Dr Helen Caldicott dissects the propaganda for South Australia’s Nuclear Chain Royal Commission
This article was posted on Saturday 30 May. I have “upped” it to the top of this page, because it is the clearest and most comprehensive discussion of the very fraught South Australian nuclear fuel chain plan.
Clearly this whole disastrous process is financially beyond the reach of little South Australia. However
Premier Jay Weatherill has been persuaded to establish a flawed royal commission to assess the viability of incorporating the entire nuclear fuel chain in the state.
this is a carcinogenic industry that must be halted immediately in the name of public health. The people advocating a nuclear South Australia have no comprehension of genetics, radiation biology, oncology and medicine. Or they are willing to ignore the risks.
SA’s short-sighted view of uranium and nuclear options https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2015/05/30/sas-short-sighted-view-uranium-and-nuclear-options/14329080001942#.VWjSBtKqpHw Something quite extraordinary is happening in South Australia, the state that initiated the national movement against French atmospheric nuclear tests in 1971-72, and where the movement against uranium mining began in 1975, which ultimately led to a five-year ban by the ACTU on the mining, transport and export of uranium. Forty years later, it is the ultimate irony that the French nuclear industry is interested in becoming involved in South Australian uranium enrichment and nuclear reactors.
In 2010, the University College London (UCL) established its School of Energy and Resources, Australia, in Adelaide. The school partnered with pro-nuclear and pro-shale gas corporations, including BHP Billiton and Santos. On the surface this may seem harmless enough, but the school and its well-connected backers has had a profound impact on the nuclear debate in South Australia, particularly as the state begins a royal commission into “opportunities and risks” in the “nuclear fuel cycle”.
Professor Stefaan Simons, who is the director of the International Energy Policy Institute and UCL’s 
BHP Billiton chairman of energy policy, has been strongly promoting construction of nuclear powered submarines in South Australia, as well as a repository in the state for radioactive “waste streams”. Dr Tim Stone, a businessman and visiting professor to the UCL’s Adelaide campus, was expert chair of the British Office for Nuclear Development and sits on the board of British energy company Horizon Nuclear Power. James Voss, the former managing director of Pangea Resources, the company that originally proposed a nuclear waste dump in Australia in the late 1990s, is also part of the UCL fold, as honorary reader at the International Energy Policy Institute.
Outside of UCL, support has come from the likes of Professor Barry Brook, former professor of climate change at the University of Adelaide, and now professor and chair of environmental sustainability at the University of Tasmania. Brook has vigorously promoted the whole nuclear fuel chain, from uranium mining and enrichment to reactors and storage of radioactive waste in the desert of South Australia. He and Tim Stone have been appointed to the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission’s Expert Advisory Committee.
The arguments put for nuclear power are many and specious. As South Australia continues to be seduced by them, it is worth pointing out the flaws that too often go uncorrected. Continue reading
Home energy storage is bringing solar power to the people
What is certain is that the electricity equation will look very different in a few short years, and it looks like, for the first time in many years, that ordinary consumers will hold a bit more of the power
How home energy storage is going to change the way we think about power, Adelaide Now, CAMERON ENGLAND SUNDAY MAIL (SA) MAY 31, 2015 WHEN Elon Musk launched the Tesla Power Wall earlier this month, it was done in true Silicon Valley style.
The charismatic chief executive enters stage right, sans tie, and makes a pronouncement that his new product will change the world — cue rapturous applause from the audience and because this is the United States, whooping.
The thing about Musk’s pronouncement is that it’s most likely true.
It might not necessarily be his company — critics are divided as to whether Tesla will be the market leader it’s portraying itself as — but home and business energy storage is soon to change the way energy utilities, homes and governments think about power……..
Batteries allow homes and especially businesses to employ “peak shaving” — if power prices spike, flick over to using your own solar power and save money, or if the grid power is cheap, suck it out and sell it back later at a higher price.
Or simply save up the solar power your rooftop panels produce during the day for use in the evening, when your demand might be higher……..
Tesla Power builds on the Tesla Motors technology — relatively standard lithium ion batteries with smart software to help them interact with the grid. The initial interest has been huge. The company recently reported early orders of 50,000 to 60,000 batteries, or as Musk put it, “It’s like crazy off-the-hook”.
Effectively the company is sold out until the middle of next year and its huge new factory will not be big enough to keep up with demand.
At $US3000 for the battery and $US7000 installed with solar panels (US prices) the system makes it economic for houses to become much less dependent on grid power.
UBS estimates that in Australia, the system would pay itself back in six years.
