Review: Maralinga land, USA and UK nuclear ‘push’
Australia: Four Mile uranium mine mired in a legal mess. Rudd anxious to sell uranium to India? Aborigines get back contaminated Maralinga land. Regional push for renewables, while New South Wales starts solar gross feed-in tariff, and smart grid could include small, decentralised, energy sources. Australian book provides detailed evidence that could form the basis for atomic veterans’ legal action.
International: USA politicians pushing hard for nuclear to be part of Copenhagen global warming ‘solution’. Meanwhile new nuclear proving wildly expensive. UK govt pushes ahead to reduce incentives for renewables, and prevent local power to stop nuclear.plants. Calls for UN to properly investigate depleted uranium’s effects in Iraq. Calls for tracking patients’ radiation screening. – the week that has been
Four Mile uranium mine held up in legal dispute
- Miners clash on native title Sarah-Jane Tasker
- From: The Australian
- November 13, 2009
THE joint-venture partners in what is expected to be Australia’s next uranium mine are locked in a legal dispute over a native title agreement on the project.
Alliance Resources, a 25 per cent stakeholder in the Four Mile project in South Australia, has moved in the Supreme Court against joint-venture partner Quasar Resources, an affiliate of US-based Heathgate Resources.
Alliance is accusing Quasar and Heathgate of negotiating a native title agreement combining the Four Mile project with Heathgate’s Beverley mine.
The company said it was not involved in negotiations on the agreement and was concerned it exposed Alliance to liabilities that might apply only to the Beverley operation.
“As the native title mining agreement hasn’t been registered, a mining lease can’t be offered to the joint venture at this time, and therefore onsite construction at Four Mile can’t commence,”Alliance said………..http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/miners-clash-on-native-title/story-e6frg9dx-1225797126479
Maralinga aboriginal land still contaminated by radioacticity
Tjarutja people ‘at risk’ from contaminated land ABC News 11 Nov 09
A South Australian ex-serviceman who was exposed to radiation during the Maralinga atomic tests in the 1950s and 60s says land should not be handed over to the traditional owners until a contaminated area is cleaned up or fenced off. Continue reading
Continued secrecy, denial, about radiological warfare
Before the Bomb – book review – On Line Opinion, by Noel Wauchope – 9/11/2009 Where do we go, to find out about the radiological effects of atomic weapons?We usually seek out the rather patchy and incomplete stories of the victims – those at the “receiving end” of bombing, at Hiroshima, or of the atomic tests of Nevada, of Mururoa, Montebello, Maralinga. These have been covered in several books.But, how much was known about these radiological effects before the Bomb?
Here, at last, is the book that answers this question. And Paul Langley’s book The Prediction of the Radiological Effects of Atomic Bombs From Knowledge Published Prior to August 1945 answers it with evidence in forensic detail, a plenitude of exact primary documentary evidence, including digital evidence available on the Internet.
This is also a book that raises questions: questions that matter very much right now. Today, World War II veterans, Pacific Islanders, Navajo people and Australian Aborigines seek acknowledgment and justice for their diseases from exposure to radiation. Iraqi doctors and communities, and US, Canadian and UK Gulf War veterans claim health damage from depleted uranium. Where is the truth?…………..
It is an Australian shame that recognition has not been given to aboriginal victims. The reaction of Australian authorities has been a record of “lies, denial, racial taunts and suppression of evidence.” In Project Sunshine’s calculations of exposure dose to Australians, two population groups were excluded. These were: Aborigines living in remote areas around the bomb test sites, and the soldiers and others involved in the tests. In other words the two most affected groups.
A later health study continued to exclude the Aborigines, ignoring the testimony of survivors, their memory of the “Black Mist”, and even of those with Beta burns. Secrecy surrounded the investigation. Professor Ernest Titterton, Chairman of the Australian Atomic Weapons Test Safety Committee, kept project information from the Committee. As he stated “I was subject to American control on information.”
