Huge solar panel array for Canberra Hospital’s roof
Canberra Hospital to get one of the nation’s largest solar rooftop arrays August 15, 2015 Matthew Raggatt Reporter at The Canberra Times The ACT government will spend up to $3.3 million, and install one of the nation’s largest rooftop solar arrays, to make Canberra Hospital more energy efficient.
The moves to add a 500-kilowatt solar system and install LED lights throughout all hospital buildings were aimed at slashing energy use at the site, which accounts for a quarter of the government’s electricity bill.
Overlapping two of his portfolios, Deputy Chief Minister Simon Corbell said the loan to ACT Health from the Carbon Neutral ACT Government Fund – by far the largest in the fund’s short history – would reap financial rewards.
“The Canberra Hospital delivers a critical 24-hour service to our community and is the ACT government’s largest user of energy,” he said.
“The announcement will see the hospital save a massive $490,000 a year in energy bills by 2017-18 and improve the government’s overall carbon footprint.”
The Sunday Canberra Times understands the hospital would become home to one of the top 10 largest roof-mounted arrays in Australia. A 500kW rooftop array [see below] at Toyota’s manufacturing plant in Melbourne, using 2000 panels, was Victoria’s largest when installed last year………http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-hospital-to-get-one-of-the-nations-largest-solar-rooftop-arrays-20150814-giz7fh.html
France’s nuclear authorities anxious about the safety of China’s nuclear power programme
“the state of conservation” of large components like pumps and steam generators at Taishan “was not at an adequate level” and was “far” from the standards of the two other EPR plants, one in Finland and the other in Flamanville, France
in a rare public comment about safety concerns, China’s own State Council Research Office three years ago warned that the development of the country’s power plants may be accelerating too quickly.
Critics of China’s nuclear safety regime, including Albert Lai, chairman of The Professional Commons, a Hong Kong think tank, says that lack of information risks eroding confidence in safety controls in what’s set to be a 14-fold increase of atomic capacity by 2030.
“The workings of China’s atomic safety authority are a ‘‘total black box,’’ said Lai. ‘‘China has no transparency whatsoever.’’
China Regulators ‘Overwhelmed’ as Reactors Built at Pace, Bloomberg Tara Patel, Benjamin Haas , June 20, 2014June 19 (Bloomberg) — China is moving quickly to become the first country to operate the world’s most powerful atomic reactor even as France’s nuclear regulator says communication and cooperation on safety measures with its Chinese counterparts are lacking.
In the coastal city of Taishan, 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the financial hub of Hong Kong, Chinese builders are entering the final construction stages for two state-of-the-art European Pressurized Reactors. Each will produce about twice as much electricity as the average reactor worldwide.
France has a lot riding on a smooth roll out of China’s EPRs. The country is home to Areva SA, which developed the next-generation reactor, and utility Electricite de France SA, which oversees the project. The two companies, controlled by the French state, need a safe, trouble-free debut in China to ensure a future for their biggest new product in a generation. And French authorities have not hidden their concerns. Continue reading
Churchill and USA planned a massive nuclear strike on USSR
Unthinkable as it may seem, Churchill’s plan literally won the hearts and minds of US policy makers and military officials.
These “first-strike” plans developed by the Pentagon were aimed at destroying the USSR without any damage to the United States.
The 1949 Dropshot plan envisaged that the US would attack Soviet Russia and drop at least 300 nuclear bombs and 20,000 tons of conventional bombs on 200 targets in 100 urban areas, including Moscow and Leningrad (St. Petersburg)
the Kennedy administration introduced significant changes to the plan, insisting that the US military should avoid targeting Soviet cities and had to focus on the rival’s nuclear forces alone.
Post WW2 World Order: US Planned to Wipe USSR Out by Massive Nuclear Strike, Sputnik News. Ekaterina Blinova. 15 Aug 15, Was the US deterrence military doctrine aimed against the Soviet Union during the Cold War era really “defensive” and who actually started the nuclear arms race paranoia?
