Radioactive dust and BHP’s Great Big New Uranium Mine
Government, media, corporations … tum ta da … all happy with the “resources boom” – Never mind the question of uranium wastes, when BHP Billiton sets up its Great Big New Uranium Mine. I mean – where will the radioactive dust go?
Oh dear – to Antarctica, and perhaps a few other places, too – like Australia’s capital cities. What about the towns and regions near Olympic Dam?
Uranium dust from Australia’s mines blown to Antarctica
Australian uranium dust found in Antarctic ice ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 3 May, 2010, An ice core from the Antarctic bears traces of uranium that may have been carried by the wind from Australian mines in 1995, a glacier expert has told a Chilean newspaper.
The minuscule amounts of the radioactive element “correspond to a year (1995) when Australia increased its uranium production,” Ricardo Jana, who participates in an international research effort in the frozen continent, told El Mercurio daily.He said scientists theorise the uranium particles were carried by the wind from Australia and deposited in the northern part of the Antarctic’s Detroit peninsula. Australian uranium dust found in Antarctic ice – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporati
Quiet progress of People for a Nuclear Free Australia
More than half the battle, in getting rid of the toxic uranium , nuclear power, and nuclear weapons industries, is in informing people, about the true nature of the dangers, and financial waste involved.
This is an uphill battle in Australia, as we head off into Third World colonial status, pursuing the short term greed of the “resources boom” . The major political parties are subservient to polluting corporations. The mainstream media is closely allied to mining interests. Australia still has its cultural, colonial cringe – resulting in public ignorance and apathy about the nuclear issue.
People for a Nuclear Free Australia (PFNA) are changing this. By well planned educational materials, the facts are being placed before doctors and other professionals, trade unionists, and members of parliament. The Australian Electrical Trades Union has just produced an excellent film which documents the health implications of uranium mining both to the miners and their families who live near the mines.
To learn more about PFNA, or to contribute to their educational effort, go to http://pnfa.com.au
Australian women’s anti-nuclear peace walk to Canberra
Our aim is to communicate how the whole nuclear cycle is unsafe; it will leave a toxic legacy for over 200 000 years.
FootPrints For Peace Australia | Indymedia Australia, 1 May 2010, On 13 March 2010 five women aged from 37 to 69 began walking from Brisbane to Canberra to take a message to the prime minister. The message conveys the hopes and dreams of the Australian people, asking that we take steps towards a nuclear free future. Continue reading
Australian Senate delays its report on planned nuclear waste dump on Aboriginal land
Senate’s Muckaty nuclear dump report delayed, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)By Gina Marich Apr 30, 2010 A Senate committee report into the proposed nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station, north of Tennant Creek, has been delayed. Continue reading
Australian government attempts world’s worst practice on Northern Territory nuclear waste dump
Elders from the Ngapa, Milwayi, Ngarrka, Yapayapa and Wirntiku clans have come all this way to reject the Government’s claim that any one person has the exclusive rights to say yes or no to the waste dump.
