Australian govt’s nuclear waste dump plan has put Flinders Ranges/ Kimba residents through 3 years of hell
The Federal Government needs to come clean on this and stop keeping our communities in the Flinders Ranges and Kimba dangling as part of their political game. Ever since they made plans for a federal nuclear waste dump for the Flinders Ranges/or Kimba, many people in our communities have become very unwell, some suicidal, which can be directly linked to the stress, bullying and division that this dump business has put upon us all. The government is culpable, and they should be held accountable for our past three years of hell. more https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
A warning about the privatisation of the Federal government’s planned nuclear waste dump for South Australia
What ALSO really worries me is the fine print in the proposal ….the one which says that management of the dump is to be done by possibly ANSTO, or a government department , or a PRIVATE ENTITY! Read it – it is in the Fact Sheets!
Now that is a real worry – equally when Adi Paterson made comments about upgrading ANSTO in Sydney in the last week or so, again talking about Federal funding for it, or from a PRIVATE SOURCE……
So beware! Once this can of worms is unleashed, we in South Australia and Australia in fact may be getting more than we bargain for! And just like PRIVATIZATION we have seen in other sectors of our community, the management goes straight overseas into overseas hands!
Also remember private company TEPCO running the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Given many warnings about the possibility of a large tsunami possibility several years earlier and given ample time to build a levy wall to deal with it, Their answer “we are looking into it”. They never did it. And there are other safety problems with the reactor with respect to protocol and safety equipment which just wasn’t there, even though by regulation it should have been! The disastrous consequences of this coverup the Japanese people now wear as a result!
Ask anyone in the Kimba or Hawker communities who are pro for the dump and you will find that they haven’t read this at all, and mistakenly think that it is ALL under ANSTO and ANSTO is the managing entity!
Reread the name of the dump – NATIONAL nuclear waste facility – NATIONAL does not say ANSTO!! Even ANSTO itself may not be ANSTO if things are going the way it seems to be heading!
Kazzi Jai The only way to counter this, is for each state to deal with its own waste, and the Lucas Heights waste to remain on site, where we are continually told it is perfectly safe! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052/
Australia’s Liberal Coalition government is frightened that nuclear waste dump would become an election issue
Nuclear waste site to remain a mystery at federal election https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/nuclear-waste-site-to-remain-a-mystery-at-federal-election/news-story/af6a30c2fcd294fcbbaef37676faf1a5 THE AUSTRALIAN LUKE GRIFFITHS, JOURNALIST @_LukeGriffiths, NOVEMBER 5, 2018
The location of Australia’s first nuclear waste dump will not be announced before the federal election, extending the uncertainty for those living near proposed sites, Rex Patrick says. The Centre Alliance senator said the government’s selection process, which started in 2014, had been shrouded in “Soviet-style” secrecy and had divided communities. He said Labor must reveal how it would proceed, given the “real possibility” it would form government after the election.
Two sites near Kimba, 465km northwest of Adelaide, and one site near Hawker in South Australia’s mid-north have been shortlisted.
Resources Minister Matt Canavan told The Australian in June a decision would be made in the “second half of this year” because the Coalition did not want the issue “overlapping with a federal election”.
However, a Kimba ballot scheduled for August 20 has been delayed by court action from a local Aboriginal group that believes traditional owners should vote, despite them not living within the shire’s boundaries.
A hearing has been scheduled for January 30.
“Senator Canavan has ruled out the vote taking place while there is a federal election running … they won’t want to touch this with a barge pole as it gets to the other side of Christmas,” Senator Patrick said.
“They wanted it done and dusted and people having the issue settled in their mind four or five months before the election, but this now lands it right into electoral territory and I can’t see them running with it.”
Senator Patrick said Labor had to make its position clear. “Will they continue the current flawed process; will they start again with both locations being put up as options; or will they abandon the Kimba and Hawker sites?” he said.
Labor industry spokesman Kim Carr would not be drawn on ALP plans: “Labor acknowledges this has been an ongoing issue for 30 years, with decades of reports, studies and tests.”
Senator Canavan refused to engage in hypotheticals.
