Toro Energy has no credible plan for radioactive waste in its Western Australian Wiluna project
Greens says uranium mine plan flawed ABC News, 1 Nov 11 WA Greens Senator Scott Ludlum says Toro Energy’s proposal to the Environmental Protection Authority for its planned Wiluna uranium mine is full of gaping holes. In his public submission as part of the EPA approval process Mr Ludlum says there are a series of unanswered questions regarding the company’s proposed mine in the northern Goldfields.
Toro Energy is seeking environmental approval for what could become WA’s first uranium mine. Scott Ludlum says there are serious flaws in the company’s plans.
“The company is proposing to leave behind in the landscape tens of millions of tonnes of very finely powered carcinogenic radioactive waste and they are asking the tax payer to take on that liability ten years after the mine closes.” “To do that they need to put up a credible proposal for how that material is going to be isolated from people and the environment for tens of thousands of years and they haven’t even made an attempt to do that.” Toro Energy has declined to comment. http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/11/01/3353209.htm
NSW government does not know what to do with Hunter’s Hill radioactive uranium waste
Kemps Creek spared radioactive waste, but contaminated soil may be dumped elsewhere in NSW, Henry Budd , The Daily Telegraph October 31, 2011 RADIOACTIVE waste dug up in Hunters Hill will not be dumped at Kemps Creek, the NSW Government announced today, but the opposition says another NSW community could now be the site where material will be dumped.Up to 5000 tonnes of contaminated soil from the site of a former uranium smelter at Hunters Hillwas to have been trucked to Kemps Creek, near Penrith, allowing the sale of three blocks of land in the waterside suburb….
NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson said: “The Premier is treating the people of NSW with contempt if he thinks it is OK to dump radioactive waste in someone’s backyard and keep it a secret.”The Premier is clearly trying to avoid a second backlash by refusing to tell residents their community is about to become a radioactive dumping ground.”….http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/kemps-creek-spared-radioactive-waste-but-contaminated-soil-may-be-dumped-elsewhere-in-nsw/story-e6freuzi-1226181281010
Send radioactive waste offshore: NSW Labor 9 News 1 Nov 11 Radioactive waste from the north shore should be sent offshore and not trucked to western Sydney, says NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson. The government on Monday announced that radioactive waste from the former Hunters Hill uranium smelter would be stored at a secret Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) facility at Lidcombe….. Continue reading
Sydney’s Western suburbs don’t want Hunter’s Hill radioactive uranium waste
Uranium plant waste unwelcome in western suburbs, SMH, Ben Cubby, October 26, 2011 THE state government will face tough local opposition if it intends to take contaminated waste from a radioactive site in Hunters Hill and bury it at Kemps Creek in the city’s west.
It conceded at a budget estimates hearing this week that Kemps Creek was the only viable option if 5800 tonnes of mildly radioactive dirt and rock were to be removed from the site of a former uranium-processing plant.
The waste cannot be taken overseas or interstate, but Penrith City Council remains firmly opposed to the plan, which was first floated under the previous state government. Documents produced last year showed waste was to be placed in sealed trucks and driven to Kemps Creek, and warned that protests against the operation were likely to take place in western Sydney……
Hunters Hill Council wants the site cleaned up and the earth removed but does not want to simply transfer the problem to another part of Sydney. The land, on Nelson Parade, was the site of a radium smelter between 1911 and 1916. About 500 tonnes of uranium ore were processed at the plant and radioactive tailings are still mixed in with soil.
At least six people who have lived on or next door to the site have died of cancer, but there is no proven link between elevated levels of radiation on the site and health problems. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/uranium-plant-waste-unwelcome-in-western-suburbs-20111025-1mi4y.html#ixzz1bx7aVolq
Sydney’s Hunter’s Hill uranium radioactive wastes might be dumped in western suburb
Sydney’s uranium waste could still go west, Josephine Tovey, October 18, 2011 The Premier, Barry O’Farrell, will not rule out sending waste from a former uranium plant in Hunters Hill to western Sydney, despite the Coalition campaigning against the move when it was in opposition.
