What has happened to Australian Nuclear Veterans website?
Australian Nuclear Veterans Association’s website until last week was here:
users.bigpond.net.au/anva/
This Web Site is maintained by Australian Nuclear Veterans who were involved in nuclear testing.
A few weeks back, the Australians veterans of the atomic tests launched a class action against the Australian Federal Government on the basis that at the time of exposing Australian troops to nuclear blasts the Government knew that the exposed troops were placed in danger from internalisation of fission products.
Why has this website disappeared?
If you are interested in an in-depth study of atomic bomb testing in Australia, go to Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog
BHP keeps mum on early uranium shipment to China
BHP ships first uranium from SA
The Age BARRY FITZGERALD
October 1, 2009
“……………..BHP would not give details on the shipment, which was made possible by the 2006 agreement between the former Howard government and Beijing on a nuclear safeguards pact. Continue reading
Paladin calls Catholic Commission a paid ‘puppet’ of Western corporations
Australian uranium firm condemns Malawi NGOs
Trading Room BLANTYRE, Oct 2 AFP
October 03 2009,
Australia firm Paladin has dismissed allegations of contamination from a northern Malawi uranium mine, telling MPs that two rights groups have been paid funds to discredit its operations. Continue reading
Maralinga lingers on with radioactivity
Australia, dust storms and the fallout Britain left behindIdealist.ws 1 Oct 09 “………What is Maralinga? How did plutonium get there?
In the 1950s and 1960s, Australia was the host of a handful of U.K.-sponsored atmospheric nuclear tests and related nuclear experiments on the Montel Bello Islands (off the northwest coast) and at Emu Field and Maralinga, both located in the Great Victoria Desert in South Australia. At Maralinga2 between 1957 and 1963, the U.K. conducted several plutonium dispersal experiments, dubbed ‘minor trials’ (very similar to the ones conducted at the Nevada Test Site; see: safety experiments), which scattered radioactivity (tens of pounds of Plutonium 239) far and wide into the bush.
Through the 1990s, the Emu and Maralinga sites were physically blocked off by a 100-mile radius security zone, which might have been a good enough barrier for un-remediated (not cleaned up) nuclear sites but in reality is no match for a dust storm the size of several hurricanes. (If the same sized-radius were blocked off around the Nevada Test Site, it would force the evacuation of Las Vegas.)
Although the ‘Maralinga Rehabilitation Project’ – finished in 2000 – cleaned up some of the ‘minor trial’ plutonium, not all of the plutonium is cleaned up and the waste burial practices have been SERIOUSLY3 called into question mostly because the plutonium was buried only 3 to 4 meters deep. Australia’s Senator Lyn Allison noted in 2003: “No matter how many reports are produced, the fact of the matter is that 22kg of plutonium is buried in simple, unlined earth trenches, some of it just a couple of metres below the surface.” The Sunday Age article titled “Agenda – Maralinga’s Afterlife” on May 11, 2003, stated that: ‘The vitrification method was abandoned by MARTAC three-quarters of the way through the project, in favour of the much cheaper trench-method. Most of the waste – including broken-up vitrified material – was then buried in unlined pits covered with just three metres of clean soil. The rest was left on the desert surface. As a result, an area the size of metropolitan London – 300 square kilometres – remains infected with lethal plutonium that will stay active for a quarter of a million years.’ That section of land is dubbed the ‘North West Plume,’ located northwest of Taranaki and contaminated largely from the ‘Vixen B’ trials …………. Australian authorities have denied there is any radiological health problem with the red dust………………………………. Although it is commendable that ARPANSA acknowledged that radioactive material was in the red dust that coated most of the populated areas in Australia and New Zealand, ARPANSA’s Burns is saying more to allay fears than educating Australians about the consequences of their actual radiation exposure to the dust…………… Even if the winds significantly diluted and reduced the concentration of the Maralinga soil-laden plutonium in the red-dusty air, it will still be extremely toxic because it takes just one millionth of a gram of plutonium to deliver a lethal dose and even more minute quantities (billionths of a gram) might induce cancer. Theoretically, even a single atom (particle) of plutonium has the ability, from its extremely strong alpha radiation (like a very strong, mini X-ray machine), to produce free radicals and alter DNA in our body’s cells – both are precursors to cancerous growth.