Australian govt documents name Whyalla, Port Pirie, Port Lincoln as possible ports for nuclear waste transport
Dan Monceaux shared a link.Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch South AustraliaThey include: Whyalla and Port Pirie (in the event of the Hawker site being chosen) and Whyalla, a yet-to-be-constructed port and Port Lincoln (should a site near Kimba be selected). Options are being explored regarding road and/or rail corridors.
The technical documents in which these details are found can be downloaded at the link https://radioactivewaste.gov.au/site-selection-process/key-documents-and-faqs?fbclid=IwAR2FpBZP-wqi6hdIDVh6P8hCWw-Lb0tWb_bk94THxjO9df8nSrdqRazZzeYbelow. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052/
NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP DECISION DELAYED BY COURT ACTION
The selection of a preferred site in rural South Australia for a national radioactive waste dump will likely be delayed until next year. …. (subscribersonly)
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/decision-on-nuclear-waste-dump-location-delayed-until-next-year/news-story/380157b786abf27c905e517f1c98503a
Flinders Ranges – planned area for nuclear waste dump – the most seismic active area in Australia
I was at the meeting where the alleged reported claims from the Department of Industry, Innovation and science, geologist as saying that Hawker is seismically sound for the proposed radioactive dump, and all anyone heard him say to the public was “Hello.” (And yes I know hell is in hello).
However senior seismologist Johnathan Bathgate has reportedly claimed that the Flinders Ranges is the most seismic active area in Australia which maybe throwing doubt at the credibility of the DIIS’s geologist, and if he has any accreditation’s in seismology and why there are media release on the Modified Mercalli scale based at Hawker and yet we hear nothing on the scale of galileo’s, and though S&L-waves come with a guarantee of a seismic record, its known “P-waves” between the angles of 103 and 145 degrees can not be guaranteed on some seismograms. https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
Australian government’s absurdly inflated claim of 45 jobs for proposed nuclear waste dump
Jobs not sustainable JIM GREEN Friends of the Earth Australia, Eyre Peninsula Tribune, 10 Oct 18
The federal government claims that 45 jobs will be created at its proposed national radioactive waste facility in Kimba or the Flinders Ranges.
The government further claims that its jobs estimate has been “tested” against comparable overseas facilities.
But such comparisons prove that the government’s jobs estimate is grossly inflated. The CSA radioactive waste facility in France processes 73 cubic metres (m3) per employee per year. The El Cabril radioactive waste facility in Spain processes 10 cubic metres (m3) per employee per year.
Yet the Australian government estimates productivity of just 1 m3 per employee per year. The government evidently has a dim view of the productivity of Australian workers, or, more likely, its jobs estimate is grossly inflated.
If we assume that Australia matched the lowest of the figures given above ‒ 10 m3 per employee per year at El Cabril in Spain ‒ then the staff at an Australian facility would be processing waste for just one month each year.
The government might be willing to pay 45 staff to do nothing for 11 months each year, but it’s not a sustainable situation. The Department of Finance wouldn’t tolerate it. Staffing would be dramatically culled.
Almost certainly, a future government would revert to the plan pursued by previous governments: keeping the waste facility closed most of the time, and opening it occasionally for waste disposal and storage. https://www.eyretribune.com.au/story/5693747/letters-to-the-editor/
The spurious promise of JOBs for burdening a community with a stranded nuclear waste dump
Paul Waldon Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, 7 Oct 18 Conversation Starter · The birth of a nuclear program more than just a few years young will burden not one but two 
unwilling communities with the country’s legacy of radioactive wastes, one community serving as a cushion to soften the impact of what maybe yet another one of the governments failures, so they can push their program forward to the second chosen site.
This program has seen false codification of high grade waste, and we have all heard the ongoing resounding factoid that nuclear will be a rainmaker with a promise of no less than 45 jobs on offer.
However they fail to tell us the economic void to tourism and impacts to other industries that can not be financially satisfied by embracing such waste from the nuclear industry, for they live in denial of the existential risks, and threats.
Most people may think I’m talking just about South Australia, however there is yet another program in the nuclear seasoned country of America where they are trying to place the burden of radioactive wastes on southeast New Mexico, and west Texas, with a promise of no less than 45 jobs which mirrors the image of the DIIS’s program and is running parallel, and the only difference I see with both of these programs is the acronyms of the governing bodies. https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
Un-paid people who care -speak out against nuclear waste dump plan for South Australia
I am always struck by the fact that opponents of the nuclear industry are very many unpaid people. Just people who care. Some are highly educated academically. Many are not – but then they take the trouble to find out, and speak with the authority of both their local knowledge and wider information.