The Keneally government had signed a contract with SITA Environmental Solutions at Kemps Creek to dispose of the waste but withdrew from it last year after an outcry from the community.
Liberal candidate for Mulgoa Tanya Davies, who won the seat, had accused the former government of using her electorate as “dumping ground for Sydney”…. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/sydneys-uranium-waste-could-still-go-west-20111017-1ltfb.html
Australia’s Environment Minister lying about safety of BHP’s Olympic Dam uranium mine
( Once again – so much news on Olympic Damn that we have put a selection of other items on http://nuclearnewsaustralia.wordpress.com/)
A headache of Olympic proportions The Drum, Scott Ludlam, 13 Oct 11 The concept of ‘environmental protection’ has taken on new meaning with the announcement of Commonwealth environmental approvals for BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam copper/gold/uranium mine in South Australia.
“We have the toughest environmental conditions that you’ll ever find imposed on a uranium mine,” Commonwealth Environment Minister Tony Burke stated proudly.
This is known in the technical literature as a ‘bald-faced lie’. We know that, because the toughest environmental conditions found at a uranium mine are 2,000 kilometres northward, at the Ranger Uranium mine on a lease chopped out of Kakadu National Park in the NT. There, the company is required to backfill the mine voids with their radioactive wastes, removing somewhat more than a hundred million tonnes of the stuff from the surface and dumping it back in the pit to be capped and revegetated as best as possible. In Kakadu, the company is required to isolate these wastes from the wider environment for a period not less than 10,000 years. This is clearly an impossible task, but a worthy ambition at least.
No such duty of care will be applied for the benefit of South Australians. Mr Burke has earnestly reassured us that conditions will apply for 10 years after the life of the mine. He has granted approval for the mine tailings waste to be dumped and left out on the surface in apparent ignorance of the fact that the residual inventory of Uranium 238 has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, and that the mine wastes will contain a cocktail of unwanted daughter isotopes including radium, protactinium, radon gas and radioactive lead. Continue reading
Uranium is not much of an export earner for Australia. Do we really need this dirty industry?
Do we need the money from uranium? How does uranium compare to our other exports? According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) export data, in the decade from 2000/01 to 2009/10, uranium exports averaged $596 million/year. Lamb, cheese, cotton, barley, sugar, wool, wine, other crops, wheat, and beef-veal, each averaged $664, $806, $955, $1,170, $1,286, $1,825, $2,309, $3,463, $3,665, and $4,002 million/year, respectively…..
Expanding Olympic Dam: with great power comes great responsibility, Gavin Mudd, The Conversation, 12 October 2011, “……..In a post-Fukushima world, the hard questions need to be asked: what is Australia’s role in fuelling nuclear disaster, creating high-level nuclear waste and feeding nuclear weapons risks around the world? Continue reading
Olympic Dam an unprecedented attack on Australia’s environment
BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine expansion will leave an uprecedented environmental legacy THE AUSTRALIAN, BY:PAUL CLEARY October 11, 2011 FUTURE generations of Australians will have to contend with an unprecedented environmental legacy from the expansion of Olympic Dam’s copper-uranium mine, but our system provides no way of compensating them.
BHP Billiton’s open-cut expansion of mining to extract an estimated $800 billion in mineral wealth will leave behind an above-ground heap of radioactive tailings spread over 44sq km and as high as the Sydney Opera House.
After 40 years of production, the mine will also leave behind a toxic crater measuring 4km wide and more than 1km deep.
Both legacies pose significant risks to ground water, according to BHP’s environmental impact statement . . . although these were dismissed yesterday by Environment Minister Tony Burke.
