Credibility gulf in Australia’s deal to sell uranium to United Arab Emirates (UAE)
The federal government’s decision to sell uranium to the United Arab Emirates lacks credibility and has the potential to undermine efforts towards nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East, the Australian Conservation Foundation said today. “In the shadow of Fukushima – an ongoing crisis directly fuelled by Australian uranium – nuclear power is under a cloud as an energy source.
“Japan closed all its nuclear plants for safety testing, Germany has committed to get out of nuclear power within a decade and nations such as Switzerland, Belgium and Italy are moving away from nuclear power. “Plans for new nuclear power reactors in the UK and USA face increased community resistance and scrutiny and increased regulatory compliance costs.
“But despite repeated domestic and international calls, including from the UN Secretary General, the federal government has done nothing to review or enhance nuclear security regimes, bi-lateral safeguards or chain-of-custody arrangements.
“The United Arab Emirates, an alliance of seven monarchies in which each monarch retains absolute power, sits in the middle of an unstable region. “The Arab Spring has not fully sprung in the UAE. “To state that Australian uranium will not be misused because it is in the UAE’s interest not to misuse is naïve and lacks credibility.
“This move by the federal government has the potential to undermine efforts to advance nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East. “Australia’s uranium export policy continues to be driven by commercial interests, not the national interest. “The Australian Conservation Foundation has serious concerns about the adequacy and capacity of the international nuclear safeguards regime.”
Australian govt rejects USA naval nuclear base, (FOR THE MOMENT ANYWAY)
Smith rejects proposal for US carrier base ABC Radio AM By Naomi Woodley August 02, 2012 Defence Minister Stephen Smith has flatly rejected a proposal to expand a naval base in Perth to accommodate US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier groups.
The idea for a $7 billion US carrier base on Australia’s Indian Ocean seaboard is one of many canvassed in a report commissioned by the US Defence Department from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank.
Mr Smith says while increased US access to the HMAS Stirling base is on the cards in the long term, American aircraft carriers will not be based in Australia. “The report is an independent report to the United States government. It’s not a United States government document,” he said.
“We don’t have United States military bases in Australia and we are not proposing to. What we have talked about in terms of either increased aerial access or naval access is precisely that – greater access to our facilities.” The West Australian Premier and Opposition Leader have also ruled out the aircraft carrier base idea………….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-02/smith-rejects-us-base-proposal/4171086
A reminder of the disgraceful history of Beverley uranium mine in South Australia
police brutality against environmentalists and local Aboriginal people. An online video clip details this brutality. Heathgate applauded the police action (in a 2000 media release which is no longer available online). After a 10-year legal case, 10 people were awarded a total of $700,000 damages.
. At least 59 spills have been documented at the mine. The company sells uranium to nuclear weapons states (all of which are in breach of their disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty),
A refresher on who’s behind one of our uranium mines, Jim Green, The Punch, 2 Aug 2012http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-refresher-on-whos-behind-one-of-our-uranium-mines The story behind the corporation that owns the Beverley uranium mine in north-east South Australia is scarcely believable.
Heathgate Resources − a 100 per cent-owned subsidiary of General Atomics (GA) − owns and operates Beverley and has a stake in the adjacent Beverley Four Mile mine. Over the years GA CEO Neal Blue has had commercial interests in oil, Predator drones, uranium mining and nuclear reactors, cocoa, bananas and real estate. Continue reading
Australian scientists find that human activity has caused melanoma in fish
A whopping 15% of the fish surveyed had melanoma. … While 15% sounds high, Sweet and his colleagues believe it’s only a minimum estimate. “Once the cancer spreads further you would expect the fish to become quite sick, becoming less active and possibly feeding less, hence less likely to be caught. This suggests the actual percentage affected by the cancer is likely to be higher than observed in this study.”….
Fish with Melanoma – Our Enduring Environmental Legacy Scientific American. By Christie Wilcox | August 1, 2012 | We’ve all heard the horror stories. Melanoma is one of the most dangerous kinds of skin cancer, killing around 50,000 people worldwide every year. If caught early enough, it can be cured, but once it invades past the skin, it’s deadly. On the advice of doctors, we try to protect ourselves, donning floppy hats and coat upon coat of SPF 50 sunblock. We pick over our bodies in the mirror regularly, looking for dark, irregularly-shaped spots. . The recent rise in the incidence of skin cancer, though, is our own fault.