Notorious atomic bomb test site returns to aboriginal ownership
Traditional indigenous owners to reclaim Maralinga bomb site THE AUSTRALIAN David Nason November 10, 2009 MORE than 50 years after their ancestral lands were devastated by nuclear testing, the Tjarutja people of western South Australia will next month be handed back the infamous expanse of remote desert the British named Maralinga.
Media silence on land grab for uranium
Pilger: Breaking the Australian Silence by John Pilger 06 November 2009 Pacific Free Press “I would like to talk about this silence: about how it affects our national life, the way we see the world, and the way we are manipulated by great power Continue reading
Rudd govt cowardly about nuclear waste obligations
Australia is contractually obliged to take back from France the reprocessed nuclear waste from ANSTO’s Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.
The Rudd government, like the Howard government is just too cowardly to explain this truth to the Australian people, and then to act sensibly and honorably.
The government could choose Commonwealth land, take back the existing waste, close down Lucas Heights, and finish this problem.
But, no. The Rudd government will con and bribe the citizens least able to resist, – the aborigines, – in the Territory least able to resit, the Northern Territory.
If that were not enough of cowardice and hypocrisy, the Rudd government is then likely to use ANSTO to open the door to the return of radioactive wastes to Australia. A very lucrative industry for a few big players, including the uranium mining companies.
No sensible housewife would even plan a meal in the knowledge that the house would be left with permanent, unfixable, toxic waste. But then what government would ask the opinion of a sensible housewife?
Australia obliged to dump nuke-waste, on aboriginal land?
Nuclear waste dump a must Adelaide Now MARK KENNY
October 31, 2009
THE search for a suitable site for a high-level nuclear waste dump in Australia is back on because radioactive material currently stored overseas will be returned to Australia in five years, it has been revealed.
The material, described as “spent fuel” from the Lucas Heights research reactor, had been sent to France for re-processing.
Under French law it must be repatriated to Australia by 2015.
Responding to questions from Opposition frontbencher, Nick Minchin in Senate estimates hearings, the Government confirmed Australia is under an obligation to “have a facility built in time to receive that waste from France in 2015”.
“There is waste from France, from reprocessing of ANSTO research reactor spent fuel, that will return to Australia in 2015,” a departmental official told the Economic Committee.
The admission means the Government is faced with a tight time frame in which to identify the preferred site, conduct consultations with affected parties, meet environmental and other planning requirements, and build the super-secure facility.
According to evidence tendered, three sites, all in the Northern Territory, “two in the Alice Springs region and one in the Katherine region”, are being considered.
The Government also confirmed another site, described as being “a volunteer site on Aboriginal land near Tennant Creek”, was being assessed. A site in the Northern Territory now seems inevitable where constitutional limits on Commonwealth power do not apply.http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,26283381-5006301,00.html
Uranium miner squanders Australia’s precious water – for FREE!
South Australia: Olympic Dam mine BHP Billiton 30 Oct 09 Watch Western Mining Corporation first developed the Olympic Dam (Roxby Downs) Uranium Mine in 1983, despite strong and sustained opposition from Kokatha and Arabunna Traditional Owners and environmentalists. BHP Billiton purchased the underground Olympic Dam mine in 2005.
In May 2009 BHP Billiton released an Environmental Impact Statement detailing plans to turn Olympic Dam into a massive open pit mine. With this expansion uranium production is expected to increase from 4,000 tonnes to 19,000 tonnes per year and copper production from 200,000 to 750,000 tonnes a year. Continue reading
Protest against BHP as Alternative BHP Report released
In Melbourne today, protesters gather outside BHP Billiton’s head
office in Melbourne, highlighting the impacts of BHP’s plan to make
Olympic Dam the biggest uranium mine in the world.
Friends of the Earth’s national nuclear campaigner Dr Jim Green said:
“For all of BHP Billiton’s hollow rhetoric about corporate social
responsibility, the company operates the Olympic Dam mine in SA under an outdated Indenture Act which exempts the mine from key environmental and Aboriginal heritage laws.
