Pro nuclear former Senator Sean Edwards to run for South Australian Parliament, considers leadership
State Political Editor Daniel Wills, The Advertiser January 11, 2017 
Prominent wealthy nuclear industry fans back former Senator Sean Edwards
Ex-Lib senator Sean Edwards backed by nuclear dump supporters The Australian, MICHAEL OWEN, 12 Jan 17 A high-powered group of South Australians, angry over the abandonment of bipartisan support to study a nuclear waste repository, are backing a push by former Liberal senator Sean Edwards to enter state parliament.
Mr Edwards, who lost his seat at last year’s election after being bumped down his party’s ticket, is an outspoken advocate of South Australia playing a greater role in the nuclear fuel cycle……
South Australians are due to go to the polls in March next year, with a redistribution putting the Liberals in the box seat.
The Australian understands Mr Edwards is set to nominate for preselection for the seat of Frome, a traditionally Liberal electorate seated in the industrial city of Port Pirie and the agriculture areas of Clare and Gilbert valleys, where the former senator owns a wine business…..
Several of those understood to be backing Mr Edwards were among a group of 21 who last month signed an open letter urging politicians to continue to explore a nuclear waste dump.
Adelaide Crows chairman Rob Chapman, Coopers brewery chief Tim Cooper, former Cricket Australia chairman Creagh O’Connor and industry chief Robert Gerard were among the signatories. Mr Gerard has donated more than $1 million to the Liberals. Dr Cooper donated $22,000 to the party in 2014-15…… http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/exlib-senator-sean-edwards-backed-by-nuclear-dump-supporters/news-story/7825d323332eb36c6577cee2357c940a
Australian not-for-profit, the Alternative Technology Association (ATA) installs solar household systems in East Timor villages
East Timor villages lit up by solar from Australian not-for-profit http://www.pv-tech.org/news/east-timor-villages-lit-up-by-australian-not-for-profit By Tom Kenning Jan 12, 2017
An Australia-based not-for-profit, the Alternative Technology Association (ATA), has installed hundreds of household solar lighting systems across 12 villages in East Timor.
The two-year project was completed in partnership with two local partners, CNFP and Natiles, and with funding from the Google Impact Challenge 2014, four East Timor Friendship Groups and public donations.
After pilot projects in 2015, now 607 solar systems have been installed in villages in the districts of Aileau, Viqueque and Baucau, affecting 4,000 people.
In each village, Natiles liaised with the community, providing training to a management committee and helping it set up its own maintenance fund, while CNEFP trained 30 local technicians to install, maintain and repair the systems. Participating villagers pay a US$10 installation fee, followed by a monthly subscription of US$2, which will be held by the management committee to fund ongoing maintenance and repairs.
This monthly payment is less than the cost of candles and kerosene for a month, said the ATA.
Lighting was installed inside and outside the front of each house, and each household also received a USB-rechargeable torch on a wristband. The systems are designed to be easy to fix and tamper-proof.
The solar systems allow villagers to charge mobile phones via the USB port and to work or study in the evenings.
The ATA has worked closely with the East Timor Government and the United Nations Development Program on the future of the country’s renewable energy rollout since 35% of Timorese households still have no access to the grid.
W.A. govt approves Toro Energy’s Wiluna uranium mine, as uranium prices continue to decrease
Toro Energy’s Wiluna uranium mine in Goldfields gets green light from WA Government, ABC News, By Jarrod Lucas, 9 Jan 17, Western Australia’s first uranium mine is a step closer after the state’s Environment Minister Albert Jacob granted approval for a project at Wiluna in the northern Goldfields.
The owners of the proposed mine, Toro Energy, still need the green light from Federal Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg.
Toro told the stock market on Monday afternoon it hoped federal approval would be granted by March…..
, uranium miners rushing to get approvals in place before March’s state election were thwarted in their bid for a hat-trick when Canadian giant Cameco’s proposed Yeelirrie mine was knocked back on environmental grounds last year……
Drop in Australian uranium production predicted
Uranium prices remain near historic lows, depressed since the 2011 Japanese tsunami sent the Fukushima plant into multiple meltdowns.
