Australia: Nuclear Waste Dump, Obama Visit, Uranium Expansion.
It’s all happening in hyping the nuclear industry in Australia. Expensive advertising by the nuclear lobby (Environmentalists for Nuclear Power), big nobs promoting it (e.g. Bob Hawke), and Ziggy Spinowsky everywhere.
What great timing! Just as the Australian government plans to
put a radioactive nuclear waste dump on aboriginal land, President Barack Obama is to visit Australia to discuss uranium, while BHP Billiton is about to launch a huge expansion of its Olympic Dam uranium mine.
Let’s not forget that Australia is still signed up to the The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), by which as a uranium supplier, Australia would be obliged to take back radioactive waste from sales of uranium to the U.S.A..
(Australia is also obligated to take back a small amount of our own Lucas Heights radioactive waste from UK, – but that is not tied to uranium sales, and that doesn’t have to be on aboriginal land).
Why Rudd will put a radioactive waste dump in the Northern Territory
a few prominent white suits (living well away from the NT) could indeed see this as the beginning of a bonanza of taking in the rest of the world’sradioactive wastes.
Once again – it’s all simple politics. The Australian government is obligated to take back , within a year or so, radioactive wastes from UK – wastes that originated in Australia’s terrorist target – the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.
There is no simple solution. Perhaps this relatively small nuclear waste dump could be situated at Lucas Heights, where it started, or perhaps it could join the existing radioactive waste at Woomera in South Australia. Then Lucas Heights could be closed, and that would be the end of it.
No such simple story, however, and in fact, no story at all, as it’s all decided very quietly – let the Australian public sleep on!
But – it must be the Northern Territory – they’re the only ones who cannot defy the federal government, – all the other States have the power to veto taking in nuclear wastes.
Anyway,a few aborigines could indeed see it as a good deal, getting a living standard equal to the rest of Australia perhaps – though the rest of us didn’t need to have our land turned into a radioactive waste in order to get that standard.
More to the point, a few prominent white suits (living well away from the NT) could indeed see this as the beginning of a bonanza of taking in the rest of the world’s radioactive wastes.
Review: Renewables, USA, Areva’s deals
Review: Australia: Practical renewable energy plan suggested, while govt pursues ETS policy. AREVA buys up solar company. Govt ignores calls for compensation for Maralinga vets. Ranger uranium mine still leaking radioactivity.
International: Obama about to announce loans to nuclear industry, while Wall St. avoiding the nuclear financial bottomless pit. Big antinuclear protest in UK. Germany Environment Minister firm on closing nuke plants. Areva buying up solar plants, but also joining South Korea in nuclear push – the week that has been
What a Damn Yankee Nuclear Nuisance!
(USA) Just as the nuclear idustry pushes for massive public money, for extending the life of its aging reactors and setting up new ones, along comes a pesky little bit of democracy!
Alone in the nuclear power world, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant actually has to rely on the State Legislature to say yea or nay to extended its miserable radioactively leaking life. (Other U.S. States don’t have this “luxury” of controlling their ancient or new nuclear reactors.)
Oh dear, this leaky old ship could bring about the sinking of the whole nuclear power fleet in America. (Meanwhile government-run nuclear industries – France, China – etc – they don’t have this pesky problem of being financially or in any other way, accountable to the people.)
Australia’s climate suffers while our media is slack
To return briefly to last month’s theme of MEDIA – do Australians realise how slack our mass media is? The big polluters and nuclear lobby don’t need a conspiracy or even their continued high-powered spin to the media.
They can rely on the slackness of Australia’s mainstream media. For example, apparently Australia’s iconic love of “larrikinism” , (possibly combined with large journalistic ignorance of climate change), was enough for the National Press Club to give Lord Monckton the status of a serious scientist.
It is indeed a worry, when this (?) prestigious media event is used at best to give journalists a laugh, at worst, when the unscientific nature of Lord Monckton’s standing and claims are presented as serious.
Australian media lets the public down on Climate Change
This week – disturbing examples of two serious flaws in Australian mass media.:
1. Failure of journalists to do their homework. The two items below both illustrate this. Neither Fran Kelly of ABC Radio, nor Miranda Devine (The Age) bothered toask Lord Monckton any of the hard questions – about his own credibility as a scientist, or challenging his statements on Climate Change.
2. Not only does the mass`media seem to believe that they must give equal weight to ‘both sides’ of a story – this week they’ve gone further – not bothering to invite Australia’s scientific institutions to give their information on climate change.
It’s a worrying trend, when views like those of Lord Monckton are taken seriously by reputable journalists – (Climate Change as a front for a world-government conspiracy equal to Nazism)
Review- the nuclear week that has been
Australia: Climate denialists Monckton and Plimer touring Australia (wonder who’s paying for this tour?). Maralinga nuclear veterans must take their case to England. Tony Abbott calls for uranium sales to India, as India builds its nuke weapons arsenal. Australian Super decides that uranium is ethical enough. Point Lowly Action group trying to save iconic Great Australian Cuttlefish. ERA uranium shares and production fall. Govt considers airport scanning amid public ignorance on the issue.
International: Huge global renewable energy summit. France’s nuke industry embroiled in strife. Critical talks about Iran’s nukes. Germany in dilemma over mounting nuclear waste. Future very complicated for USA’s nuke industry. Colorado anti-uranium legal bid moves along. Revelations of Israel’s uranium tests on workers. Doomsday clock – slight improvement. USA – anti-uranium protest. Court action over depleted uranium in Hawaii. Protest against NASA’s radiation testing on squirrel monkeys.
