Flooding events highlight the danger to proposed uranium mining sites Yeelirrie and Wiluna
K-A Garlick at Nuclear Free WA |
6 Feb 20, In an area where two uranium mines are proposed ~ Yeelirrie and Wiluna, there have been massive rain influx, leading to widespread floods across the Goldfields country.
Toro Energy Wiluna uranium project expands over two lake systems and over 100 kms. The project includes four uranium deposits – Lake Way, Centipede, Millipede and Lake Maitland.
The project proposal includes a high risk inappropriate site to attempt disposal of up to 50 million tonnes of radioactive tailings that would be stored in mined out pits on the edge of Lake Way in a floodplain and in the drainage channel of a creek.
The company’s studies of hydrogeology, hydrology and geochemistry were all heavily criticised in Peer Reviews submitted as part of the environmental assessment. With these floods today, the planned emplacement of 50 million tonnes of long-lived radioactive mine waste in a floodplain poses a very serious risk to the environment and public health.
1980 spill of nuclear poisons – a warning note for Kimba area
Potential nuclear spill a cause for concern, Port Lincoln Times, TY BRUUN 22 Jan 2020, I hope individuals from all over the Eyre Peninsula attend the protest rally (Kimba, February 2) to demonstrate the nuclear waste proposal affects more communities than just Kimba.
For those who are on the fence, please consider this realistic scenario.
The scene was attended by police officers. They were exposed to the radiation and became violently ill at the scene.
The following events bring doubt as to whether country SA could ever possess the expertise to deal with a nuclear waste accident, given this could not be sourced in the higher skilled population of Sydney.
The officers’ requested for assistance – it was refused on the grounds that no-one with nuclear waste spillage expertise could be sourced to prevent anyone else suffering radiation exposure.
The two officers and a council worker could only bury the waste beside the highway.
The sick officers tried to have the waste spillage formally acknowledged and cleaned up properly and spoke to the media.
It is truly questionable that, given this incident has still not been resolved despite other road workers becoming ill and construction of a new highway through the burial zone, the federal government will actually adequately resource the country town of Kimba (or anywhere else along the nuclear waste transport route) so that we can deal with this sensibly foreseeable emergency situation with radioactive waste.
I urge you all to consider what it would be like to wish your grown child a good day at work as they head off to deal with a radioactive spillage along Eyre Highway.
Is this really the legacy you will leave your children?
Remember, it has happened before; it is not over emotional or fear mongering to consider such scenarios, it’s rather sensible.https://www.portlincolntimes.com.au/story/6587692/potential-nuclear-spill-a-cause-for-concern/?fbclid=IwAR2NWWHE9A_5Uqog5nrcvC_o_3VukGgmUFcEfaxjiPMJ20r6edQVdcAEIsI
For those who are on the fence, please consider this realistic scenario.
The scene was attended by police officers. They were exposed to the radiation and became violently ill at the scene.
The following events bring doubt as to whether country SA could ever possess the expertise to deal with a nuclear waste accident, given this could not be sourced in the higher skilled population of Sydney.
The officers’ requested for assistance – it was refused on the grounds that no-one with nuclear waste spillage expertise could be sourced to prevent anyone else suffering radiation exposure.
The two officers and a council worker could only bury the waste beside the highway.
The sick officers tried to have the waste spillage formally acknowledged and cleaned up properly and spoke to the media.
It is truly questionable that, given this incident has still not been resolved despite other road workers becoming ill and construction of a new highway through the burial zone, the federal government will actually adequately resource the country town of Kimba (or anywhere else along the nuclear waste transport route) so that we can deal with this sensibly foreseeable emergency situation with radioactive waste.
I urge you all to consider what it would be like to wish your grown child a good day at work as they head off to deal with a radioactive spillage along Eyre Highway.
Is this really the legacy you will leave your children?
Remember, it has happened before; it is not over emotional or fear mongering to consider such scenarios, it’s rather sensible.https://www.portlincolntimes.com.au/story/6587692/potential-nuclear-spill-a-cause-for-concern/?fbclid=IwAR2NWWHE9A_5Uqog5nrcvC_o_3VukGgmUFcEfaxjiPMJ20r6edQVdcAEIsI
Bushfires – a serious danger to transporting nuclear wastes from Lucas Heights to Kimba
Transporting nuclear wastes across Australia in the age of bushfires, Independent Australia, By Noel Wauchope | IN 2020, the final decision on a site for Australia’s interim National Radioactive Waste Facility will be announced, said Resources Minister Matt Canavan on 13 December.