The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science today released its Resources and Energy Quarterly which forecast Australian uranium production to decrease by 6.8 per cent this financial year to 7,141 tonnes……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-09/toro-energy-wiluna-uranium-mine-approved-by-wa-government/8171398
At both Poles – record losses of sea ice in 2016
New analysis: global sea ice suffered major losses in 2016 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/imageo/2017/01/07/sea-ice-extent-in-2016-at-both-poles-tracked-well-below-average/#.WHMiWtJ97Gj The extent of sea ice globally took major hits during 2016, according to an analysis released yesterday by the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
At both poles, “a wave of new record lows were set for both daily and monthly extent,” according to the analysis.
In recent years, Arctic sea ice has been hit particularly hard.
“It has been so crazy up there, not just this autumn and winter, but it’s a repeat of last autumn and winter too,” says Mark Serreze, director of the NSIDC.
In years past, abnormal warmth and record low sea ice extent tended to occur most frequently during the warmer months of the year. But for the past two years, things have gotten really weird in the colder months.
In 2015, Serreze says, “you had this amazing heat wave, and you got to the melting point at the North Pole on New Years Eve. And we’ve had a repeat this autumn and winter — an absurd heat wave, and sea ice at record lows.”
Lately, the Southern Hemisphere has been getting into the act. “Now, Antarctic sea ice is very, very low,” Serreze says.
From the NSIDC analysis:
Record low monthly extents were set in the Arctic in January, February, April, May, June, October, and November; and in the Antarctic in November and December.
Put the Arctic and the Antarctic together, and you get his time series of daily global sea ice extent, meaning the Arctic plus Antarctic:
As the graph [on original] shows, the global extent of sea ice tracked well below the long-term average for all of 2016. The greatest deviation from average occurred in mid-November, when sea ice globally was 1.50 million square miles below average.
For comparison, that’s an area about 40 percent as large as the entire United States.
The low extent of sea ice globally “is a result of largely separate processes in the two hemispheres,” according to the NSIDC analysis.
For the Arctic, how much might humankind’s emissions of greenhouse gases be contributing to the long-term decline of sea ice? The graph above [on original] , based on data from a study published in the journal Science, “links Arctic sea ice loss to cumulative CO2emissions in the atmosphere through a simple linear relationship,” according to an analysis released by the NSIDC last December. Based on observations from the satellite and pre-satellite era since 1953, as well as climate models, the study found a linear relationship of 3 square meters of sea ice lost per metric ton of CO2 added to the atmosphere.
That’s over the long run. But over a shorter period of time, what can be said? Specifically, how much of the extreme warmth and retraction of sea ice that has been observed in autumn and winter of both 2015 and 2016 can be attributed to humankind’s emissions of greenhouse gases?
“We’re working on it,” Serreze says. “Maybe these are just extreme random events. But I have been looking at the Arctic since 1982, and I have never seen anything like this.”
Great solar energy potential for Queensland, but Australia’s Minister For Coal denies this
Sunny Brisbane rooftops well placed to capitalise on solar power, experts say, ABC 6 Jan 17, PM By Katherine Gregory Brisbane has the potential to capitalise on solar power’s more competitive pricing, according to experts.
New research by the not-for-profit solar energy company Australian PV Institute and the University of New South Wales has revealed solar panels in Brisbane’s CBD could generate significant savings.
“We’ve done this stocktake of the solar potential of Brisbane’s CBD and from that we’ve worked out that Brisbane could install 188 megawatts of solar on the rooftops of the CBD and produce enough power to meet 11 per cent of demand of the CBD,” the Institute’s chair Renate Egan said.
“This could be done with upfront investment of about $200 million and would payback in electricity repayments $30 million a year.”
To conduct the stocktake the institute used its new Solar Potential Map, which calculates how much electricity can be generated from any particular roof in Brisbane’s CBD.
Ms Egan said it had found close to 50 per cent of roofs could have solar panels.
“We’ve started with Brisbane CBD because Brisbane and Queensland are really proactive around solar,” she said.
“Queensland has got the largest update of solar in Australia, with 1.6 gigawatts of solar installed in Brisbane [and] in Queensland, and they have a target of getting to three gigawatts by 2020.”
Ms Egan said the institute had also engaged with the Queensland Government about it providing the initial upfront investment to install the panels on government buildings such as Suncorp Stadium and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC).
“Anything that helps achieve our renewable energy target of 50 per cent by 2030 is being considered,” a spokesman for Queensland’s Energy Minister Mark Bailey said in a statement.
‘Like trying to develop an alpine skiing industry in Queensland’
But the Federal Minister for Northern Australia, Matt Canavan, said Queensland’s renewable energy target was mad.
