Nuclear lobby gets to APEC
APEC Leaders Safe Use of Nuclear Energy Power Industry News 9 Sept 12, Asia-Pacific leaders wrapped up two days of their summit talks on Sunday with an agreement to ensure the safe use of nuclear energy and a renewed commitment to forestalling protectionism. Leaders of the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum adopted a joint declaration and related documents at their meeting in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok….
Specifically, they agreed to “ensure the safe and secure use of nuclear energy as a clean energy source in interested economies.” Their accords also include the promotion of steady investment in energy infrastructure….
http://www.utilityproducts.com/news/2012/09/09/apec-leaders-safe-use-of-nuclear-energy.html
USA was at first worried that Kevin Rudd as P.M might not toe the USA line
Another cause for US alarm was Rudd’s announcement in June 2008 of a new International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (the Evans Commission). Cables show the US was affronted by Rudd’s decision to announce the Commission without telling them first……. By the time preparations for the 2010 RevCon began, Rudd government officials were echoing the line of their Howard-era predecessors.
The Israelis regarded Rudd as being a useful tool in the propaganda war against Iran
WikiLeaks cables show how Australia works with the US to get Iran, Green Left 6 Sept, 12, “……Kevin Rudd US-Australian relations on nuclear issues were complicated by Kevin Rudd’s rise to power in 2007. Labor had a longstanding policy of opposing nuclear cooperation with non-NPT signatories, which the US feared might jeopardise its planned civil nuclear agreement with India, a non-NPT state. The US needed Australia’s support to approve the deal in the Nuclear Supplies Group (NSG) , which sets guidelines for nuclear-related exports. It repeatedly raised the issue in meetings with Australian diplomats.
Early on there were signs that Labor’s policy could be dispensed with. While Rudd was still Opposition leader, the US Embassy reported that his foreign policy adviser, Peter Khalil : “Understood and accepted that renewed nuclear-power cooperation with India was a necessary price to pay for a closer relationship. Australia’s uranium industry could in fact benefit from renewed trade with India, he noted …” Continue reading
Australia colluded with USA against Iran
WikiLeaks cables show how Australia works with the US to get Iran , September 5, 2012 Green Left By Linda Pearson WikiLeaks cables show Australian officials have colluded with the US to get the IAEA to declare Iran in breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Barely 10 years after false claims about weapons of mass destruction were used to justify the invasion of Iraq, a similar narrative is being used by politicians in the US and Israel to push the case for war with Iran. You might not know it from mainstream media reports, but Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program and, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT ), has an inalienable right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.
It’s thought that Israel has up to 400 active warheads but, unlike NPT signatories, the country has never agreed to open up its nuclear program to inspection. The US has about 2000 active warheads and is arguably in violation of the NPT itself for its failure to meet the disarmament requirement enshrined in Article VI of the treaty .
US President Barack Obama’s “Global Zero” initiative to rid the world of nuclear weapons has amounted to little more than rhetoric . A 2011 report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said the US spends more money on nuclear weapons than the rest of the world combined.
In effect, two countries with a combined nuclear arsenal probably greater than any other are threatening war with another country because it may have the capacity to develop nuclear weapons in the future. This would be yet another illegal war of aggression, the “supreme international crime” as defined at Nuremberg.
WikiLeaks has given us unprecedented access to information with which to challenge the self-conferred moral authority of the US and its allies to decide which states can and cannot have nuclear weapons. Diplomatic cables from the US Embassy in Canberra published by WikiLeaks suggest Australia’s role in US relations with Iran is shaped by its slavish support for the US alliance and Israel, and its position as the world’s second biggest seller of uranium. Continue reading
How Lynas Corporation has mucked up its rare earths reprocessing project
The radioactive residue produced is the responsibility of the company and if necessary, it will be returned to its place of origin.
And what might be the place of origin’s attitude?
“National legislation stipulates,” the WA minister for mines and petroleum has stated, “that Australia will not accept responsibility for any waste product produced from offshore processing of resources purchased in Australia such as from iron ore, mineral sands, and the rare earths produced by Lynas Corporation”.
