Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates – quiet pro nuclear spin to Australia?
The nuclear sales show is sure getting complicated. AS USA can’t sell new nukes to its own people, and France falters in that same effort at home – then it’s time to flog off the nuclear industry to Asia while you can still make a buck or a euro out of it.
Below you can read of Obama’s efforts right now, as he visits India with a stack of nuclear industry executives. Sarkozy’ does a similar deal in China.
Where does Australia come into all this? Surely not! Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates are in Australia for a jolly sunny holiday. No?
No – they’re in Australia to sell us military stuff, and to get Australia further into USA’s military machine. The Australian public will, as usual, be kept in the dark about this, and who knows what else?
Perhaps USA wants Australia to sell uranium to India – to further USA’s nuclear reactor sales there, and to spit China?
While Europe has just decided that it’s too dangerous to transport nuclear wastes beyond its shores, USA has made no such decision. Perhaps Australia is the preferred destination for USA’s mounting embarassment of nuclear wastes?
Hillary Clinton not likely to be answering questions on nuclear wastes
Pardon my cynicism, but I bet that Hillary Clinton will be answering nice safe (non-nuclear) questions from young Australians.
Hillary Clinton to take questions from young Australians in Melbourne forum from Herald Sun, 4 Nov 10, |US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will take part in an hour-long question and answer forum in Melbourne on Sunday.Ms Clinton, who will be in Melbourne for the first time as Secretary of State, will answer questions from a live audience as well as respond to questions posted on Facebook, Twitter and others posted via video link.
The forum, aimed at people under-35 and at a secret location for security reasons, comes one day ahead of Ms Clinton’s expected attendance at the Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) consultations on Monday at Melbourne’s Government House
Questions for the forum, which will be televised on Sunday evening, can be posted on ABC News’s Facebook page or on Twitter with the hashtag #hillaryoz.
BUSTING THE NUCLEAR SPIN – theme for November
The nuclear industry is, in reality, in quite a mess. As French, American, South Korean companies scramble to sell nuclear power to the “Third World” – the industry stalls at home. The nuclear emperor’s new clothes are starting to be revealed to the world.
So – loads of money pour into this desperate sales pitch – while it becomes ever clearer that the nuclear industry is expensive, dangerous, and produces long-lasting toxic wastes – for which there is no storage solution.
Meanwhile – technologies for energy efficiency, and renewable energy get cheaper and more practical. And – renewable energy can be operated both as large scale projects on the grid – or as small-scale decentralised forms – very suitable for developing countries.
Australia’s nuclear power spinners – theme for November
It is well accepted, (even by Ziggy Switkowski in his 2006 report) that Australia does not need nuclear power. Yet, Ziggy and other old nuclear lobbyists are now urgently “spinning” , promoting nuclear energy for Australia. And new spinners are joining them
Apologies to Bob Hawke – I left that old attention-seeker off the picture!
One reason for this nuclear spinning is the fact that Australia will be expected to take back international wastes, as part of its uranium export industry. So, by getting Australia into the entire nuclear fuel cycle, this would make a smoother transition from “our” nuclear wastes, to “theirs” too.
The radioactive waste question is becoming critical in Australia – with the government’s attempt to impose a dump on Aboriginal land, and with Lucas Heights wastes soon. due to return from England.
Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates visited Australia. Their mission? – to get Australia deeper into the US military machine, with Western Australia, like Pine Gap, part of the Space War project.
The USA’s urgent nuclear waste problem might have been on the agenda in talks with Julia Gillard. We, the great unwashed, would not know. (but for USA to export its nuclear rubbish to Australia could be a bit more difficult now – since the European Union declared that export of nuclear waste overseas is unsafe)
Australia’s top nuclear lobbyist gets top education job
Ohmygawd, now we have Australia’s top nuclear salesman in a top position in academia! Yes, forget the humanities, forget scientific inquiry, RMIT university’s new Chancellor is to be a paid nuclear front man, trained only in the narrow field of nuclear physics.
