Australia’s top nuclear lobbyist gets top education job
Ohmygawd, now we have Australia’s top nuclear salesman in a top position in academia! Yes, forget the humanities, forget scientific inquiry, RMIT university’s new Chancellor is to be a paid nuclear front man, trained only in the narrow field of nuclear physics.
Yes, it’s none other than Ziggy Spinowsky. He got some top post in the Australian Opera, presumably to get prestige in that area, rather than just as a nuclear lobbyist. Now, nuclear lobbying is entering education.- Christina Macpherson
Wobbly Word of the Week – “Rare Earths”
Yes – Rare Earths – What are they? The title sounds innocuous, and there’s no doubt that some “rare earths” are essential to many of today’s technology items.
It’s just that we should not lose sight of the radiation problems involved in mining and processing rare earths, nor let them slip under the radar as pro-uranium governments, like South Australia’s , promote the nuclear fuel cycle
Well, take the Arafura project below – this project includes a (small) commercial quantity of uranium product, and a large volume of thorium waste, enriched to ten times the radioactivity of the ore.
Pro nukes stack Western Australia’s uranium study panel
We still do not know whether or how key issues – such as workers’ health and safety, tailings rehabilitation, transport and groundwater impacts – will be addressed by the panel. We fear that crucial issues, such as impacts on workers’ health and communities and nuclear weapons proliferation, will not be addressed at all.
The panel excludes experts in relevant areas such as occupational health and safety, transport, Aboriginal heritage and native title, non-proliferation and safeguards.
Uranium industry’s record raises doubts, The West Australian, By Mia Pepper, September 16th, 2010, The Barnett Government recently announced that the Australian Centre for Geomechanics had won a tender to form an “independent panel on uranium mining regulations”. Sitting on the panel are pro-nuclear lobbyists and behind the scenes are corporate sponsors including some that are anything but independent.
BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are two of the sponsors – companies with operating uranium mines in Australia and uranium interests in WA. Continue reading
BHP’s Marius Kloppers accused of having “nuclear agenda”
Business Spectator, Sept 16 10, “……Liberal senator Cory Bernardi said Mr Kloppers was speaking out of self-interest because BHP Billiton was keen to pursue a nuclear agenda.”In sharemarket parlance, people talk up their own book and that’s what Mr Kloppers is doing,” he told Sky News, adding the resources giant’s chief executive officer was pushing alternative sources of energy such as uranium. Greens welcome Kloppers’ remarks | News | Business Spectator
Western Australia’s shonky “independent” panel on uranium mining regulations
Sitting on the panel are pro-nuclear lobbyists and behind the scenes are corporate sponsors including some that are anything but independent. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are two of the sponsors − companies with operating uranium mines in Australia and uranium interests in WA.
Dodgy Dealings continue in the Uranium Industry, hi spirits: by Mia Pepper, September 02, 2010, This week the Barnett Government announced that the Australian Centre for Geomechanics has won a tender to form an ‘independent panel on uranium mining regulations’. Continue reading
Nuclear Lobby’s anti wind power line – Australian Landscape Guardians
The template for the Australian chapter of the landscape guardians is the British Coastal Guardians, an anti-wind power organisation run by climate change sceptics with strong links to the nuclear energy industry.
You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, The Age, ADAM MORTON, July 3, 2010 “…….Wind farm opponents also paid for advertisements in the weekly Pyrenees Advocate warning of ”Waubra disease”, an illness said to include symptoms of sleep disturbance, nausea, headaches and increased heart rate that could be ”coming to a house, farm or school near you”.
No evidence was given to back the claims, but the advertisements heightened concerns in the local community Continue reading
Don’t be snowed by BHP’s blah on Resources Super Profit Tax
Miners strangely silent on the billions they reap in tax credits, Sydney Morning Herald, CHARLES BERGER, May 11, 2010 “………….If the government’s proposal can be criticised at all, it is that it doesn’t go far enough. More of the existing fossil fuel subsidies should be dismantled, as recommended by the Henry review (and as Australia has committed to the G20 to do).
And the government plans to return far too much of the revenue raised by the resources tax to the mining industry in the form of additional exploration rebates and mining industry infrastructure, when we should be using the additional revenue to help us build a clean, sustainable economy, including investment in renewable energy and clean transport.