“The Malaysian finding that Lynas must take the radioactive waste back to Australia may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back with the Lynas effort. This slight detail requires the governments of both Australia and the state of Western Australia to acquiesce in taking the waste from a plant that should have been built in Australia in the first place but wasn’t
LAMP going out for Lynas, 9 News, by Greg Peel, As recent FNArena articles on the subject of the rare earth metals space have noted, the global race to compete with China on rare earth element (REE) production has now come down to a mere handful of names including two stand-outs, and a big chunk of daylight to third. (See, for example: Rare Earths Done And Dusted? No, It’s Xeno-Time). Those two companies are Molycorp in the US and Australia’s own Lynas Corp . A year ago, it looked like Lynas had moved ahead of Molycorp.
According to research and opinion from REE specialist Hallgarten & Company, that is certainly no longer the case. Indeed, Lynas shareholders may be in some trouble. Continue reading
UK backtracks on its threat to invade Ecuador Embassy in London, to get Julian Assange
UK retreats on Assange embassy threat THE AUSTRALIAN, AFP August 27, 2012 ECUADOR’S President Rafael Correa has said he believed his country had overcome a diplomatic spat with Britain over its threat to enter the
Ecuadoran Embassy in London in order to arrest Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
“We believe that this unfortunate incident is over,” said Mr Correa. “It was a mistake for the British Foreign Office to say that they would enter our embassy.”
“It’s good that the United Kingdom has given up its threat. Continue reading
Australian Carl-Magnus Larsson will head UNSCEAR report on the Fukushima nuclear disaster
Next December Carl-Magnus Larsson, head of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, takes over as UNSCEAR chairman.
UNSCEAR has been the go-to body for such complex, high-profile investigations since it was established by the UN General Assembly in 1955 under the chairmanship of Australian radiation expert Cecil Eddy…. the Fukushima report .. will be
presented to the [United Nations] General Assembly late next year.
Radiation risks high in Japan http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/radiation-risks-high-in-japan/story-e6frg8y6-1226456949429 BY: LEIGH DAYTON The Australian August 25, 2012 IT’S hard to believe, but earlier this month the power company that runs Japan’s devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant revealed that five people working on the clean-up had covered their radiation detectors with lead, rendering them useless.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company said the five were contracted by a subcontractor of a – yes – subcontractor and were not even authorised to work at the plant. Other workers were found not to have used dosimeters at all.
“That such egregious flouting of safety protocols would occur despite the media attention on the clean-up efforts is astonishing,” Continue reading
Wikileaks revealed how Australia joined USA in scheming against Mahomet El Baradei
US, Australia schemed against IAEA chief: cable BUSINESS RECORDER The United States and Australia schemed unsuccessfully in 2005 to block Mohamed ElBaradei’s election to a third term as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a newly leaked US diplomatic cable shows.
Both countries were unhappy with ElBaradei’s “unhelpful” response to Iran’s nuclear program, but the bid to prevent his re-election to the nuclear regulatory agency’s leadership ultimately failed for lack of international support. Continue reading
UK police raiding Ecuador Embassy to capture Julian Assange?
Ecuador to announce Assange asylum, Britain threat to raid embassy 
http://www.news.com.au/technology/ecuador-to-announce-assange-asylum-britain-threat-to-raid-embassy/story-e6frfro0-1226451411725#ixzz23kTVyVq3 Charles Miranda, wires From: News Limited Network August 16, 2012 Reports suggest British police have been seen
entering the Ecuadorian embassy.
The Press Association had earlier reported officers arriving outside the Ecuadorian Embassy, close to the Harrods store in Knightsbridge, London.
EARLIER BRITAIN is threatening to raid the Ecuadorian embassy to arrest Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange.
Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, told a news conference that the South American nation had received a written and verbal threat on Wednesday from Britain that “it could assault our embassy” if Assange was not handed over.\
Patino also said that Ecuador “has made a decision” on Mr Assange’s asylum bid and will announce it on Thursday at 7am local time (10pm AEST).
“Ecuador rejects in the most emphatic terms the explicit threat of the British official communication,” he told a press conference in Quito. He said such a threat was “improper of a democratic, civilised and rule abiding country”.
“If the measure announced in the British official communication is enacted, it will be interpreted by Ecuador as an unacceptable, unfriendly and hostile act and as an attempt against our sovereignty. It would force us to respond,” he said.
“We are not a British colony.” He said the threat was delivered to Ecuador’s foreign ministry and
ambassador in London.
The letter said: “You need to be aware that there is a legal base in the UK, the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, that would allow us to take actions in order to arrest Mr Assange in the current premises of the Embassy.
“We sincerely hope that we do not reach that point, but if you are not capable of resolving this matter of Mr Assange’s presence in your premises, this is an open option for us.”