But Tesla is not the only game in town — although it almost certainly has the best PR machine. Continue reading
Australian Renewable Energy Agency sets out conditions for large scale solar
Establishing the social licence to operate large scale solar facilities in Australia: insights from social research for industry http://apo.org.au/research/establishing-social-licence-operate-large-scale-solar-facilities-australia-insights-social
Introduction
The main objective of the research was to identify the preconditions necessary for utility-scale solar installations to have a social licence to operate in Australia. Specifically, the research set out to understand general attitudes towards solar energy and the acceptability of large scale solar energy facilities with a view to creating this report.
The research consisted of three key components:
• Quantitative phase: a survey of a representative sample of 1,197 Australians.
• Qualitative phase: a series of 15 group discussions held in capital cities, regional centres and communities near large scale solar facilities. Research to investigate perceptions of the desirability of utility-scale solar facilities.
• Review phase: a review of the factors that influence social licence to operate solar facilities, conducted via in-depth interviews and covered in the group discussions with stakeholders in communities living near large scale solar facilities.
The quantitative survey included testing the impact of exposure to two sets of stimuli (consisting of images and information about large scale solar facilities) through asking survey participants about their attitudes towards large scale solar facilities relating to land use; efficiency; reliability; visual impacts; economic impacts; environmental impacts; health impacts and the cost of electricity before and after seeing the stimulus materials.
Senator moves to punish Greenpeace for its international Great Barrier Reef campaign
THE campaign over the Great Barrier Reef has erupted into all-out war between the Federal Government and Greenpeace,
Coalition Senator Matt Canavan yesterday moved for punitive action to be taken against Greenpeace over its Reef campaign in which it sought to have the World Heritage area listed by UNESCO as “in danger”.
Senator Canavan has written to Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt, urging him to investigate whether Greenpeace’s registration as a tax-deductible organisation can be withdrawn.
Perth wave energy project producing power and fresh water
Carnegie Wave Energy based in Perth is a world leader in wave energy technology. In 2014 the company began deployment of three wave energy converters at the Garden Island naval base off the coast near Perth. Large buoys rise and fall with passing waves. Each is tied by rope to the sea floor. As waves pass, the buoys rise, the ropes tighten and extremely high pressure is created in a water-based fluid. This is piped to shore where the pressure powers water desalination and the production of electricity. This technology, known as CETO, has application for small coastal towns and remote islands where oil or diesel is often used in generators. The Perth project is the first demonstration of a complete grid-connected CETO system anywhere in the world.
Western Australian gas company planning to sell solar panels and batteries
Alinta’s solar plan to cut bills, The West Australian Daniel Mercer June 1, 2015 Gas giant Alinta is hatching a plan to sell solar panels and batteries to households, allowing them to slash power bills by reducing reliance on the electricity grid.
Alinta is also weighing the idea of offering micro gas generators, which could pave the way for households to disconnect from the grid altogether.
The plan looms as a direct challenge to taxpayer-owned electricity provider Synergy, which has been losing millions of dollars as customers switch to solar en masse.
There are about 170,000 households in the South West grid alone which have photovoltaic cells on their roofs, and this figure is expected to soar by the end of the decade.
Under Alinta’s plan, tipped to start this year, it would lease solar panels to residential customers, who would then provide any power they did not use back to Alinta to sell into the market.
The Sydney-based company would also offer batteries to store surplus solar power and small gas-fired generators that could be used as a backup in the event it was cloudy for days.
Efficient and affordable battery storage has long been regarded as the holy grail of renewable energy and US firm Tesla announced last month it was on the verge of being able to produce it………https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/28289418/alintas-solar-plan-to-cut-bills/
Effects of extreme heat in USA – and what about Australia?
Anthony M Horton: Extreme heat – ‘Business as usual’ life to end in less than 30 years in the U.S.
A new study projects that the United States will have a four to six-fold increase in extreme heat exposure by 2070 — and even earlier in the South. Unfortunately, no similar study has been conducted in Australia…
As a scientist, I am concerned that research into a range of climate related issues are seemingly not on the agenda in Australia and stellar pillars such as the world renowned Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) are suffering increasingly deep staff cuts at a time when they are needed the most.
It also appears that the long held “without fear or favour” bastion of these pillars has also seemingly ended. If this is really the case, it is a truly sad day for Australia-especially given the many world leading breakthroughs achieved by the former and the proud record of the latter. …
I fear for the future of Australia if this trend becomes entrenched as, by the time the Government realises they have made a tactical error, there won’t be enough trained people left to pick up the slack, as they will have retired, retrained or will be employed elsewhere in the world.
ANSTO’s problem of mounting radioactive wastes at Lucas Heights
ANSTO staves off nuclear waste squeeze AFR by Christopher Jay 28 May 15, The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation ANSTO) will use a slab of this year’s $193 million budget allocation to extend and retrofit two existing nuclear waste storage facilities, to stave off a critical shortage of storage space which will otherwise materialise by 2017.Another $26.8 million over four years has been allocated to pack, ship and return Australian high level waste being reprocessed in the UK Sellafield plant no earlier than mid-2019. EPA Continue reading
Clean Energy Finance Corporation helping irrigators to buy renewable energy
Funding for irrigators to buy renewable energy made available through Clean Energy Finance Corporation ABC Rural By Sarina Locke , 29 May 15 Irrigators, furious with power price rises, are pushing hard to install renewable energy on their farms.