“It’s like trying to develop an alpine skiing industry in Queensland, it’s about as realistic as that,” he said.
“We don’t have the same renewable resources as say South Australia.
“It would cost an enormous amount of money to build in Queensland and put at risk huge amounts of jobs, particularly in the power sector.
“You’ve got a Labor state government more interested in the philosophy and ideology of power rather than the practicality and reality of it and providing jobs and a decent cost of living for people.”……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-05/brisbane-well-placed-to-capitalise-on-solar-energy/8164436
Heat records smashed in 2016 in many Western Australian towns
Hydrate before reading: WA’s record-smashing hottest towns for 2016http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/hydrate-before-reading-was-recordsmashing-hottest-towns-for-2016-20170106-gtmxnw.html
If you complained about the heat in Perth earlier this week, spare a thought for our friends in the north of the state, who sweltered through their hottest year ever.
The Bureau of Meteorology has just released its annual climate updates and while cooler than normal temperatures in the south stopped WA’s overall annual numbers blowing out, towns up north broke records that make you uncomfortable just reading about them.
Wyndham Aerodrome set a new Australian record for annual average maximum: 37.5 degrees.
Kununurra broke its 1992 record of 36.4 to set a new one: 36.7.
Derby broke its 2015 record of 35.7 with 36.3.
Bureau of Meteorology liaison Glenn Cook said Broome equalled its record average of 33.3 for the first time since 1988.
Other Kimberley towns to break their own daytime records were Warmun Aboriginal community, Troughton Island, Cygnet Bay, Doongan Station and Argyle Aerodrome.
And residents got no relief at night, Mr Cook said, with sites across the Pilbara and Kimberley also breaking their records for highest annual mean minimums.
Troughton Island set a new Australian record of 27 degrees.
Broome, Port Hedland, Karratha and Derby all broke 2010 overnight temperature records with new highs of 23.5, 21.5, 22.0 and 23.5.
Overall for 2016, the region had its hottest average overnight temperatures ever, and its second-hottest average daytime temperatures.
They couldn’t even have the relief of saying “but it’s a dry heat”, as WA also had its wettest year since 2011……Troughton Island set a new Australian record of 27 degrees.
Broome, Port Hedland, Karratha and Derby all broke 2010 overnight temperature records with new highs of 23.5, 21.5, 22.0 and 23.5.
Overall for 2016, the region had its hottest average overnight temperatures ever, and its second-hottest average daytime temperatures.
They couldn’t even have the relief of saying “but it’s a dry heat”, as WA also had its wettest year since 2011.
Queensland Government moving fast towards its renewable energy target
Solar targets: ‘We’re already halfway there’ says Energy Minister Mark Bailey, Brisbane Times, Tony Moore , 5 Dec 16 The Queensland Government says it is halfway towards one section of its 2020 target of generating 3000 megawatts of solar power from Queensland rooftops by 2020.
“November’s peak of almost 16MW of solar generation capacity installed represents a 33 per cent increase on the year-to-date monthly average,” Energy Minister Mark Bailey said on December 19.
“The four-month period from August to November included four of the five best months during 2016 for the number rooftop solar installations in Queensland.”
Fairfax Media on Tuesday reported calls by University of New South Wales researchers for Brisbane to make better use of the roofs to collect solar energy.
The researchers will arrive in Brisbane on Friday to demonstrate that by putting solar panels on public buildings such as Suncorp Stadium, QPAC and Roma Street Station enough energy could be collected to power 1200 homes.
Senior researcher Anna Bruce wants to talk to Queensland’s Energy Supply Department and to Brisbane City Council about the potential of using extra roof space to collect solar power.
The research team believes it is possible to “generate 241 gigawatt hours of energy per year,” from photo-voltaic cells which could collect a potential 188 megawatts.
Generating 3000 megawatts from Queensland rooftops is one of the Queensland government’s renewable energy objectives; as well as establishing “a credible pathway for having 50 per cent renewable energy generation by 2030”.
That is contained in its solar energy policy, which can be read here.………http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/solar-targets-were-already-halfway-there-says-energy-minister-mark-bailey-20170103-gtlg7a.html
Australian government’s deceptive labelling of nuclear wastes
Steve Dale Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch South Australia, 5 Dec 16 What we call “Intermediate” level waste is called “High” level waste (HLW) in the USA, Canada, Japan, France and the UK. This mislabeling is so deceptive, that if it was any other product the ACCC would be sinking their gums into them.