Yes, it’s none other than Ziggy Spinowsky. He got some top post in the Australian Opera, presumably to get prestige in that area, rather than just as a nuclear lobbyist. Now, nuclear lobbying is entering education.- Christina Macpherson
Lies about ethical investments, lies about Climate Change
Today’s news – articles about “ethical investments”. That turns out be an issue for “Secrets and Lies”. Some companies are described as ethical because they claim not to invest in uranium. But – read the fine print, where it sometimes goes on to say “where uranium is directly intended for nuclear weapons fuel”. Now that’s a nice copout, isn’t it?
Another issue for “Secrets and Lies” – the enormously successful push by fossil fuel companies to set up the incorrect story that scientific opinion is “equally” divided on Global Warming and Climate Change.
One silly part of this is that climate scientists are accused of having a secret agenda to promote “socialism”.
Strange – because the nuclear and fossil fuel lobbies also want governments to cover the costs of nuclear power setup, security, and waste disposal – apparently nuclear socialism is OK!
Nuclear Secrecy- Australia – theme for October
Australia has long been involved in the secrecy surrounding the nuclear industry, and still is today.
It started in the early 1940s, as Australia supplied uranium for the nuclear weapons of America and Britain. From 1952, the UK’s atomic weapons were tested in South Australia and Western Australia.
Australia’s Atomic Energy Commission was set up in 1953, with the purpose of developing nuclear power, and the later option of nuclear weapons. In the 1960s and ’70ssecret litary bases at North West Cape, Pine Gap and Nurrungar tied Australia to the US nuclear war-fighting machine.
It is generally accepted that the CIA engineered the dismissal of Australia’s Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, due to particular concern of the USA government to keep Australia in the dark over these bases, particularly Pine Gap. In America, Christopher Boyce was gaoled as a traitor, 1n 1977. He alleged that the CIA had engineered Whitlam’s downfall and had not honoured the 1966 agreement to share the military information gained at Pine Gap.
Renewable energy is happening, and nuclear isn’t
I know that this is supposed to be an anti-nuclear blog. But I get bored with all the stuff in the media about nuclear. For one thing, it’s just not happening – the “nuclear renaissance”.
For another thing, the Australian media is full of hype about uranium. Today – several articles on how wonderfully well Paladin Energy is doing in Africa- oh you gotta invest! Nary a word about how Paladin is pulling out of Niger because uranium workers are getting kidnapped by al-Qaida.
But for the main thing – Renewable Energy is happening! It’s happening both on a big scale – how business and the media love BIG!
It’s happening on a small scale – where communities, schools and households are getting truly clean energy, and making a profit out of it.
Not apparently a scenario for Australia. Are we some sort of cultural outpost – where the idea of energy has to be always BIG, corporate-owned, and coal or uranium fueled?
How to lie about nuclear power funding and still sound “ethical”
In this month of focus on lies and secrets, we might ponder what Westpac Bank actually does mean when it promises to favour “clean” energy projects.
In the USA, the word “clean” is routinely applied to nuclear power. In China, even the word “renewable” is applied to nuclear power. We regularly hear of “green” nuclear power, along with other amazing lies like “cheap”.
Most (not all) of Australia’s “ethical” investments fund any uranium mining that is not specified as intended for nuclear weapons – in other words, they fund any uranium mining – and still call themselves “ethical”
Exposing the the LIES of the NUCLEAR LOBBY – October theme
An important nuclear lie is that we’ll need nuclear power to fuel electric cars, and that renewable energy can’t do it.
In fact, electric car batteries can be charged in a variety of ways.
Charging stations can get renewable power from the main grid, or directly from an array of solar panels above the charging station.
As costs come down, and batteries and car designs have improved, good serviceable cars, able to go 100 Km without recharge, are coming at a reasonable price, particularly taking into account the long-term saving in fuel costs.