He added: I will make a formal announcement early next year on the site-selection process.”
With bushfires raging, it might seem insensitive and non-topical to be worrying now about this coming announcement on a temporary nuclear waste site and the transport of nuclear wastes to it. But this is relevant and all too serious in the light of Australia’s climate crisis.
The U.S. National Academies Press compiled a lengthy and comprehensive report on risks of transporting nuclear wastes — they concluded that among various risks, the most serious and significant is fire:…..
Current bushfire danger areas include much of New South Wales, including the Lucas Heights area, North and coastal East Victoria and in South Australia the lower Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas. If nuclear wastes were to be transported across the continent, whether by land or by sea, from the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney to Kimba in South Australia, they’d be travelling through much of these areas. Today, they’d be confronting very long duration, fully engulfing fires.
Do we know what route the nuclear wastes would be taking to Kimba, which is now presumed to be the Government’s choice for the waste dump? Does the Department of Industry Innovation and Science know? Does the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) know? Well, they might, but they’re not going to tell us.
We can depend on ANSTO’s consistent line on this :
‘In line with standard operational and security requirements, ANSTO will not comment on the port, routes or timing until after the transport is complete.’
That line is understandable of course, due to security considerations, including the danger of terrorism.
Spent nuclear fuel rods have been transported several times, from Lucas Heights to ports – mainly Port Kembla – in great secrecy and security. The reprocessed wastes are later returned from France or the UK with similar caution. Those secret late-night operations are worrying enough, but their risks seem almost insignificant when compared with the marathon journey envisaged in what is increasingly looking like a crackpot ANSTO scheme for the proposed distant Kimba interim nuclear dump. It is accepted that these temporary dumps are best located as near as practical to the point of production, as in the case of USA’s sites.
Australians, beset by the horror of extreme bushfires, can still perhaps count themselves as lucky in that, compared with wildfire regions in some countries, they do not yet have the compounding horror of radioactive contamination spread along with the ashes and smoke.
Fires in Russia have threatened its secret nuclear areas……
Many in America have long been aware of the transport danger:
The state of Nevada released a report in 2003 concluding that a steel-lead-steel cask would have failed after about six hours in the fire and a solid steel cask would have failed after about 11 to 12.5 hours. There would have been contamination over 32 square miles of the city and the contamination would have killed up to 28,000 people over 50 years.
The State of Wyoming is resisting hosting a nuclear waste dump, largely because of transportation risks as well as economic risks. In the UK, Somerset County Council rejects plans for transport of wastes through Somerset.
In the years 2016–2019, proposals for nuclear waste dumping in South Australia have been discussed by government and media as solely a South Australian concern. The present discussion about Kimba is being portrayed as just a Kimba community concern.
Yet, when the same kind of proposal was put forward in previous years, it was recognised as an issue for other states, too.
Most reporting on Australia’s bushfires has been excellent, with the exception of Murdoch media trying to downplay their seriousness. However, there has been no mention of the proximity of bushfires to Lucas Heights. As happened with the fires in 2018, this seems to be a taboo subject in the Australian media.
While it has never been a good idea to trek the Lucas Heights nuclear waste for thousands of kilometres across the continent – or halfway around it by sea – Australia’s new climate crisis has made it that much more dangerous. Is the bushfire apocalypse just a one-off? Or, more likely, is this nationwide danger the new normal? https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/transporting-nuclear-wastes-across-australia-in-the-age-of-bushfires,13465
Nuclear Waste Crash COVERUP – Poisoned Police Speak Out
Nuclear Waste Crash COVERUP – Poisoned Police Speak Out Kim Mavromatis No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia https://vimeo.com/372781616?fbclid=IwAR0im5Vuz_UbrDAklOuNImdf1RRDuN7Z9pnLDOVO_84JaM9qa6IaVUuNn50
2 policemen, cast aside and abandoned, speak out about the poisoning, trauma and nightmares they faced, after attending a fatal road accident on the Pacific Highway involving nuclear waste from Lucas Heights.
Nuclear Waste from Lucas Heights in NSW that was heading to Brisbane wharf along the Pacific Highway to be shipped to Gulf Nuclear in Texas.
