Coal-powered bitcoin is an environmental disaster — RenewEconomy
The latest episode in the process of trying to present Bitcoin as if it’s not only clean but vital to clean power development is particularly bad. The post Coal-powered bitcoin is an environmental disaster appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Coal-powered bitcoin is an environmental disaster — RenewEconomy
Bitcoin crackdown — daryanenergyblog
Reblogged from my other site. Discussing the crackdown against crypto currencies by several governments.
Bitcoin crackdown — daryanenergyblog
June 27 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “If All Goes According To (Renewable Energy) Plan, Texas Will Be Fine” • Extreme weather has been punching holes in Texas’ legendary ERCOT power, leading some to predict years of doom ahead. But Texas also has some renewable energy options up its sleeve, and new pathways for improved resiliency and stability are popping […]
June 27 Energy News — geoharvey
Construction of ANSTO’s new intermediate waste facility at Lucas Heights.
22 Jun 21, This morning the Government moved to progress the parliamentary process in order being works on ANSTO’s new intermediate waste facility at Lucas Heights
Once uploaded there will also be more detail at the public works committee and they’ll also begin accepting submissions shortly.
It is rare for the PWC to reject any works proposals but this process will provide an opportunity to highlight that extended ILW storage at ANSTO is possible and credible.
Also note they say that any national waste facility would not be accepting ILW waste pre 2030…..
Within weeks, Minister Keith Pitt is expected to declare Napandee, (Kimba, South Australia) as nuclear waste dump
Nuclear waste dump site in SA to be declared within weeks after bill passes federal parliament. Adelaide Now, 22 June 21,
A nuclear waste dump site in SA will be declared within weeks – with Kimba’s mayor welcoming the breakthrough.
A nuclear waste dump site in South Australia will be formally declared within weeks, after legislation passed parliament on Tuesday.
Federal resources minister Keith Pitt confirmed he would name a location for the radioactive waste storage facility soon after the “significant step forward” in parliament.
A revised bill with a shortlist of three sites passed the Senate late on Monday night with Federal Labor’s support, and was approved by the House of Representatives just after midday on Tuesday.
Kimba mayor Dean Johnson welcomed the bill’s passage as “great news”.
Napandee farm near Kimba is widely expected to be declared the location, after being named the preferred site in February 2020.
But it could quickly face a new legal challenge from the local Indigenous community……
Federal resources minister Keith Pitt confirmed he would name a location for the radioactive waste storage facility soon after the “significant step forward” in parliament.
A revised bill with a shortlist of three sites passed the Senate late on Monday night with Federal Labor’s support, and was approved by the House of Representatives just after midday on Tuesday.
Kimba mayor Dean Johnson welcomed the bill’s passage as “great news”.
Napandee farm near Kimba is widely expected to be declared the location, after being named the preferred site in February 2020.
But it could quickly face a new legal challenge from the local Indigenous community………
The opposition had refused to back the original Bill over concerns that naming the site in legislation, rather than by a ministerial decision, would prevent the possibility of a future legal challenge.
Australia is spending $billions to fight tiny killer coronaviruses. Australia should be equally worried about tiny killer nuclear particles- theme for July 2021
Australia ought to have extensive knowledge on the effects of ionising radiation. Britain exploded 12 major nuclear bombs and 29 smaller ones in Australia and some neighbouring islands, in the 1950s. The resulting clouds of radiation would have affected especially indigenous people, Aborigines, Islanders, and also soldiers, and the white population.
Was any epidemiological research done on these populations? No, there was not.
Australia has had 13 uranium mines, 3 still in operation. It’s not as if the old ones have been thoroughly cleaned up. Ionising radiation from these mines would have affected miners, the mining community, and Aboriginal communities, and may still be affecting them.
Was any epidemiological research done on the health of these populations? No, there was not.
This is why the nuclear lobby can say, confidently – there is no evidence of harm to health in Australia, from low level ionising radiation.
Plenty of other evidence of individual cases – but these can be brushed off as “anecdotal”.