So don’t be snowed by the big miners’ shrieks about sovereign risk driving them out of Australia. The biggest risk is that we continue to subsidise mining operations that aren’t paying a fair return for their use of public resources and taxpayer dollars…… Miners strangely silent on the billions they reap in tax credits
Big uranium promoter South Australian govt seeks environmental credibility
South Australian government announces Community Sustainability Grants. Premier, the Hon Mike Rann said, “The Government of South Australia is pleased to be partnering with Conservation SA to help communities become more resilient so that they can readily respond to climate change.
“Climate change is a real issue that affects everyone, and programs like this will give South Australians the opportunity to be part of the local solution.”
Community groups and non-government organisations are invited to apply for small (up to $3,000) or medium (up to $10,000) grants
On Renewable Energy: False Claims by Switkowski Report and the Nuclear Lobby
The promoters of nuclear power claim that we have to choose between coal and nuclear, that there is no alternative. This is a false choice, between BHP-Billiton and … BHP-Billiton.
Nuclear power: no solution to climate change, Green Left, quoting Mark Diesendorf , 17 April 2010 “………The 2006 Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy Review, chaired by Dr Switkowski.. claimed that “nuclear power is the least-cost low-emission technology that can provide baseload power”. However, there was no basis in the report for such a gratuitous statement, which was outside the terms of reference of the report. Continue reading
Radioactivity is radioactivity, whether from uranium or from nuclear power
Now here’s a new slant on a wobbly word! It’s “NUCLEAR” In the item below, we see the Parks authority reassuring us that the radioactive waste dumped in Kakadu National Park is OK, because, you see, it’s only radioactivity from uranium mining – it’s not from a nuclear reactor! Well, isn’t that reassuring!
Nuclear spin intensifies in lead-up to Obama’s Australian visit
the PR teams of the nuclear industry have been hard at work trying to make the idea of a nuclear future more palatable. The same sorts of spin doctors that once sang the praises of asbestos and denied any link between smoking and cancer
En Passant » Nuclear power is no environmental alternative, by Andrew Cheeseman, Socialist Alternative online, 09 March 2010
Once more, the Rudd government is talking up a nuclear future. There are plans for a new nuclear waste dump and it’s quite likely that this month’s meeting between US President Barack Obama and the Australian parliament will see further discussions of so-called “uranium leasing”. [ The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership] Continue reading
Nuclear, Fossil Fuel, people stack Australia’s New Renewable Energy Centre
Members of the interim board for the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy include:
• Graeme Hunt (Chair) – formerly in charge of BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam expansion;
• Prof Mary O’Kane – former Vice Chancellor of Adelaide University;
• John Ryan – awarded the public service medal for his work on the PM’s Task Force into Development of Uranium Mining and Nuclear Energy in Australia;
• Emma Stein – has served on the boards of energy, oil and gas utilities;
• Dr John Wright – CSIRO Energy Transformed;
• Other members without clear relevant expertise in renewable energy development.
Centre for Renewable Energy welcome, but Greens amendments would have improved it | Greens MPs
Australia’s Renewable Energy Centre designed to fail
“You could almost say (the centre) was designed to fail.”
Greens slam new renewable energy body, Sydney Morning Herald, March 10, 2010 The Australian Greens have slammed a new body designed to develop renewable energy in Australia.Greens’ senator Christine Milne told parliament the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy was not independent, transparent or adequately qualified to carry out its duties Continue reading
Melbourne’s big nuclear debate was a blow to the nuclear industry
“Should Australia Embrace Nuclear Power?” – The big debate at the Melbourne Town Hall, on March 4, – resulted in an audience swing of opinion against nuclear power
A poll before the debate found an eight percent margin in favour of nuclear power. A poll taken immediately after the debate revealed a margin of 24 percent against nuclear power – 34 percent in favour, 58 percent against. This 32 percent turn-around was all the more striking given that the pro-nuclear debating team included high-profile nuclear advocates Dr Ziggy Switkowski and Dr James Hansen.
The video will be posted sometime soon at:
http://www.iq2oz.com/events/event-details/2010-series-melbourne/01-march.php
ABC TV will broadcast the debate on “Big Ideas’, possibly on 23rd March.
“Gen 3” nuclear reactors are duds, but unproven Gen 4 a “public good”!
Intriguing that even the uranium industry is now being told that the Olkiluoto-3 ‘Generation III+’ nuke reactor is a dud. But never mind, the Australian government should support (?fund) the as yet undeveloped and untested Generation IV nuclear reactors! Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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