WAKE UP CALL
A wake up call for all South Australians as the federal govnt propose to dump nuclear waste in SA.
THREATS AND COVERUPS
“Shut your mouth, don’t talk to the media, or you’ll get a bullet in the back of your head”.
“It was a cover up from day one”.
“It was disgusting the way we were treated. Really was”.
NUCLEAR WASTE TRANSPORT ACCIDENTS
“The more they transport, the greater the risk”. “It will happen again, one day, somewhere – It will happen”.
SPECIAL THANKS to Bob and Terry for sharing their story.
THERE ARE MANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS CONSIGNMENT?
Why were Bob and Terry (policemen) treated sooo badly, threatened and told to shut up about the accident?
Why was Aust Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC now ANSTO) at Lucas Heights shipping this
highly radioactive material to Gulf Nuclear in Texas?
How many consignments like this were made over the years?
Was it legal?
What was Gulf Nuclear (20 years in operation) doing with it ?
How did AAEC (now ANSTO, Lucas Heights) create Americium 241 and Cesium 137 – did they have authority to do so?https://www.facebook.com/groups/1314655315214929/
Fuel tanker fire on highway near Kimba – just as well it wasn’t a nuclear waste transport
Emergency services responded to reports a fuel tanker rolled and caught alight on the Eyre Highway at Kelly, about 15 kilometres east of Kimba just after 7am on Thursday 31 October.
Fortunately, the tanker driver was not injured in the crash.
The fire caused damage to the road surface and required repairs by Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure.
The highway is open, but speeds are currently restricted to 40 km/h at the scene of yesterday’s fire.
Nuclear waste containers in transit to South Australian dump, could be vulnerable to bushfires.
“The Fire Brigade Union contradicted this view stating that everything burns under the right conditions and that an accident, particularly with a fuel tanker, could generate enough heat to burn concrete and steel containers and vaporise the waste. This would transform the waste into a form in which it presents the greatest risk to human health.
“Concrete burns, it spalls, it expands and it explodes. That is what happens to it if it is subject to fire for long enough. You can put it in concrete and you can have steel mesh holding the whole thing together, but when you apply heat, the granules grow and things start spalling, just throwing out bits of itself everywhere until, in the end, that concrete or the integrity of the structure that encases it is broken.
Three ANSTO nuclear workers exposed to radiation
Three workers exposed to radiation, By SEAN PARNELL, Australia’s $200m nuclear medicine facility breached its licence when three staff members were exposed to radiation….. (subscribers only) https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a_GGN&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fscience%2Fthree-workers-exposed-to-radiation%2Fnews-story%2Fc61467842c331fa0cc811a1fe16d70f1&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21suffix=60-b
INCIDENTS RELATED TO TRANSPORT OF RADIATION INSTRUMENTS IN AUSTRALIA
Kim Mavromatis No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia, October 2
INCIDENTS RELATED TO TRANSPORT OF RADIATION INSTRUMENTS IN AUST (ARPANSA Aust Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Authority website identifies transport accidents) : “The most common incidents include vehicles carrying the source (radioactive material) being involved in a road accident or the source falling from the vehicle carrying the source. On other occasions containers may be damaged in transit and subsequently sources (radioactive material) may be dislodged from internal packing and shielding. CAUSES : Human Error, speed, alcohol, fatigue, loose fittings, maintenance, inadequate systems, training, oversight”.
Transport accidents of nuclear waste have occured in Aust, because of human error :
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH / THE ADVERTISER (2012) : TOXIC HIGHWAY : “Why radioactive materials, a banned pesticide and food were on the same truck that crashed on the New South Wales Pacific Highway in 1980 is a mystery. But the political fallout of its roadside burial and discovery 32 years later – which left five contractors vomiting and exposed another 13 workers to possibly lethal toxic waste – will be nothing short of nuclear”.https://www.facebook.com/groups/1314655315214929/
Risk of ‘catastrophic failure’ if Australia adopts nuclear energy: Switkowski
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Risk of ‘catastrophic failure’ if Australia adopts nuclear energy: Switkowski, The Age, By Rebecca Gredley August 29, 2019, There is a risk of “catastrophic failure” if Australia adopts nuclear energy, a federal parliamentary inquiry has heard.Ziggy Switkowski, who led a Howard government review into the power source, drew attention to the nuclear disasters of Chernobyl in Ukraine, Fukushima in Japan and Three Mile Island in the US.