It is the result of our environmental hubris, a combination of a chemically-depleted ozone layer and our pathological obsession with a tanned physical appearance. Now, we’re becoming increasingly aware that our choices don’t just impact our own species. The rest of life has to deal with our poor decisions, and studies are just now determining the wide-ranging consequences of our actions.
Unable to slather on sunscreen, the creatures on our planet are much more limited in their ability to deal with the sun’s radiation…… Continue reading
Australia’s energy assessment includes nuclear power, IGNORES DECOMMISSIONING COSTS
BREE says the cost of building a new nuclear facility 2012 in Australia would be less than A$100/MWh, rising to $126/MWh in 2050. But BREE says it did not factor in decommissioning costs.
Australia sees PV and wind as cheapest sources by 2030 
http://www.rechargenews.com/business_area/finance/article319046.ece1 August 12, By 2030, solar PV and onshore wind farms are expected to provide some of the lowest-cost alternatives to coal and gas-fired power stations, with PV likely to be considerably cheaper than all 
other energy forms by 2050, Australia’s chief energy forecasting body says.
In The Australian Energy Technology Assessment (AETA), the Australia’s energy assessment compares the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) – that is the price at which electricity must be produced from a specific source to break even – of 40 different generation technologies.
It finds the costs of PV have dropped sharply in the past two to three years as a result of a rapid increase in global production of solar modules. Continue reading
Australia’s uranium to Arab world- (take back radioactive wastes later?)
Such a stable part of the world – the Middle East ? Australia to take back the radioactive wastes – LATER? – C.M
When Abu Dhabi outlined its plans to build the Arab world’s first nuclear power plant in 2008, it had hoped that some supplier nations would be willing to take back the waste.
Australia to supply UAE nuclear fuel but won’t take radioactive waste, The National April Yee Aug 1, 2012 ABU DHABI // Australia has opened the door to supplying the UAE with nuclear fuel but has ruled out taking back the radioactive waste it generates.
“The UAE meets all the tests, and the tests are rigorous and extensive and we’re happy to make a big commitment to providing them with energy security,” the Australian foreign minister Bob Carr said yesterday.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdullah, signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Mr Carr last night allowing for such nuclear trade as Abu Dhabi prepares to award a major contract for 15 years’ worth of uranium. But fuel leasing, in which the supplier takes back the spent fuel, is off the cards for now in Australia, which also bans nuclear plants at home. Continue reading
Investment funds applaud BHP’s decision to shelve Olympic Dam uranium mine expansion
factors hampering BHP’s ability to build massive expansion projects like Olympic Dam.
Shelving projects ‘a wise move for miners’ THE AUSTRALIAN, BY: MATT CHAMBERS AND BARRY FITZGERALD July 30, 2012 THE nation’s biggest listed investment fund and one of BHP Billiton’s top shareholders has applauded moves by big miners to shelve Australian projects because of high costs and sliding commodity prices.
Over the weekend, the most likely of Australia’s next big uranium developments, the Kintyre project in the Great Sandy desert, became the latest victim after being hit by sluggish prices for the nuclear fuel and Western Australia’s heated construction market.
The shelving of Kintyre, by Canada’s Cameco, came as The Weekend Australian revealed BHP had told outsiders of a two-year delay on a $30 billion decision due this year on expanding the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia’s outback.
Australian Foundation Investment Co managing director Ross Barker said the time of huge profits from very high commodities prices appeared to be coming to an end, Continue reading
Outback Aboriginal company joins forces with solar power company
Aboriginal people to install solar systems in remote WA communities http://www.abc.net.au/rural news/content/201207/s3556353.htm ABC rural news By Babs McHugh , 30/07/2012 An Indigenous mining company has joined forces with a solar power company to build renewable energy systems in remote Western Australia.
Carey Power plans to train and employ local Aboriginal people to install and maintain the power systems, which will also be rolled out to mine sites.
Minnie King is a Torres Strait Islander who’ll run the company, which has already signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with an Aboriginal Corporation in the Northern Territory to look at power solutions there.
She says Carey Power will be initially focused on solar energy projects, using panels bought in China.
“We’re interested in looking at perhaps doing hybrids, where there are existing diesel generation systems in communities, looking at installing solar there, perhaps solar farms,” she said. “But in saying that, there are other technologies that we would be interested in exploring down the track.”
