Australian taxpayers fund uranium lobbying council
Greens Senator keeps asking awkward nuclear questions in Parliament Christina Macpherson, 7 June 2010. For just one example – this one, about the Uranium Council, funded by the Australian Government.
Senator LUDLAM—The council has been characterised by the uranium industry as a leading advocacy group. Can you explain to me why a group dedicated to increasing the exploitation of uranium should be funded by the Commonwealth? Why does this particular sector deserve Commonwealth support to do its advocacy for it?…
There are two of the largest resource companies in the world exploiting uranium in Australia, and a host of others, but the Commonwealth still thinks it is worth $3 million of taxpayers’ money to do its advocacy for it….
Do other commodities get their own taxpayer funded advocacy groups or is uranium a special case?
Natural gas can play a role in move to renewable energy
Diesendorf also supports “a limited role for gas, because renewable energy is not yet ready to take over all of gas’s roles”.
Replace Hazelwood with gas? Green Left Weekly, June 5, 2010 By Ben Courtice “.., Environment Victoria has taken up the campaign with enthusiasm. A report for EV by energy market analysts Green Energy Markets (GEM) has provided one plan for replacing Hazelwood. Launching the report, GEM director Ric Brazzale said: “By combining new renewable energy with efficient gas and energy efficiency measures we can cut Hazelwood’s annual emissions of 16.2 million tonnes to 1.8 million tonnes, which would reduce Victoria’s emissions by 12% annually, as well as freeing up 27 billion litres of water for other uses.” Continue reading
Nuclear Abolition Day marked in Melbourne
…The ICAN video can be viewed on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yVXLDA3YMM – and see also the ICAN Australia website entry – http://www.icanw.org/node/5252
Nuclear Abolition in Melbourne 4 June 2010 On the eve of Nuclear Abolition Day ICAN Australia launched a new short video entitled “Who by Fire” based on retelling of the legend of Prometheus and Pandora displayed in a mural on the wall of the Fire Station Museum on Victoria Parade. Before the screening, which took place at Trades Hall, there was a peace picnic in Parliament Gardens, courtesy of Friends of the Earth ACE Collective, and a live performance of the work interspersed with live music and rap. Members of the audience – including several from Japanese for Peace – stood in the grounds of St Peter’s Eastern Hill church opposite the Museum, and 23 of them held lanterns, each representing 1000 nuclear weapons, this being the total world arsenal today …The ICAN video can be viewed on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yVXLDA3YMM – and see also the ICAN Australia website entry – http://www.icanw.org/node/5252
ACE Collective
Leading Australian law firms take up case against Muckaty nuclear waste dump
Maurice Blackburn, Julian Burnside, charged with waste dump action 3 June 2010 | by The New Lawyer THE Commonwealth Government and the Northern Land
Council will face a Federal Court legal challenge over plans for a radioactive waste dump in the Northern Territory.Maurice Blackburn Lawyers is working with NSW law firm Surry Partners, and Julian Burnside QC, to commence proceedings challenging the nomination of the Indigenous land, at Muckaty Station near Tennant Creek. Continue reading
Call To Martin Ferguson to withdraw nuclear dump plans
We, the undersigned residents of the federal electorate of Batman, call on Martin Ferguson MP to withdraw his plan to establish a national nuclear waste dump on Aboriginal land in the NT.We condemn his plans to override Aboriginal heritage laws, environmental protection laws, and all necessary state/territory laws in order to impose the unwanted and unnecessary nuclear dump.
” if you live in Ferguson’s Batman electorate, please sign the e-petition against the dump posted at:
http://www.gopetition.com.au/petitions/batman-voters-against-a-nuclear-waste-dump/sign.html
The nuclear industry’s track record of falsified documents
Then there’s the cover-up, deception and fraud. Workers at the UK’s Sellafield nuclear facility falsified safety records. Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Company falsified safety records. Falsified records. Falsified records. Falsified records. Falsified records……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
More nuclear history repeating | Greenpeace International, 4 June 2010, The news coming out about nuclear power can read merely like a series of isolated, unconnected events. Continue reading
Workers exposed to radioactive polonium at BHP uranium mine
“These high readings should trigger further investigation and individual testing for polonium in the body,
Roxby’s radioactive risk, The Independent Weekly. HENDRIK GOUT04 Jun, 2010 Mining giant BHP Billiton is risking the lives of its staff and employees at Olympic Dam in South Australia by exposing them to unsafe levels of radiation, according to a company whistleblower. Continue reading
Public Health Association backs union stand on danger of uranium mining
| The Northern Territory Branch of the Public Health Association of Australia (NT PHAA) has endorsed the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) call for workers to shun uranium mining.
