and businesses to install batteries if Labor wins election
- Pledge of $10 billion for Clean Energy Finance Corporation
With climate and energy expected to be subjects of fierce battle ahead of the election next year, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will unveil Labor’s long-awaited policy today.
The ABC understands Mr Shorten will formally adopt former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s ill-fated National Energy Guarantee (NEG) as Labor policy.
Though Mr Shorten is likely to frame ALP adoption of the NEG as an attempt to find common ground with the Coalition on energy and climate change, it will also serve to give Labor political cover against Coalition attack.
The NEG, which was enthusiastically backed by then-energy minister and current Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, was twice supported by the Liberal party room but was dropped in August after some Coalition conservatives continued agitating against the policy.
“We remain committed to a bipartisan solution, if that is possible,” Shadow Energy Minister Mark Butler told AM.
“But we’re not going to wait for this Government.
“We’re willing to work with them, but we’re not willing to wait for them.”
Mr Shorten will recommit a Labor Government to a 45 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030, based on 2005 levels.
He will promise massive spending on renewable energy projects, with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to have its funding topped up to $10 billion………..https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-21/labor-energy-policy-ahead-of-election/10519018
Lack of network planning threatens Australia’s renewable electricity future, expert warns
ABC North Qld , By Tom Major 22 Nov 18 Australia’s boom in renewable energy faces an impasse unless more is done to develop infrastructure to complement wind, solar and pumped hydro storage systems, an expert has warned.
The expanding footprint of renewables represents a radical change from traditional large-scale, centralised generation, necessitating more national planning for sending power where it is needed.
Australian National University’s Energy Change Institute director Kenneth Baldwin said the remote locations of present and future renewable facilities meant Australia’s 20th century power grid required reform.
“This is a seismic shift in the way electricity is generated and distributed,” he said.
“In the future it will look much more like the internet of energy, in the same way that the internet developed into multiple nodes and many different interconnecting pathways.
“All these features of the future energy landscape are located in areas that are not necessarily where the demand is, so you have to arrange the electricity network to access the best resources and the best storage.”
Big potential unrealised
Spikes in radiation monitored during bushfires near Lucas Heights nuclear site
15th April 2018 – Residents told to “Shelter in place”, Peter Daley
technologypals.com.au, 20 Nov 18
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) local radiation monitor station shows significant spikes in radiation during the fire event.
Below are screen shots from the ANSTO radiation monitoring station at Endagine. Endagine is located East of the Lucas Heights reactor.
What caused this spike in local radiation?
Did the fire release local radioactive contamination?
Reactor venting?
Fault in equipment?
Their rainfall monitor shows it definitely was not raining at the time of these detections, so these detections can’t be explained away as Radon wash out events.
Radiation Spike plus rainfall chart 15th to 16th April
More Radiation detection spikes showing on the live Engadine ANSTO monitor station chart, 19th April.
ANSTO live monitoring site,
Edward Snowden Condemns US Justice Department for Targeting Assange
Sputnik News, 18 Nov 18 The former NSA contractor, who faces capital punishment in the US for leaking classified information on numerous US secret surveillance programmes, voiced his support for the WikiLeaks founder after it came to light that US authorities are apparently poised to indict Julian Assange.
Edward Snowden, who has been granted political asylum in Russia, has voiced his concern about the dangerous precedent for stifling press freedom which could emerge from the US Justice Department’s alleged plans to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The Freedom of the Press Foundation, where Snowden is a board member, also issued a statement condemning the possible indictment of Julian Assange, whose website published a classified Iraqi dossier revealing that the US killed civilians during the country’s 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation. Trevor Timm, executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation, cited a profound threat to press freedom if any charges are brought against WikiLeaks for their publishing activities.
“Whether you like Assange or hate him, the theories used in a potential Espionage Act prosecution would threaten countless reporters at the New York Times, Washington Post, and the many other news outlets that report on government secrets all the time. While everyone will have to wait and see what the charges detail, it’s quite possible core First Amendment principles will be at stake in this case,” his statement reads.