The plot to frame Julian Assange
Australian TV Program Exposes Julian Assange Frame-up http://www.democraticunderground.com/101636930 http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jul2012/assa-j28.shtml “Four Corners”, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation current affairs program, this week broadcast what amounted to an exposé of the frame-up of WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange on allegations of sexual misconduct in Sweden. Assange remains inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, seeking political asylum from the threat of being removed to Sweden, which would in turn facilitate extradition to the US.
By tracing the chronology, the program also clarified the connection between the Swedish witchhunt and the Grand Jury operation underway in the United States to charge Assange with espionage for WikiLeaks’ exposures of US war crimes (see: “Sex, Lies and Julian Assange”).
The program provided substantial evidence that the allegations against him were false and politically motivated. The unproven accusations were used to blacken his name in Sweden and around the world, and counter the widespread public support that he and WikiLeaks had won for courageously exposing the crimes and machinations of the US and other powers.
Assange has still not been charged with any crime.
Julian Assange’s mother claims to have documentary evidence of USA’s intentions to prosecute him
Assange’s mother says U.S. bent on extraditing WikiLeaks founder The Star, By Eduardo Garcia QUITO (Reuters) 31 July 12, – Julian Assange’s mother said she handed evidence to Ecuador’s government on Monday indicating Washington is bent on extraditing her son to the United States, where she fears the WikiLeaks founder could face execution….. Neither U.S.
nor Swedish authorities have charged Assange with anything. Swedish prosecutors want to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two WikiLeaks supporters in 2010…
.. Christine Assange is due to meet with Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa later this week. She described the socialist leader as “very brave” and said she trusts that Correa will not allow his country’s sovereignty to be manipulated by foreign interests.
Both Correa and Julian Assange have alienated Washington. Correa is an ardent critic of what he calls U.S. “imperialism,” and U.S. authorities accuse Assange of damaging its foreign relations with his leaks http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/7/31/worldupdates/2012-07-30T220338Z_3_BRE86T0R9_RTROPTT_0_UK-ECUADOR-ASSANGE&sec=Worldupdates
Ecuador asked Sweden to question Julian Assange in London
Assange suffering, mother says THE AUSTRALIAN, AP July 31, 2012 THE mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says her son’s health is suffering after more than a month confined to Ecuador’s embassy in London. Christine Assange is in Ecuador to meet with officials about her son’s political asylum request.
Ecuadorian officials have said they will not announce a decision until after the London Olympics end in mid-August.
Christine Assange told an Ecuadorian TV station on Monday that her son, owing to his cramped living conditions and inability to exercise, has extreme psychological stress. The activist who published secret US documents took refuge in the
embassy on June 19 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning about allegations of sexual misconduct.
Assange says he fears Sweden will extradite him to the United States. Meanwhile, Ecuador says it has asked Sweden to question Mr Assange in London…… The WikiLeaks founder fears that from Sweden, he could subsequently be re-extradited to the United States to stand trial for espionage, on account of the trove of leaked US diplomatic cables and military logs that were published on his website…..
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/wikileaks/assange-suffering-mother-says/story-fn775xjq-1226439239285
Australian uranium projects not economically viable – Kintyre, Yeelirrie, Olympic Dam
Uranium prices halt Sandy Desert project, BY: BARRY FITZGERALD The Australian July 29, THE most likely of Australia’s next big uranium mine developments – the Kintyre project in Western Australia’s Great Sandy desert – has fallen victim to sluggish demand and prices for the nuclear fuel, and WA’s “hot” construction market for resource projects.
Project operator and 70 per cent owner, Canada’s Cameco, has revealed that the economics of the project are “challenging” in that a development would not be profitable at current uranium prices. Prices are 34 per cent below where they need to be for a viable project.
The sluggish demand backdrop has implications for BHP Billiton which must find a home for the additional uranium it will produce with the planned $30 billion expansion of its Olympic Dam copper/uranium/gold mine in South Australia’s outback.
The expansion would see uranium output at Olympic Dam grow massively from 9.6 million pounds a year to 40.6 million pounds a year – 17 per cent of forecast global mine output in 2020.
But the Weekend Australian revealed that BHP plans to defer a decision on the project for two years.
Sluggish uranium demand has already reported to have led to BHP becoming disinterested in moving towards developing its Yeelirrie uranium deposit in WA.
Cameco chief executive Tim Gitzel told analysts that Cameco was “not going to develop Kintyre at any cost Continue reading
BHP’s technology problems with its dubious Olympic Dam uranium mine plan
BHP Billiton’s desperate Olympic race Business Spectator Robert Gottliebsen, 30 Jul 
2012 “……there is another problem that is causing some to speculate that BHP needs a technical as well as a customer partner at Olympic Dam. BHP was once a global mining technology giant. That is no longer so and it relies on outsiders for much if its technical expertise.
