Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items

Cameco’s planned uranium mine a risk to Alice Springs’ water supply

“Now if the tailing’s dam were to burst here at Angela-Pamela, radioactive water would run downhill from the mine towards our future water bore at a place called rocky hill.

“The radioactive water would contaminate our water through surface recharge,”

Ranger problems cause a stir in Alice Springs ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 28 May 2010, An overflow of contaminated water at the Ranger Uranium mine has prompted an environment group in Alice Springs to again speak out against a possible mine in Central Australia. Energy Resources of Australia operates the Ranger mine, which is surrounded by Kakadu National Park. The Greens say there have been 150 reported leaks from the mine since it opened and ERA should be forced to conduct continuous monitoring.

Cameco is leading a joint venture project exploring for uranium at its Angela Pamela project, 25 km south of Alice Springs.

Jess Abrahams from the Arid Lands Environment Centre says the project would be too close to the towns future drinking water supply.

“Now if the tailing’s dam were to burst here at Angela-Pamela, radioactive water would run downhill from the mine towards our future water bore at a place called rocky hill.

“The radioactive water would contaminate our water through surface recharge,” said Ms Abrahams.

Cameco says if it cannot protect the town’s drinking water, it will not mine the uranium.

It says any Environmental Impact Statement would consider all environmental, social and economic impacts. Ranger problems cause a stir in Alice Springs – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

May 28, 2010 Posted by | General News, uranium, water | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Movement in USA to stop funds for troops going to new nukes

Your actions now can stop $9 Billion in new nuke taxpayer loans! Nuclear Information and Resource Service – NIRS, 26 May. 2010, The Obama Administration is attempting to get $9 billion more in loans for new nuclear reactor construction this week. They’re trying to sneak this money on to an emergency supplemental funding bill intended to provide funds for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and to provide additional disaster relief money.But there is no emergency requiring new nuclear loans! Continue reading

May 28, 2010 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , | Leave a comment

Northern Territory to become China’s uranium colony?

Uranium powers Chinese interest in NT Northern Territory News |NADJA HAINKE May 28th, 2010

CHINA is turning to the Northern Territory to source uranium in its ever-increasing need for power. Territory Uranium Company has received immense attention from several Chinese businesses wanting to invest in its exploration projects in the NT.

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But it is believed no solid agreements have yet been reached…..Managing director Ian Bamborough said …… Territory Uranium Company was keen to sell off about 50 per cent of its shares as more funding would mean more drilling…………

……One of the prospects getting particular interest from Chinese businesses is the Daly River project, about 350km south of Darwin…….

Environmental surveys and negotiations with traditional owners have yet to be completed. Uranium powers Chinese interest in NT | Northern Territory News | Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia | ntnews.com.au

May 28, 2010 Posted by | business, Northern Territory, uranium | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The quack background of Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy

France has, rather unwisely, put a huge amount of its export eggs into the nuclear energy market. Its President Sarkozy spends much time and energy pushing nuclear sales around the world.

Helping in this French sales effort is Bruno Comby, who purports to be a health expert and environmental scientist.  Among his many-faceted health promotion businesses is the Comby Stressometer.  Rather like the Scientologist’s E-Meter, the Comby Stressometer can be sent to you from overseas, (for a price). and it purports to measure your stress levels and physical well-being.

Mr Comby is a quack.

He is also the founder and leading light of Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy, supposedly a worldwide organisation, but very secretive about its membership and its funding.

Also secretive is the background of Bruno Comby – who is in fact qualified only as a nuclear physicist.

May 27, 2010 Posted by | Christina reviews, uranium | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yet another attempt to start an Australian pro-nuclear party

Pro-nuclear pollies join the party, Reportage; 27 May 2010 “… Anna Watanabe investigates the Environmentalists for Nuclear party, a new minor party waiting to join Australia’s political system.

Goronwy Price is a former adventurer, turned software designer, and is the candidate-to-be for Environmentalists for Nuclear Power Australia (EFN), an umbrella group of the original organization founded in France.