“BHP Billiton has provided over $2 million to Reconciliation Australia.
Yet the company will not relinquish its exemptions from the SA
Aboriginal Heritage Act. The company’s attitude appears to be ‘do as I
say not as I do’. It’s time for this hypocrisy to end.”
Duban Velez, a union delegate for workers at the Cerrejon coal mine in
Colombia, will be at today’s protest in Melbourne to tell his story
about BHP’s inadequate social and environmental standards in Colombia.
Mr Velez will also be attending BHP’s second AGM, in Brisbane on
November 26. Farming families in villages around the mine have been
deprived of their livelihoods as the mine expands and accuse BHP of
failing to negotiate in good faith or offer sufficient assistance or
compensation.
The Alternative Annual Report can be downloaded at:
http://tinyurl.com/yjjluqg
Now Western Australian aborigines join the fight against uranium mining
ANAWA 29 Oct 09 “…………………Statement from the Western Australian delegation to the 9th annual Australian Nuclear Free Alliance meeting Quorn (Nukunu Country), South Australia.“Uranium mining has not happened in WA but there is a lot of talk that it could. Continue reading
World Indigenous Uranium Forum – next time in Australia
Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum a Success Indybay by Anna Rondon Oct 27th, 2009 This past weekend Indigenous Peoples from Alaska, North America, Bolivia and Japan converged near Acoma Pueblo for the 7th Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum in Sky City, New Mexico. Continue reading
Review: a good week for skulduggery and secrecy
Review: Australia; it was a good week for skulduggery and secrecy, even not counting ANSTO’s opinion poll debacle
Defence Dept keeping quiet about planned “termporary” nuke waste dump at Woomera. Martin Ferguson’s secret deal with some NT aborigines over NT nuke waste dumping. BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam disrupted for months, keeping quiet over probable job losses. Greens asking awkward questions about radioactive spill at Lucas Heights. ERA keeping quiet about radioactive leaking at Ranger uranium mine.
Internationally: Obama being ambiguous about nuclear, as nuke lobbying continues over U.S.A’s Climate Bill. Chilean veterans suing govt over radiation harm. Iran being flighty over nuke deal offered to them. AREVA’s “flagship” nuclear reactors limp on expensively. IAEA trying to solve Chernobyl’s still radioactive cooling pond. Sellafield cleanup costing billions with no end in sight. – review of the week that was
Martin Ferguson’s secret deal on nuclear waste dump
Secret $200k nuclear dump contract criticised ABC News By David Coady 22 Oct 09
The Greens are criticising the Federal Government for keeping secret a contract with traditional owners about a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory.
The Greens asked about an agreement between the Northern Land Council, Muckaty Land Trust and the previous Federal Government in committee hearings yesterday.
Senator Scott Ludlam says it involved an initial payment of $200,000 to a small group of traditional owners.
He says the contract is not being made public and the intentions of the Resources Minister, Martin Ferguson, are clear.
“He intends to coercively dump the nation’s most dangerous industrial waste, probably at Muckaty Station in Tennant Creek,” he said.
“They’ve had two years to deal with this situation.
“They’re clearly in violation of commitments they made before the election.”
The Resources Minister’s media advisor says it is the Northern Land Council, not the Government, that wants the agreement kept confidential.
Secret $200k nuclear dump contract criticised – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Review: Uranium and nuclear skulduggery
Australia: – Corrupt dealings over Marathon’s uranium exploration. Telstra closes down nuclear veterans’ website – under govt pressure? The case against the govt’s plans for radioactive waste dumping in NT – is taken internationally. mainstream media wrongly portrays Peter Beatties as pro-nuclear. A High Court ruling further limits aborigines’ land rights
International: Nuclear lobby aims to take over US Climate Bill. Revelations of France and Germany’s unsafe radioacttive waste dumping in Siberia. AREVA’s half-built nuclear reactors in Finland and France are plagued with problems, lawsuits, and ever-escalating costs. French govt not likley to compensate Polynesian nuclear bomb test victims. – the week that has been
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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