Interestingly enough, then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had ordered the British Armed Forces’ Joint Planning Staff to develop a strategy targeting the USSR months before the end of the Second World War. The first edition of the plan was prepared on May 22, 1945. In accordance with the plan the invasion of Russia-held Europe by the Allied forces was scheduled on July 1, 1945.
Winston Churchill’s Operation Unthinkable The plan, dubbed Operation Unthinkable, stated that its primary goal was “to impose upon Russia the will of the United States and the British Empire. Even though ‘the will’ of these two countries may be defined as no more than a square deal for Poland, that does not necessarily limit the military commitment.” Continue reading
Mururoa Nuclear Test Veterans seek answers to health problems
Mururoa nuclear testing witness spent years in pain, group seeks answers, Mururoa Veterans, SIMON EDWARDS, August 17 2015 There’s no doubt in Christine Hapuku’s mind that her late brother’s health problems stemmed from his exposure to fallout from the French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll.
At the weekend Christine and Alec Gage’s wider family unveiled his headstone at Wainuiomata’s Memorial Garden, a year ago almost to the day since his death.
……..Gage was a sailor on HMNZS Otago, which with the frigate Canterbury sailed to Mururoa in 1973 to protest the nuclear testing by France. He and his brother Bob, who was also on board, would talk about standing on the ship’s deck wearing metal discs around their necks that were to measure how much radiation they absorbed. The pair said the atmospheric testing fall-out was like fine rain, Hapuku said.
“Even the French acknowledged the bombs were a lot stronger than they were meant to be.
“Those discs were collected and never seen again.”
…….Christine Hapuku said medical researchers used to talk to Alec when he was in hospital but they never heard anything more. She is hoping further research being pursued by the Mururoa veterans’ group might give the family some closure.
The Mururoa Nuclear Veterans Group is searching for all those who sailed to Mururoa Atoll in 1973 aboard HMNZS Canterbury and HMNZS Otago. The group, formed in 2013 and registered as a Legal Society, monitors the medical conditions that have affected not only the personnel aboard the two frigates but also their children and grandchildren.
The group’s president, Wayne O’Donnell, said because there was no full list of the veterans who served at Mururoa they need the public’s help.
“Unfortunately over the years contact has been lost with the widows and children of those who have ‘crossed the bar’ and we need to make contact with these people so they can be informed of any findings.”
The group established a trust fund to enable the medical testing of the veterans’ children and grandchildren. “It is hoped the results will establish the truth of the genetic transfer of illnesses related to the nuclear exposure encountered by the crews,” O’Donnell says.
……Anyone with information should emailadmin@mururoavets.org.nz
Claire Catt’s fine Submission to #NuclearCommissionSAust
CLAIRE CATT: SUBMISSION TO THE NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE ROYAL COMMISSION
To the Commissioners, This submission pertains to Issue Paper No 4 Management, Storage and Disposal ofNuclear and Radioactive Waste
The following views and comments are sole my own as a citizen of the State of South Australia. My interest in nuclear issues is longstanding and my concerns are shared by many of my family and friends, here in Australia and overseas.
Issue Paper Question No. 4./ Clean and sufficient water resources are becoming a serious and difficult issue for countries all over the world. Australia is a very dry continent with limited and dwindling water resources. South Australia is its driest state. The nuclear industry requires huge and ongoing water resources which Australia cannot spare, let alone South Australia.
Issue Paper Question No. 4.6 Maintaining security at nuclear installations, both reactors and storage facilities, is becoming increasingly difficult due to geo-political developments. Security and defence issues are causing major concerns in the US and Europe. This heightened threat is relatively new and rising. Costs associated with maintaining security may become prohibitive, especially for a small community like South Australia. Provision of security by profit driven corporations poses its own inherent risks.
