Submission by Australian rare earths company Lynas rejected by Malaysia on safety concerns
Miti on Lynas plant: Safety is top priority, Free Malaysia Today Stephanie Sta Maria, | November 8, 2011, Lynas will not be allowed to operate its plant until it meets IAEA conditions. KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) today clarified its stand on the controversial rare earth plant in Gebeng, saying the government would not allow Lynas Corporation Ltd to operate if it flouted the rules.
Miti secretary general Rebecca Sta Maria said safety was the ministry’s top priority.
Last week the government revealed that it had rejected Lynas’ submissions on safety requirements for the RM1.5 billion rare earth refinery. This followed reports by the Australian Associated Press that Lynas was expected to commence operations late this year and begin commercially supplying radiation-risk rare earth by next year. Continue reading
New Zealand call for inquiry into Australian uranium shipments
Uranium passing through NZ ports, Sky News October 30, 2011 A Greens MP has called for an inquiry into Australian shipments of radioactive uranium passing through New Zealand waters and ports in breach of its anti-nuclear stance.
Fortnightly shipments of Australian yellowcake uranium, totalling five thousand tonnes annually, are being shipped through New Zealand ports, according to documents provided to the Sunday Star Times by Green MP Gareth Hughes.
The paperwork shows the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) was unaware of the shipments for 13 years, until late 2009.
That agency had since been replaced by the new Environmental Protection Authority, and an EPA spokeswoman told the newspaper that even though ERMA was unaware of the shipments, the regime that permitted them to pass through New Zealand’s ports had still followed international best practice…..
A spokesman for Prime Minister John Key told the Sunday Star Times yellowcake was ‘Australian dirt, which is essentially harmless’…..
Hughes is calling for an independent inquiry, saying the shipments had no place in a nuclear-free country.
‘Why did the authority fail to approve it for so long, do we have adequate safeguards and response strategies, and what role is New Zealand playing in the international nuclear cycle?’ he said. http://www.skynews.com.au/eco/article.aspx?id=679499&vId=
Obama to Darwin – to do military and nuclear waste deals?
Darwin readies for Obama visit, 9 News, Xavier La Canna, 29 Oct 11 The Northern Territory is getting ready to throw down the welcome mat, after confirmation US President Barak Obama will visit Darwin next month…. Although details of Mr Obama’s itinerary are scarce, it appears unlikely he will have time to visit world famous heritage areas like Kakadu National Park or Uluru while in the territory.
Mr Obama will be in Darwin on November 17, the only Australian city he will visit apart from Canberra during his stop in Australia while en route to the East Asia Summit in Bali. In Darwin Mr Obama will meet Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Mr Henderson.
There has been speculation Mr Obama will use the visit to make an announcement relating to increasing the US military
presence in the Northern Territory. Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith recently foreshadowed increasing the number of joint training exercises with America in Darwin……
Already the US and Australia jointly run the Pine Gap spy base near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory….
Donna Jackson, a senior member of the Larrakia people who are the traditional owners of the land Darwin is on, said the visit would probably be good for the city.
But Ms Jackson said she had concerns Mr Obama might use his visit as a chance to look over the city on behalf of big businesses in America who could ultimately spoil the local environment….. Following the Darwin visit the Prime Minister and President Obama will attend the East Asia Summit in Bali http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8366836/darwin-readies-for-obama-visit
CHOGM: It’s going to be harder for Australian uranium companies to rip off African people
We have long needed greater assurances that Australian mining companies are adequately meeting their responsibilities in the developing countries in which many of them operate….
a focus on revenue transparency is long overdue…..Relying on companies to do the right thing is not enough. These initiatives will send a positive international signal,
Timely move to make miners more responsible for damage they cause, The Age Andrew Hewett October 28, 2011 Poor countries can expect greater control of mining companies. With two-thirds of the world’s poorest people living in resource-rich countries, too often the extraction of those resources contributes to poverty, corruption and conflict. Australian mining companies have become embroiled in damaging behaviour far from our shores and attention.