As for nuclear proponents they’re a small number of paid individuals, with another small number of hangers on who expect financial benefits from the nuclear industry.
Barb Walker shared a post. on Flinders Local Action Group– more – https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=flinders%20local%20action%20group
ABC Radio Adelaide Evenings with Peter Goer. Talkback 4 Oct 18. This show was inundated with hundreds of South Australians phoning in and texting about the proposed nuclear waste dump. ALL SAID NO! Are you listening DIIS and ANSTO !!!??…. IT’S A BIG NO FROM SOUTH AUSTRALIA!!! http://www.abc.net.au/…/adelaide/programs/evenings/evenings…High level nuclear wastes returned from France to Australia are not actually wastes of Australian origin
Orano explains about foreign nuclear waste https://actu.fr/economie/orano-sexplique-sur-dechets-nucleaires-etrangers_18903890.html
The 2017 report on the treatment of spent fuels from abroad gave rise to a debate on Thursday October 4 before the local information committee of Orano la Hague.Posted on 4 Oct 18 Without waiting for October 16 and the decision of the Judge of the Court of Cherbourg , which will rule in the dispute between Greenpeace and Orano , the issue of spent fuels Australian was on the agenda of the meeting of the local commission of information from Orano la Hague, this Thursday, October 4th.
“All the waste goes back to their country”Orano first presented its 2017 report on the treatment of spent fuels from abroad. These fuels, not yet treated, they represent only 0.4% of the 9 970 tonnes present at the end of last year in the pools of the establishment of La Hague.
Most of the fuel is actually owned by EDF. Less than 40 tonnes belong to Belgian, Italian and Dutch electricians.
And René Charbonnier, the deputy director of Orano, the hammer:
The principle is that all the ultimate waste goes back to their country.
He cites the example of Germany, for which the date of return of compacted waste, fixed by contract, is exceeded. Or Spain, where the deadline was December 21, 2011. Since then, Spanish electricians pay compensation.
If he does not mention any amount, the deputy director of Orano confirms:
The difficulty, says Greenpeace on the eve of a public debate on the national plan for radioactive materials and waste management , is that these countries have no or little solution for storing final waste.
No Mox for Australia
This is not the case of Australia . A first contract, signed in 1999 between Orano and the Australian agency Ansto, gave rise in 2015 to a first return of this waste. A new contract was awarded in 2016 .
It is in this context that 2 tonnes of spent fuel – 236 elements from the Opal research reactor – were landed on September 14 in Cherbourg .
Australia does not have a reactor that can run on Mox fuel from reprocessing. Under the terms of this contract, to which Greenpeace seeks legal access, uranium and plutonium, which account for 92% of the material weight, are purchased by Orano and reused to manufacture Mox.
As for the ultimate waste, they are vitrified with others. Yannick Rousselet observes:
It is not actually the initial material that is returned, but the equivalent in weight and radioactivity. Orano has it on the shelf, and could have sent it back immediately.Orano agrees: “Yes,” replied René Charbonnier.
Australian government grossly inflates the number of jobs to be needed at planned South Australian nuclear waste dump
Paul Edwards Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, 5 Oct 18 The Centre de Stockage de l’Aube (CSA) radioactive waste facility in France handles over 200 times more waste per year compared to the proposed facility in SA yet it employs only four times as many staff as the proposed facility in SA. CSA processes 73 cubic metres (m3) per employee per year (13,164 m3 / 180 staff).The El Cabril radioactive waste facility in Spain has a staff of 137 people and processed an average of 1,395 m3 per year from 1993 to 2016. That equates to 10.2 m3 per employee per year.