Under Australia’s federal-state system, the South Australian government has no incentive to set up a future fund so that it can compensate future residents for having to live with much less mineral wealth, and with the environmental costs of this development. Nor has the federal government or opposition shown any interest in measures to compensate our grandkids, and their descendants, for having used our inherited mineral wealth to inflate our standard of living….. the mineral resources rent tax won’t collect any of the above-normal profits earned from developing one of the world’s biggest ore deposits, because it only taxes coal and iron ore production. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/counting-the-cost-of-bhps-olympic-dam/story-e6frg9if-1226163362958
Danger of transporting nuclear waste through Australia’s major food bowl
Nuclear waste transport opposed in South Australia 9 News, 29 Sept 11, A plan to ship nuclear waste through the South Australian Riverland puts one of Australia’s major food bowls at risk, the state opposition says. Riverland Liberal MP Tim Whetsone said the state government was totally opposed to a nuclear waste dump being located in South Australia and must take the same stand against the transport of nuclear waste.
A federal government report has advised against transporting waste from the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney throughthe Blue Mountains to a proposed nuclear dump in the Northern Territory.
Instead it suggests shipping the waste by road through South Australia. Mr Whetstone said that would put the Riverland’s food production at risk of contamination along with water supplies from the Murray. “Much of this production is export focused and transporting nuclear waste through the Riverland sends a bad message to critical export markets,” he said.
“Transporting waste along the Sturt Highway will involve nuclear waste being in close proximity to the River Murray for much of the journey. “The risk to SA’s water supplies is unacceptable….
Local anger at Australian govt plan for nuclear waste dump in Northern Territory
But on the ground, in communities near the site, many people are angry at the NLC. They say they haven’t been consulted, and can’t understand why.
What’s interesting is that Tennant Creek itself, where much opposition is focused, is just inside the jurisdiction of the 
Central Land Council, not the NLC: Muckaty, bang in the middle of Australia, lies just on the NLC side. So people in Tennant Creek can complain about the site all they like, but the NLC is not compelled to listen to them.
LAND COUNCIL COPS DUMP FALLOUT, SBS World News, Living Black,08 September 2011 Video journalist Bill Code on the controversial proposal to store nuclear waste on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory. Continue reading
Muckaty radioactive waste dump not necessary for nuclear medicine
HEALTH PROFESSIONALS DISPUTE CANBERRA’S NUCLEAR DUMP CLAIMS , 12 sept 11, The Public Health Association of Australia and the Medical Association for the Prevention of War are tonight hosting a special forum at Charles Darwin University to address Canberra’s plan for a radioactive waste storage and disposal facility in the NT. Topics will include refuting the Federal Government’s claims about the connection between nuclear medicine and the proposed waste facility.
The forum is timely with the federal Senate scheduled to debate the highly-controversial National Radioactive Waste Management Bill (NRWMB) this week, and with the Federal Court scheduled to hear a legal challenge against the nomination of the Muckaty site next month. Medical groups have previously written to Federal Senators calling on them to reject the NRWMB (online at <http://tiny.cc/2c7z0>). Continue reading
Australian government secretive about radioactive waste in its planned Northern Territory dump
Elder’s death won’t affect nuclear waste dump case, ABC News, Anna Henderson and Emma Masters, The Northern Land Council (NLC) says a Federal Court case over a planned nuclear waste dump near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory has not been affected by the death of the senior elder who nominated the site, September 07, 2011 The elder, now known as Kumanjayi Napurrula Lauder-Dixon, died in Elliot last week.
The matter returns to court next month.
………Meanwhile, an anti-nuclear campaigner says he is concerned the federal Government is not doing enough to dispel the belief that the proposed nuclear waste dump will hold only low-level waste.
Dr Jim Green says government documents show plans for a waste dump at Muckaty Station to hold low and intermediate radioactive waste. Dr Green says some of the waste will have a half-life of thousands of years.
“They really ought to be more upfront with Territorians,” he said. “They are not honest and yet they still expect Territorians to trust the federal Government with this dump proposal. “Yet a number of their claims are contradicted by freely available documents, which are produced by the government itself.”