Earlier this week, it came to light through what is believed to be an accident that there’s a sealed complaint against Assange, as the US Department of Justice is gearing up to prosecute the whistleblower. It is now “optimistic” about the prospect of securing his release to US authorities, a new report suggests. According to the Wall Street Journal, prosecutors have weighed several types of charges against the journalist, who has resided in self-imposed exile at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012……….https://sputniknews.com/us/201811171069890725-snowden-assange-whistleblower-prosecution/
In Australia, when they can’t control fires releasing nuclear radioactive ash, they control the media
Paul Waldon Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, 19 Nov 18News of fires in the radioactive contaminated red forest of Chernobyl get a mention. News of fires on the radioactive ground of California get a mention. Yet this year the media has suppressed the news of two separate fires on land contaminated with radioactive materials released from Lucas Heights. Is this the typical case of when they can’t control nuclear they try to control the media.? https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
UK’s nuclear reprocessing plant closes -the one that was sending wastes to Australia
15th Nov 2018 On the morning after the Financial Times has called on the UK Government to 
reassess its long-term energy plans following the demise of Toshiba’sMoorside nuclear project, the Stop Hinkley Campaign has published a briefing about lessons we can learn from the Sellafield Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant which is in the process of closing after only 24 years of operation and a very chequered performance.
The “Lessons for Hinkley from Sellafield” briefing says: The cost of building THORP increased from
£300m in 1977 to £1.8bn on completion in 1992. With the additional cost of associated facilities this figure rose to £2.8bn. Originally expected to reprocess 7,000 tonnes of spent fuel in its first ten years, it has managed only around 9,300 in 24 years.
The original rationale for THORP ended with the closure of the UK’s fast reactor programme in 1994. The new rationale – to produce plutonium fuel for ordinary reactors – was a disaster costing the taxpayer £2.2bn.
Stop Hinkley Spokesperson Roy Pumfrey said: “The rationale for building the THORP plant at Sellafield had disappeared before it even opened. The lesson for 2018 is that we should scrap Hinkley C now before costs escalate. The cancellation costs are small relative to the £50billion extra we’ll have to pay for Hinkley’s electricity, if it ever generates any. If we wait any longer to scrap it,
we risk heading for another Sellafield-scale financial disaster.” http://www.stophinkley.org/PressReleases/pr181115.pdf
Labor’s Environment Action Network (Lean) determined that a Shorten Labor government must overhaul federal environment laws
Labor to face pressure on environment policies after embarrassing stuff-up, Guardian, Katharine Murphy Political editor@murpharoo, 19 Nov 2018 Party members vow to step up push for national environment protection authority at ALP conference Labor’s Environment Action Network (Lean) has warned the ALP it will not give up on securing a significant overhaul of federal environment laws in the first term of a Shorten government, and a national environment protection authority to police the framework, despite an embarrassing process stuff-up with the draft policy platform.
A draft policy platform signed off by the ALP national executive and circulated to conference delegates last month suggested both policy commitments and a national environment commission would be adopted by the party’s national conference in December – but the shadow environment minister, Tony Burke, has now put the brakes on.
Burke has written to the party’s national secretary, Noah Carroll, arguing the initiatives were not signed off by the national policy forum in September, and the specific commitments were included in the draft platform in error.
Labor’s Environment Action Network (Lean) has warned the ALP it will not give up on securing a significant overhaul of federal environment laws in the first term of a Shorten government, and a national environment protection authority to police the framework, despite an embarrassing process stuff-up with the draft policy platform…….https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/19/labor-to-face-pressure-on-environment-policies-after-embarrassing-stuff-up
Chifley Research Centre calls for a new and independent Australian environmental protection framework
Labor to face pressure on environment policies after embarrassing stuff-up, Guardian, Katharine Murphy Political editor, 19 Nov 2018 “………Environmental approvals are always a sensitive and divisive political issue, but the internal pressure to strengthen the framework from grassroots ALP members in the run-up to the national conference will be fuelled by a new report from the Labor thinktank, the Chifley Research Centre, to be published on Monday.
The new report, prepared in conjunction with Lean, calls for a new legislative framework to replace the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act “in order to enshrine federal government leadership in issues of national and international environmental importance”.
The Chifley report also calls for the creation of a national environment commission. Chifley’s executive director, Brett Gale, said the commission would have an independent institutional structure and be “responsible for a new development approvals process that would get rid of the current system with its long delays and lack of clarity around development approvals”.
“It would provide open and transparent approvals to set guidelines, thus delivering better outcomes for the environment, communities and business,” Gale says.
He says the commission would have a policy focus, conduct Productivity Commission-style inquiries into major environmental issues, and be an advocate for the environment in the national debate.
The Chifley report says community confidence in the environmental protection framework will be enhanced if an independent regulatory agency led commonwealth development approvals “aided by greater clarity of expectations and design of the approvals process at the outset”……….https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/19/labor-to-face-pressure-on-environment-policies-after-embarrassing-stuff-up
1 This month.
20 September –National Day of Action in Melbourne on the International Day of Peace
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
.
Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 