Issue Paper Question No. 4.8 Despite many years of research and experimentation, disposal/storage methods remain unsatisfactory, expensive and in terms of safety largely speculative, certainly in the (very) long term.
Issue Paper No. 4.10 It is important for each nation to responsibly address the problems caused by their own nuclear industries. The transportation and shipping of these dangerous material around the world exposes people and environments to unacceptable risks which are greatly reduced when local solutions are in place. Auslralia also needs 10 dispose of its own relatively small amount of medical nuclear waste as safely as possible in the most suitable location, away from large population centres. For this purpose we do require a small storage facility. The solution of this problem wilhin Australia is inthe interest of all Austral ans.
In conclusion I would like to voice my long held view that Australia has been very lucky and wise to avoid the significant problems posed by the nuclear industry all over the world. It would be an extraordinary decision to embark au this high risk venture at a time when much of the population here and overseas is focussing on clean renewable energy solutions which will benefit all including future generations.
South Australian government warned on using public money to encourage nuclear industry
“…..Greens MLC Mark Parnell has questioned why the Attorney-General’s Department is in charge of three tenders seeking on behalf of the Royal Commission business cases for the establishment of a nuclear power plant, a dump and an enrichment facility.
“The Government must tread a very fine line between engaging in genuine open inquiry and actively promoting an expansion of the nuclear industry,’’ he said.
“It is illegal to spend any public money to “encourage” a nuclear waste facility in this State. The tender contract is in the name of the Attorney-General’s Department, so they will need to be very careful about any instructions they provide to tenderers about what to say or what not to say.” – Adelaide Now, August 14, 2015
Very worrying questions about that massive explosion in China
Tianjin explosions ignite barrage of questions, The Age, Philip Wen China correspondent for Fairfax Media, August 14, 2015 Tianjin: As fatalities continue to mount, so too have questions around the cause, response and potential health effects of the terrifying explosions at a toxic chemicals warehouse that tore through the port city of Tianjin, China, on Wednesday night.
Chinese authorities have dispatched more than 200 military nuclear and biochemical materials specialists to the site of the blast, as well as a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Beijing environmental emergency response centre.
But some 36 hours after the explosions, municipal and environmental officials said they were still unable to determine the specific substances held in the warehouse which likely triggered the blast which killed dozens, injured hundreds, and ignited a fireball so large it was captured by orbiting satellites.
The owner of the warehouse, Ruihai International Logistics, is a firm which specialises in handling hazardous cargo, state news agency Xinhua said. It is licensed to handle dangerous and toxic chemicals including sodium cyanide, compressed natural gas, phosphoric acid, potassium nitrate and butanone – an explosive industrial solvent.
“So far, we are not able to provide the detail of type and amount of these dangerous items,” Gao Huaiyou, the deputy director of Tianjin’s work safety administration bureau, said on Thursday. “There is quite a big inconsistency with information provided by the company’s management and their customs declaration.”
Though a pungent smell and visible smog hung in the vicinity of the blast, officials said 17 emergency air monitoring stations indicated air quality in the city remained within a normal range, aided by easterly winds which blew toxic plumes from the fires out to sea.
Readings of cyanide and chemical oxygen demand – a measure of water quality – some three to eight times normal levels were detected near two underground discharge pipes, though officials said the pipes had been sealed off and posed no danger to health or the environment of the surrounding area.
Xinhua said 1000 firefighters and more than 140 fire trucks were struggling to contain the blaze in a warehouse which stored “dangerous goods”.
“The volatility of the goods means the fire is especially unpredictable and dangerous to approach,” it said….http://www.theage.com.au/world/tianjin-explosions-ignite-barrage-of-questions-20150814-gizjw9.html#ixzz3ir0wfaMy
Judge defending the NSW Land and Environment Court
‘If you have a degraded environment, you’re impoverished’: Justice Brian Preston, Peter Hannam ENVIRONMENT EDITOR, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD August 14, 2015 – Brian Preston, chief judge of NSW Land and Environment Court, joins Peter Hannam for a chat over lunch……. The Land and Environment Court was the first so-named court in the world when it was established in 1979, according to Ben Boer, Emeritus Professor at Sydney Law School and Preston’s first lecturer on environmental law, and a long-time friend and collaborator. There are now about 700 such courts globally.
