Maralinga Aboriginal victims call on Australian govts for help
“When you’ve got families that lose their sight or they’ve got crippling and terminal cancers because of these tests, you know you’ve got fundamental problems,” he said.
“We can’t continue to only give access to justice for non-Aboriginal people.”
Indigenous group still fighting for Maralinga compo, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 3 August 2010, The Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement says it needs $500,000 to continue its fight for compensation for Aboriginal people affected by British nuclear tests at Maralinga in the 1950s and 1960s. Continue reading
The cry of a bereaved Hiroshima father
“I wanted to pass on the fact that the atomic bombing does not end only with the sufferings of the generation of people who were directly exposed.”
Hibakusha writes to his dead child, BY HAJIMU TAKEDA THE ASAHI SHIMBUN, 3 Aug 2010, An 81-year-old survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima has written a letter addressed to his stillborn daughter, expressing his anguish at the possibility that his exposure to radiation was responsible for her fate. Continue reading
Greens garnering electoral support against nuclear waste dump
“If people vote for the Greens, they will have a voice against a nuclear waste dump, and a very rigorous one at that, in the national Parliament,” Senator Brown said.
Greens leading the Nats, says Brown, The Age, LINDSAY MURDOCH, August 4, 2010 BOB Brown flew to the marginal Top End seat of Solomon yesterday claiming the Greens vote is rapidly increasing across regional Australia and is now “way ahead of the National Party” Continue reading
Radioactive wastes could truck through Riverina, NSW
“We’re talking about literally hundreds and over time thousands of trucks of radioactive waste passing through these transport corridor communities.”
Residents warned of radioactive transport corridor, ABC Riverina NSW – Australian Broadcasting Corporation August 3, 2010 The group Friends of the Earth has warned that the city of Wagga Wagga could be affected by Commonwealth plans to move nuclear waste from Lucas Heights to a new dump in the Northern Territory. Continue reading
A “dirty bomb’ could be made from medical radioactive isotopes
since cesium can be stolen from a hospital and thus can be more easily acquired than, say, uranium or plutonium, it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine a terrorist group acquiring enough cesium to construct a barrage of low-explosive, highly radioactive bombs and blanketing a major city with them.
The Real Deal With Cesium,THE HUFFINGTON POST, Rizwan Ladha, 2 Aug 2010, The idea has been floated for a long time of using cesium in a radioactive “dirty bomb,” which wouldn’t have the same explosive power as a uranium or plutonium nuclear bomb but would contaminate land, water supplies and living organisms, including people. Continue reading
Australia gambles on the dodgy uranium industry
You do wonder where Australian politics is heading. Clearly the big uranium miners BHP, Rio Tinto, ExStrata, are now dictating Labor policy on mining tax. (They have always dictated Liberal policy). Some ambitious union leaders are also hand in glove with those big miners, as are the South Australian and Western Australian governments.
Those States, and the Northern Territory are crawling with uranium explorers, and uranium mining is being hyped in the media. Yet uranium prices fall, and the nuclear industry stalls in USA, Europe, Britain.
Australia pitches its glowing uranium prospects on China. China is notorious for corruption, including in the nuclear industry, it has dubious safety and nuclear waste management, and a keen nuclear weapons program. But apart from all that – China might wake up to the financial and environmental negatives of nuclear power.
While China itself, and Europe, and soon, even USA, show the way on 21st Century renewable energy technologies, Australia is gambling on a very dodgy future of uranium sales.
Uranium miners stack Australia’s group for mines tax policy
the policy-transition group will be headed by former BHP chairman Don Argus and Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson.
Toro Energy CEO joins big miners in Labor’s mines tax policy team, The Australian * Rachel Pannett * From: Dow Jones Newswires * August 03, 2010
WAYNE Swan today named former and serving resource executives ……. to the government’s mines tax policy team. The policy-transition group now includes….. former Rio Tinto executive David Klingner, Erica Smyth, chairman of uranium explorer Toro Energy….. and BHP Billiton),….. Continue reading
France leads in nuclear financial disaster
Last week, AREVA posted a massive operating loss of 485 million euros for the first half of 2010…..Electricite de France (EDF) finds itself in a similar predicament. In the first half of 2010, the company saw its profits slashed by almost half.