Media under scrutiny – the need for vigilance
Christina Macpherson 5 Jan 2010 I was quite shocked at what happened in Australia over 2009, in the mainstream media’s coverage of Climate Change. Probably because of Australia’s peculiar media monopoly situation, it was easy for the anti-scientific point of view of the fossil fuel lobby to prevail.
The fossil fuel lobby’s extraordinary success was in creating an opinion climate of doubt and confusion about global warming.
This is a warning sign for Australia’s future. Thank goodness, we have the Internet, and many fine independent media and blog-sites. Australia’s younger generation has had a better science education, and they have access to independent media, as well as to the mainstream media, (which still does provide good scientific information, along with the anti-intellectual rubbish of the likes of Ian Plimer.)
Review of the nuclear year that has been
Review of the nuclear year that has been Christina Macpherson 5 January 2010
Australia: An extraordinary year in which Climate Sceptics were allowed to dominate much of the media, turning Australia into a curious outpost of anti-science. Pro-nuclear hype revved up, too – sometimes promoted as cure for global warming, but, inexplicably, also promoted by climate change disbelievers.
BHP Billiton put out huge but inadequate Environmental Impact Statement for its planned Olympic Dam expansion. Uranium explorations all over the place, especially in South Australia, as govt and mining industry try to manipulate aboriginal owners. Awareness of radiation effects at last leads to Maralinga veterans’ legal bid for justice.
International: While the nuclear hype went on, the facts were otherwise. France’s “flagship” new nukes are still struggling, under construction, and ramping up huge debts to AREVA. UK and USA governments struggle with the reality that only the tax-payer can pay the costs of nuclear power. State-owned nuclear industry – e.g France, Russia, China are not troubled by having to reveal the costs.
USA in a turmoil over where to put nuclear wastes, as Yucca Mountain dump plan is dumped. Revelations of illegal waste-dumping by UK and European countries were quickly glossed over in mainstream media. China is secretive about its nuke wastes, in earthquake areas, and imprisons nuclear dissidents.
The world waits for a resolution of Iran and its nukes, with fear of attack on Iran by Israel or the USA.. Middle Eastern countries seek nuclear power “for peaceful purposes only”, while India revs up its nuke power and nuke weapons, and everyone eyes Pakistan with trepidation.
Quietly, the anti-nuclear and anti-uranium movements built up momentum, along with strengthening indigenous rights movement, and a strong presence at Copenhagen. Impediments occur to the growth of the nuclear industry, including for example, quite a few legal victories in USA.
Review- Maralinga aborigines and vets, Copenhagen dud…
Review of the past week
Australia: poll shows Australian want renewable energy, not nuclear, and Australian Academy of Science agrees. Maralinga veterans join British vets’ legal action. Aboriginal victims’ health ignored, too, while Maralinga land returned to them. Climate sceptics continue to get media coverage, and John Howard joins Ziggy Sinowski in nuclear push.
International: China- France nuclear deal despite China’s bad record for secrecy and poor safety. Copenhagen a dud, but strong popular movement for action. Russia plans nukes in space. France’s nuclear electricity coping poorly in extreme weather. South African antinuke movement. Renewables going ahead in Scotland, and Taiwan.
In defense of leaders at Copenhagen
Yes – I know that it was a crummy outcome. But what did you expect? If Obama, Rudd etc came up with even a half-decent agreement – they would be out of office in no time, with the domestic outcry. Then somebody worse would be in office.
(Shades of Hilaire Bellooc’s advice, on the boy who had his head bitten off by a lion – “always keep a hold of nurse, for fear of finding something worse”)
As long as the public, egged on by the media, see economic groswth and consumerism as the desirable lifestyle – there is no hope for reducing C02 emissions.
It’s Christmas – what a symptom of our public disease – with everybody rushing around buying more unnecessary stuff – to watch on their great plasma screens, in their McMansions etc. It’s US – the world public – who consume all the junk that keeps the factories and mines roaring.
I just hope that the world wakes up to this before catastrophe awakens us properly.
Creation Science and Flat Earth for Australia!
Having watched Ian Plimer manipulating, evading, and repeating patently obvious untruths – I continue to marvel at Australia’s Climate Sceptics, and even more, I marvel at the media coverage they get! . Obviously, Australia’s Chief Scientist must be a complete fool, taken in by the global warming international conspiracy.
I want to join the denialist throng. Why shouldn’t Australia be a real leader in the field? Now I want to start my own movement, and get a showing on ABC TV. I want to start a Creation Science movement, and also a Flat Earther one.
We’ve added more C02 to the atmosphere. This diagram, showing how greenhouse gases, especially C02, trap heat in the atmosphere – why it’s all nonsense, isn’t it?
Nuclear to cure climate change – it’s a joke
Nuclear power as a cure for climate change is a sick joke. As climate changes, extreme weather events endanger uranium mines and nuclear facilities – as mentioned in today’s items on tropical cyclones, and France’s extreme cold.
Kyoto Protocol Excluded Nuclear Power
At Copenhagen, the rich countries have pushed for a new agreement, and an end to the legally binding Kyoto Protocol. The KyotoProtocol had stated that the industrialised nations had responsibility for the rise in atmospheric greenhouse gases. This point was now to be omitted.
Also with the KyotoProtocol’s Clean Development Mechanism, nuclear power was excluded – how inconvenient for the nuclear lobby, in its desperation to resuscitate the industry. You can bet that in any proposed new agreement, nuclear might just find its way in!
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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