But long before he got the top job at the court, he helped found another key organ of environmental law: the Environmental Defender’s Office of NSW.
It was the EDO that last week won a ruling in the Federal Court that found Environment Minister Greg Hunt had not properly considered advice on two threatened species, the Yakka skink and the ornamental snake, when approving Adani’s huge $16 billion Carmichael coal mine in Queensland.
The verdict prompted Prime Minister Tony Abbott to declare that courts were being used to “sabotage” mining projects, adding that Australia “must, in principle, favour projects like this”. The NSW Bar rejected the comments..
While our lunch preceded Mr Abbott’s outburst, Preston defended the importance of judicial independence, and later remarked that miners too often view environment checks as merely red tape.
Preston makes time for our lunch between his court duties, ongoing research for a book on environmentally sustainable development, and his work for a global effort to find ways the law can be used to curb climate change. He also teaches biodiversity law at Sydney University, and has helped develop environmental law in China and Thailand – two nations particularly in need of regulatory control –……..
He says that having a specialist court with judges well-read in environmental issues does not imply – as some miners argue – that developers won’t get a fair hearing.
“You should be environmentally literate,” he said. “All courts strive to make the right decision and you’re more likely to make that if you’ve got more knowledge.”……..http://www.smh.com.au/environment/lunch-with-justice-brian-preston-20150812-gixcdb.html
Guidelines for growing renewable energy in Victoria
Four easy ways to grow renewable energy in Victoria, REneweconomy, By Leigh Ewbank on 12 August 2015 With the Abbott government sabotaging Australia’s clean energy future, states such as Victoria must step up and lead on renewable energy.
The uncertainty unleashed by the Abbott government has cost Australia’s renewable energy sector dearly. On the Prime Minister’s watch, investment has collapsed by 90 per cent and over 2,500 people working in the sector have lost their job.
Not content with its savage 20% cut to the national Renewable Energy Target, the Abbott government has dictated to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation that it can no longer invest in wind farms and rooftop solar power.
This is the context in which the Daniel Andrews government is developing its Renewable Energy Action Plan to grow the sector and jobs in Victoria.
The Andrews government has been sending all the right signals when it comes to renewable energy. It was elected with a commitment to repeal the Baillieu-era restrictions on wind farms. And it delivered on the commitment just months after taking office.
To date, the Andrews government has provided financial support for the Newstead community in it pursuit to be 100 per cent renewable by 2017, as well as a 30-KW community solar project in Woodend. It has also established a $20 million New Energy Fund to encourage investment in renewable energy and cleantech projects.
The Andrews government’s Renewable Energy Action Plan is due for release later in 2015 and will build on these positive first steps.
“We will do whatever we need to do to increase the total percentage of energy generated from clean sources but also do whatever we can to create more jobs,” Premier Andrews said while visiting the Ararat wind farm.
There are some straightforward ways the Victorian government can increase renewables before it announces its comprehensive plan. Continue reading
Strategy for developing Australia’s renewable energy
In Australia, survey evidence has shown clearly that renewable energy is wildly popular (research and development on renewable and other low-emissions technologies also enjoys wide popularity across all climate-relevant segments of society), whereas fossil fuels, nuclear power, carbon taxes and increases in electricity bills are very unpopular. One conclusion from this evidence is clear: Labor’s renewable energy frame is likely to be appealing, and the Abbott Government’s fetishisation of coal is likely to be unappealing.The first post in this three-part series compared the energy plans of Australia’s major political parties with the rest of the world. The second post considered the economics of Australia transitioning to a renewables-based energy system. When it comes to the politics of climate change and renewable energy, it is relevant to consider both strategy and tactics.