After those events, the possibility of catastrophic failure within the nuclear system is non-negligible“, he told the committee in Sydney on Thursday. Issues also arose around managing nuclear waste and the cost burden on future generations, Dr Switkowski said……. The committee heard from several government agencies on Thursday, including the Australian Energy Market Operator and the Australian Energy Regulator. It will consider waste management, health and safety, environmental impacts, affordability and reliability, economic feasibility and workforce capability. https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/risk-of-catastrophic-failure-if-australia-adopts-nuclear-energy-20190829-p52m2h.html |
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Restrictions on operations of Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, following a litany of safety incidents
Man who urinated in backyard exposed family to radiation, https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/man-who-urinated-in-backyard-exposed-family-to-radiation-20190729-p52bt4.html By Nicole Hasham July 29, 2019 A patient being treated with nuclear medicine who exposed his family to radiation after urinating in his backyard, and a worker who spilled a vial of radioactive liquid onto his hands are among hundreds of reported mishaps involving nuclear substances in Australia.
The cases have been detailed as the Queensland Liberal National Party declared its opposition to using nuclear technology to produce electricity – a position at odds with Queensland federal Coalition members pushing for a parliamentary inquiry into the issue.
Radiation incidents in Australia are reported to the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA). Its latest register covers 575 incidents reported in 2017.
They include a worker who spilled a vial of irradiated solution when trying to remove its cap. It is understood the incident occurred at the Lucas Heights nuclear facility in southern Sydney.
Despite the worker wearing two pairs of gloves, his hands were contaminated causing “tissue reactions”. The exposure was considered serious and reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In another case, a patient self-discharged from hospital after receiving radiotherapy involving nuclear medicine. After returning home he “urinated outside” and contaminated “the rear yard”. Turf and soil was removed to address the hazard.
Other incidents included a lung cancer patient who was given double doses of radiation, and a radioactive vial that broke in a microwave.
The report concluded that radiation use in Australia “is generally very safe” but unexpected events can occur “even with strict controls in place”.
But new Minerals Council chair Helen Coonan on Monday said a parliamentary inquiry into nuclear power would ensure issues such as safety were better understood.
“I think it’s time to give it a go quite frankly. There’s a long way to go, of course, because there are legislative barriers and there needs to be political will,” Ms Coonan told the ABC.
Federal and state laws currently ban nuclear power, and any push to develop a home-grown industry would need state support. However even state-based Liberal-Nationals have so far failed to back the prospect.
Queensland LNP Leader Deb Frecklington said in a statement that her party “does not support nuclear power in Queensland” and a spokesman for the Liberal South Australian government said it has “no plans to change its current legislation governing nuclear energy”.
Victorian Labor Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said it “makes no sense to build nuclear power stations in Australia. They present significant community, health and environmental risks”.
Queensland Hinkler MP Keith Pitt, one of two backbenchers spearheading the push for a nuclear inquiry, on Monday said despite the Queensland LNP’s position, the party’s members were “very strongly supportive” of nuclear energy.
He said discussions on the issue were ongoing with Energy Minister Angus Taylor and the office of Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Mr Taylor said on Monday that the government has “no plans” to change the nuclear power moratorium.
Meanwhile, ARPANSA has confirmed that restrictions remain in place at the Lucas Heights nuclear facility after an incident last month when two workers were exposed to radiation.
Under the restrictions, the facility run by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation can produce enough nuclear medicine to meet domestic demand only. A spokeswoman said the ANSTO must provide evidence of safe operation in fortnightly reports, training records and evidence of satisfactory staffing levels and rostering arrangements before the restrictions are lifted, which could take “several months”.
To add to its safety problems, ANSTO has had to increase prices for nuclear medicine from the Lucas Heights reactor
Troubled ANSTO raises nuclear medicine prices, THE AUSTRALIAN, SEAN PARNELL, HEALTH EDITOR,JULY 26, 2019 Australia’s nuclear medicine sector has been hit with price hikes of up to 9 per cent from the government manufacturer despite months of supply problems, safety concerns and breakdowns.
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation provides the domestic supply of nuclear medicine, likely to be needed by one in two Australians during their lifetime, and also wants to ramp up its exports.
But amid calls for Australia to also embrace nuclear energy, ANSTO’s reputation has been tarnished by problems at its Lucas Heights facilities that have even required it to rely on imports.