Today’s batteries last for decades, in fact, for the life of the car itself, thus eliminating the cost of replacing them.
Renewable energy is ideal for electric cars. Over 70% of car travel in Australia involves shorter trips around towns. The Renewable energy car can be ‘topped up’ overnight, in the garage. Its battery stores the renewable energy, for use in daytime – there’s no “baseload power problem” – ( the nuclear lobby would claim ‘baseload” as a problem for electric cars.)
Solutions for the transition period: –
1. hybrid cars having both petrol and electric power
2. people can have solar-powered cars for normal town and city driving, with the second petrol-fuelled car for very long trips.
Aliens spying on nuclear plants? Do you believe it?
Well, I don’t. But I wouldn’t rule out unidentified spying objects – could be the USA and UK spying on each other, for all I know. As for Australia – same thing, military spycraft reported in Northern Territory could look like alien spacecraft.
Aliens have deactivated British and US nuclear missiles, say US military pilots Telegraph By Andy Bloxham 28 Sept, Aliens have landed, infiltrated British nuclear missile sites and deactivated the weapons, according to US military pilots. Continue reading
The Australian government wants to overrule Northern Territory on nuclear waste dump
The Australian government debates the ACT’s Euthanasia bill. The debate seems to be all about euthanasia. But actually – not so. This debate is about the rights of the ACT”s democratic government to make its laws – or whether the Federal government can overrule them.
This looks like a precursor to the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill, where the same issue will arise, regarding the Northern Territory. Perhaps that’s why we can expect that the Australian Government will not weaken on its over-riding of the ACT’s Euthanasia law.
If the y did weaken, well it might set a precedent that would inconvenience the nuclear/uranium lobby
Be wary on Silex nuclear company’s solar credentials
I see Silex in the news, below, as a contender for building Victoria’s solar plant. I don’t know if they are connected to TRUenergy. Silex makes the controversial, rather dangerous laser technology for uranium enrichment.
Australian uranium enrichment group Silex Systems’ subsidiary, SilexSolar, spotted the bargain and managed to purchase the plant from BP Solar in 2009
RBS Morgans analyst Scott Power says solar accounts for less than 10 per cent of the firm’s Silex valuation. – Christina Macpherson 22 Sept 10
Coal and nuclear lobbies at odds now?
For decades the fossil fuel lobby has been using their very effective tactic of “sowing doubt” about global warming and climate change. It has worked well for them – to “Divide and Conquer” public opinion.
Now – it could be their undoing. Their plan was surely to keep coal going until a smooth transition to nuclear.
Well – it hasn’t worked. While the fossil fuel lobby tries to discredit global warming, their previous ally, the nuclear lobby, now says that human-caused climate change is real!
“Divide and Conquer” now seems to be working against these lobbies, as their own doubts rebound against them.
Meanwhile – reality is coming home to the nuclear/uranium lobby – as the nuclear industry stalls in USA, UK, Germany, France, India, .. The more experience a country has had with nuclear technology, the more opposition arises to it.
The plot thickens in promotion of Olympic Dam Uranium Mine
Last month the Australian government set up a Mines Tax policy team. It is led by Don Argus, former chairman of uranium miner BHP Billiton. Other members are former uranium company Rio Tinto executive David Klingner, Erica Smyth, chairman of uranium explorer Toro Energy.
So, Australia’s mining tax policy is guided by uranium mining representatives.
And now, in a bold statement in facvour of a carbon tax, BHP Billiton’s Chief Executice officer Marius Kloppers sets the scene for BHP to increase its influence over Australia’s government.
It all sounds so good. But note that, in supporting action on Climate change, Kloppers promotes “alternative” energies to take over from coal.
I’ll bet that “alternative” will turn out to be one of those words like “renewable” and “clean” that are applied to nuclear power. And all in such good timing, as BHP Billiton is desperate to get its Olympic Dam uranium mine expansion happening.
1 This month.
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