Price and the EFN plan to register as a federal political party when their membership exceeds 500 people…………….But the vast majority of Australia’s Green movement remains decidedly anti-nuclear………..

Dr. Mark Diesendorf, author and deputy director of the Institute of Environmental Studies, UNSW says that he has a more conspiratorial objection to pro-nuclear environmentalism.“Just like there is big money behind climate change deniers, from the coal industry…there has to be big money behind these so called environmentalists for nuclear power.”

May 27, 2010 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics, uranium | , , , , | Leave a comment

Do your savings go to promote the nuclear industry?

Banktrack is a coalition of citizen organisations whose research campaign is tracking down those financial institutions bankrolling the nuclear industry.

This is the secret the www.nuclearbanks.org website will tell you.

Nuclear banks? No thanks! | Greenpeace International, by jmckeati – May 26, 2010 , Today sees the launch of the http://www.nuclearbanks.org website, a joint venture between BankTrack, Greenpeace International, Urgewald (Germany), Les Amis de la Terre (France), Antiatom Szene (Austria), WISE (the Netherlands) and CRBM (Italy).Banks around the world love to boast about their investments in green technologies and renewable energy. What they don’t like to boast about is their involvement with the dirty and dangerous business of nuclear power. Continue reading

May 27, 2010 Posted by | uranium | , , , , | Leave a comment

3rd degree examines Western Australia’s uranium problems

The 3rd degree is a community radio show on 2ser 107.3 FM bringing meaningful climate change dialogue to the Sydney airwaves. We’re a crew of people involved in environmental movementsTune In!Listen to the 3rd degree Thursdays 9-9.30am est on 2SER 107.3FM or online here
Click here to download our nuclear special!
Ep.105: Western Australia – the nuclear state?

There are several proposed mines being processed at the moment, many on Indigenous homelands. Western Australia also doesn’t have a regulatory framework to deal with the risks of nuclear mining and many community members are concerned about this….. who is exploring where, what is being planned and what does the community say?

the 3rd degree: Ep. 105: Western Australia – the nuclear state?

May 27, 2010 Posted by | energy, General News, uranium | , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Campaign to remove BHP’s special legal exemptions for Olympic Dam uranium mine

Friends of the Earth is currently working on a campaign to have the SA Roxby Downs Indenture Act repealed. This legislation allows the mine to operate with wide-ranging exemptions from the Aboriginal Heritage Protection Act, the Environment Protection Act, the Natural Resources Act and the Freedom of Information Act………….

Radioactive Exposure tour at Olympic Dam, The Monitor Newspaper : by Celeste Lustosa, 27 May 2010, The Friends of the Earth conducted their annual Radioactive Exposure Tour from May 14 to 23.  As part of this event, they were in the Roxby Downs / Olympic Dam area from Sunday, May 16. Continue reading

May 27, 2010 Posted by | energy, politics, South Australia, uranium | , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Nuclear energy push is the central aim of U.S. Climate Bill

Nuclear Energy Has a Friend in Heads of Obama’s BP Oil Disaster Commission,  by kgosztola May 25, 2010“……..Public Citizen reports the current climate legislation is a “nuclear energy-promoting, oil drilling-championing, coal mining-boosting” piece of legislation “with a weak carbon pricing mechanism thrown in.” The public interest groups warns against the nuclear power incentives currently in the climate change bill:
At its core, this legislation is all about promoting nuclear power and handing taxpayers the bill. Consider: Continue reading

May 27, 2010 Posted by | climate change - global warming, energy, uranium | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ranger uranium mine water poorly monitored

Stringent Water Monitoring Needed at Uranium Mine: Greens | theangle.org. 27 May 21010, The Australian Greens have called for better water monitoring methods to be implemented in the wake of allegations that contamination of creek systems has occurred near the Ranger Uranium Mine in the Northern Territory. Continue reading

May 27, 2010 Posted by | environment, Northern Territory, uranium, water | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pronukes Graham and Reilly in charge of Obama’s Oil Disaster Commission

The EPA under Reilly specifically called for “the construction of 600 more 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plants around the world.”

