Japan’s space junk falls on aboriginal land
Joy and delight, it seems, greets the fall of the asteroid bit, onto already contaminated Aboriginal land at Woomera!
Now I ask you – who, other than the Aborigines, would we expect to be delighted about a bit of metallic junk being flung onto their property?
First the Aborigines got atomic bombs, then uranium mining, now radioactive wastes, now space junk…!
Space probe returns to Earth from trip to asteroid, Google hosted news, By TANALEE SMITH (AP) –14 June 2010,”… It is the first time that a spacecraft has successfully landed on an asteroid and returned to Earth……
Japanese space probe to land in Australian outback, news90, June 13, 2010 · “…local Aboriginal elders,.. will fly out in a helicopter to check it has not damaged any sites sacred to the local indigenous people. – (and what if it has? – too late now!)
Uranium causing mental retardation in kids
‘Uranium making Punjab kids retarded’, THE TIMES OF INDIA, Balwant Garg, Jun 14, 2010, BATHINDA: Confirming Punjab’s worst fear and The Times of India reports, a resounding document from Germany’s Microtrace Mineral Lab has revealed that hair samples of 80% of 149 neurologically disabled children, mainly from southern Malwa region, have high levels of uranium…. Continue reading
Radioactive wastes are produced at all stages of the nuclear fuel cycle
The NUCLEAR INDUSTRY and the GLOBAL NUCLEAR WASTE PROBLEM – our theme for June 2010
From the uranium mine to the final destruction of the nuclear reactor….
Ranger uranium mine’ s salty leak into freshwater creek
Uranium mine caused abnormal salt levels in Kakadu creek – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting
Corporation) 12 June 2010, The company that operates the Ranger uranium mine has confirmed higher-than-normal salt levels in a creek in Kakadu National Park is a result of its operations.Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) has investigated two salinity spikes in Magela Creek downstream of the mine in April.Chief executive Rob Atkinson says run-off water from the mine had flowed into the creek….
Uranium companies pressuring Aboriginals in Australia’s Kimberly region
Green group on ‘uranium awareness’ tour » Kimberley Page, 10 June 2010, Uranium Awareness Community Forums planned for July While the proposed construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility at James Price Point attracts widespread media attention, an increase in uranium exploration is underway and under the radar in the Kimberley.
Presently there are numerous uranium tenements covering the Kimberley . This spike in activity is the result of the Barnett Government’s move to overturn the long-standing ban on uranium exploration and development held by the previous Labor Government.Already Traditional Owners across the Kimberley are under pressure to allow exploration activities. Meanwhile uranium companies are talking in glowing terms about the Kimberley as Australia’s new uranium province. Continue reading
BHP Billiton fudges radiation exposure levels of uranium mine workers
The whistleblower produced documents that show BHP uses manipulated averages and distorted sampling to ensure the figures are below the maximum exposure levels set by government…..managed to manipulate the sampling by transferring workers, whose exposures were escalating, to a different area
Radiation unsafe at BHP’s Olympic Dam: whistleblower, Sydney Morning Herald, June 4, 2010 Workers at BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam are being exposed to unsafe levels of radiation, according to a company whistleblower. Continue reading
USA finally supports South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty
POLITICS: US MOVES TO SUPPORT NUCLEAR FREE ZONE TREATY, Islands Business, Nic Maclellan, 11 June 2010, In a major policy change, the US government has announced it will move to support the Rarotonga Treaty for a South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone (SPNFZ)—25 years after the treaty was first signed by Pacific nations. Continue reading
USA’s double standards on USA’s oil, India’s nuclear pollution dangers
Under the civil liabilities for nuclear damage bill, central to a deal with the controversial nuclear pact with the US, costs for cleaning up a catastrophic failure would end up being paid by the Indian taxpayer…….so that shareholders of large US corporations would not be forced to pay out for sloppy, deadly mistakes.
