National rage against compulsory grab of Aboriginal land.
The decision, as predicted in The Australian last Thursday, sparked nationwide indignation, with critics accusing Premier Colin Barnett of taking Aborigines back to colonial days and “sticking a finger in their eye” to do the bidding of Woodside.- Woodside land move to be felt ‘around world’ | The Australian,Amanda O’Brien September 03, 2010
ABORIGINAL leaders and celebrity environmentalists have threatened to mobilise across Australia in a battle “as big as Noonkanbah”. Continue reading
Australia’s future economy – non nuclear, non uranium – theme for September
It’s time for Australia to see through the nuclear hype, and move towards 21st Century industries that have a real future.
Australia’s ‘resources boom’ cannot last indefinitely, and already threatens this country with an imbalance of industries. Australia needs to foster its more permanent industries – they will still be there when the mining quarries are emptied.
Mineral exports are at present a large contributor to the Australian economy, but there is no reliance on uranium, which is only a modest contributor.
Australia pioneered renewable energy technologies, and could lead again in these industries.
Meanwhile uranium mining and nuclear waste are negatives for Australia’s tourism industry, Australia’s agriculture, and our precious fresh water and groundwater.
It’s time to promote Australia as a clever, forward-looking society, and to see through the lobbying of desperate corporations and their propaganda for the ailing, aging, out-dated nuclear industry.
Energy efficiency and renewable technologies can combine beautifully with Australia’s needs to conserve water, promote agriculture, and to adapt to climate change, which is already happening in Australia.
For example – drought areas offer the potential for solar farms. Australia’s hot weather makes decentralised solar power a very economic option for homes, farms, schools, small and large businesses
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
Suspect in grisly murders had depleted uranium
the materials also included the military explosive C4, dynamite, and what appeared to be depleted uranium.
(USA) Depleted uranium found at killing spree suspect’s East Bay home | abc7news.com, 2 Sept 08 VALLEJO, CA (KGO) — In the East Bay, police are still sorting through the grisly details of a killing spree……. Continue reading
South Australan Liberals can’t decide on uranium mining in Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary
The Greens are trying to legislate to ban mining in the outback wilderness sanctuary.
Liberals defer decision on Arkaroola mining – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Sep 1, 2010 The South Australian Liberal Party has deferred a decision on whether to support a ban on mining at Arkaroola in the Flinders Ranges.
The Greens are trying to legislate to ban mining in the outback wilderness sanctuary.
A Liberal Party conference at Port Lincoln has discussed the issue, but Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond says a decision is yet to be made because some party members who were not present may want to have a say…….
Liberals defer decision on Arkaroola mining – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Uranium company Paladin makes a loss, amid negative prospects for the future
the major risk for Paladin in the short to medium-term is the uranium price, with RBS Australia painting a somewhat negative view of this..
Uranium Price Dominates Paladin’s Prospects, 30/08/2010, Money, Chris Shaw Full year earnings for uranium producer Paladin fell short of expectations, the company delivering a loss of around US$53 million Continue reading
Compulsory acquistion of Aboriginal land; gas now, uranium later?
“What I say to the Premier is be very careful about setting precedents like this, they can do more damage that you can ever imagine. I think compulsorily acquisition is, in a sense, another act of colonialism, it’s another theft of our land, it’s another invasion. It should never ever be contemplated at a political level….
Compulsory acquisition ‘theft’ of land, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 2 Sept 10 Indigenous academic Mick Dodson has delivered a warning to the WA Premier, describing compulsory acquisition of land for the Kimberley gas hub as theft and an invasion. Continue reading
Fear and loathing in the Four Mile uranium project companies
Alliance claimed it wanted to protect its interests but Quasar countered that the confidentiality of the meetings could be put at risk.
Uranium companies at odds on recording devices ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Sep 1, 2010 A company involved in developing a uranium mine near Beverley in the far north-east of South Australia has lost an attempt to record confidential meetings. Continue reading
Uranium mining companies mobilising against Greens’ influence
Concern deal could threaten emerging uranium industry ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 2 Sept 2010, Western Australia’s Chamber of Minerals and Energy is concerned that a deal struck between Labor and the Greens could threaten WA’s emerging uranium industry. Continue reading
Uranium and nuclear economics – theme for September
Uranium is not even a good financial investment for Australians.
