Australian Government manipulations on nuclear waste dumping
How to site a nuclear waste dump – Crikey,
22 February 2010 The Government is expected to announce tomorrow or Wednesday that it will repeal and replace the Howard Government’s much-criticised Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act 2005, and that a nuclear waste dump will be established at Muckaty Station, virtually in the middle of the Northern Territory. Continue reading
Australia: Nuclear Waste Dump, Obama Visit, Uranium Expansion.
It’s all happening in hyping the nuclear industry in Australia. Expensive advertising by the nuclear lobby (Environmentalists for Nuclear Power), big nobs promoting it (e.g. Bob Hawke), and Ziggy Spinowsky everywhere.
What great timing! Just as the Australian government plans to
put a radioactive nuclear waste dump on aboriginal land, President Barack Obama is to visit Australia to discuss uranium, while BHP Billiton is about to launch a huge expansion of its Olympic Dam uranium mine.
Let’s not forget that Australia is still signed up to the The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), by which as a uranium supplier, Australia would be obliged to take back radioactive waste from sales of uranium to the U.S.A..
(Australia is also obligated to take back a small amount of our own Lucas Heights radioactive waste from UK, – but that is not tied to uranium sales, and that doesn’t have to be on aboriginal land).
Martin Ferguson’s secret meetings on nuclear waste dump
Muckaty firms as nuclear dump Northern Territory News DANIEL BOURCHIER February 21st, 2010 MUCKATY Station is this week expected to be named as the site for the controversial nuclear waste dump.The revelation follows a series of secret meetings Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson held with the Northern Land Council, and separately with NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson and Resources Minister Kon Vatskalis. Continue reading
Labor MP to fight against NT nuclear waste dump
Hale to fight own party against nuclear dump ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) By Louisa Rebgetz 20 Feb 2010
As speculation mounts that a nuclear waste dump will be located in the Northern Territory, MP Damian Hale says he will “fight tooth and nail” to prevent it happening. Continue reading
Muckaty Station likely to be the chosen nuclear waste dump site
NT property could be chosen as nuclear waste dump site ABC Rural News , 19/02/2010 The Australian Conservation Foundation believes a station in the Northern Territory could be the location of Australia’s first nuclear waste dump.The Northern Land Council is handling negotiations with the Commonwealth on behalf of the traditional owners that own Muckaty Station, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek. Continue reading
Secret agreement on nuclear waste dump for Northern Territory
Hale to fight own party against nuclear dump – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 20 Feb 2010 “….The ACF’s Dave Sweeney says the only sites still under consideration are in the Territory.”I would put my money that Minister Ferguson will try and bulldoze through the imposition of a waste site at Muckaty at Tennant Creek,” he said.”And I think if he goes down that path and if Federal Labor allows the Minister to break with clear policy we will be in deeply contested territory.”Mr Sweeney says the Commonwealth has entered into an agreement regarding the facility with the Northern Land Council but that agreement is being kept confidential.
Hale to fight own party against nuclear dump – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Bob Hawke pushes for Australian lucrative nuclear waste import industry
Aust has a duty to take world’s nuclear waste, Hawke says The Canberra Times BY SCOTT HANNAFORD 20 Feb, 2010 Australia had an unarguable responsibility to accept the world’s nuclear waste and discarded nuclear weapons, and could create a huge new industry for the country by doing so, former prime minister Bob Hawke said last night.
aste, Hawke says – Local News – News – General – The Canberra Times
Why Rudd will put a radioactive waste dump in the Northern Territory
a few prominent white suits (living well away from the NT) could indeed see this as the beginning of a bonanza of taking in the rest of the world’sradioactive wastes.
Once again – it’s all simple politics. The Australian government is obligated to take back , within a year or so, radioactive wastes from UK – wastes that originated in Australia’s terrorist target – the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.
There is no simple solution. Perhaps this relatively small nuclear waste dump could be situated at Lucas Heights, where it started, or perhaps it could join the existing radioactive waste at Woomera in South Australia. Then Lucas Heights could be closed, and that would be the end of it.
No such simple story, however, and in fact, no story at all, as it’s all decided very quietly – let the Australian public sleep on!
