Uranium company director Ken Talbot and Arkaroola corruption charges
The death of Ken Talbot in an airplane crash puts a stop to the legal proceedings that have been ongoing over corruption charges, and the murky history of uranium miner Marathon resources.
The charges concerned $300,000 allegedly paid by Talbot to Nuttall while Nuttall was a Minister of the Crown. Nuttall was sentenced in July this year to seven year’s jail…………
Arkaroola uranium hunter on bribery charges, The Independent Weekly, HENDRIK GOUT17 Oct, 2009 The owner and director of the largest shareholder in the company which the state government allows to explore the Arkaroola wilderness for uranium, Marathon Resources, is awaiting trial on charges of having bribed a government minister.
Ken Talbot of Talbot Group Investments Pty Ltd is accused of corruptly making payments to Gordon Nuttall, then a Labor minister in the Queensland Government…………In December 2008, Gordon Nuttall and Ken Talbot were committed to stand trial on 35 corruption charges. Continue reading
China moving to be world’s renewable energy leader
China’s Green Energy Programs, and More, CRS, Secrecy News, June 23rd, 2010 by Steven Aftergood One thing that is even more impressive than China’s nuclear history is its emerging green energy future. “China has set ambitious targets for developing its… renewable energy resources with a major push of laws, policies and incentives in the last few years,” according to a new report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service. Continue reading
Australia well placed to be hub of renewable energy export industry
Could Australia be the hub of a renewable energy export industry powering the homes, industry and electric car fleets of our region? In fact, our proportion of the global renewable energy resource is much higher than it is for coal.
Do renewable energy by the numbers, and it all adds up, Sydney Morning Herald, MIKE SANDIFORD June 24, 2010 “………..Geographically dispersed production – spreading out renewable energy farms so as not to rely on weather conditions in one area – is one way to improve energy stability and security. And our nation-continent, stretching across climate and time zones, appears ready-made for that.
Two new studies published by the Melbourne Energy Institute look at just these issues. Continue reading
Surfers against nuclear power
The message is clear from the surf community in Jeffreys Bay and is supported by surfers from all over the world. Don’t build a Nuke at Thuyspunt.
(South Africa) 23 June 2010, The Jeffreys Bay surf community came out in full support of the Supertubes Surfing Foundation’s call to prevent the building of a nuclear power station at nearby Thuyspunt. Continue reading
Australian govt’s new trick to benefit nuclear industry
The NT intervention is clearly racist and is not motivated by concern for Aboriginal children but to enable government control of Aboriginal land…..Many Aboriginal communities have been forced to sign over their land on five-year leases to the federal government — land that contains gold, iron ore, uranium as well as areas that have been slated as potential nuclear waste dumps.
We are all in this together, Green Left Weekly, Ruth Ratcliffe June 20, 2010“…….The Rudd government plans to extend the paternalistic policy of welfare quarantining, which the Howard government initiated in remote Aboriginal communities, to other areas of disadvantage. Continue reading
New hope for Australia to get real Climate Change policy
That [lack of a carbon tax] may change after the election if the Greens hold the balance of power in their own right.
Wong negotiates renewable energy plans, Sydney Morning Herald, June 23, 2010 The Rudd government is preparing to unveil a new climate action policy ahead of the next federal election, likely in a few months. Continue reading
Radioactive waste problem at London’s Olympic Games site
Tonnes of radioactive waste casts doubt over London’s Olympic stadium legacy• Presence of waste on site could complicate redevelopment after 2012 Games | UK news | The Guardian, Ian Griffiths 20 June 2010,
The development of the Olympic site in east London after the Games have finished could be in jeopardy because of radioactive waste buried beneath the site, experts have warned. Continue reading
Agreement on Australia’s renewable energy scheme
Escalating mass and escalating costs of nuclear wastes
There is no national disposal spot for the spent fuel, and for 32 states, no place to send their low-level wastes. Around the country, the inventory of low-level wastes with no place to go is growing by about 10,000 cubic feet a year……...as much as $1,625 per cubic foot of waste. Even with waste reduction technologies, the amount of waste per year amounts to thousands of cubic feet…………
(USA) Nuclear Dumps Argue Over Diluting Waste for Burial – NYTimes.com, By MATTHEW L. WALD June 17, 2010 Even low-level radioactive waste is a growing problem, with few licensed repositories to dispose of it. The problem dates from the early 1980s, when Congress said that the federal government would take care of high-level waste, like spent fuel from nuclear power plants, but that the states would have to find sites for low-level material, like the radiation sources used in cancer treatments and industrial X-rays, and filters used in nuclear plants.In reality, both the federal and state efforts mostly failed. There is no national disposal spot for the spent fuel, and for 32 states, no place to send their low-level wastes. Around the country, the inventory of low-level wastes with no place to go is growing by about 10,000 cubic feet a year……… Continue reading
Review: Resources tax, GNEP to IFNEC, Renewables
Australia: Mainstream media continues to publicise the billionaires’ revolt against Resources Super Profit Tax – as though it’s going to end Australia’s resources industries. (At the same time, China signing up for long term resources buying). Uranium market remains in the doldrums. ERA’s annual profit halved. Moves in Parliament to get REAL renewable energy legislation. Victorian Labor opposing uranium sales to Russia. Senator Scott Ludlam keeps asking those awkward nuclear questions.