In the shadow of Fukushima, Government blindly pushes repeat of nuclear agreement
15 August 2012. Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, recently returned from Fukushima, today urged the Australian Government to consider the reality before locking Australia into a nuclear treaty for another five years.
“The Fifth Agreement to Extend the 1987 Regional Cooperative Agreement for Research, Development and Training related to Nuclear Science and Technology should not simply be rolled over for a further five year period,” Senator Ludlam said in a Dissenting Report on the deal.
“The Committee’s report perfunctorily dismisses the concerns and arguments provided in submissions and contrasts poorly with its past considered and detailed engagement on nuclear issues. It notes there ‘may have been an opportunity missed to upgrade the agreement rather than simply rolling it over’ but then goes on to recommend that the agreement be simply rolled over. It’s a negligent outcome.
“While the nuclear industry’s optimism may have a therapeutic function, it is not grounded in reality. This is an industry deeply shaken by the global financial crisis, the ongoing Fukushima disaster with its cover-ups and duplicity, and fierce competition from renewable technologies which continue to outpace nuclear.
Senator Ludlam said nuclear power was in terminal condition, as documented in the recently released World Nuclear Industry Status Report available at www.worldnuclearreport.org.
Australian company Mantra Resources has to pay tax bill, for Tanzania uranium mine to go ahead
Tanzania: Uranium Project Licence Shelved Till Tax Bill Paid, Beyond Nuclear 12 Aug 12, Dodoma – A SPECIAL mining licence to allow Russian firm, Uranium One start mining at Mkuju River in the Selous Game Reserve buffer zone, will not be issued until Australian Mantra Resources pay over 180 million US dollars (approx. 292.12bn/-) in taxes, the Parliament was told.
Australia willing to sell uranium to repressive, undemocratic Emirates regime
Think again on uranium sale to illiberal UAE Crikey, by Dr Rodger Shanahan, 8 Aug 12 “……our recent announcement of a $200 million deal to sell uranium to the UAE, and the UAE’s announcement at the same time that it would support Australia’s bid for a seat at the UN Security Council
What you won’t hear from the government or Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr is any mention of the Emiratis recent intolerance for anything that approaches free speech. This strikes one as, well, hypocritical, considering this government has espoused the need for autocratic rulers to listen to the voice of the people and in some cases to step aside when they don’t adopt this approach.
On the surface, the UAE is a socially liberal Arab state with which we and many other Western countries have close relations. But below the surface, the UAE is demonstrating that it is just as politically illiberal as other Arab regimes.
How else to explain the forced closure of democracy promotion NGOs earlier this year such as the US-funded National Democratic Institute and the German-funded Konrad Adenauer Foundation? Concerns about what has been happening in the UAE are neatly summarised in an article on open democracy.
Of more concern than the action against foreign NGOs, however, has been the detention without charge of over 50 political and human rights activists accused of a rather Orwellian-sounding plot against state security and the rather more standard claim that they had unspecified ties “to foreign parties”. It appears that no political activists in the Arab world, be it in Syria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE or Egypt, ever has a legitimate domestic political complaint: all political opposition is always carried out at the behest of foreign powers.
And what is Australia’s view on the crackdown on political activists and the closure of democracy-promoting institutes in the UAE? You guessed it: nothing.
Carr’s statements have spoken of our close trading relationship but you won’t find a single word of criticism levelled against the Emiratis for their unwillingness to countenance free speech. I am an advocate of close relations with the UAE because I believe it serves both our national interests. But a relationship in which we have to remain silent about repression of individual freedoms in order to maintain business interests is one in which we reveal ourselves to be less an activist middle power than a subservient mineral exporter….. http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/08/08/australia-uses-china-policy-on-the-emiratis/
Credibility gulf in Australia’s deal to sell uranium to United Arab Emirates (UAE)
The federal government’s decision to sell uranium to the United Arab Emirates lacks credibility and has the potential to undermine efforts towards nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East, the Australian Conservation Foundation said today. “In the shadow of Fukushima – an ongoing crisis directly fuelled by Australian uranium – nuclear power is under a cloud as an energy source.
“Japan closed all its nuclear plants for safety testing, Germany has committed to get out of nuclear power within a decade and nations such as Switzerland, Belgium and Italy are moving away from nuclear power. “Plans for new nuclear power reactors in the UK and USA face increased community resistance and scrutiny and increased regulatory compliance costs.