Yet the Australian government estimates a workforce of 45 people to process 45 m3 per year: 1 m3 per employee per year compared to 10.2 in Spain and 73 in France. The government evidently has a dim view of the productivity of Australian workers, or, more likely, its jobs estimate is grossly inflated. SO there are other sites that would be happy to have the containated waste …………..DO NOT allow the Flinders Ranges SA to become another FUKUSHIMA………Nearly one million tons of water from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is still dangerously radioactive, according to Tokyo Electric Power…….PLEASE Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA
Labor Senator Gallacher joins the Labor-Liberal pro nuclear dance team
Katrina Bohr – No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia Labor Senator Alex Gallacher made his interests quite clear on Friday at the Public hearing in Hawker.In a conversation, he declared there is no difference between transporting uranium or radioactive waste. He condones the continued export of nuclear medicines, which will feed the waste here.I felt during the proceedings that he wasn’t showing impartiality.
He made disparaging remarks about certain evidence presented during the day.
I like to know who.
Department of Industry, Innovation and Science – no resolution of dispute with Barngarla Aboriginal group. Submissions are still accepted
Statement on Australian Human Rights Commission conciliation meeting 2 OCTOBER 2018
https://radioactivewaste.gov.au/news/statement-australian-human-rights-commission-conciliation-meeting
The following can be attributed to a spokesperson for the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science:
“The department understands the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation and District Council of Kimba have ended conciliation in the Australian Human Rights Commission without being able to resolve their differences,” said the spokesperson.
“Community consultation is central to this process, and the department is continuing to actively seek views about the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility. As the legal case between the two parties’ remains ongoing it is not possible at this point to fix a date for the closure of the consultative processes.
“However, we are mindful of the need to reach a decision on the current nominations as quickly as possible and the department thanks the communities around the three nominated sites for their patience.
“The Government continues to work to hear the views of all community members, including local residents, neighbours, business owners and Traditional Owners.
“This includes our direct work with Aboriginal communities both for and against the proposal, and surrounding all three sites currently under consideration.
“We are continuing to accept submissions, our community liaison officers continue to work on the ground and the department is continuing to visit the relevant communities.
“Anyone wanting more information about the project ahead of the decision on the three sites this year, can continue to drop in to one of our project offices, call, email or make a submission.”
For more information on the project, go to: www.radioactivewaste.gov.au
Flinders Ranges – a top tourist destination – a crazy choice for a nuclear waste dump
TODAYS ADELAIDE NEWS HEADLINE (3rd October 2018): “South Australia’s outback landscapes, such as Wilpena Pound, are attracting domestic tourists.
Staggering, the Flinders Ranges hosting the Jewel in our tourism crown “Wilpena Pound” recently nominated for consideration as one of Australia’s “7 Wonders” is being celebrated here yet as we speak, Scott Morrison (ScoMo)‘s Federal Government is planning to build an above ground National Nuclear Waste Storage Dump within a short drive from Wilpena Pound and the Hawker, South Australia Township.
Our Premier Steven Marshall committed in the lead up to the last State Election that: “A Marshall Liberal Government will not support the building of a nuclear waste repository in South Australia”..”Let’s Aim Much Higher” yet he will not be drawn on this topic. It would seem his Federal counterparts have his measure and have compelled him to silence as it also seems our Tourism Minister, David Ridgway has also been silenced on this matter.
Curiously David Ridgway was quoted in this article as saying: “Our outback landscapes and other assets are attracting 62 per cent of all domestic visits – that’s huge,”
Huge! yet clearly not huge enough to advocate for its protection.
If that doesn’t concern you, we have learnt in recent times that: Project leaders demonstrate little to no knowledge of the life cycle of a TN81 storage canister, ANSTO’s safety record is deplorable, it is proposed to be built within one of Australia’s most seismic regions, on a fault line, on a flood plain, above ground, with national parks either side, neighbouring working farmland, near human habitation, defying traditional ownership appeals to not do this, heck the list for lunacy goes on.
In the light of all this, it would be safe to say Brand South Australia will certainly be swimming against the tide trying to sell one of our great Wonders once it has the NUCLEAR tag over the top of it. https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/?multi_permalinks=838591016485710¬if_id=1538530176717096¬if_t=group_activity
SA tourism: visitors expenditure reaches record $4 billion, Jade Gailberger, Federal Political Reporter, The Advertiser, October 3, 2018 FAMILY and friends visiting South Australians are splashing a record amount of cash and choosing day trips to the state’s iconic regions, new tourism data shows.
SA’s national visitor expenditure reached a record $4 billion, up four per cent for the year ending June 2018. (subscribers only)
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 