To date the financial backing from banks has been largely missing.
Now the Government backed Clean Energy Finance Corporation is poised to announce a partnership with a major bank, to help irrigators invest in more efficient energy. It is just the tip of renewable energy projects in agriculture, worth $3 billion that will need financial assistance from the Corporation in future……..
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is responding. It has a program with the Commonwealth Bank, called the energy efficient loan for mid-sized companies, available nationwide. It offers small loans of $100,000 up to $5 million plus.
But the CEFC is poised to rollout more programs with other banks offering a similar product for irrigators. Continue reading
The ANZ Bank’s first green bond issuance a resounding success
Australian investors lap up ANZ green bonds THE AUSTRALIAN JOHN CONROY MAY 28, 2015 The ANZ Bank’s first green bond issuance – and Australia’s largest – has been a “resounding success”, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation said, with the CEFC not needing to provide the $75m it had committed to back the issuance.
The $600m ANZ green bond issuance – which has been certified by the Climate Bonds Initiative – was fully subscribed by private sector investors and will back investment in utility-scale wind and solar as well as green buildings.
About 40% of the green bond funds will go into green building projects in Australian and New Zealand, as well as some parts of Asia, with the remaining 60% to be invested in renewable energy, largely wind and solar, The Fifth Estate reports, with Australian institutional investors making up the majority of subscribers.
The five-year fixed rate bond had a coupon of 3.25% and was rated AA-, the website said. The Fifth Estate also quotes CBI as saying the issuance was actually oversubscribed, at $725m. CEFC CEO Oliver Yates said the “high quality” bonds would expand and diversify the investor base for clean energy.
“Green bonds provide investors with a unique opportunity to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency through a low-risk, high quality fixed-income product. At the same time, green bonds support long term investment in important low carbon infrastructure projects which can benefit the broader economy,” he said.
He said investors were increasingly seeking additional benefits, such as an environmental or social return……..http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/latest/australian-investors-lap-up-anz-green-bonds/story-e6frg90f-1227372751422
An international Treaty that has saved lives – the Montreal Protocol
Ozone treaty ‘prevented skin cancer deaths’ http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/05/27/4242804.htm Anna Salleh
The ozone hole over the Antarctic would have been 40 per cent bigger in 2013 if the Montreal Protocol hadn’t curbed the production of CFCs, according to a new study.
In this scenario, Australia and New Zealand would have experienced greater UV radiation, which in turn would have increased the rate of skin cancer, say the authors of a new paper today in Nature Communications.
The paper also shows that, by 2011, ozone depletion would have become a northern hemisphere problem too.
“There would have been an Antarctic-like ozone hole in the Arctic over populated regions,” says co-author Dr Richard McKenzie, an atmospheric physicist at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand.
In the mid-1980s scientists discovered a hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica, and in 1987 the world agreed to the Montreal Protocol, which limited the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
Despite this, the concentration of CFCs continued to rise until 1993, and even today the ozone hole reappears each spring, and this contributes to an increase in cancer-causing UV radiation in Australia and New Zealand.
But without the Montreal Protocol it could have been so much worse, say the researchers. Continue reading
Tour of French art – Aboriginal life before colonisation
Rare French paintings of Tasmanian Aboriginal life before colonisation to tour Australia, ABC News, By Sam Ikin 19 May 2015, A collection of 19th century French illustrations depicting Indigenous life in Tasmania and around mainland Australia before British colonisation will go on show in the state for the first time next year.
The drawings and sketches were done in early 1802 during Nicholas Baudin’s exploration of Australia.
The French explorer’s artists, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicholas-Martin Petit, meticulously documented their meetings with local Aboriginal people when they landed in Tasmania.
The pictures are owned by France’s Museum of Natural History in La Havre and will tour the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), Launceston’s Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, the National Museum of Australia in Canberra and several other Australian galleries next year and in 2017………The French museum’s director Cedric Cremiere said he was proud to be able to show the works in Australia.
“It is wonderful that after that first French encounter with Australia more than 200 years ago, we can share these discoveries and sense of wonder with Australian audiences.” he said.
Tasmanian Arts Minister Vanessa Goodwin said the artworks were of huge importance to Tasmania.
“This partnership will allow audiences across Tasmania to see depictions of early Tasmanian life which are of enormous significance to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people and the Tasmanian community in general,” she said.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-19/paintings-of-tasmanian-aboriginal-life-before-colonisation/6479650
Call to allow clear participation for Royal Commission submissions – Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Congress
The motion below was passed at Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Congress yesterday. It was moved by the CEPU (Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union) and seconded by Unions SA.