Obama hasn’t learned lessons of Bhopal, Randeep Ramesh guardian.co.uk 10 June 2010 Foreign companies such as BP are shown the big stick, but Washington offers a big shield for its multinationals abroad
While Barack Obama is lambasting BP for spreading muck in the Gulf of Mexico, he should perhaps pencil in a date with the people of Bhopal when he visits India later this year. While 11 men lost their lives on BP’s watch and the shrimps get coated with black stuff, the chemicals that killed thousands of people in Bhopal in 1984 are still leaching into the ground water a quarter of a century after a poisonous, milky-white cloud settled over the city. Continue reading
Whistleblower on ANSTO’s nuclear radiation leak now dubbed a “security risk”
Ansto whistleblower now ”security risk’‘ St George & Sutherland Shire Leader, BY ROSITA GALLASCH, 09 Jun, 2010 DAVID Reid, the whistleblower who raised safety concerns about yje Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation’s radiopharmaceuticals and industrials (ARI) facility last month, is now regarded as a security risk.
ANSTO’s chief executive officer Adi Paterson said Mr Reid, who was a safety officer for six years and an employee for 28, now posed a security threat.
“I cannot be satisfied, from a security point of view, of him entering a nuclear facility,” Dr Paterson said. Continue reading
Churches report on Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty review conference
Churches seeking specific steps to stop nuclear arms shared long-standing disappointments – plus a few new grounds for hope – with many governments and most of the 120 civil society organisations in New York during May for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference.
Majority puts new pressure on minority’s nuclear weapons, Ekklesia, By Jonathan Frerichs, 9 Jun 2010 Is it time to start work on banning nuclear weapons? “Yes” says a growing majority of governments and civil society groups. “No” insists a tiny nuclear-armed minority. Continue reading
Australia-Russia uranium dealings
The machinations have been going on for many years. One way or another, Australian uranium is getting under foreign control – take the current Russian situation. Negotiations with Russia’s Roasatom nuclear tsar, Sergei Kiryienko went on, secretly, between Kiriyenko and BHP Billiton. over many years.
Kiriyenko was to quietly visit Australia, but apparently did not. A former Prime Minister of Russia, Kiriyenko has, in recent years, guided the State nuclear agency, Rosatom, with the aim of becoming the world’s most powerful uranium and nuclear power company.
Honeymoon uranium mine to be controlled by Russian govt
Moscow moves on global uranium mines The Australian * June 10, 2010 RUSSIA has moved to boost its holdings in global uranium mines, with state-owned Rosatom agreeing to take a controlling stake in Canada’s Uranium One……If the deal goes ahead, it will put the Honeymoon uranium project in South Australia, scheduled to come into production at the end of the year, under the control of the Russian government.…. Continue reading
Australian uranium will help Russia to run Iran’s nuclear plant
Rosatom Agrees to First Asset Sale to Foreign Investor, The Moscow Times, 09 June 2010By Anatoly Medetsky “…..Kiriyenko announced that Russia and Iran would jointly run Iran’s first nuclear power plant that Rosatom plans to launch in August…..
Under a deal signed in 2007, which Australia also has yet to ratify, Russia will be able to import Australian uranium for use at its own nuclear power plants after enrichment…….Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said at the end of April that the country would ratify the agreement. He didn’t say when.Rosatom Agrees to First Asset Sale to Foreign Investor | Business | The Moscow Times
repeated ionising radiation is a breast cancer risk for women
…In answer to the question “Is ionizing radiation a cause of breast cancer?” Cornell experts say “Yes” and note “… female breast tissue is highly susceptible to radiation effects.”….
Radiation builds up.
Do X-rays & other radiation contribute to breast cancer? ALLVOICES, by Anne Hart, Jun 09, 2010 “……, a study at Cornell University “Ionizing Radiation and Breast Cancer Risk,” showed how it’s well-established that exposure to ionizing radiation can trigger mutations and other genetic damage and cause normal cells to become malignant… Continue reading
Review: resources tax, India’s dilemma, oil gusher
Australia: a seemingly quiet week. Obama cancels visit to Australia. Mainstream media continue to ignore Senator Scott Ludlam’s penetrating questioning on matters nuclear – (the taxpayer funded Uranium Council lobby, Muckaty nuclear waste plan, nuclear weapons proliferation..) BHP and Rio spend a sizable little of their massive profits to fight the govt’s super profit resources tax. These corporations fear that other countries might take up the idea too. Union push against health danger of uranium mining.
International: Dow Chemical Company escapes justice after 25 years, and hundreds of thousands of deaths from the Bhopal gas disaster. A portent for India’s nuclear energy future? Meanwhile USA seeks to prosecute BP over oil spill. U.S looks like getting useless Climate legislation. Pointless debate over nuclear bombing as a solution to BP’s oil gush .
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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