Fine depleted uranium travels far in winds
Australia ‘uranium’ dust concerns
muzzylogic Oct 3, 2009 ‘Environmentalists have raised concerns that another giant dust storm blowing its way across eastern Australia may contain radioactive particles. Continue reading
Uranium dust, an unmentionable radioactive fact
The dust that dare not speak its name WA Today September 30, 2009 Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, Elizabeth Farrelly “…………………For us, as for most of the world, central Australia might as well not exist. It is almost a paradigm of unthinkability. It’s Timbuktu. That’s why we do things like nuclear testing there. It’s why BHP Billiton’s proposal to turn the Olympic Dam uranium mine into an open-cut operation is even contemplated for approval. Because it’s there, not here. Or was there – until, like Burnham Wood, it came here.
Open-cut uranium mining? It’s a gash a kilometre deep, churning 410 million tonnes of radioactive dirt per annum, “dewatering” the local aquifers, using 253 megalitres of water a day. No wonder the locals call them water thieves.
Of course, BHP’s environmental impact statement devotes a couple of pars to dust management. BHP proposes water trucks – like the ones they spray roads with. And they’ll monitor airborne particulates at nearby Hiltaba Village (so small even Google Maps can’t find it) and the thriving metropolis of Roxby Downs. That’ll do it.
A possibility the EIS doesn’t contemplate, however, is that several thousand tonnes of the stuff might reach the Opera House, or even Mount Egmont, where it lay so thick people thought their cars had rusted overnight. Where even New Zealand rains couldn’t wash it away…………….What goes around, comes around.
A nurse wonders about radioactivity in dust from uranium mine
Reflection on Dust Storm
ABC Contribute, by Pete 30 Sept 09 “……………Out of curiosity I googled radioactive sites Woomera as I was born in South Australia and knew a little of what Woomera was involved with as a testing range area for radioactive experiments post Second World War era. Continue reading
BHPB not publicly discussing Olympic Dam’s radioactive dust danger
FILMMAKER DAVID BRADBURY: RED DUST DUMP ORIGINATING AT WOOMERA IS GRAVE CONCERN FOR PUBLIC HEALTH
September 25, 2009 by Coober Pedy Regional Times“…….70 million tonnes of radioactive tailings to be dumped at the Roxby mine site each year without evidence of dust control is cause for concern”, says David Bradbury.. Continue reading
Dust to be analysed for radioactivity
Are the dust storms radioactive? Australian scientists study Aussie dust from New Zealand * Daily Telegraph By Greg Roberts and AFP September 26, 2009
- Second dust storm ‘on the way’
- Fears mine dust is radioactive
A TEAM of Australian scientists are analysing the dust that has engulfed eastern Australia this week to see whether it is dangerous.
The dust storm is believed to have originated around Woomera in outback South Australia near the massive Olympic Dam uranium mine, prompting fears it was radioactive and dangerous…
………The scientists were analysing dust that had been blown 2150km to New Zealand and “fingerprinting” it, and its minerals, to find out where it came from and if it was a threat to the Coral Sea and agriculture…………
Academy Award nominated documentary maker David Bradbury, who has made films about nuclear power, warned about the risks from radioactive dust near the Olympic mine yesterday.
Wake up Australia, and New Zealand, to the radioactive dust danger!
Regarding BHP Billiton’s planned expansion of Olympic Dam uranium mine, South Australia’s minister for resources, Mr Holloway says “radioactive dust obviously could be a problem but the issue is able to be resolved”
You gotta laugh. The dust “could” be a problem? Dust already is a problem . The planned open cut mine will be – I’ve forgotten how many kilometres wide, and is it 1 or 3 kilometres deep, – with an equally vast amount of tailings, a mountain of radioactive dust ready for blowing in the wind.
And this issue is “able to be resolved”? Just how?. Well, it might be resolved in the way that the radioactive rain to Australia’s East coast, from the French Pacific nuclear testing in the 1970’s was resolved. Professor Ernest Titterton came up with the bright idea – just stop testing the rain for radioactivity. That could be the answer.