As the the Australian government plans a radioactive waste dump on agricultural land, and the global nuclear industry successfully lobbies some Australian politicians, it is time to genuinely examine the research that has been done, in other countries. We pay attention to epidemiology about tiny viruses, why not to epidemiology about tiny radioactive particles?
Join the gathering – Stop the Nuclear Dump – Adelaide Friday July 2
Join the gathering – Stop the nuclear dump! Don’t dump on SA! Please join us on Friday July 2 to voice opposition to the Morrison government’s plan to impose a national nuclear waste dump near Kimba in SA.
The nuclear dump is unwanted, unnecessary and unsafe. It is unanimously opposed by Barngarla Traditional Owners and many other South Australians.
When: Friday July 2, 1 pm for 1.30 start to 3pm
Where: Steps of Parliament House on North Terrace
Some things you can do to help stop the imposition of the proposed nuclear dump:
* Donate to the Barngarla crowdfunder to fund a legal challenge (judicial review).* Sign the Barngarla petition* Sign the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) petition* Join the Adelaide-based ‘Don’t Dump on SA’ group, we meet on zoom every Tuesday (or sometimes every second Tuesday). Contact: jim.green@foe.org.au, 0417 318368
Nuclear waste Bill passed. This is what will happen next
Katrina Bohr , Fight to Stop A Nuclear Waste Dump in South Australia, 26 June 21,
Following the news that the National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Specification, Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020 has been passed by the Parliament of Australia, we’ve received lots of questions about what will happen next
The Bill will now be recommended to receive Royal Assent, which is the process where the Governor General assents to the Bill, after which it becomes an Act of Parliament.The Minister may then review information relevant to the 3 shortlisted sites: Wallerberdina, Lyndhurst and Napandee that were listed in the Bill. As part of the Minister’s review, he will consider previous feedback received through community consultation processes, including the level of community support that each site received. He will also consider technical, social and economic assessments of the sites. The Minister may only select one site, and has the option not to select a site.
The community that lives and works in the vicinity of the Wallerberdina Station has made it clear that it does not broadly support the facility being located there, and the Government has not changed its position—it will not impose a facility on an unwilling local community.Once he has reviewed relevant material, the Minister may issue an ‘intention to declare’ a preferred site for the facility. This is done by issuing a notice detailing the proposed declaration and inviting nominators and persons with a right or interest in the land to comment.
Comments will be invited for a period of no less than sixty days, after which the Minister will consider relevant comments and may then choose to make a declaration under the Act, which finalises the acquisition of the site for the facility.Further information on the process: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2014C00626 The National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Specification, Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020: https://bit.ly/3gSegt more https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556
Australian Parliamentarians misled by Minister Pitt’s lies about nuclear medicine.
25 June 21, Contrary to Pitt’s information to the senators the legislation makes no reference to or distinction between ILW and LLW waste
His completely disingenuous claim that the facility at Kimba is needed for continued supply for medical has been strongly and knowingly rejected by numerous experts in nuclear medicine as the hospitals and clinics and institutes using nuclear medicine destroys the resulting waste themselves since most of it is low level with a very short half life
From some enquiries and general market research the government’s facility at Kimba would be lucky to get 10% of all the waste resulting from nuclear medicine in Australia
In any case while there are well be over 100 locations in Australia they do not store nuclear waste since most of it is disposed of within a matter of days after it has been produced
How naive are our parliamentarians to blithely accept this misleading information without any proper expert inquiry of an issue of such major importance to the whole of Australia
Senator Hanson Young gave clearest explanation of the issues around the government’s nuclear waste Bill
25 June 21, Senator Hanson -Young gave most lucid and logical exposition of the important and little recognised facts regarding the government’s proposals for a nuclear – radioactive to use the government’s terminology – waste management facility
She was the only senator to speak about the technical issues of the proposed facility who did not reprise the disingenuous and nonsensical threats about the effect on nuclear medicine if the proposed facility was not established at Napandee
What is more her comments covered fundamental aspects of nuclear waste safety and management that appear to have been either wilfully or through sheer ignorance omitted from any consideration or debate of the government’s proposals
ALSO – it was a very poor reflection on our parliamentary system when the rather understandably emotional speech by Senator Lidia Thorpe was met with a shout of “bullshit” from the public gallery by a senior member of the House of Representatives who should have known better
Even if not to everyone’s liking there was nothing in her speech to deserve that description which may be far more appropriate to all that has been said by the ill-mannered shouting member over the past five years.