Proposed solution lights a lasting fuse, Greens Senator SCOTT LUDLAM
Northern Territory News (20,Sat 01 May 2010)
Some of Australia’s most deprived to host toxic time capsule
THE Federal Government has betrayed Territorians with its decision to put a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station Continue reading
Melbourne anti nuclear waste dump protest targets Martin Ferguson
Nuclear dump opposed from Muckaty to Melbourne , Indymedia Australia, 30 April 2010, Community
opposition to Martin Ferguson’s nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station continues to grow. About 40 people convened at short notice outside Martin Ferguson’s electoral office on High Street Preston in a colourful protest of speeches, song and street theatre. ‘Martin Ferguson’ gets ‘splashed’ with Muckaty nuclear waste in the street theatre performed outside his office. Continue reading
Liberal Party stalling Australia’s Renewable Energy Policy
Coalition puts a spanner in the renewable works, Sydney Morning Herald LENORE TAYLOR May 1, 2010 THE future of Australia’s only remaining incentive to invest in renewable energy is under a cloud after the Coalition raised concerns about proposed government amendments to the 20 per cent renewable energy target. Continue reading
Victoria’s community owned Hepburn Wind shows the way to renewable energy
Small players spinning wheels of renewable energy, Sydney Morning Herald, CHRIS ZAPPONE, April 28, 2010 Although the prospects of a national emissions trading scheme appear to have receded further over the horizon, one community is determined to make renewable energy a reality. At least locally.Community-owned Hepburn Wind today completed a contract for the delivery of two 2 megawatt wind turbines to be installed at Leonards Hill, south of Daylesford in central Victoria.The locally operated enterprise, billed as the first of its kind in Australia, is expected to supply almost all of Daylesford’s and Hepburn Shire’s electricity needs – enough for 2300 homes by the beginning of next year. Hepburn wind farm believed to be the first in Australia | Energy
Australian input into anti-nuclear march to United Nations
Peace Trekkers Visit Montclair , Baristanet April 28, 2010 About 25 peace marchers, some of whom have been on the road since February, walked up Bloomfield Avenue today, chanting, beating drums and carrying their message of opposition to nuclear power and bombs to the Central Presbyterian Church on Park St., where they’ll be spending the night. The marchers are members of Footprints for Peace……. plan to reach the United Nations on Saturday. They said the Montclair Presbyterians offered shelter on 24 hours notice.
“I’ve only been walking for a month,” said Kerrie-Ann Garlick, who came from Australia to participate in the march, and who will be speaking at the UN. She said Australia is the third largest exporter of uranium in the world, which is why so many Australians are involved in the peace effort. “We want to close the whole industry down,” Garlick said. Peace Trekkers Visit Montclair (Baristanet)
Australia should not become just the land of quarries and waste dumops
We will all pay for that when the global miners are gone – or we won’t be able to afford to pay for a clean-up at all and just leave the holes in the ground.
Curse of The Resource Rich may Befall Us, Sydney Morning Herald, MARTIN FEIL, April 30, 2010
The government and the media generally promote Australia’s resources boom as a blessing for the economy in difficult global times. Our land seems to be regarded as a magic pudding that will never stop feeding our growing population. All we have to do is dig. Continue reading
Hydroelectric plant – an Australian first
NSW: Australia’s first hydroelectric plant turned on, Energy Digital, 29 April 2010, North Head sewage treatment plant’s new hydro electric facility will now generate enough green energy to benefit environment, Andrea Marino , Apr 29, 2010 Continue reading
High Speed Rail network linked to carbon savings and renewable energy
A national Australian HSR network will deliver larger carbon savings as domestic energy production shifts to renewable energy sources like wind, geothermal, and baseload solar.
High-Speed Rail Back on Australian Agenda, The Energy Collective 24 April 2010, The Australian Greens have put high-speed rail (HSR) back on the national agenda. Continue reading
Women oppose nuclear power and nuclear weapons
Women and Nuclear Power, Nuclear Weapons – our theme for May 2010
When it comes to opposing nuclear power, the toughest and most active and conspicuous resistance has been among women.
If women had been asked if nuclear power should be used for energy production or if nuclear weapons should be produced there would hardly be any nuclear power stations in the world and no nuclear weapons. Women represent half of humanity. Our voice must be heard! – Ulla Klötzer, WISE – Nuclear issues information service
Australia – To Russia with Nukes
“the reality is that Australia would effectively be relinquishing responsibility for supplying the raw ingredient for bomb fuel to a nuclear weapons state with an acknowledged lack of transparency in its civil/military arrangements,”
Melbourne, 29 April 2010: The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN) is deeply disappointed at Foreign Minister Stephen Smith’s announcement that Australia will ratify a new agreement allowing uranium exports to Russia.
The move will see Australia supplying uranium to a nuclear weapons state whose nuclear security is poor, whose facilities are off-limits to international inspectors, and whose record on disarmament is woeful. Continue reading
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