“But despite repeated domestic and international calls, including from the UN Secretary General, the federal government has done nothing to review or enhance nuclear security regimes, bi-lateral safeguards or chain-of-custody arrangements.
“The United Arab Emirates, an alliance of seven monarchies in which each monarch retains absolute power, sits in the middle of an unstable region. “The Arab Spring has not fully sprung in the UAE. “To state that Australian uranium will not be misused because it is in the UAE’s interest not to misuse is naïve and lacks credibility.
“This move by the federal government has the potential to undermine efforts to advance nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East. “Australia’s uranium export policy continues to be driven by commercial interests, not the national interest. “The Australian Conservation Foundation has serious concerns about the adequacy and capacity of the international nuclear safeguards regime.”
Australian govt rejects USA naval nuclear base, (FOR THE MOMENT ANYWAY)
Smith rejects proposal for US carrier base ABC Radio AM By Naomi Woodley August 02, 2012 Defence Minister Stephen Smith has flatly rejected a proposal to expand a naval base in Perth to accommodate US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier groups.
The idea for a $7 billion US carrier base on Australia’s Indian Ocean seaboard is one of many canvassed in a report commissioned by the US Defence Department from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank.
Mr Smith says while increased US access to the HMAS Stirling base is on the cards in the long term, American aircraft carriers will not be based in Australia. “The report is an independent report to the United States government. It’s not a United States government document,” he said.
“We don’t have United States military bases in Australia and we are not proposing to. What we have talked about in terms of either increased aerial access or naval access is precisely that – greater access to our facilities.” The West Australian Premier and Opposition Leader have also ruled out the aircraft carrier base idea………….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-02/smith-rejects-us-base-proposal/4171086
Australia’s uranium to Arab world- (take back radioactive wastes later?)
Such a stable part of the world – the Middle East ? Australia to take back the radioactive wastes – LATER? – C.M
When Abu Dhabi outlined its plans to build the Arab world’s first nuclear power plant in 2008, it had hoped that some supplier nations would be willing to take back the waste.
Australia to supply UAE nuclear fuel but won’t take radioactive waste, The National April Yee Aug 1, 2012 ABU DHABI // Australia has opened the door to supplying the UAE with nuclear fuel but has ruled out taking back the radioactive waste it generates.
“The UAE meets all the tests, and the tests are rigorous and extensive and we’re happy to make a big commitment to providing them with energy security,” the Australian foreign minister Bob Carr said yesterday.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdullah, signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Mr Carr last night allowing for such nuclear trade as Abu Dhabi prepares to award a major contract for 15 years’ worth of uranium. But fuel leasing, in which the supplier takes back the spent fuel, is off the cards for now in Australia, which also bans nuclear plants at home. Continue reading
Danger for Australia, linked in with USA’s aggressive attitudes to China
Washington’s global ambitions exceed its power – and that spells trouble for Australia. WA Today, Hugh White, 24 July “….the problems facing America abroad are so intractable, and the measures needed to deal with them are so difficult, that neither side wants to talk about them. In this case we are seeing not consensus, but paralysis. Unfortunately, this second explanation is the right one.
That’s a big worry for Australia as well as for America, because our political leaders also share a deep consensus on foreign policy. Both Gillard and Abbott identify so closely with US positions that America’s foreign policy paralysis becomes ours too……..
The most important change in US foreign policy since 2008 has been the sudden recognition that China’s rise is for real, and that its challenge to US primacy in Asia must be taken seriously. Obama’s response has been to try to face down China by building a new strategic coalition – including Australia – to contain Beijing’s ambitions. He has resisted any idea of constructive accommodation with America’s largest trading partner. This seems a sure road to disaster…..
Obama has failed just as Bush did, and for the same reason. Even more than under Bush, America’s international reach under Obama exceeds its grasp. And now he has added a huge new goal of his own – to push back against China as its economy grows to overtake America’s……
Both Obama and Romney proclaim the same bold agenda for American leadership in the new century, and both assure the voters that this is possible because the US remains as powerful as ever, still able to mould the world to promote American interests and values……
Neither will acknowledge the limits within which a realistic and successful US foreign policy must work. So both prefer to say nothing. That holds the seeds of deep trouble for America, and for Australia.
http://www.watoday.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/americas-foreign-fantasy-20120723-22kh9.html#ixzz21ZCQS2pt
1 This month.
20 September –National Day of Action in Melbourne on the International Day of Peace
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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Australians deserve the truth
about
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PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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