International: USA gets new renewable energy coalition. GNEP rises up again under a new name – International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation (IFNEC). South Africa abandoning Pebble Bed Nuclear Reactor project. China selling nuclear reactors to Pakistan, seeing that USA is selling them to India. USA’s proposed Climate Bill is in fact a massive bailout for nuclear industry. Punjab children retarded due to uranium contamination. Anti nuclear protest at APEC. – the week that has been.
Greens and Liberal Senators push for Solar and Wind Power
Solar, wind power may meet 2020 energy use, Sydney Morning Herald, TOM ARUP, June 22, 2010 A MASSIVE introduction of solar-thermal power plants and wind farms would allow Australia to generate all its energy needs from renewable technologies by 2020, research shows.The report, to be announced today by the retiring Liberal Victorian senator Judith Troeth, the Greens senator Christine Milne and the Independent Nick Xenophon, finds a 100 per cent renewable plan by 2020 would cost $37 billion a year, in public and private money – or 3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product. Continue reading
Victorian Labor Party opposes sale of uranium to Russia
The Victorian ALP State Conference on Saturday 19th June passed a Motion opposing export of uranium to Russia.
This is a strong position and an important challenge to the Federal ALP government’s stated support for the Howard – Putin uranium deal that was cut by the preceding Liberal government before the last federal election.
The Motion calls on Federal ALP to accept the findings of a Federal Parliamentary Inquiry by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties that recommended the Russian uranium sales deal should not proceed and placed a set of strong preconditions in its path – conditions that the Federal Labor government are not honouring to date.
Political moves in New Zealand to prevent passage of uranium shipments
Moves to stop uranium shipment Herald Sun: AAP * June 21, 2010 NEW Zealand politicians say they are looking for ways to update anti-nuclear legislation in a bid to block uranium shipments from South Australia passing through New Zealand ports. Continue reading
Tim Flannery goes anti nuclear?
Time Flannery, previous darling of the Australian nuclear lobby – seems to have got off his pro nuclear horse – well – to some degree anyway. He’s just against it for Australia.
But – that’s incurred the wrath of quite a few pro-nuclear columnists – he seems to be out of favour now
Flannery, quoted 20 June 2010, “Why should we take the most expensive option in this country, which has always been recognized as having the most expensive and difficult option.
We are going to see a whole lot of other technologies and innovations which are now well under way which we could use instead of nuclear power……. Such as concentrated PV technology, geothermal technology, wave power, wind power.”
The Uranium Mining Gamble
The gambling is going on in both uranium markets. Some corporations gamble on selling old weapons uranium. Others gamble on digging uranium out of the ground and selling it – (if it goes belly up – well in Australia they’ll try to blame the Rudd government)
Companies Bet on Market for Enriched Uranium, Online Casino Guide, 21 June 2010, Changes in technology and vagaries like future arms control agreements can affect companies like Urenco and USEC.
Companies Bet on Market for Enriched Uranium | Online Casino Guide
…. projects such as BHP’s uranium and copper mine at Olympic Dam in South Australia. This requires billions of dollars in upfront investment projected to be recouped by cash flows in 2020 or later. The relatively high rate of return required is a function of many risks, including cost pressures and assumptions about the uranium market in 2020….. FT.com 20 June 2010,
1 This month
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