NT PHAA Spokesperson Clive Rosewarne described the QLD/NT Branch of the ETU decision to advise its members not to work in the uranium and nuclear industries as a sensible and responsible move by the union. |
Legal case: Aboriginal owners do not want nuclear waste dump on their land
Mr Newhouse says his clients do not want compensation but for the nomination of the site to be withdrawn.
NT nuclear waste dump faces legal challenge. ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), By Jane Bardon and Gina Marich Jun 3, 2010 A legal challenge to the Federal Government’s plan to establish a national nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory has been taken to the Federal Court. Continue reading
Secrecy about nuclear wastes, and Australia’s hypocrisy
This website might well give the impression that it is anti-American, anti-British etc, – especially on the subject of nuclear wastes.
But – spare a thought for those two countries. At least the nuclear waste subject is RAISED there. (That’s how we can publish it)
Very hard to get a few lines about Russia’s nuclear wastes.
As for China, France and also a few other countries (India, Korea, European states , Israel...) – well there’s nary a word about their nuclear wastes! What do they do with radioactive wastes? It’s a worry. And it seems to me to be complete lunacy for countries like Australia to piously claim safety policy, while selling uranium to such countries.
Australia agrees: Israel should come clean on its nukes
Make the Middle East nuclear-free, says Stephen Smith From: AAP News.com.au June 02, 2010 AUSTRALIA has lent some support to the goal of ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons – which would mean forcing Israel to disarm. Continue reading
NSW wind power project approved, despite fossil fuel lobby’s hype
coal and nuclear power industries are spreading bad press about wind power as it is presently their main renewable competitor,…“Local anti-wind groups have sucked up their propaganda.”…..wind power has the cheapest operational costs. “
Wind Power a Concern for Some Communities, Epoch Times, By Cassie Ryan, 31 May 2010, In Australia this month, Epuron’s 73-turbine Gullen Range wind farm in New South Wales was approved, Continue reading
Review: hypocrisy on uranium and nuclear industry
Australia: what a load of hypocrisy is going on. about the Resources Tax! BHP saying that Olympic Dam uranium mine’s expansion is threatened. Of course it is! – By the collapse of the uranium market ! ANSTO forced to admit its safety failures. And, we wait to see if Peter Garrett will be able to promote AREVA’s uranium mining in Koongarra, while he still poses as Minister for Environment
International: hypocrisy as the closing Nuclear Non Proliferation conference promotes the nuclear industry, as pro-nukes suggest nuke bombing the oil spill, as the industry touts new, little, thorium reactors. All in a desperate bid to keep the “peaceful” nuclear industry afloat, as nuclear reactors age and close down, while new ones just aren’t getting built, except in secretive totalitarian states, such as China
Uranium a cancer risk like asbestos, says union
“Corporate interests, and their political supporters in the Labor and Coalition parties, are also trying to buy working families off with high wages, while denying the true short-term and long-term health risks of such jobs.”
‘Uranium is the new asbestos’: union ban on nuclear work, Brisbane Times, May 31, 2010 –
The Electrical Trades Union has banned its members from working in uranium mines, nuclear power stations or any other part of the nuclear fuel cycle.
The union says uranium is the new asbestos in the workplace. Continue reading
ANSTO admits safety failures at Lucas Heights: whistleblower still suspended
Mr Reid remains suspended…..The Greens say he should be reinstated immediately.
Chief vindicates Lucas Heights whistleblower – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 1 June 2010, “………….In August 2008, a worker at the ARI facility dropped a vial of highly radioactive material in a containment cell, which went unreported for several hours.”We started investigating and the more we investigated the more we couldn’t understand because it was such a massive dose,” Mr Reid said.”None of our instruments could measure it – it was way off scale. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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