France leads the way in the nuclear debacle Greenpeace International, by jmckeati – August 2, 2010 If you want to know why the so-called nuclear ‘renaissance’ is never going to happen, you need only look at the news that’s been coming out of France in the last few days. Continue reading
Bob Brown scathing about the resources tax gift to the big miners
A tax on minerals like uranium should be implemented once the industry was in “boom times” he [Bob Brown, Greens leader] said.
Major parties ‘missing backbone’ on mining tax, Sydney Morning Herald, KATHERINE FENECH, August 2, “…..The CFMEU has launched the satirical ad campaign, which praises Opposition leader Tony Abbott for understanding the pressures facing “ordinary, everyday billionaires”, in response to the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies’ own advertising onslaught against the Mineral Resources Rent Tax. Continue reading
Utah lawsuit aims to stop uranium drilling
(USA) Groups Sue to Block Uranium Drilling in Utah, Courthouse News Service,By SUZANNE ASHE 2 Aug 2010, SALT LAKE CITY (CN) – Three conservation groups want to stop the U.S. Forest Service from allowing a private mining company to drill 16 uranium exploration holes and two 6-foot-diameter vent holes on national forest land in southeast Utah. Continue reading
Australia’s Labor and Liberal discouraging solar power
“Australian governments have repeatedly made millions available to coal companies and car companies. Why are they so reluctant to actually properly fund world-leading renewable energy innovation, even though they are happy to claim credit for doing so? – Christine Milne
Australian Government Has Record Rate of Pulling Out Money from Solar Power, 1 Aug 2010, Canberra (mathaba) Far from their advertising slogan of ‘record investments in solar and other renewables’, the Labor government is pulling money out of solar power at a record rate, the Australian Greens said Thursday. Continue reading
Radioactive boars – Europe’s legacy from Chernobyl
Last year, US$555,000 was paid out to hunters as compensation, four times higher than in 2007. One hunter says the numbers of radioactive boars aren’t going to decrease anytime soon.
Chernobyl fallout making some German boars radioactive National Post, Jodi lai, August 2, 2010 “Nearly 25 years after the Chernobyl explosion, Europe still sees signs of radiation. Now it’s even in their wild boars…………Wild boars are particularly susceptible to radiation because they eat mushrooms and truffles, which are very efficient at absorbing radioactivity. Continue reading
Energy Resources of Australia’s 82% uranium profit loss
….Meanwhile, the net profit after tax declined by 82%,…..the global financial crisis has led to delays in nuclear reactor builds in most regions
ERA profit falls sharply, cuts FY production guidance, MINING WEEKLY, By: Esmarie Swanepoel, 30th July 2010) – ASX-listed uranium-miner Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) on Friday reported an 82% drop in half-year profit and downgraded its production guidance for the 2010 financial year Continue reading
USA’s nuclear resuscitation faltering
Two nuclear projects — …are in serious trouble and need a guarantee from the public sector (i.e. taxpayers) to bail them out if things get worse.
Nuclear Projects Looking for a Savior : CleanTechnica, by Zachary Shahan August 1st, 2010 “….two nuclear reactors that are an urgent matter to some (in the nuclear industry and politics) and also, potentially, the source of a very big bill for U.S. taxpayers… Continue reading
Young activists spread anti-nuclear message across Australia
Since returning, solidarity bus riders have addressed public meetings in Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong. Several are taking part in the Friends of the Earth Nuclear Freeways tour
Protesters issue warning on Olympic Dam expansion, Green Left Weekly, August 1, 2010, By Patrick Harrison After spending over two weeks on the road together, students and activists onboard the New South Wales “Indigenous Solidarity Ride” stopped at Olympic Dam on July 15 to protest against a proposed uranium mine expansion. Continue reading
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