Decline of uranium mining in Australia
PHASING OUT NUCLEAR POWER, Taipei Times, By Ho Yi / Staff reporter, 30 July 15 “…….In Australia, uranium mining companies have suffered a major setback as global uranium prices have dropped 70 percent since the Fukushima meltdown, prompting Japan, one of the biggest importers of Australia’s uranium, to switch off its nuclear reactors.
Atkinson says that all the big companies that have thrived in the nuclear industry in Australia since the 1950s are going broke as they wait for Japan to restart their reactors.
Meanwhile, mining giants are leading the push to build new nuclear power plants in countries like India and Indonesia.
But Atkinson says the future looks bright. He says there is a strong sense that Australia’s four uranium mines will shut down over the next decade as renewable energy becomes cheaper than nuclear power.
And nuclear waste? Atkinson says that nuclear waste in Australia should be stored closest to where the greatest number of people use electrical power — Sydney — and where “people who know how dangerous it is can do the best they can to look after it.”
“This out of sight, out of mind philosophy is not the best way to deal with a substance so dangerous… [Nuclear waste] is never going to be in the middle of nowhere. We need to realize that there is no such thing as nowhere. There is always someone living somewhere,” he says…….. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2015/07/30/2003624204/2
Global climate change – there’s nowhere to run to
Is Anywhere on Earth Safe From Climate Change?, 
The Atlantic ADRIENNE LAFRANCE AUG 3, 2015 Relocating to a landlocked city isn’t enough Put simply: Climate change poses the threat of global catastrophe. The planet isn’t just getting hotter, it’s destabilizing. Entire ecosystems are at risk. The future of humanity is at stake.
Scientists warn that extreme weather will get worse and huge swaths of coastal cities will be submerged by ever-more-acidic oceans. All of which raises a question: If climate change continues at this pace, is anywhere going to be safe?
“Switzerland would be a good guess,” said James Hansen, the director of climate science at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Hansen’s latest climate study warns that climate change is actually happening faster than computer models previously predicted. He and more than a dozen co-authors found that sea levels could rise at least 10 feet in the next 50 years. Slate points out that although the study isn’t yet peer-reviewed, Hansen is “known for being alarmist and also right.”…..
Staying away from scorching heat, hurricanes, floods, and wildfire will be difficult in a country that feels dramatically different in coming decades. “The best place really is Alaska,” said Camilo Mora, a geologist at the University of Hawaii, in an interview with The New York Times last year………http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/is-anywhere-on-earth-safe-from-climate-change/400304/
Senate wind farm inquiry report designed to kill the industry
“You didn’t need a crystal ball to know the inquiry was going to demonise clean and safe wind energy,” said Leigh Ewbank, Friends of the Earth’s renewable energy spokesperson.
“Stacked with senators opposed to wind farms and selective leaks to the press show that the inquiry was a political exercise, not a impartial review.”
Senate wind report slammed as ‘reckless’, ‘biased’ attack on renewables http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/senate-wind-report-slammed-as-reckless-biased-attack-on-renewables-14968 By Sophie Vorrath on 4 August 2015 After an impromptu and questionably legal airing last week, the final report of the Senate inquiry into wind farms was tabled in Parliament on Monday, with a lengthy list of recommendations that the clean energy industry says would result in the death of the wind farm sector in Australia.
The recommendations, some already adopted by the Abbott government – include the creation of an independent scientific committee on wind farm noise, national standards on the level of sound allowed to be emitted by wind farms, ongoing investigation into the health effects of “infrasound,” and new limits and restrictions to wind projects’ access to renewable energy certificates (RECs). Continue reading
Australian anti nuclear activist Marcus Atkinson at Taipei’s No Nukes Film Festival
ALLYING WITH ABORIGINALS
With a long nuclear-free history, Western Australia has a strong foundation for an anti-nuclear movement. Atkinson says Aboriginal people have formed a close and still growing alliance with environmental groups, politicians and union organizations since the 1990s because they have learned to “listen to each other.”
For example, the Walkatjurra Walkabout is an annual month-long trek through the Wangkatja country and is joined by local Aborigine villagers and people from around Australia as a way to celebrate the strength of an Aboriginal community that has fought to stop uranium mining for over 40 years.
Under the cloud of nuclear power, Taipei Times, By Ho Yi / Staff reporter, 30 July 15 Anti-nuclear activists from Japan, Taiwan and Australia gathered at the No Nukes Film Festival in Taipei last week to discuss uranium mining, nuclear waste and ‘radioactive racism’ What do Taiwan, Japan, Australia and France have in common? They are part of the global nuclear industry chain that starts with mining companies like Canada’s Cameco and Areva from France that extract uranium ore to build and fuel nuclear power plants.