South Australian govt says Olympic Dam dust risk must be resolved
Uranium mine told to address dust risks
ABC News 25 Sept 09 Issues such as dust risks from a planned expansion of BHP Billiton’s uranium mining operations in outback South Australia will have to be addressed by the company. Continue reading
Olympic Dam will cause radioactive dust risk to Eastern Australia
Radioactive dust storm threat’ if mine goes ahead
ABC News 24 Sept 09 An Academy Award-nominated documentary maker claims the red dust dumped onto east coast cities yesterday is a reason to be concerned about BHP Billiton’s proposal to turn South Australia’s Olympic Dam uranium mine into an open-cut mine.David Bradbury has made four documentaries on the nuclear issue and says figures in the company’s environmental impact study suggest that 70 million tonnes of radioactive tailings will be dumped at the minesite each year.
He says these tailings contain alpha radiation, which is known to be carcenogenic to humans and animals.
“My grave concern is that with the open-cut mine expansion that BHP Billiton wants permission from state and federal governments to go ahead with, that the radioactive tailings left behind will blow over the eastern coast centres of the most populated cities of Australia,” he said
‘Radioactive dust storm threat’ if mine goes ahead – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Uranium mining abuses Great Artesian Basin
‘Corporate abuse’ hits Great Artesian Basin
The Australian. Michael Owen, SA political reporter | September 21, 2009
THE Great Artesian Basin — one of the largest underground water reservoirs in the world — is in danger of going the same way as the ailing Murray-Darling Basin because of reckless corporate abuse, aided by political ignorance, says South Australian senator Nick Xenophon. Continue reading
Environment safeguards left out in new uranium laws
New uranium royalties a savage blow to environment
Trading Room (AAP) By Tara Ravens, Darwin, September 10 2009
A new royalty regime for the Northern Territory’s expanding uranium sector is a “king hit to the environment,” says the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF). Continue reading
Uranium – bad news for Kimberley workers and environment
Uranium in the Kimberley
ABC radio Kimberley Mornings 01/09/2009 Development proposals for the Kimberley have been all about the Ord or the gas in the last year or so, but is uranium on the radar?
Robin Chapple, Greens MLC for the Pastoral and Mining Region thinks it is, and is giving a talk in Broome tonight.
“At a conservative estimate, there are 15 corporations currently operating in the Kimberley actively pursuing uranium and there are over 60 exploration lease, dotted all over the Kimberley. History shows us that anywhere else in the world where there has been uranium mining, we have health effects in workers and in the communities.”
Robin Chapple argues that the environmental legacy left by uranium mining is equally disturbing, with tailings dams and waste piles “which are radioactive for ten thousand odd years, and that’s not managed”.
Staggering size of environmental problems for BHPB’s uranium mine expansion
Mega-everything: the world’s biggest open cut mine
OnLine opinion By Sandra Kanck – 24 August 2009
The expansion of the Olympic Dam mine at Roxby Downs will see environment as the biggest loser. The draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), for which public comment closed early in August 2009, has serious deficiencies. Continue reading
Key environmental concerns over BHP Billiton’s Roxby Downs uranium mine
CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL, BUSINESS EDITOR, and GREG KELTON, WASHINGTONAugust 24, 2009
KEY environmental concerns about the multibillion-dollar expansion of the Olympic Dam mine must be fixed by BHP Billiton before the mine proceeds. Continue reading
Jo Vallentine: there should be no expansion of Olympic Dam uranium mine
Submission to the South Australian Government, by Jo Valentine
Tony Serve Blogs 5 August 09
On behalf of the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia, I make this submission: there should be no expansion of the uranium mining operations of BHP Billiton at Olympic Dam…………….There are four parts to my argument: 1. Warming 2. Waste 3. Water 4. Weapons
1. WARMING: Since around 2003 -4 the global nuclear industry has positioned itself as part of the solution to climate change. In what has been an unprecedented attempt to fool governments and the public about its merits, and to minimise its dangers, the nuclear industry has been cavalier with the truth, to say the very least.It claims that it is greenhouse friendly, and therefore should be a sought-after energy source for the future. The only part of the nuclear industry’s operations which is not a heavy greenhouse gas emitter is the boiling of the water in the reactor. At every other stage in the chain, from uranium mining, to milling, to transport, to enrichment, to construction of reactors, to re-processing, to storage of waste (probably requiring more transport), to making of weapons, to de-commissioning of reactors, greenhouse gases are emitted. Just take the reactor construction and deconstruction as an example of what is never referred to by the industry’s proponents…………………..Far from being any part of the answer to global warming, I submit that the nuclear industry is a major contributor to greenhouse emissions. As Storm van Leewen argues: “The Nuclear Industry should commit itself to publish a thorough analysis of the emissions of carbon dioxide and all other greenhouses gases in all processes of the fuel chain before claiming that nuclear energy is carbon free or greenhouse gas free.”