Matt Canavan Australia’s very own Minister For The Coal Industry
Next-generation coal can fill gap, says Matt Canavan, 5 Jan 17
Australia should turn to the next generation of coal-fired power stations to generate more domestic electricity, according to a key federal minister who has gone on the offensive against conservationists who want to end the use of coal…. (subscribers only)
(You can see why I don’t bother to subscribe to this puppet of industry newspaper!)
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/nextgeneration-coal-can-fill-gap-says-matt-canavan/news-story/60877681f71fcad7a7c7960dcf2b9ef4
2016 – Australia’s year of record-breaking extreme weather
Record-breaking extreme weather in Australia in 2016 devastates ecosystems https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jan/05/record-breaking-extreme-weather-in-australia-in-2016-devastates-ecosystems
Bureau of Meteorology’s annual climate statement cites unprecedented bushfires in regions that don’t usually burn and worst coral bleaching on record, Guardian Michael Slezak, 5 Jan 16 Australia’s weather was extreme in 2016, driven by humankind’s burning of fossil fuels as well as a strong El Niño, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s annual climate statement.
That extreme weather led to devastated ecosystems both on land and in the sea, with unprecedented bushfires in regions that don’t usually burn, the worst coral bleaching on record, and has been attributed as the cause of damage to vast tracts of crucial kelp forests, oyster farms and salmon stocks across southern Australia.
The statement, released on Thursday, said the country as a whole had its fourth-warmest year on record, but locally, Sydney and Darwin broke records for both their hottest maximum temperatures and hottest minimum temperatures.
Hobart had its warmest night on record in 2016 and both Hobart and Brisbane had records for their hottest annual mean temperature fall as well. The hot and dry start to the year sparked bushfires in Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.
The fires that swept through the Tasmanian world heritage forests were described as the worst crisis those forests faced in decades. The usually damp alpine forests there had been dried out by earlier dry weather and then a huge number of lightning strikes – which are expected to become more common as temperatures rise – burned through forests, killing trees that were hundreds of years old.
While land burned, the sea around Australia broiled. The bureau’s statement said despite the surface temperature of the seas around Australia being consistently high in recent years, 2016 reached a new record temperature, being 0.73C above the 1961-90 average.
Off the coast of Queensland, those record temperatures led to the worst coral bleaching on record, where an estimated 22% of the coral on the entire 2,300km length of the Great Barrier Reef was lost.
In the northern, most remote and most pristine part of the reef, coral was devastated by the unusually warm water, which scientists say will become the norm in fewer than 20 years.
The bureau’s statement also notes that ocean temperatures were at record highs around Tasmania in 2016. The freakishly hot waters there have been attributed as the cause of damage to oyster, salmon and abalone industries, as well as increased stress to kelp forests, already devastated by warmer waters in recent years.
The record hot waters in Tasmania were caused by a strengthened east Australian current, which drags warm waters from the tropics, along the coast of Australia. “This was associated with the longest and most intense marine heatwave on record for the south-east Australian region,” the statement said.
It added: “The pattern of above average temperatures over land and in the oceans reflects the background warming trend. The Australian climate in 2016 was influenced by a combination of natural drivers and anthropogenic climate change.”
The hot temperatures around the country were followed up by unusually wet conditions for much of Australia too.
The bureau said Adelaide had its second-wettest year on record and its wettest since 1992. Sydney, Canberra and Hobart had above average rainfall. But the pattern wasn’t uniform, as Perth and Melbourne were close to average and Darwin and Brisbane were significantly drier than average in 2016.
“Widespread, drought-breaking rains led to flooding in multiple states,” said Neil Plummer from the Bureau of Meteorology. “Even northern Australia saw widespread rainfall, during what is usually the dry season, greening regions that had been in drought for several years.”
Determined local protests against Adani coal mine
Adani’s Mega Mine in Australia Runs Into Local Protests https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/wgar-news/YhylvDagW10 http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/OldNewsPage/?Id=9582&Adani%E2%80%99s/Mega/Mine/in/Australia/Runs/Into/Local/Protests Stephen de Tarczynski 2 January 2017:
” … But at a time when global warming is a significant threat to humanity, the Carmichael mine is generating substantial opposition. Since the project was announced in 2010, there have been more than ten appeals and judicial processes against the mine.