Nuclear Fuel Cell Cycle With regards to the Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cell Cycle currently underway in South Australia, Congress notes with alarm the Commission has decided to require that all public submissions to be typed and sworn under oath in front of a Justice of the Peace before they will be accepted.
Requiring members of the public to take the time and resources to type and swear an oath before they can lodge a submission is an unnecessary and surprising restriction that will serve as a huge barrier to participating in what is supposed to be an open, public, inclusive and democratic process.
To be required to type a submission then swear an oath just to have your say is simply not necessary, and will have a disproportionately large effect on regional and remote communities, a majority of which are Indigenous. Additionally, in many remote communities English is not a first language, so along with the typed and sworn oath requirements means that many Indigenous voices will not be heard in the Royal Commission
The requirements means that if you live in a community that does not have a Justice of the Peace or other authorised witness, you would need to drive (assuming access to car or transport) up to an hour or more to the nearest community that does.
This runs contrary to the spirit of having an open public inquiry and is particularly unacceptable given that it is indigenous communities that will be most impacted should the Commission make recommendations for the establishment of a nuclear waste facility because they will have the facility placed on their land.
Congress calls on the Royal Commission to:
1- Restore and encourage the broadest possible public participation by removing the requirement for public submissions to be sworn under oath.
2- Accept oral and written submissions from members of the public.
3- Ensure that any activities in regional and remote indigenous communities are done in a culturally appropriate manner, including the provision of interpretation services at public meetings and ensuring that written materials are available in local languages.
America’s long term push to make Australia accept nuclear waste
US pressed Canberra to play ball on nuclear waste by: PAUL CLEARY http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/wikileaks/us-pressed-canberra-to-play-ball-on-nuclear-waste/story-fn775xjq-1227373417008 May 29, 2015
US government cables from 1978 reveal Washington had a long-term strategy to make Australia acknowledge its “responsibility” to accept nuclear waste.
This pressure coincided with parliament’s approval on June 8 that year of a six-part regime to facilitate the mining, milling and exporting of uranium oxide.
Senior US officials began raising the waste issue in June when the two countries began high-level talks over a nuclear co-operation agreement, cables posted on the WikiLeaks website reveal.
A US embassy cable reported that Australia shared the US government’s views about uranium enrichment but “was unreceptive to questions about waste disposal in the Australia-Pacific area”.
When in September that year the Mirror editorialised against Australia’s accepting nuclear waste, US embassy officials told the Department of Foreign Affairs Australia should expect the US to “nudge” it about this issue.
The editorial was brought to the attention of the US embassy by Ron Walker, who headed the defence and nuclear division in the department. US officials bluntly told him Australia was essentially ignoring the problem of nuclear waste. “We replied by telling Walker he and other GOA (government of Australia) officials should assume that during the course of the next several decades there will inevitably be speculation about potential sites for nuclear waste storage,” the US officials wrote in the cable.
“We added that while we read GOA views ‘loud and clear’, the GOA should assume there will be continuing discussion about storage sites for nuclear wastes and in fact we would probably from time to time even go as far as to nudge the GOA about its responsibility in helping to find appropriate, safe and secure storage areas.”
The following week, two officials from the Australian embassy in Washington, described as “Starr and Knight”, asked the US State Department for guidance on talking points to respond to media reports. State Department officials said Australia should mention the US government’s policy of encouraging international co-operation in storage and processing of spent fuel.
One week later, an embassy official asked the State Department if the Australian government could use a form of words at the next Pacific Forum that said it was “highly unlikely” the US government would ask Pacific countries to accept spent nuclear fuel.
The US officials said Australia should not use this language.
The nuclear agreement referred to was signed by the Fraser government in 1979, but the Hawke government ended the plan to develop nuclear enrichment technology when it dismantled Australia’s laboratory-scale centrifuge enrichment plant.
Australia’s nuclear lobby keen to “educate” schoolchildren
Forget the nuclear family we are soon going to have nuclear classrooms if ANSTO has its way BRUCE MCDOUGALL THE DAILY TELEGRAPH MAY 28, 2015
AUSTRALIA’S nuclear facility at Lucas Heights is spearheading a major push to encourage schoolchildren to become scientists.
Thousands of secondary students have been invited to tour the country’s only operational nuclear reactor, meet its scientists and study their research programs.
As Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne launched a plan to make maths and science compulsory in the final year of school, 250 students arrived at Lucas Heights yesterday to work on special projects.
The Year 9 and Year 10 students from seven schools took part in a series of competitive challenges at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)……http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/forget-the-nuclear-family-we-are-soon-going-to-have-nuclear-classrooms-if-ansto-has-its-way/story-fni0cx12-1227372012172
1 This month.
Australians deserve the truth
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)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 