Throughout the chain, there is another thing that happens over and over: the nuclear industry stores its waste at facilities located in poor and Aboriginal communities because of their remote locations. These communities also offer the least resistance against corporations and governments.
“We have an expression in Australia called ‘radioactive racism,’ meaning all of the radioactivity, nuclear tests, uranium mining and nuclear waste are always targeted at Aboriginal communities,” says Marcus Atkinson, an organizer with the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia.
The anti-nuclear activist was in Taipei last week to attend the No Nukes Film Festival (核電影), a free biennial event organized by Green Citizens’ Action Alliance (綠色公民行動聯盟), an NGO and anti-nuclear advocacy group. The festival and film screenings ends Sunday. Continue reading
Hiroshima- Never Again. Ban Nuclear Weapons
The horror of Hiroshima and the bomb: 70 years on https://independentaustralia.net/article-display/the-horror-of-hiroshima-and-the-bomb-70-years-on,8020
On 6 August, it will be the 70th anniversary of the day America dropped a nuclear bomb on the people of Hiroshima and then Nagasaki.
The incredible horror of those events, with thousands killed and millions more affected by radiation, was burnt into my memory. I was at school that day. I remember walking the mile to and from it, picking buttercups and playing with a frog on the edge of a drain; stopping to watch a brown butterfly enjoying life and listening to a soaring lark. Then listening to the ugly news of WWII that night, realising that the dropping of nuclear bombs created an incredible, new enormity.
These days, it seems like a nightmare most Australians do not remember, or of which they have no comprehension. So much has changed, with women busily rushing to work and shopping, as if food and clothing were the most important things in life; where, in busy restaurants, “to eat, drink and be merry” is the daily mantra and only fleeting thoughts are given to our marvellous world, with its spring blossoms and bird song; and even less to the really important action we should be taking to keep our island and our planet as each is — a wonderful place in which to live.
Is this because we cannot bear to acknowledge the underlying fear we have because we cannot control earthquakes, global warming and nuclear disasters? Certainly, earthquakes and the moving of the tectonic plates below us, are beyond control, but we can do something about man-made problems……..
Perhaps if we, the people, acted together with courage and took class actions against those Governments possessing nuclear weapons, the United Nations for being inactive and those who work in the nuclear industry, so that the people with the power to act were forced to get rid of these obscene weapons, we could all feel that we, who are living now, had done something worthwhile in our time on Earth to rid it of the fear that was created 70 years ago when Hiroshima was destroyed. https://independentaustralia.net/article-display/the-horror-of-hiroshima-and-the-bomb-70-years-on,8020
Oxfam Australia: Powering up against poverty – why renewable energy is the future
From the tiniest nations of the Pacific to a giant like China, developing countries are demonstrating that reducing poverty and tackling climate change can, and indeed must, go hand in hand. …
In this report we comprehensively debunk the Prime Minister’s now-infamous statement that “coal is good for humanity”. In this report we explore the devastating impacts of coal on communities and reveal how, contrary to industry claims, coal can do little to bring electricity to those still living without it, the majority of whom live in rural areas and beyond the reach of the conventional energy grid.
http://apo.org.au/research/powering-against-poverty-why-renewable-energy-future
As Alinta coal mine to close, opportunity opens for solar thermal plant
Alinta’s Leigh Creek coal mine may close at end of year ahead of power plant shutdowns , ABC News, By political reporter Angelique Donnellan and staff , 31 July 15 Alinta Energy cannot rule out closing its Leigh Creek coal mine by the end of the year.
The shutdown looms as the company confirmed that it would shut its Port Augusta power stations between March next year and March 2017……..
South Australian Greens Senator Penny Wright said the exit of Alinta from the region would create an opportunity for the Government to develop Australia’s first solar thermal plant in Port Augusta.
“An investment in solar thermal in the Port Augusta region is just crying out to [be] made because you have huge community support, you have the conditions, you have the solar radiation, you have the space, and you have a skilled workforce that could transition,” she said…… http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-31/alintas-leigh-creek-coal-mine-may-close-at-end-of-year/6663568
Renewable energy needed to bring Australia up to a leadership role in the world
What industry leaders understand is that renewable energy promises to be one of the leading industries of the 21st century.
These industries promise not just reliable and secure energy, but also industrial and manufacturing strength, exports, technological innovation and jobs.
Why Australia should look to renewable energy to stay amongst leading nations, http://www.businessreviewaustralia.com/leadership/1772/Why-Australia-should-look-to-renewable-energy-to-stay-amongst-leading-nations Stephanie Ocano 31 July Last week, opposition leader Bill Shorten told the Labor Party conference that the party’s policy should be amended for 50 per cent of electricity to come from renewables by the year 2030.