This week at CHOGM, the federal government announced initiatives aimed at ensuring the mining sector is better able to contribute to community and social development, and the responsible management of taxes and royalties paid by mining companies to governments, in Australia and overseas. Continue reading
India does not need Australia’s uranium, says Kevin Rudd
Oz ban on uranium sale not holding up India’s N-programme:Rudd, IBN Live, From Natasha Chaku Melbourne, Oct 27 (PTI) Australia’s ban on uranium sale to India was not holding back its civil nuclear programme as the country was not exclusively dependent on supplies from here, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said today. The ruling Australian Labor Party (ALP) refuses to permit sale of uranium to India on the ground that the country is not a signatory to the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty. The issue is expected to be a topic of discussion on the sidelines of this week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth.
Rudd said India and Australia shared a strong relationship despite their differences on uranium, AAP reported. “Each of you go back home and work out where India currently sources its uranium from around the world,” he told reporters when asked about the issue. “There is no problem in global supply. Let’s just be very, very blunt about this. If you hear an argument from an Indian business person that the future of the civil nuclear industry in India depends exclusively on access to Australian uranium – that is simply not sustainable as a proposition.” ….. http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/oz-ban-on-uranium-sale-not-holding-up-indias-nprogrammerudd/877593.html
CHOGM – Australia will not sell uranium to India
Uranium exports to India off agenda at CHOGM , Business Spectator, 25 Oct 2011 Prime Minister Julia Gillard has ruled out changing the government’s stance on uranium exports to India, ahead of likely discussions on the issue at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, according to The Australian newspaper.
According to the report, Ms Gillard said her position on the issue was unchanged as the developing nation is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“We do not have a policy that is particular about India but we do have a policy about the nuclear proliferation treaty,” she said….. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Uranium-exports-to-India-off-agenda-at-CHOGM-pd20111025-MXU9H?opendocument&src=rss
Australia’s carbon tax has a symbolic and leadership value in international effort against global warming
The passage of this initiative is still hugely important, if for no other reason than that it shows Big Coal can be rolled. The coal industry is an even larger part of the Australian economy than it is of the American, and it has an enormous amount of political power. And just like here in the U.S., there are plenty of shrill politicians in Oz who claim that any new tax will lead to economic ruin.
Gillard told Members of Parliament that they would be judged on their vote by every Australian, “because the final test is not are you on the right side of the politics of the week, or the polls of the year.”
“The final test is this: are you on the right side of history?”
Australian Carbon Tax Vote: A Very Big Deal, ROLLING STONE, : OCTOBER 13, By JEFF GOODELL So maybe there is hope for us yet. After what one Aussie columnist calls“the dirtiest and most dishonest campaign ever waged before the Australian public,” with millions of dollars spent on media ads and climate skeptics flown in from around the world, Australia’s House of Representatives voted yesterday, 74 to 72,to levy a tax on carbon pollution. The proposal, which was pushed by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, will impose a price of $23 on a ton of carbon pollution, starting in 2015. After 2015, an emissions-trading scheme will be introduced, with the goal of cutting total carbon pollution 5 percent below 2000 levels by 2020. The legislation still needs to pass the Senate, but because Greens control the balance of power there, that is not likely to be a problem. Unless something dramatic happens, in a few months Australia will have taken an important first step toward saving itself from the catastrophic impacts of climate change.
This is a big deal. Continue reading
Carbon tax bill will benefit most Australians
Carbon tax bill is good news for Australia, Guardian UK, 14 Oct 11, Once the dust settles, the majority in Australia are likely to find that the bill will benefit them Thanks to a narrow victory for the government, Australia now looks likely to join the EU and New Zealand in introducing a comprehensive policy to make carbon polluters pay for the damage they cause. This is very good news. It has been an uphill battle, with the opposition and business lobby all but claiming that the sky would fall in should the bill be passed.
But once the dust settles and the lamenting subsides, the majority of people of Australia are likely to find that the bill passed on Wednesday benefits them. Much of the money raised from the carbon price of £15 per tonne of emissions will be recycled in the form of tax breaks and compensatory payments.