Need to reveal full details of nomination forms for Kimba and Wallerberdina nuclear waste dump plans
Full copies of the nomination forms by the respective owners of the site at Wallerberdina and the five or six sites at Kimba should be publicly known
They should be full and true photocopies without redactions as apparently the original forms have handwriting on them which could be extremely embarrassing to the government and the responsible ministers Canavan and Pitt
All of these nominations were under machinery provisions of the National Radioactive Waste Management Act 2012 but the form of the nomination and administrative requirements are contained in the Radioactive Waste Management Nominations of Land: Guidelines November 2016 issued by the then Department of Industry Innovation and Science
Previous requests for the nominations were met with the standard response that they could not be disclosed as they contained personal and private information of the respective parties nominating their land but instructions note 8 in the nomination form prescribed by the Guidelines specifically states that the Nominator confirms that it consents to the public disclosure of the nomination ……
In addition the Guidelines contain quite detailed provisions regarding disclosures and privacy including the operation of the freedom of information regime . The nominations requested will also be of significance in any judicial review or similar proceedings .
‘A new chapter’: NT town to be returned to traditional owners today
‘A new chapter’: NT town to be returned to traditional owners today
The NT town of Jabiru will today be handed over from uranium miners to indigenous traditional land owners in a milestone move that will end one of Australia’s longest running native title wrangles…… NT New s -subscribers only
Nuclear power is in the front line of climate change – and NOT in a good way
In the last year, climate models have run hot. As knowledge of enhanced climate sensitivity and polar ice melt-rate evolves, it has become clear that sea-level rise is significantly faster than previously thought, resulting in more frequent and destructive storm, storm surge, severe precipitation, and flooding.
With rare extreme events today becoming the norm in the future, existing risk mitigation measures become increasingly obsolete. The corollary to this analysis is that present and planned UK coastal nuclear installations will be at significant risk.
In other words, nuclear’s lower-carbon electricity USP sits in the context of the much larger picture – that UK coastal nuclear will be one of the first, and most significant, casualties to ramping climate impact. Put simply, UK nuclear is quite literally on the front-line of climate change – and not in a good way.
Nuclear Consultation Group 24th June 2021
NASA wants to increase allowable radiation exposure for astronauts – women affected most.
“As missions go deeper into space, we need to communicate why astronauts are being asked to take on that risk and offer explicit ethical justifications. This report offers a framework for accomplishing that,”
Report backs NASA proposal to change astronaut radiation exposure limits, Space News, by Jeff Foust — June 25, 2021 WASHINGTON — A National Academies committee has endorsed a NASA proposal to change the radiation exposure limits the agency sets for its astronauts but cautioned that the revised limit is still insufficient for human Mars missions.
The June 24 report by a committee established by the National Academies and sponsored by NASA backs the agency’s proposal to set a single lifetime radiation exposure limit for astronauts, rather than different limits based on age and gender.
Currently, lifetime exposure limits range from 180 millisieverts for a 30-year-old woman to 700 millisieverts for a 60-year-old man. Those limits are based on models intended to set a limit of no more than a 3% risk of radiation exposure-induced death (REID) at the 95% confidence level.
NASA proposed changing that to a limit of about 600 millisieverts, regardless of age or gender. That limit is based on the mean 3% risk of REID for a 35-year-old woman, the most conservative case but measured to a different standard than the earlier calculation.
The change, the committee noted, will allow more opportunities for female astronauts given the higher radiation limits. “Taken together, the proposed standard creates equality of opportunity for spaceflight with the trade-offs of somewhat higher allowable exposure to radiation for a subset of astronauts (primarily women) and limiting exposures below otherwise acceptable doses for others (primarily older men),” the committee’s report stated………
While the revised levels will increase flight opportunities for many NASA astronauts, the levels are still more conservative than many other space agencies. Roscosmos, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency all set lifetime exposure limits of 1,000 millisieverts for their astronauts and cosmonauts, without any age or gender differences. The Japanese space agency JAXA does have age and gender differences, varying between 500 and 1,000 millisieverts.