According to our sister publication Energy Digital, this would bring Australia abreast with international competitors such as California and Germany. Shorten’s plan promises to be effective in building a new power sector to eclipse the present fossil-fuelled sector.If adopted, the policy would allow the Labor Party to finally free itself of the politically damaging obsession with using carbon pricing—either in the form of a carbon tax or a cap and trade scheme—as its principal green platform. Continue reading
No Fracking: ALCOA dumps its gas deal in Western Australia
Western Australia: Fracking is ‘dead’, ALCOA scraps $40m gas deal http://thaiindynews.blogspot.com.au/ The call for a “frack free” Kimberley is winning, at least for now. Greens hailed ALCOA Australia in dumping its $40 million deal with Buru Energy to supply up to 500 petajoules of gas, a deal struck eight years ago. Continue reading
Horsham Rural City Council in a dilemma over waste with radioactive content
Council and EPA considering miner’s plan to dump 20 years of interstate waste south of Horsham, Weekly Times, 28 july 15 A RURAL council must decide if Iluka Resources can continue using a pit south of Horsham to dump mine waste — low-level radioactive byproducts and concrete and steel that has been in contact with radioactive material — from old Victorian mines and active sites interstate……….http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/national/council-and-epa-considering-miners-plan-to-dump-20-years-of-interstate-waste-south-of-horsham/story-fnkfnspy-1227460545977
Poll finds 60% believe carbon tax had little or no effect on electricity bills
Only 21% of voters polled believe that the carbon price had a large impact on power prices and just 9% thought the repeal had pushed prices down
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/28/poll-finds-60-believe-carbon-tax-had-little-or-no-effect-on-electricity-bills
VICTORIAN Liberal MP Sarah Henderson breaks ranks, supports investment in renewables
Lib MP calls for rethink on renewables
VICTORIAN MP Sarah Henderson has broken ranks over the Federal Government’s directive for its green bank to stop investing in wind farms and rooftop solar.(subscribers only)
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/victorian-liberal-mp-sarah-henderson-calls-for-abbott-government-rethink-on-renewable-energy/story-fnpp4dl6-1227457702807
Australia at historic turning point in global switch to renewable energy
Dramatic changes in energy systems are evident in many other countries too, and they are affecting technological possibilities and relative prices everywhere.
Australia, with its world-class renewable resources, is among the best-placed countries to capitalise.
It is now beyond reasonable doubt that a more decentralised, renewables-based system will provide much cheaper power over the medium and long term, especially with ongoing innovation, and with the increasing uptake of smart electricity grid infrastructure and energy storage technologies, the costs of which are also falling rapidly.
Australia needs to accept the move to clean energy, Brisbane Times, July 24, 2015 James Rydge and Fergus Green
China is also transforming its energy system. Continue reading
Responses to Labor’s goal of 50% renewable energy by 2030
Labor raises the renewables bar, Australia responds, REneweconomy By Sophie Vorrath on 22 July 2015 Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten’s announcement that he will ask the party to adopt a 50 per cent by 2030 renewable energy target is a real breakthrough for the political debate in Australia, possibly as significant as the bipartisan deal to pursue a 20/20 renewable energy target way back in 2007.
That – in a nutshell – is how we here at RE have described today’s ALP policy news.
Now here’s what some other people are saying about it…
Australian Solar Council CEO John Grimes: “This is a visionary announcement and the right announcement economically, environmentally and socially. …This is a game changer for Australia’s economy… Australia will join all of its major trading partners – China, US, EU, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea – in embracing solar and renewable energy.”………………..
Australian Youth Climate Coalition, director Kirsty Albion: “We are so excited to see the ALP step up by committing to a target for 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030. Australia can be powered by 100 per cent clean, renewable energy creating thousands of jobs. …Now Tony Abbott must get with the program and increase renewable energy not cut it.”………………….http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/labor-raises-the-renewables-bar-australia-responds-58311
Flinders University students to fight Lomborg
Flinders uni students are ready to fight a $4 million policy centre linked to Danish academic Bjorn Lomborg. (subscribers only)
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/climate/lomborg-climate-centre-flinders-uni-students-ready-to-fight/story-e6frg6xf-1227456007466
1 This month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
15 April – Zoom –Nuclear Power is Not the Solution
Apr 15, 2026 01:00 AM in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
Join the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) on Tuesday, April 14th for a timely webinar exploring the risks associated with nuclear power and challenging the myth that it offers a simple, safe, carbon-free solution to the climate crisis
21 April Webinar: No Nuclear Weapons in Australia
Start: 2026-04-21 18:00:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
End: 2026-04-21 19:30:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
Event Type: Virtual
A virtual link will be communicated before the event.
Host Contact Info: australia@icanw.org
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 