The company has a history of failure in high technology mining ventures including Hartley Platinum, hot iron briquettes, mineral sands and Ravensthorpe…..
Any non-smelter solution to Olympic Dam will again thrust BHP into high technology mining treatment where it has a track record of failure.
BHP is not the only global miner to run down its technology in favour of highly profitable digging and shipping. If BHP steps back from Olympic Dam in December it should also reveal any wider long-term treatment problems and canvass new partners.
Footnote: BHP’s environmental statement revealed it planned to spend six years removing the overburden to access the ore body. In all, it planned to remove a 350 metre thick layer of overburden and the rock taken out will be transported to a rock storage facility that covers 6,720 hectares and will eventually be 150 metres high. By 2050, when the mine has not even completed half its life, the pit would be 4.1 kilometres long, 3.5 kilometres wide and one kilometre deep …..”
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/BHP-Billiton-Olympic-Dam-China-ore-prices-pd20120730-WNSYX?OpenDocument&emcontent_Gottliebsen
Queensland’s Liberal-National Party policy on Climate Change- an international embarassment
Queensland and the weird alternate reality of climate change denialists Independent Australia, Graham Readfearn, 25 July, 2012 “….. we come to the latest episode, where Queensland’s currently in-power Liberal-National Party has accepted a motion that climate science shouldn’t be taught in schools. The proposer of the motion, which was accepted unanimously (but may not be taken up by the parliamentary wing of the party), is a Dr Richard Pearson, from Noosa.
It now appears that Dr Pearson has been conducting his own climate science experiments — at home, in his kitchen, armed only with thermometers, two fish cooler boxes and a roll of cling film. Some may find the results remarkable; you see, Dr Pearson believes he may have disproved the greenhouse effect (you may now pinch yourself).
We know this because he wrote about his experiment on the website of the climate sceptic group the Galileo Movement — whose patron is the noted climate expert (and radio presenter) Alan Jones. Dr Pearson’s conclusion?
‘That the Greenhouse Effect theory is not confirmed by this experiment and may be disproved by it.’
Now, even though the notion that a guy in his kitchen in Noosa armed with two eskies and a roll of cling film could single-handedly disprove the greenhouse theory may seem just a tad fanciful….
plausible to non-experts, such as the vast majority of the general public. At the end of his experiment, Dr Pearson recounts how his daughter had questioned how a man with cling film could “disprove a theory that hundreds of climate scientists around the world say is true”. “That my darling is science”, was Dr Pearson’s response. Is it really?…
Professor Matthew England, of the University of New South Wales Climate Change Research Centre and also chairman of the Australian Climate Commission’s science advisory panel, says the motion which Dr Pearson managed to get passed at the LNP’s state conference could have broad ramifications, if only for the state’s reputation.
If the proposal to remove greenhouse science from the school curriculum is enacted, Queensland’s education system will become an international joke overnight. Basic greenhouse gas physics has been established with around 200 years of scientific progress — any move to muzzle climate science facts from being taught at schools will be condemned as world’s worst practice in scientific education.
So if the Queensland Education Minister John Paul Langbroek does act on the motion from his party, then Prof England says the State will be a laughing stock. Until then, we’ll just have to settle for the majority of the members of the LNP. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/queensland-and-the-weird-alternate-reality-of-climate-change-denialists/
BHP delays for 2 years decision on whether or not to go ahead with new Olympic Dam uranium mine
Olympic Dam threat as BHP puts brakes on
BY: SARAH MARTIN, SA POLITICAL REPORTER The Australian July 28, 2012 “,,,,,,Documents obtained by The Weekend Australian show the company has informed outsiders that a decision to proceed with the project – spruiked by federal and state Labor governments as key to South Australia’s economic future – will be delayed by two years……The expansion would make Olympic Dam the world’s largest uranium mine,,,,,the strongest indication yet that the project will not receive board approval before the end of the year, meaning the company will fail to meet the government’s December 8 deadline and its indenture agreement will lapse…… The potential delay for the project comes as the South Australian government has recently softened its commentary on the importance of the mine expansion to the state’s economy. Treasurer Jack Snelling last week told The Australian that the mine expansion was never going to be a “cash cow” for government coffers….” http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/olympic-dam-threat-as-bhp-puts-brakes-on/story-fn59niix-1226437208652
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