It will also be used to stimulate investment in new clean energy technologies leading to new jobs and increased inward investment. Hopefully over time this will boost Labour and the Greens’ popularity, so ensuring that the policy is protected – despite opposition leader Tony Abbott’s “blood promise” to repeal the legislation.
Australia’s energy system is among the most polluting in the world thanks to its heavy reliance on coal, but Australia’s climate is vulnerable to the impact that climate change brings. Acting to reduce emissions is in the country’s self-interest in the longer term, especially if it can act as an inspiration for other countries to follow.
South Korea and China are looking to introduce emissions-trading schemes and all eyes in the global carbon market are now firmly looking eastwards. There could be significant advantages for Australia’s financial institutions in being amongst the first to participate in this market, just as London has benefited from being the hub of the European carbon market….
Being out in front has its advantages and confers a moral superiority but there will always be forces of conservatism who will be made to feel uncomfortable. It is therefore more important than ever that countries in the early adopters group work together to defend their actions and encourage more into the fold.
No one, in Europe or Australia, can now claim to be going it alone, and with luck soon many more will step up and join the race to the top. As Australia has shown this will not be easy, but we must defy those who would rather participate in a race to the bottom where ultimately everyone is a loser….http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/12/carbon-tax-australia?newsfeed=true
Never mind Australia’s nuclear non-proliferation policy – Ferguson, Minister For The Uranium Industry is out to sabotage it
‘‘Opening up uranium sales to India would fuel the nuclear arms race under way between India
and Pakistan, which has potentially catastrophic consequences,” ICAN’s Australian director, Tim Wright, said yesterday. ”The threat of a regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan is real. Selling uranium to India runs counter to Australia’s own security interests, and makes a mockery of its stated commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons.”
The briefing note was written after Mr Ferguson met Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna in January…
The note was dated February 7, three days before The Age revealed a cable leaked to WikiLeaks that asserted Mr Ferguson had told the United States embassy in Canberra that a deal to supply India with nuclear fuel could be reached within three to five years.
Australia, India in talks over uranium sale, The Age, Michael Gordon, October 13, 2011 AUSTRALIA and India have already begun a ”dialogue” that is likely to canvass the sale of uranium to the nuclear-armed nation if Labor dumps its opposition to the trade at the party’s national conference in December.
A confidential briefing note to Resources Minister Martin Ferguson in February says the dialogue ”may prove a useful avenue to communicate any policy shifts on the issue” of uranium exports, which are banned to India under existing government and ALP policy. Continue reading
Australian company Lynas has no long term radioactive waste management plan for its Malaysian project
Lynas back to earth after loss, The Age, Greg Roberts, September 24, 2011, AUSTRALIA’S largest rare-earths miner, Lynas Corporation, has posted a 33 per cent widening in its full-year loss following a year blighted by controversy. Public protests this year prompted an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency into whether the Lynas rare-earth refinery in Malaysia presented radioactive risks….
Lynas’s operating expenses shot up 87.5 per cent from $30.65 million to $57.46 million. It says 11,000 tonnes a year of rare-earth oxides will be produced at Mount Weld.
Lynas received a favourable report from the IAEA about the refinery in Kuantan, but has been told to provide a long-term waste-management plan. More than 60 per cent of the refinery has been built. It is hoped the plant will curtail China’s monopoly of more than 95 per cent of the global supply of rare earths…… http://www.theage.com.au/business/lynas-back-to-earth-after-loss-20110923-1kped.html#ixzz1Yv9BaYWp
Despite hazards, Australian company Lynas pushing ahead with Malaysian rare earths project
Rare earths mining and processing is difficult, expensive and rarely ecologically friendly. It produces enormous quantities of wastewater, requires vast amounts of energy, uses toxic materials in the refining process and can produce radioactive materials with half-lives of hundreds of years.
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and other government officials have continued to insist the plant won’t open until all safety and environmental concerns are met. …
Australian govt joins France in promoting nuclear energy as ‘safe and peaceful’ !
Greens spokesperson for nuclear affairs Senator Scott Ludlam said the Australia-France Joint Statement on Civil Nuclear Safety, issued on September 11th – the day before an explosion rocked the French nuclear plant of Marcoule – was a “declaration of delusion”.