“Shani Tager, a campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, is adamant that the coal that Adani wants to dig up must remain in the ground. “It’s a massive amount of coal that they’re talking about exporting, which will be burnt and used and make the problem of global warming even worse,” she says. …
““The Carmichael coal mine will have a domino effect of bad impacts on the reef, from driving the need for port expansion and more dredging and dumping to increasing the risk of shipping accidents on the reef,” says Cherry Muddle from the Australian Marine Conservation Society. …
““If they can’t get the money, they can’t build the mine,” says Murrawah Johnson. … “
Australia’s proponents of nuclear submarines are way behind the times
Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch South Australia Paul Richards shared a link. 1 Jan 17
Emerging this decade are the many challenges to the whole nuclear industries range of products from; medicine, reactors, weapons
Not to mention the always present 1940s backdoor issue that’s never been solved, that of nuclear waste management
This submarine news makes a joke of our neocon naval purchase, particularly if the goal was to put nuclear reactors into the Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A at some future point
The whole biased process used by those enamoured the nuclear industry is becoming increasingly obvious. Particularly, when this Swedish technological development must have been known about but discarded in favour of the nuclear state, France. Who are a founding member of UN Security Council P5 and who as a group control all nuclear issues globally through the IAEA
Nonetheless, this is a notable problem with all nuclear infrastructure, that is, the slow technological development due to the magnitude of the complex physics difficulties. Issues that are becoming common knowledge and as such widely understood by the public as a secondary downside along with unsolved waste problem
Obsolescence is the biggest problem with all nuclear technology, and the whole industry struggles to survive without sovereign capital funding. Most importantly, because clean alternative technology is rapidly developed and easily recycled.
What is interesting is the catalytic conversion of C02 and water into diesel although in its infancy, has already been trialled as economically viable, as well as being CO2 neutral, and that is before the carbon industry started discounting oil. In all probability, blue or e-diesel will be a good, clean fuel for submarines given the exponential growth in German fuel technology and their incredible technological record as world leaders in catalytic technology
Is it any wonder Germany stepped off the whole nuclear cycle, with such advances rapidly developing, making current nuclear tech look so last century, dated and obsolete?
___________
https://themarketmogul.com/blue-crude-innovative-revolution/
source: the national interest: an American bi-monthly international affairs magazine published by the Center for the National Interest https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052/
South Australia needs a level playing field for rooftop solar
Dennis Matthews, 1 Jan 17 Australia’s Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel, has recently
drawn attention to a problem in adopting new energy technology.
When home owners consider installing rooftop photovoltaic (PV) electricity generators they are faced with up-front costs.
By comparison, electricity supplied through the grid by large scale electricity generators is provided at no up-front cost to the consumer. The consumer eventually pays the generators’ up-front costs (plus interest) through quarterly bills over a period of several years.
The solution to the problem has been known for several decades – provide a level playing field by having PV up-front costs financed by either an electricity service provider or government with the costs plus interest being recovered over time through the usual quarterly bill.
Such a simple arrangement would not only make rooftop PV competitive (including for rental properties) with grid electricity but would also make energy conservation measures, such as double glazing, more competitive.
Battle Lines Drawn Over Indian Mega Mine
‘Murrawah Johnson, 21, of the Wangan and Jagalingou Family Council,
is among those standing in the way of the huge Carmichael coal mine project
in Australia’s Queensland state.’ http://menafn.com/1095149597/Battle-Lines-Drawn-Over-Indian-Mega-Mine Stephen de Tarczynski | MENAFN Press 30 December 2016:
“‘Our people are the unique people from that country,’ says Murrawah, whose name means ‘rainbow’ in the indigenous Gubbi Gubbi language.
‘That is who we are in our identity, in our culture, in our song and in our dance,’ she adds.
The mine’s estimated average annual carbon emissions of 79 million tonnes are three times those of New Delhi, six times those of Amsterdam and double Tokyo’s average annual emissions.
“The Wangan and Jagalingou, numbering up to 500 people, regard the Carmichael coal mine
as a threat to their very existence and have repeatedly rejected the advances of Adani Mining,
the company behind the project.
The traditional owners argue the mine would destroy their land, which ‘means that our story is then destroyed. And we as a people and our identity, as well,’
Murrawah, a spokesperson for her people’s Family Council, told IPS. … “
1 This month.
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PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
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