Since any population exposure to radiation increases the risk of cancer in a population, the dispersion of plutonium dust from Maralinga over thousands of miles of populated Australia has increased Aussie’s cancer burden………. In the Southern Hemisphere, wherever this red dust is now lingering, if it is brought down to Earth by rain it will contaminate surface areas (shingles, pavement, cars, crops, etc…) and water supplies as long as the radiation’s half-life, which can be hundreds or thousands of years. Ingesting radiation from contaminated foodstuffs and water constitutes the greatest danger from radiation exposure. http://idealist.ws/australia.php
Nuclear Technology Agency will Analyse Possibly Radioactive Dust
So ANSTO will analyse Australia’s dust storms? – Sounds a bit like Dracula looking after the Blood Bank – Christina Macpherson
Glowing welcome for nuclear partnership
PS NewsvANU 29 Sept 09 The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and the Australian National University have joined together in a partnership aimed at enhancing the nation’s nuclear science and technology engagement. Continue reading
Australian mining companies lack transparency in African projects
Oh, Africa!
New Matilda 17 Sept 09 Australian mining companies are being lured to Africa with a campaign that would make Tourism Australia proud, writes Tim O’Connor Continue reading
Review: Corporate culture of deceit: asbestos, uranium
Review: Corporate culture of deceit: asbestos, uranium. Martin Ferguson. Pro-nuke hype, Gas deals. – Christina Macpherson 25 August 09
10 corporate directors of the asbestos company James Hardie were found guilty of deception, Continue reading
South Australian govt fails to regulate nuclear lobbysits, fails to address corruption issues
Schacht lobbied Rann for miner
*Michael Owen, SA political reporter | August 20, 2009 The Australian“………………..The Rann government is under pressure because of its lack of action to regulate the activities of lobbyists and establish a lobbyists’ register, as the Rudd government and other states have done. Continue reading
Some ‘ethical’ funds invest in uranium
……….After a decade-long share-market boom – only marginally clouded by the reversals of early June – ethical investing has moved from the margins to the mainstream………………..
the pioneering idealists that started the industry suddenly face stiff competition. What’s more, the working definition of “ethical” becomes malleable…………..……………The stakes have risen so high because of compulsory superannuation. On 1 July 2005, “superannuation choice” became law, allowing employees to choose where they invest their superannuation money.
……………..some ethical funds have invested in the asbestos company James Hardie and the uranium miner BHP…………….
………………..One of the oldest and largest ethical funds on the ASX is Australian Ethical Investment, which has led the pack in banning Woolworths after its move into gambling. But AEI is suffering because of its hardline approach. Many of its rivals are growing faster than it is. While AEI and other traditional funds still espouse such high-minded ideals as “the preservation of endangered eco-systems”, newer fund managers such as Ausbil Dexia talk about “ethical opportunities”.
Rudd to sign up for uranium to India, in November?
comment by Christina Macpherson
Australia’s Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, will have to pull off some sort of conjuring trick in November. Posing as the international hero of the disarmament movement, Rudd has, until now, firmly rejected India’s call for uranium, as India has not, and will not, sign the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty.
To change this stance in November will require all those skills of spin that politicians inevitably develop, if they wish to stay in office.
Sadly, this will mean yet another conning of the Australian public, and the world – in the service of corporate and military /industrial interests.
Australia to supply uranium to India
Thursday, 13 Aug 2009
India has expressed its interest in having civil nuclear cooperation with Australia, amid indications that the two countries are likely to sign an energy agreement in November under which Australia may supply uranium for joint venture power plants.
Australia’s policy of not supplying uranium to countries that have not signed the Nuclear Non proliferation Treaty was noted by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, who had discussions on a wide variety of bilateral subjects with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his counterpart Stephen Smith.
……….Mr Rudd is expected to visit India in November when the two countries are likely to sign an Energy Declaration for generation of nuclear power for which his country may supply uranium.
http://steelguru.com/news/index/2009/08/13/MTA2ODM2/Australia_to_supply_uranium_to_India.html
BHP Billiton caught in U.S. climate change scandal
BHP Billiton caught in US climate change scandal
Sydney Morning Herald August 13 2009
Marian Wilkinson Environment Editor
BHP BILLITON and two other leading US energy companies operating in Australia have been caught up in a lobbying scandal that was aimed at defeating the landmark US climate change bill but is now under investigation by a congressional committee.
The scandal involves 12 forged letters sent to members of Congress urging them to vote against the US climate change bill. The bill, which was passed by the US House of Representatives in June, is designed to cut America’s greenhouse gas pollution and promote clean energy.
The forged letters were purportedly sent by grassroots groups in coalmining districts to three Democratic members. But a Washington lobby firm working on behalf of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity admitted that an employee forged the letters and faxed them.
BHP Billiton is a prominent member of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity along with Peabody Energy, America’s biggest coal company which owns mines in NSW and Queensland, and Chevron Mining which has two major gas projects in north west Australia.