“The joint statement is bizarre even without the context of the deadly blast at Marcoule. The statement claims Australia and France ‘promote the responsible development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy’, with no mention of the fact France has the third largest nuclear weapons arsenal in the world, with an estimated 300 operational nuclear warheads, and as recently as 1996 was detonating nuclear weapons in Polynesia,” said Senator Ludlam.
“Then there was the claim ‘Australia and France possess world leading research reactor facilities’. If Lucas Heights is a world leading research reactor facility, it is likely the only ‘world leading research reactor’ currently the subject of four separate investigations sparked by serious health and safety concerns made public by whistle-blowers. Lucas Heights has been plagued by a series of major technical problems. The OPAL Reactor has been closed a number of times, sometimes for months at a stretch, due to leaks and other flaws.”
“The Government claims it ‘consider(s) it important that serious nuclear or radiological events are subject to review by independent fact-finding missions… with results made available publicly’, but has refused to disclose what its agencies knew about the Fukushima disaster and when they first knew it, and voted against motions in Parliament calling for disclosure of this information. The hypocrisy is mind-blowing.”
“This fudged and evasive joint statement stands in stark contrast to the comprehensive and meticulous report ‘Costs, risks, and myths of nuclear power’, a world-wide study by expert NGOs on the implications of thecatastrophe at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.” http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/resources/publications/costs-risks-myths.html
“This Government needs to get serious about nuclear safety. There is only one sure way to make nuclear power safe – shut it down permanently.”
The threat of uranium mining to Tanzania’s environment
(relevant because Australian companies are trying to mine in Tanzania) Clear key concerns on uranium mining, The Citizen, 07 September 2011 Tanzania’s quest to allow investors to mine uranium in the Selous Game Reserve faces stiff opposition from some local and foreign wildlife conservationists.
Unesco’s World Heritage Committee maintains that the country should only allow in investors after an environmental impact assessment has been undertaken.And now, a Germany-based group calling itself Tanzania Network, has plunged into the fray. Its secretariat has reportedly written to President Jakaya Kikwete, through Tanzania’s ambassador in Berlin, Mr Ahmada Ngemera, pleading with him to halt plans of awarding uranium mining licences to any international company.
The organisation says it is concerned with the dangers that uranium poses to lives of living organisms as well as to the environment. …
Judging from the arguments by the government and conservationists, one notes that there is a sense of mistrust and some ignorance within the matter.It is evident that environmentalists don’t trust the government. Probably, they feel the country may blindly undertake a project that would have negative ramifications on the lives of its own people and the invaluable wildlife.
China may link Australian uranium imports to Australia importing Chinese nuclear reactors
an “envisioned” bilateral nuclear co-operation agreement with the Chinese would be broad enough to cover “all eventualities” — including a possible deal under which Labor would import nuclear reactors in the future.
Chinese ‘coy’ in talks on importing uranium, MARK SCHLIEBS, The Australian, August 31, 2011 CHINESE officials were “a bit coy” about whether they were still developing weapons-grade fissile material during initial negotiations over the importation of Australian uranium, according to a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks. Continue reading
USA now officially seeking to send nuclear wastes back to uranium mining countries
Official: U.S. in Early Talks About Int’l Nuclear Leasing Arrangements, NYT. By HANNAH NORTHEY, August 23, 2011 Department of Energy officials have spent weeks trying to knock down reports that they have been interested in building a nuclear waste repository in Mongolia.
Now, the Obama administration is going a step further, disclosing that what DOE hopes to do is “lease” uranium from other countries, then return the spent fuel to the originating country.
A senior Obama administration official told Greenwire earlier this month that the government is in preliminary talks with several countries, including Mongolia, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, about setting up commercial nuclear fuel leasing arrangements.
In one example of how a fuel leasing arrangement could work, countries with uranium reserves could mine, enrich and fabricate the material and lease it to reactor companies abroad. Spent nuclear fuel would then be sent back to the originating country, the official said.
Discussions have not touched upon what those countries would do with the waste, the official said, but the United States hopes to prevent proliferation by providing alternatives to domestic enrichment and reprocessing capabilities…..
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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