Nuclear Energy Has a Friend in Heads of Obama’s BP Oil Disaster Commission,  by kgosztola May 25, 2010 “…….The single largest nuclear industry contributor to Graham’s campaign was Exelon, which has provided him with $19,000 since 1998. Exelon, in fact, is a particularly generous donor, giving a total of $588,044 to members of Congress in 2002 alone. That makes it the kindest nuclear company to politicians, according to a Public Citizen report issued this past May 20 titled “Hot Waste, Cold Cash.” Continue reading

May 27, 2010 Posted by | uranium | , , , | Leave a comment

Tony Abbott would sell uranium to India

Australia’s Abbott Wants Japan Trade Deal, India Uranium Sale, Bloomberg Business Week By Marion Rae May 25 — Australia will try to clinch a trade deal with Japan, boosting ties with its second-largest trading partner after China, and will sell uranium to India under a Liberal-National government, opposition leader Tony Abbott said..

…The coalition will build a “strong strategic partnership” with Japan, including stronger military links and a conclusion to free trade talks, and will “overturn Labor’s ban on uranium exports,” Abbott said today in a speech to the Asialink-Asia Society forum in Canberra……Rudd’s government doesn’t allow uranium to be sold to India for energy use because the South Asian country hasn’t signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

That ban will be scrapped, opening a new market for uranium producers such as BHP Billiton Ltd., Energy Resources of Australia Ltd., which is controlled by Rio Tinto Group, and explorers such as Toro Energy Ltd., Abbott said. Australia’s Abbott Wants Japan Trade Deal, India Uranium Sale – BusinessWeek

May 26, 2010 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy, politics, uranium | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Huge anti nuclear protest in Switzerland

Swiss anti-nuclear protest gathers 4,000 Solothurn, Switzerland (GenevaLunch), 26 May 2010, – More than 4,000 people gathered in Goesgen, canton Solothurn, in northern Switzerland Monday, for a peaceful protest against the continuing development of nuclear energy in the country. The protest had participants from 83 groups in Switzerland, France, Germany and Austria. One of their key points was that switzerland’s nuclear power plans are preventing the rapid development of alternative energy programmes. GenevaLunch » Swiss anti-nuclear protest gathers 4,000

May 26, 2010 Posted by | energy, uranium | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Obama’s Oil Disaster Commission may have a pro-nuclear agenda

With Graham and Reilly on the commission, it’s far more likely that this commission will advance a much different agenda—a nuclear energy agenda…..one must ask if Graham is simply a nuclear energy salesman who knows how to play the game………

Nuclear Energy Has a Friend in Heads of Obama’s BP Oil Disaster Commission,  by kgosztola May 25, 2010 IN In his weekly radio address on Saturday, May 22nd, President Obama selected the two men that will be leading an independent commission that will examine the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, find the “root causes” of the disaster, and produce a report in six months. Those men were former Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) and former head of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under George H.W. Bush, William K. Reilly, a Republican……………. Continue reading

May 26, 2010 Posted by | uranium | , , , | Leave a comment

USA’s western electricity grid ready now for solar, wind power, transmission

Should these utilities succeed in coordinating their efforts and realize even 27 percent wind and solar power, they would cut carbon emissions by 25 to 45 percent. It would also lessen fuel and emissions costs by 40 percent, depending on the future prices of natural gas.

Western States Could Reach 35% Renewable Power by 2017, The Energy Collective, by Taylen Peterson on 05/24/2010 , The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) says the western US electric grid could harness up to 35 percent of its energy from wind and solar power within seven years — and without any major upgrades to the existing electric network.  Continue reading

May 26, 2010 Posted by | climate change - global warming, energy, solar, wind | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment