On Nagasaki Day – a call for Australia to help abolish nuclear weapons
There is another step that Australia could take also to help rid the world of this scourge – to refuse to supply nuclear fuel to any nation that has nuclear weapons.
(at left, a church in Nagasaki, 9 Aug, 1945)
Sixty-five years of living under the threat of the mushroom cloud – On Line Opinion, Dr Sue Wareham, – 6/8/2010 Two things pose an overwhelming threat to the planet as we know it, climate change and nuclear weapons, and neither is receiving a serious commitment to action by the two contenders for the position of Prime Minister of Australia. While effective measures of the magnitude needed to address climate change are nowhere to be seen in their policies, nuclear weapons haven’t even rated a mention in the campaigning.
Perhaps August 6 and August 9, the 65th anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, will serve to remind Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott of the 23,000 weapons that continue to threaten the destruction of cities around the globe, including in Australia. Continue reading
Austrliun uranium companies tie up with Chinese state nuclear firm
possible expansion of joint venture relationships between Paladin and Energy Metals,…Energy Metals …holds around 54 percent of the Bigrlyi uranium project northwest of Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory. Paladin owns 42 percent of the mine
Chinese nuclear firm ties up with Australian uranium miner –Yahoo!7News, BEIJING, Aug 6, 2010 (AFP) – – Australian uranium producer Paladin Energy Ltd has said it agreed with a major Chinese nuclear power firm to explore long-term uranium sales,…….. Paladin signed a memorandum of understanding with a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Corporation (CGNPC) setting up a “framework of cooperation” for uranium sales, the Sydney-based company said. Continue reading
BHP, Rio – relatively small employers, with big political influence
For such an economically important industry, mining is a relatively small employer (the Australian Bureau of Statistics does not rank it in the top 10 industries by employment)….The mining industry, however, is streets ahead in being able to exercise political influence.
Follow the miners in lobbying , Mike Riddiford, The Australian, August 04, 2010“……..Between them, companies such as BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata turn over more than $100 billion a year. This enables them to mobilise huge resources to protect their interests. Continue reading
Western Australian govt prepared to compulsorily acquire Aboriginal land
WA still prepared to acquire LNG site, Sydney Morning Herald, August 4, 2010 The threat of compulsory acquisition continues to loom over the site of a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) hub in far north Western Australia, Premier Colin Barnett says. Continue reading
Sickly financial results for uranium miner ERA
Energy Resources of Australia – ERA – Intelligent Investor 2 Aug 10 By Gaurav Sodhi Sickly uranium prices and an unusually poor operating performance at the Ranger uranium mine contributed to a dramatic fall in Energy Resources of Australia’s (ERA) half year profits. For the half year ended July 2010, ERA made just $22.7m, compared with $176.1m for the same period last year. Energy Resources of Australia – ERA – Intelligent Investor
Radioactive wastes could truck through Riverina, NSW
“We’re talking about literally hundreds and over time thousands of trucks of radioactive waste passing through these transport corridor communities.”
Residents warned of radioactive transport corridor, ABC Riverina NSW – Australian Broadcasting Corporation August 3, 2010 The group Friends of the Earth has warned that the city of Wagga Wagga could be affected by Commonwealth plans to move nuclear waste from Lucas Heights to a new dump in the Northern Territory. Continue reading
A “dirty bomb’ could be made from medical radioactive isotopes
since cesium can be stolen from a hospital and thus can be more easily acquired than, say, uranium or plutonium, it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine a terrorist group acquiring enough cesium to construct a barrage of low-explosive, highly radioactive bombs and blanketing a major city with them.
The Real Deal With Cesium,THE HUFFINGTON POST, Rizwan Ladha, 2 Aug 2010, The idea has been floated for a long time of using cesium in a radioactive “dirty bomb,” which wouldn’t have the same explosive power as a uranium or plutonium nuclear bomb but would contaminate land, water supplies and living organisms, including people. Continue reading
Australia gambles on the dodgy uranium industry
You do wonder where Australian politics is heading. Clearly the big uranium miners BHP, Rio Tinto, ExStrata, are now dictating Labor policy on mining tax. (They have always dictated Liberal policy). Some ambitious union leaders are also hand in glove with those big miners, as are the South Australian and Western Australian governments.
Those States, and the Northern Territory are crawling with uranium explorers, and uranium mining is being hyped in the media. Yet uranium prices fall, and the nuclear industry stalls in USA, Europe, Britain.
Australia pitches its glowing uranium prospects on China. China is notorious for corruption, including in the nuclear industry, it has dubious safety and nuclear waste management, and a keen nuclear weapons program. But apart from all that – China might wake up to the financial and environmental negatives of nuclear power.
While China itself, and Europe, and soon, even USA, show the way on 21st Century renewable energy technologies, Australia is gambling on a very dodgy future of uranium sales.
Uranium miners stack Australia’s group for mines tax policy
the policy-transition group will be headed by former BHP chairman Don Argus and Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson.
Toro Energy CEO joins big miners in Labor’s mines tax policy team, The Australian * Rachel Pannett * From: Dow Jones Newswires * August 03, 2010
WAYNE Swan today named former and serving resource executives ……. to the government’s mines tax policy team. The policy-transition group now includes….. former Rio Tinto executive David Klingner, Erica Smyth, chairman of uranium explorer Toro Energy….. and BHP Billiton),….. Continue reading
France leads in nuclear financial disaster
Last week, AREVA posted a massive operating loss of 485 million euros for the first half of 2010…..Electricite de France (EDF) finds itself in a similar predicament. In the first half of 2010, the company saw its profits slashed by almost half.
France leads the way in the nuclear debacle Greenpeace International, by jmckeati – August 2, 2010 If you want to know why the so-called nuclear ‘renaissance’ is never going to happen, you need only look at the news that’s been coming out of France in the last few days. Continue reading
Bob Brown scathing about the resources tax gift to the big miners
A tax on minerals like uranium should be implemented once the industry was in “boom times” he [Bob Brown, Greens leader] said.
Major parties ‘missing backbone’ on mining tax, Sydney Morning Herald, KATHERINE FENECH, August 2, “…..The CFMEU has launched the satirical ad campaign, which praises Opposition leader Tony Abbott for understanding the pressures facing “ordinary, everyday billionaires”, in response to the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies’ own advertising onslaught against the Mineral Resources Rent Tax. Continue reading
Utah lawsuit aims to stop uranium drilling
The two new vent holes are part of an expansion of the Pandora Mine and will release “hazardous radon gas” into the atmosphere, the groups say.
(USA) Groups Sue to Block Uranium Drilling in Utah, Courthouse News Service,By SUZANNE ASHE 2 Aug 2010, SALT LAKE CITY (CN) – Three conservation groups want to stop the U.S. Forest Service from allowing a private mining company to drill 16 uranium exploration holes and two 6-foot-diameter vent holes on national forest land in southeast Utah. Continue reading
Energy Resources of Australia’s 82% uranium profit loss
….Meanwhile, the net profit after tax declined by 82%,…..the global financial crisis has led to delays in nuclear reactor builds in most regions
ERA profit falls sharply, cuts FY production guidance, MINING WEEKLY, By: Esmarie Swanepoel, 30th July 2010) – ASX-listed uranium-miner Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) on Friday reported an 82% drop in half-year profit and downgraded its production guidance for the 2010 financial year Continue reading
USA’s nuclear resuscitation faltering
Two nuclear projects — …are in serious trouble and need a guarantee from the public sector (i.e. taxpayers) to bail them out if things get worse.
Nuclear Projects Looking for a Savior : CleanTechnica, by Zachary Shahan August 1st, 2010 “….two nuclear reactors that are an urgent matter to some (in the nuclear industry and politics) and also, potentially, the source of a very big bill for U.S. taxpayers… Continue reading
Young activists spread anti-nuclear message across Australia
Since returning, solidarity bus riders have addressed public meetings in Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong. Several are taking part in the Friends of the Earth Nuclear Freeways tour
Protesters issue warning on Olympic Dam expansion, Green Left Weekly, August 1, 2010, By Patrick Harrison After spending over two weeks on the road together, students and activists onboard the New South Wales “Indigenous Solidarity Ride” stopped at Olympic Dam on July 15 to protest against a proposed uranium mine expansion. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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