The Democratic congressman Ed Markey, who co-sponsored the US climate change bill, announced an investigation into the forged letters calling them ”an appalling abuse” and saying his committee would be examining the scope and extent of fraud in the lobbying campaign against the bill.
Govt and media silence on uranium/nuclear issues
by Christina Macpherson 10 August 09 Almost 4000 submissions were received by the South Australian government, in response to BHPBilliton’s Environmental Impact Statement on their plan to create the world’s biggest hole, and biggest uranium tailings pile at Roxby Downs.
This momentous proposal has barely got a mention in the mainstream media.
The Australian government and the mainstream media seem to be coyly ignoring big questions of the moment. The Olympic Dam (Roxby Downs) uranium mine expansion is just one of them.
Also behind the scenes, machinations are going on between uranium/nuclear corporations and government to quiettly condition the Australian public, and particularly the aboriginal community, to the idea that a nuclear waste dump is a fine thing, and that nuclear power plants swill inevitably come in Australia
Australia’s new uranium mine linked to arms sales and spying
The company with the right contacts
The Brisbane Times, Ben Cubby, 30 July 09
GENERAL ATOMICS, the company behind the nation’s newest uranium mine, has been patiently lobbying Australian politicians for more than a decade to encourage it to allow mining, to develop nuclear reactors and buy high-tech weapons.
The company has ferried members of the US Congress, their families and aides to Australia for high-level talks. It has paid for Labor MPs to travel to the United States to see its weapons and nuclear reactors first-hand, as well as hosting taxpayer funded trips……………………………………
To put its case for more mines and more weapons in Canberra, the company uses Hawker Britton, a lobbying firm that includes many former ALP staffers and MPs.
But among the biggest supporters of uranium mining expansion is the South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, who was on the Greenpeace executive that launched the Rainbow Warrior protest ship to try to block French nuclear weapons tests in 1972……………………………….
General Atomics flew a group from the US Congress to Australia, accompanied by company executives, to persuade the Federal Government to buy the company’s Predator unmanned aircraft………………………….
As well as its interest in unmanned spy planes, General Atomics has employed human spies. Last year it was caught hiring a former undercover police officer turned private investigator to infiltrate Australian environment groups and report on their actions. The former officer was posing as a Kurdish refugee and feeding information back to General Atomics.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/the-company-with-the-right-contacts-20090729-e1lk.html
Fraud background of 4 Mile uranium mine’s owner
Arms maker behind uranium mine settled fraudulent pricing case
The Brisbane Times, Nick OMalley and Ben Cubby
July 30, 2009
THE arms manufacturer that received approval through an Australian subsidiary for a new uranium mine in central Australia this month was sued for fraudulently hiking uranium prices and manipulating costs at a neighbouring mine.
Neal Blue, owner and chairman of General Atomics, was accused in the proceedings of instructing executives at his Australian subsidiary, Heathgate Resources, to prepare false reports for customers, telling them costs at Heathgate’s Beverley uranium mine were higher than anticipated, and production lower……………………….
The Illinois District Court case was settled last year. One of General Atomics’s customers, Exelon, received $US41 million from the company. It is estimated Mr Blue made $US200 million by breaking the contracts and selling uranium on the spot market…………………………………
Four Mile mine will be owned by a General Atomics subsidiary, Quasar Resources, and an Australian-owned minerals explorer, Alliance Resources.
Mega uranium in Australia
Mega steps up bid to beat BHP with WA’s 1st uranium mine
(Note from Christiona Macpherson – Is Mega Uranium involved in a court case in South Africa?)
PERTH, July 23 AAP
Trading Room By Rebecca Le MayJuly 23 2009,
The race to develop Western Australia’s first uranium mine has gained pace, with Mega Uranium Ltd entering a $US49 million ($A60 million) joint venture with a Japanese firm to progress the Canadian explorer’s Lake Maitland project.
Mega is vying to beat BHP Billiton Ltd’s Yeelirrie project as the state’s first uranium mine.
Both projects are situated in WA’s midwest region near Wiluna………………..Mega, which is expected to soon seek an Australian stock exchange listing, said on Thursday it had teamed up with Japan Australia Uranium Resources Development (JAURD) and Itochu to develop the project………………….
“JAURD’s shareholders – power companies Kansai, Kyushu and Shikoku, will have access to uranium produced at Lake Maitland and Itochu will participate in uranium off-take arrangements,” Mega chief executive Sheldon Inwentash said.
The transaction is subject to approvals required under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act.
Federal Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, said on Thursday Australian was “committed to mining uranium with safe hands and only supplying uranium to countries which use it with safe hands”.
News: Australian Stock, Share & Commodity Markets News – Tradingroom.com.au
1 This month
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