Even those higher levels fall short of projected radiation exposures for round-trip Mars missions, which the report noted would exceed 1,000 millisieverts. Any astronauts who fly on a Mars mission would need a waiver to NASA’s radiation exposure limits, which raises ethical questions. “NASA should develop a protocol for waiver of the proposed space radiation standard that is judicious, transparent, and informed by ethics,” the committee recommended.
“As missions go deeper into space, we need to communicate why astronauts are being asked to take on that risk and offer explicit ethical justifications. This report offers a framework for accomplishing that,” said Julian Preston of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, vice-chair of the committee, in a statement.https://spacenews.com/report-backs-nasa-proposal-to-change-astronaut-radiation-exposure-limits/
New Zealand Greens want to stop New Zealand’s participation inthe militarisation of space.
Green MP Teanau Tuiono wants to stop Rocket Lab launching weapons into space on behalf of foreign powersNews Hub, 21/06/2021, Zane Small Green MP Teanau Tuiono wants to change the law to stop Rocket Lab from launching weapons into space on behalf of foreign powers.Tuiono, the Green Party’s security and intelligence spokesperson, announced his Member’s Bill – legislation proposed by MPs who are not ministers – at a protest outside Rocket Lab’s Auckland headquarters on Monday.
His proposed law change would amend the Outer Space and High Altitude Activities Act and prohibit the launching of military hardware into space from New Zealand. The Bill will only go before Parliament if it’s pulled from the ballot box.
“This change would ensure that Aotearoa New Zealand’s space industry and its facilities could never be used by military actors to launch weaponry, establishing in legislation an enduring commitment to peaceful conduct in outer space,” says Tuiono.
“The Government has a responsibility to make sure technologies sent into orbit from New Zealand soil do not assist other countries’ armies to wage war.”
Rocket Lab, a United States-owned but New Zealand-based space company estimated to be worth more than US$1.2 billion, has become a leader in a new market of small rocket services provided by private companies.
It launches satellites into space for the United States military and private companies from Māhia Peninsula, located between Napier and Gisborne.
Some of the launches, such as one dubbed Gunsmoke-J in March this year on behalf of the US Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command, have raised questions about New Zealand’s role in assisting with foreign warfare.
The Gunsmoke-J mission was designed to improve US missile targeting capabilities during combat, which activists from Auckland Peace Action say makes us complicit in US military practices, thereby making New Zealand a military target.
“The US military satellites launched by Rocket Lab can control activity such as communications with troops, surveillance and reconnaissance, intercepting information or spying, and targeting weapons, like drones, bombs, and also nuclear weapons,” says Auckland Peace Action spokesperson Eliana Darroch.
“If we send these satellites into space with US military capacities, we are complicit in the drone and precision bombings and other acts of warfare which the United States does.”
She says with New Zealand being a proud Nuclear Free country, and being instrumental in the 2017 international treaty banning nuclear weapons, launching satellites capable of controlling nuclear weapons is unacceptable.
“The New Zealand Government must immediately suspend Rocket Lab’s launches until a public review of the Outer Space and High Altitude Activities Act has taken place.”
It is due for review this year.
“It is hypocritical for the New Zealand Government to want peace, yet allow Rocket Lab’s military payload launches to continue,” says Darroch.
“Rocket Lab, with its connections to the Pentagon through its board and investors including a CIA venture capital firm, and Lockheed Martin, is a private company defining New Zealand’s foreign relations.
“Rocket Lab is creating links between New Zealand and the US military that the public have not consented to. That is undemocratic and dangerous.
Tuiono says the Greens are also conscious of the impact successive rocket launches have on the whenua and moana of Māhia.
“When we visited Māhia the whānau told us about the absence of local birds and kaimoana and we continue to support the call from whānau for independent cultural and environmental impact assessments.”……………….. https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/06/green-mp-teanau-tuiono-wants-to-stop-rocket-lab-launching-weapons-into-space-on-behalf-of-foreign-powers.html
1 This month.
Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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Antinuclear 