Climate change is not going to be solved with a single giant global treaty and a perfect emissions trading scheme. Climate action is not, internationally or domestically, a ‘one shot game’. As such, agents of climate action, including policymakers, must take seriously the idea that decarbonising global and national economic sectors will require a strategic approach. Continue reading
#NuclearCommissionSAust: an overview of submissions published about Radioactive Trash
So far the South Australian Nuclear Fuel Chain Royal Commission has published 44 Submissions about Issues Paper 4 – Management, Storage and Disposal of Waste
Surprise surprise! They haven’t published Dr Helen Caldicott’s submission. They haven’t published mine, (written under my full name Noel Christina Wauchope)
Well, as the import of radioactive trash is the main purpose of this shonky Royal Commission, we can expect that they will give priority to the pro nuclear ones.
The tally for the published submissions? – 29 in favour of South Australia importing radioactive trash, 15 against.
Of the 29 in favour- well – they ALL have a vested or very obvious commercial or career interest in the radioactive-trash-import project.
- 9 are actually companies or nuclear associations.
- 2 are government agencies, – ANSTO and the Commonwealth Government.
- 14 Individuals – all with either direct connection to a nuclear /uranium company, or with a political/career motive
- Australian Workers Union – a sad standout? I guess they have bought the nuclear lobby mantra of “jobs jobs jobs”
Nuclear is the wrong direction for SA: Environment groups enter submission to Royal Commission.
Three leading environmental organisations – Conservation SA, the Australian Conservation Foundation and Friends of the Earth, Australia – have submitted a detailed joint submission to the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission which forensically details an extensive series of nuclear myths and false assumptions.
“South Australia’s future lies in renewable energy, not nuclear. It’s cheaper, safer and quicker to roll out,” said Conservation SA Chief Executive Craig Wilkins.
“This week’s axing of hundreds of jobs from Olympic Dam should raise huge questions about growth potential in the nuclear industry.
“With renewables, we can be in charge of our own destiny, not dependent on decisions made in corporate boardrooms on the other side of the world,” he said.
“Much of the nuclear promotion in SA is premised on the idea of a global nuclear ‘renaissance’, said lead submission author Dr Jim Green. “In fact, the nuclear renaissance is stone cold dead.
“There are fewer reactors now than there were a decade ago. Nuclear fuel cycle markets for enrichment, conversion and fuel fabrication are oversupplied. And as the continuing job losses at Olympic Dam demonstrate, the uranium market is extremely weak and will remain so for years,” he said.
As well as highlighting the contested and constrained status of the current nuclear sector the 248 page report makes a compelling case that the industry’s future will be no brighter.
“So-called Generation 3 reactors projects such as the French EPR and Westinghouse AP1000 are in trouble, with multi-year delays and multi-billion dollar cost blowouts,” said Dr Green. “So-called Generation 4 reactors are decades away and, as a recent report by the French government concludes, safety claims made by Generation 4 advocates do not stand up to scrutiny.”
Many environment, public health and Aboriginal groups have expressed concern that the Royal Commission is being used by the nuclear industry as a Trojan Horse in an attempt to open national and international radioactive waste dumps in SA.
“Australia has yet to find a lasting, responsible solution to domestic radioactive waste so it beggars belief that some are promoting Australia as the solution to the world’s nuclear waste problems.
“Proponents of a deep underground nuclear waste dump in Australia have been coy about the fact that the world’s only deep underground nuclear dump – in the US state of New Mexico – has been shut down following a February 2014 explosion,” Dr Green concluded.
Attachment 1: Two page submission briefing.
Attachment 2: Joint submission to the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission by Conservation SA, Australian Conservation Foundation, and Friend¬¬s of the Earth, Australia.
#NuclearCommissionSAust plan rejected by the Australia Institute
Australia Institute rejects nuclear option for South Australia, International Business Times, By Vittorio Hernandez @ibtimesau on August 13 2015 The global debate on the safety of nuclear power continues, with South Australia joining the debate.
