Melbourne protest against Ferguson’s nuclear waste dump plan
VIDEO No Dump at Muckaty – Melbourne, 12 April 2010 — EngageMedia
National Day of Action, 12 April, against Federal
Resources Minister Martin Ferguson’s plans for a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty in the Northern Territory. – Jim Green 18 April 2010, Protesters gathered first on the steps of the Victorian Parliament House
before making their way through the lunchtime crowds of the CBD to join Ziggy the nuclear White Elephant at Flinders Street Station. Continue reading
Rudd govt trying to deceive Australian public over radioactive waste dump
Labor Lied About Nuclear Waste, New Matilda, By Scott Ludlam , 17 April 2010, The Rudd Government is trying to force a nuclear waste dump on a remote Aboriginal community and is hoping that most voters won’t care or notice,Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s proposed “solution” to our 60 year radioactive waste legacy has sparked a major confrontation. Continue reading
Stupidity of South Australia’s pro-uranium govt will cost taxpayers $millions
Justice Anderson awarded the plaintiffs a combined total of $724,000,….Costs will be awarded against the State of South Australia. Senior legal figures in Adelaide and Melbourne estimate that these could be between $4 and $5 million..
Blunder may cost SA millions, The Independent Weekly, HENDRIK GOUT17 Apr, 2010 Hendrik Gout investigates the protest that went terribly wrong and became frightfully expensive. Continue reading
Israeli soldiers made infertile by depleted uranium
Experts say the dramatic drop in Israel’s sperm count could eliminate their ability to reproduce.
Israel’s Declining Sperm Quality Tied to Depleted Uranium Exposure, Atlantic Free Press, by Tim King, 16 April 2010 Israel’s population is facing a dire threat: a drastic depopulation, from the use of weapons that leave behind Depleted Uranium (DU). Continue reading
Can we trust nuclear scientists to tell the truth about nuclear technology?
Yes, it’s all very exciting. Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit has made some moves in the direction of nuclear security.
And, yes, it’s a blow to uranium mining shares, now that old weapons fuel is going to be turned into low enriched uranium, and sold cheaply as fuel for nuclear reactors.
BUT – what an opportunity for nuclear scientists, like say ANSTO, to spruik their wares – in recycling, reprocessing technology! And now we’re gonna need some gee-whiz answer to highly radioactive wastes – like say ANSTO ‘s Synroc. (Never mind that all countries decided over 30 years ago that it really wouldn’t work)
Now use of weapons fuel sends uranium price plummeting
Greens welcome fall in uranium price, Scott Ludlam 15th April 2010, The Australian Greens have welcomed this week’s fall in global uranium prices, due to a global peace deal to reduce nuclear weapons.“When world leaders sign off agreements to reduce their weapons arsenals the uranium market becomes flooded with weapons-usable nuclear fuel,” the Party’s Nuclear Spokesperson, WA Senator Scott Ludlam said…. Continue reading
Earthquake danger to Nuclear plants, and fuel transport
Quake rattles Chilean-U.S. uranium move , SANTIAGO, Chile, April 14 (UPI) – A Chilean-U.S. nuclear waste disposal arrangement was nearly derailed, with dangerous consequences for North and South America, when a magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile Feb. 27, interfering with deliveries of radioactive waste to U.S. processing plants. Chilean reports on the narrowly missed mishap involving the weapons-grade uranium, published by The Santiago Times, weren’t immediately commented upon by industrial sources and officials……
Chile doesn’t produce nuclear power but has a research reactor and the uranium usually is stored at the reactor site and a military base.
The quake caused widespread concern in Chilean and American nuclear communities. A U.S. team sent to Chile was especially keen to ensure the volatile material didn’t set off a chain reaction while in transit. Quake rattles Chilean-U.S. uranium move – UPI.com
Limitations of Nuclear Security Summit’s achiievement
What the summit did not address in any detail was the likelier and more easily achievable possibility that a terrorist organisation might obtain highly radioactive material and attach it to a conventional, crudely made dirty bomb that could still spread lethal material over a wide area.