But – it must be the Northern Territory – they’re the only ones who cannot defy the federal government, – all the other States have the power to veto taking in nuclear wastes.
Anyway,a few aborigines could indeed see it as a good deal, getting a living standard equal to the rest of Australia perhaps – though the rest of us didn’t need to have our land turned into a radioactive waste in order to get that standard.
More to the point, a few prominent white suits (living well away from the NT) could indeed see this as the beginning of a bonanza of taking in the rest of the world’s radioactive wastes.
Australia: Rudd govt failing on nuclear dump promise
Northern Territory could get nuclear dump next week: ACF ABC News Alice Springs By Louisa Rebgetz 19 Feb 2010
The Australian Conservation Foundation says it expects the Federal Government to announce as early as next week that a nuclear waste dump will be built in the Northern Territory.
The Government has so far failed to deliver on its election promise to repeal legislation which has the power to force a waste dump on the Territory.
The ACF’s Dave Sweeney says the only sites still under consideration are in the Territory. Continue reading
Renewable energy expedition in Antarctica
if renewable energy can succeed in the harshest environment on earth, there’s no reason it can’t be used everywhere.
Indigenous Aussies join Antarctic trek World News Australia 16 February 2010 Growing up in the Northern Territory, Malcolm Lynch has never seen snow, but he’s about to travel to the coldest place on earth. The 21-year-old AFL player will make history when he and track star Narelle Long, 20, become the first indigenous Australians to visit Antarctica……. Continue reading
Uranium mining’s damage to the Australian environment
The impact of nuclear testing on the Australian environment | Blog About All 16 Feb 2010 “.……..In the case of Rum Jungle, the pollution of the surrounding environment was quite severe with run off from the tailing damns causing extensive damage in the East Finniss river for several kilometres away from the sight of the mine. Continue reading
Inadequacies of Rudd govt’s aboriginal policy
Rudd has continued his predecessor’s policy of suspending indigenous rights of self-government in the Northern Territory with the help of a police and military presence.
Australia’s new Aboriginal policy falls short of expectations | Worldfocus February 15, 2010 Jamie Macfarlane “…..Apologies are hard to give when the historical narrative of a nation’s ascendancy entirely sidesteps what happened to its indigenous inhabitants……….
Rudd’s assessment of his Aboriginal policies two years on largely ignored the second great Indigenous issue: native sovereignty. Continue reading
Maralinga nuclear tests and the environment
areas of fused or ‘glazed’ sand are still contaminated with levels of plutonium which are of a high and dangerous level
The impact of nuclear testing on the Australian environment | Blog About All 16 Feb 2010 “………..As well as the tests at Monte Belle islands, between 1952 and 1963 the British government, with the agreement and support of Australia, carried out ‘major’ tests at two other sites on the Australian mainland at Emu Field and Maralinga in South Australia. Continue reading
Rudd Govt Betrays Australians on Nuclear Waste Dumping
The Australian Government, aided by an inert mainstream media, is lying and cheating Australians. Martin Ferguson and the Rudd Government pretend to change the Howard Government’s laws on nuclear waste, and pretend to have aboriginal support for the dumping of radioactive waste on aboriginal land in the Northern Territory.
Rudd Government, elected on the promise to over-turn discriminatory and anti-environment laws about radioactive waste, is now producing a new and worse version of those laws. (More about Martin Ferguson’s new Bill at.Bernard Keane – Crikey )
Australia is obligated to take back a small amount of radioactive waste from UK and France. That waste originated from the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney – and could perfectly well be stored there. Or on Commonwealth land elsewhere in Australia.
Northern Territory Intervention all about Uranium and Nuclear Waste Dumping
I remind everyone that the Intervention is about access to Aboriginal land by business interests (mining) and the location of a dump for uranium waste.
SA, WA and Qld will not accept uranium waste so we are deluding ourselves the Intervention is anything but accessing Aboriginal land in the NT.
It has NOTHING to do with children.If it was about children, then the Intervention would have occurred elsewhere due to the undeniable fact that child abuse per capita is not as significant in the NT as it is in another State. NT is well down the pecking order.My question is why not have an Intervention in that State rather than the NT? The answer is simple. The Federal Govt does not have the Constitutional power to invade a State like it has in the NT.
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 