A plan by the state to set up either a nuclear waste dump or a nuclear power station was rejected by the Australia Institute due to major flaw in economic and technical assumptions for a domestic nuclear power industry. Richard Denniss, chief economist of the institute, points to lack of commercial scale of the technology being proposed as the most extreme assumption……..
Even nuclear power is not an option for the state, Denniss said, adding “Even if you totally dismiss issues like security, proliferation, safety, insurance and public opposition, nuclear energy is Australia is a very expensive and very slow option to implement.”
In its submission to the SA Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission, the the institute said that if there was a way for other countries to profit from nuclear waste, it would have done so. It said the proposal would only “create a high level waste problem for ourselves in the hopes that we would be able to not merely solve it, but profit from it.”
The submission also cited experience of other countries that use nuclear power, such as France, which sources 80 percent of its electricity for nuclear plants. However, the 2014 net loss reported by Areva, the state-controlled nuclear power company, of 4.9 billion euro was even bigger than Areva’s stock market value of 3.7 billion euro.
The institute instead pushed for renewables such as solar and wind power, although Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is also cold to the idea of wind power, particularly windmills which he considers ugly……. http://www.ibtimes.com.au/australia-institute-rejects-nuclear-option-south-australia-1460187
Nuclear power will be redundant, as renewables develop fast -Conservation Council of SA
SA told prioritise renewables, not nuclear 9 News, AAP , 13 Aug 15, Renewable energy should be prioritised over nuclear power, the Conservation Council of SA says.
Detailing its submission to South Australia’s royal commission into the nuclear fuel cycle, the council says the state’s future lies in renewable energy.
“It’s cheaper, safer and quicker to roll out,” the council’s chief executive Craig Wilkins said on Thursday.
“In the time it would take to develop an Australian nuclear power industry, it will be made utterly redundant by renewables.”…..http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/08/13/10/09/renewable-energy-makes-nuclear-redundant
Australia will have to improve on its inadequate greenhouse gas emission pledge
UN climate expert warns Australia’s emissions target should not be final offer, The Age, August 13, 2015 Nicole Hasham Environment and immigration correspondent Australia should not attend global talks in Paris refusing to budge on its greenhouse gas emission pledge, the UN’s scientific body on climate change has said, ahead of expected international pressure on the Abbott government to do better……….
In Canberra on Wednesday, Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, vice-chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said the December talks in Paris were negotiations.
“No country can go to negotiations knowing or thinking, really, that the [emissions target] numbers cannot be touched,” he said. Professor van Ypersele said targets from each nation would be collated and assessed, adding the collective efforts may not be enough to keep warming below 2 degrees. That would lead to “a discussion on how to increase the level of ambition and who needs to increase it first”, he said.
While pledges from nations may not be formally negotiated at Paris, leaders will probably be urged to increase their ambitions, either during the conference or afterwards……….
On Wednesday Labor leader Bill Shorten said he would attend the Paris talks.
The Marshall Islands, a Pacific nation highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, has decried Australia’s pledge as a “weak target” that erodes our international reputation.
Mr Abbott said the Minerals Council of Australia, which represents the mining industry, called the target is “ambitious”.
The target has been interpreted as an effort to placate climate sceptics in the community and the government, while doing the minimum needed to meet Australia’s international obligations.
Climate Institute deputy chief executive Erwin Jackson said Australia’s target was “not the end of the story”. “Countries in Paris will be under pressure to lift their ambitions,” he said.
“Both diplomatic and economic pressure is [also] going to build through time after Paris for countries to get in line with where the world needs to go, which is towards net zero emissions.” http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/un-climate-expert-warns-australias-emissions-target-should-not-be-final-offer-20150812-gixa98.html#ixzz3ijcqRmdX
1 This month.
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about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
Australians deserve the truth
about AUKUS
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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