2. Wastes This is a shameful legacy to be leaving future generations – they will have to deal with the folly of this twentieth century failed experiment.
The problem of nuclear waste begins with the uranium mining process……………….
At Olympic Dam, it’s a problem (usually) of high winds sending the tailings blowing in the wind. The proposed expansion would add a further mountain of tailings, which could not be guaranteed against leakages, seepages, windstorms…………….
the storage proposed would cover an area of up to 44 square kms. to a height of up to 65 metres. This toxic mountain will probably leak as all tailings dams/pits do, for the duration of the open pit mine’s life,………..
3. WATER
In the driest state of the driest continent on earth, it is unwise, to put it mildly, to consider expanding the Olympic Dam operations……….
The fact that the water currently taken from GAB is free of charge, adds insult to the injury of water wastage. BHP Billiton plans to increase that water usage to at least 42 million litres per day – this must be rejected outright. ANAWA calls on the S.A. Government to phase out all water extraction from the GAB’s Borefield A as soon as possible.
The nuclear industry generally is a heavy water user. As Tim Flannery says “Coal fired power plants have large water requirements for cooling and steam generation, but these are dwarfed by the water needs of nuclear power.”
………….We believe that the grab for uranium by BHP Billiton and other uranium mining companies is a cynical grab for the grubby dollar while there is some vestige of hope for this ailing industry. It must be seen in light of the fact that this is a declining industry, with less nuclear power being generated each year (mostly due to ageing reactors being de-commissioned, or reactors with major problems being shut down “temporarily”) and the fact that more reactors are shutting down each year than opening, despite all the industry hype. The industry’s projections look rosy, but the new generation IV reactors are still only promises and the facts reveal that, on the other hand, renewable energies are growing at exponential rates, and would be proceeding even faster, if more research and development dollars were put their way, instead of propping up a filthy, failing industry.
Uranium Mining Poisoning WA ’s Groundwater Forever
Uranium Mining Poisoning WA ’s Groundwater Forever
Dare to care, Dawn Jecks, 25 july 09
“…………..Described by Minister Garrett as being ‘world’s best practice’, the American owned Beverley Four Mile Uranium mine will use the controversial in-situ leach mining technique which involves deliberately pumping sulphuric acid into a public owned water aquifer to dissolve the uranium ore. Once the uranium is extracted from the surface the radioactive liquid waste from this process is then dumped into the aquifer. Given that the environmental regulators in the US refuse to allow this practice on their own soil, and the fact that aquifers in Eastern Europe have been heavily polluted by this practice why is our Federal government allowing it in Australia?Although Minister Garrett has talked about ’strict’ monitoring requirements ‘well after this South Australian mine ceases’, a long-term problem will undoubtedly arise from the fact that concentrated radioactive materials survive for thousands of years. How can the uranium mining company have ’strict’ monitoring for that length of time? Another WA proposal to mine uranium at the Yeelirie deposit some 550 kms east of Geraldton, will also be dependant on Minister Garrett’s approval.
As with all uranium mines enormous quantities of water are going to be needed to mine the Yeelirie uranium deposit…………………..
With more than one hundred uranium mining companies currently exploring in WA it is interestingly to note that the WA State Water Resources Minister Graham Jacobs has been urging WA householders to reduce their water consumption and to conserve our precious water resources through household sprinkler bans.Is polluting our groundwater aquifers with sulphuric acid on the one hand, and then asking householders to turn off their sprinklers, the Barnett Governments idea of being ‘water wise? I urge all West Australians to become acquainted with all the facts surrounding uranium mining before we find ourselves with a toxic legacy that never, ever goes away and the website for the Antinuclear Alliance of WA (ANAWA) is a good place to start.
Uranium Mining Poisoning WA ’s Groundwater Forever « Dare To Care – Dawn Jecks
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