The nuclear energy business is teetering, world-wide, as nuclear reactors reach their closing date faster than new ones are built, and as nuclear building and nuclear waste costs escalate.
In Australia, uranium mining companies scramble on the gamble of China and other Asian and Middle Eastern countries “going nuclear”.
Meanwhile old nuclear weapons fuel combines with the worldwide glut of uranium, to make Australia’s uranium future look gloomy.
Strangely, uranium explorers crawl all over the country, in some sort of act of religious faith in an industry that is clearly failing. USA, UK, France, India all see their nuclear power industry stalling.
The great hope seems to be China – with a touching faith that the Chinese won’t wake up to the financial and environmental disaster that is nuclear power.
In the last quarter, despite the general ‘resource boom’, earnings for Australia’s uranium dropped 24%
Aboriginals and Labor oppose uranium mining in Western Australia
Kade Muir, a Wongatha anthropologist who was born in Kalgoorlie but now resides elsewhere, says, “We don’t want this product disturbed from the ground. We don’t want to bequeath a legacy for future generations of a toxic environment.”
Enough of Uranium Mining, Say Aboriginal Communities. Galdu. Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, August 2010, KALGOORLIE-BOULDER, Australia — As a mining giant prepares to open a major uranium mining site in Western Australia next year, the clamour for the state to once more ban mining of the radioactive mineral has become louder.
By Jessie Boylan, IPS Continue reading
Conflicts of interest in USA “independent” uranium study group
The Southern Environmental Law Center, for instance, objects to Henry A. Schnell, who is with the mining business unit of Areva, the French-owned nuclear services company.
Questions raised about Va. uranium study members, BusinessWeek, By STEVE SZKOTAKS, 27 Aug 2010, RICHMOND, Va. As an independent scientific panel is assembled to study the risks of uranium mining in Virginia, environmental groups are questioning whether some of its provisional members can be impartial because of their ties to the nuclear power industry or mining interests. Continue reading
Movement to protect the Great Lakes from radioactive waste shipments
In addition to the radiological risks of one of these barges sinking — including stigma impacts on economic sectors such as Great Lakes tourism and fisheries, even if there is not a radioactive release — there is also the precedent setting nature of this proposal.
(Canada) Resistance builds to radioactive waste shipments on Great Lakes, Beyond Nuclear, 26 Aug 2010, The Great Lakes United (GLU) Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force has taken the lead in shining a spotlight on the proposal by Bruce Nuclear Power Complex in Ontario to barge 16 radioactive steam generators out the Great Lakes, and across the Atlantic, to Sweden for “recycling” the metal for un-restricted re-use in consumer products. Continue reading
Australia’s Parliament reported on degrading effect of uranium mining on Aboriginal people
The1997 Australian parliament report observes: ‘(The) history of uranium mining in Australia and its impact on Aboriginal people is deplorable. Past mining in places like Rum Jungle have left areas so degraded that traditional owners are unable to use them, while mines such as Ranger (also in the Northern Territory) have been forced on traditional owners against their will.” “Even at mines such as Olympic Dam,” it adds, “…there was deep concern at the reckless degradation of sacred sites and insensitivity to their culture.”
Enough of Uranium Mining, Say Aboriginal Communities. Galdu. Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, August 2010, “……..For decades, uranium mining has been a touchy subject for Aboriginal people. Hundreds of Aboriginal communities were cleared out into cattle stations, towns and cities in the fifties and sixties, when Australian and British governments tested atomic weapons in the South Australian desert and off the coast of Western Australia. Continue reading
A waste dump mess of unknown types of radioactive wastes
Available records indicate the buried wastes include radiologically contaminated laboratory instruments, bottles, boxes, filters, aluminum cuttings, metallurgical samples, electrical equipment, lighting fixtures, barrels, laboratory equipment and hoods, and high-dose-rate wastes
(USA) Hazardous materials removed from burial ground in Hanford – KNDO/KNDU Tri-Cities, Yakima, WA , 27 Aug 2010, RICHLAND, Wash.— Workers are making their first entry into one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s most hazardous waste burial grounds containing radioactive and hazardous materials at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington state. Continue reading
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