Most recently, after heaters for hydrogen converters failed, ANSTO was forced to bring its new $200 million plant into service before it had all the approvals. Two workers were then exposed to excess radiation, forcing its closure, and yet another investigation by the regulator, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency.
An ANSTO spokesman yesterday confirmed the nuclear medicine sector had been asked to pay more than 3-9 per cent more for products…….
Some customers have been lobbying federal Industry, Science and Technology Minister Karen Andrews to intervene. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/troubled-ansto-raises-nuclear-medicine-prices/news-story/208ee20abacac04f304e45960bd963b4
Union opposes nuclear power because it is uneconomic and dangerous
Wake up and smell the radiation. Nuclear is not the answer https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/rendezview/wake-up-and-smell-the-radiation-nuclear-is-not-the-answer/news-story/dc3ea481d9d6083a9c6b391268f6d078m Allen Hicks, 24 July 19
Australia’s security and self-reliance – there’s a better path than getting nuclear weapons
the important point is what flows from that. White, one of Australia’s clearest statregic thinkers, says we should therefore be more self-reliant.
So far, so good. But his suggested options of meeting the challenge of being less reliant on the US displays a nation-state mentality which is quite outdated. ……
the question is not only how much money should be spent, but upon what it should be spent upon, to address our national security.
In the past two decades we have spent it in precisely the places which have reduced, not increased, our national security: Iraq and Afghanistan in particular. If we had stayed out, Australia would not have attracted the attention of jihadists and terrorists.
Spending money on a nuclear deterrent, which White does not rule out, did not help the US in its interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Lebanon etc……..
A better way is to make our forces responsive to Australian, not US, needs, as White suggests. But we do not have to spend a vast amount more. Rather than spend more on the military element of our national-security expenditure, we should spend more on the relationship-building expenditure – particularly foreign aid and the soft power of Australian TV and radio broadcasts into our region, and beyond – areas we have cut so stupidly against our national interest in the past two and half decades.
And surface ships which can respond to humanitarian crises, are critical. Submarines cannot do that.
The foreign-aid budget should be part of the defence budget. Australians have no idea how little we spend on foreign aid, so governments can get away with cutting it. The Lowy Institute (which, as it happens, I criticised last week on its inept polling on population) has done a first-rate job on exposing this. ……..
We can bluff our neighbours with a nuclear weapon that attacking Australia might or might not result in a painful rebuff. But the bluff might be called. On the other hand, if we build trade, educational and cultural exchanges and health, educational and economic aid with our neighbours they will never want to attack, and if they ever have totalitarian leaders those leaders will never be able to point to Australia as the wicked outsider deserving of attack.
To the extent we are no longer under the US nuclear umbrella, as White correctly points out, we should be grateful. The price has never been worth it. And Iran could well, one hopes not, prove the point yet again. ……..http://www.crispinhull.com.au/2019/07/12/defence-the-appalling-us-corollary/
Production at Australia’s only nuclear medicine facility halted after ‘safety incident’
Production at Australia’s only nuclear medicine facility halted after ‘safety incident’ Production has ceased and an urgent investigation has been launched after two employees at a newly opened Australian nuclear medicine facility at Lucas Heights were exposed to an unsafe dose of radiation late last week.Just two weeks after it was granted a licence to enter into full domestic production, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (Ansto) has confirmed production at its new $168m nuclear medicine facility has been halted after “a safety incident” on Friday morning.
Ansto said three of its workers were “attended to by radiation protection personnel” after the incident, in which contamination was detected on the outside of a container holding 42 millilitres of the radioisotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99).
Two of those workers received a radiation dose above the legal limit roughly equivalent to a conventional cancer radiation therapy treatment, an Ansto spokesman said……
Located at the Lucas Heights nuclear facility in Sydney’s south, the $168m nuclear medicine facility was announced by the federal government in 2012 with the goal of tripling Australian production of Mo-99, the parent isotope of Technetium-99m. …..
It is the second contamination scare at the Lucas Heights facility in only a few months.
In March three staff at the Lucas Heights nuclear facility were taken to hospital after they were exposed to sodium hydroxide when a cap came off a pipe in the nuclear medicine manufacturing building. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/24/two-workers-exposed-to-unsafe-radiation-dose-at-lucas-heights-nuclear-facility
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