Dr Green says the Government is not doing enough to communicate what type of waste will be stored.”The spent nuclear fuel reprocessing waste that has been sent to Scotland and France is going to come back, and they want to dump that above ground at Muckaty.”…http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-07/20110907death-mackaty-nuclear-dump/2874942
Australian unions join Aboriginal opposition to nuclear waste dump
the unions were quite clear about not wanting nuclear material on highways or railway tracks. “All it takes is one accident, one ruptured container,”..“It’s simply not worth the risk and Territorians don’t need this in their backyard.”..
a legal challenge to the Federal Government’s waste dump plans at Muckaty will be heard in October.
Unions pledge support to oppose nuke waste dump – , – Tennant & District Times,19 April 11,TRADE union officials from across Australia have pledged support to traditional owners who oppose the construction of a nuclear waste dump on their land. Continue reading
Resistance growing to Martin Ferguson’s Nuclear Waste Bill
There are serious and unresolved problems in the proposed National Radioactive Waste Management Bill (2010) currently before the Parliament that fail the test when it comes to reflecting international best practise in radioactive waste management ….
Traditional owners opposed to a dump at Muckaty are taking legal action, travelling widely to address forums and exploring international avenues as part of their efforts to build awareness and halt the plan – and their supporters are growing.
An out of sight, out of mind approach to nuclear waste management, The Drum, David Sweeney, 12 July 11 The unassuming
town of Tennant Creek hugs the Stuart Highway 500 kilometres north of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory…… if Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson gets his way – Australia’s first national radioactive waste dump.
And, like the waste itself, the politics of how to manage radioactive waste are getting hotter and dirtier.
Mr Ferguson has consistently refused to meet with traditional owners or others affected by the dump plan, or to explore other management options. Continue reading
AUSTRALIA’S ROLE IN THE FUKUSHIMA DISASTER
John Ritch – ….believes that the Fukushima disaster is simply a lot of fuss over the flooding of a few diesel generators – is one who is pushing for Australia to take the world’s waste…..Halliburton built the railway link between Alice Springs and Darwin and the railway line is managed by Serco, a UK nuclear waste disposal and transport expert. There is little traffic on the line
Fukushima disaster, cover-up and fears of nuclear explosion Independent Australia 20 June 11 Environment correspondent Sandi Keaneprovides detailed up-to-date analysis on the Fukushima nuclear disaster, including an exclusive interview with Dr Helen Caldicott. Experts raise the grim possibility of nuclear explosion at the disintegrating plant.
“……….And what of Australia’s role in this global catastrophe? No meaningful dialogue about the morality of the nuclear experiment can occur without questioning our export of uranium, which, no doubt, ended up at Fukushima.
We may be one of the world’s biggest exporters, but did you know that we earned more selling cheese in 2010 than uranium? Check it out with the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Continue reading
Lynas Rare Earths Plant – Profits for Australian Company, Radioactive Wastes For Malaysia
The refinery will produce about 230,000 tonnes of solid waste a year. The waste, containing radioactive thorium and a range of heavy metals and toxic substances, will be dumped in Malaysia…..“This whole Lynas deal has been done in a very non-transparent way,” he said. “They’ve already made a deal to bring this ore from Australia to refine here in Malaysia, then export the rare earths, then keep the waste here….Malaysian government had given Lynas a 12-year tax-free status.
Malaysians resist Oz company’s toxic plan .Green Left By Peter Boyle, Kuala Lumpur, 21 June 11, Public opposition to a plan by an Australian mining company, Lynas, to build a rare earth refinery in Pahang, Malaysia, was on show at a protest outside Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur on May 20.Saturday, June 18, 2011 Lynas plans to ship ore from its Mount Weld mine in Western Australia, through the port of Fremantle, to Malaysia. There it will be refined to extract rare earths, which are widely used in the manufacture of computers and electronics. Continue reading
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