World takes aim at nukes | The Australian, Brad Norington, Washington correspondent, April 16, 2010 Obama’s plan, endorsed at the summit by all attending countries including Australia, is to conduct an enormous accounting exercise with the objective of securing all nuclear materials across the world during the next four years. Continue reading
But anyway, Gareth Evans is right about nuclear fuel recycling.
In a perfect world. the plan to send enriched uranium and plutonium to USA and Russia, to fuel nuclear reactors, might be part of a good move. That would be the move to wind down all nuclear power plants. ( but I doubt that this is the intended plan)
It would also put a stop to the dirty dangerous industry of uranium mining.
However, Gareth Evans points out that recycling nuclear fuel simply creates new stockpiles of very dirty, very dangerous, radioactive wastes. Sure, Gareth Evans’ point of view promotes Australia’s uranium mining companies. But he’s right, anyway.
Gareth Evans against recycling nuclear fuel, and FOR Australian uranium miners
Mr Evans and a former US ambassador-at-large, Robert Gallucci, said recycling created stockpiles of dangerous materials ripe for theft……...
Recycling fuel should end: Evans, Sydney Morning Herald, April 15, 2010, WASHINGTON: A former Australian foreign minister, Gareth Evans, was at the centre of a dispute over reactor suppliers recycling nuclear fuel even as US officials sought to skirt the issue during a summit in Washington organised by the President, Barack Obama. Continue reading
Uranium shares threatened by Nuclear Security Summit decisions
This week’s nuclear summit in Washington has ended with a general pledge by participants from all over the globe to convert hundreds of thousands of tons of weapons-usable nuclear fuel by 2014, plus an intention to set a 2012 summit in South Korea to measure progress.This inevitably means the supply-outlook has dramatically changed for the sector this week. Nuclear Summit Changes Uranium Outlook
graph from Purchasing 14 April, Uranium prices are stuck in a slump – 2010-04-14 18:23:54 | Purchasing
Like AREVA, nuclear energy company Silex buys into solar power
But the purchase leaves households interested in buying solar panels with a dilemma: by buying Australian-made panels, they are indirectly investing in nuclear energy as well.
Solar panel factory sees the sun again, Sydney Morning Herald BEN CUBBY, April 14, 2010 – THE biggest solar-panel factory in the southern hemisphere is to open in Sydney this morning – after it was rescued by a nuclear energy research company. Continue reading
Defence Minister says Australia Backs Nuclear Summit Security Plan
“We converted from highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium based technologies for research reactor fuel and radioisotope production.
Australia backs US nuclear meet outcome, Sydney Morning Herald, April 14, 2010 Defence Minister John Faulkner, who has been attending a nuclear security summit hosted by US President Barack Obama, says Australia welcomes the call to secure all vulnerable nuclear material within four years……. Continue reading
Review: Nuclear Security Summit, India’s radiation contamination
Review: Australia. A puzzling week as Australia pretty much ignored the Nuclear Security Summit. Uranium prices plummet with Obama’s plan to use old nuke weapons for commercial fuel. Traditional Muckaty owners front Senate Inquiry. BHP’s Olympic Dam still severely disabled. Legal victory for S.A. uranium protestors.
International. Nuclear summit – some progress, but not on disarmament. USEC company gets a boost with ‘Megatons to Megawatts’ (dead nuke weapons fuel for reactors). India has two incidents of radiation leaks and poisoning.
Continued downward spiral in uranium prices hits ERA shares
Uranium production falls at Ranger mine, Sydney Morning Herald, BARRY FITZGERALDApril 14, 2010 SHARES in Rio Tinto’s listed uranium subsidiary, Energy Resources of Australia (ERA), have suffered a beating on the back of the company’s sharply lower production effort at the Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory. Market sentiment towards the stock was not helped by a downbeat assessment of the likelihood that uranium prices would pull out out of a spiral,.…ERA shares dropped $1.17 or 5.9 per cent to close at $18.52. Its forecast of near-term moves in the uranium price rubbed off on other uranium stocks, with Paladin Energy shares falling 3.45 per cent……. there had been no progress in ERA’s plan to develop the $20 billion Jabiluka uranium deposit near Ranger.ERA has undertaken not to develop the deposit without the consent of the traditional owners. Uranium production falls at Ranger mine
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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