Nuclear news- last week and the coming weeks
Today, as I write this, Martin Ferguson is speaking on ABC Radio, Darwin. He’s explaining how the Federal Government will put a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station, while at the same time will repeal the Howard Government’s Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act.
So the Muckaty nuclear waste dump will be 1. voluntary (i.e. asked for by some aborigines), and 2. will be for returning Australia’s “own” wastes,
originating from Sydney’s Lucas Heights nuclear reactor. (No question of radioactive wastes going to any of the States, or on Commonwealth or “whiteys'” land)
Sounds fine, doesn’t it? Let’s wait and see what happens when Obama gets to Australia in March, to talk about uranium sales to USA, under the GNEP, whereby wastes are to go back to the uranium’s place of origin.
100% electricity from renewables technically possible
Australia Group Rolls Out Plan for 100% Renewable Energy by 2020’There Are No Technological Impediments’ solve climate, by Stacy Feldman – Feb 22nd, 2010
A report to be released in the first half of this year finds that Australia can use solar and wind power to produce 100 percent of its electricity in 10 years using technologies that are available now. Continue reading
Impossible to dump nuclear waste on white Australians’ land
ANSTO executive Steven McIntosh said …“We cannot really comment upon that policy process [of siting remote dumps]…….. but politics frankly was the determining factor.”
How to site a nuclear waste dump – Crikey.
22 February 2010 Apart from the dispute between traditional owners, there’s a more fundamental question of why remote areas are preferred for nuclear waste dumps. The prerequisites routinely mentioned – geological stability and distance from groundwater – can readily be achieved elsewhere, without the expense and danger of transporting nuclear waste thousands of kilometres. Continue reading
Australian Government manipulations on nuclear waste dumping
How to site a nuclear waste dump – Crikey,
22 February 2010 The Government is expected to announce tomorrow or Wednesday that it will repeal and replace the Howard Government’s much-criticised Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act 2005, and that a nuclear waste dump will be established at Muckaty Station, virtually in the middle of the Northern Territory. Continue reading
Australia: Nuclear Waste Dump, Obama Visit, Uranium Expansion.
It’s all happening in hyping the nuclear industry in Australia. Expensive advertising by the nuclear lobby (Environmentalists for Nuclear Power), big nobs promoting it (e.g. Bob Hawke), and Ziggy Spinowsky everywhere.
What great timing! Just as the Australian government plans to
put a radioactive nuclear waste dump on aboriginal land, President Barack Obama is to visit Australia to discuss uranium, while BHP Billiton is about to launch a huge expansion of its Olympic Dam uranium mine.
Let’s not forget that Australia is still signed up to the The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), by which as a uranium supplier, Australia would be obliged to take back radioactive waste from sales of uranium to the U.S.A..
(Australia is also obligated to take back a small amount of our own Lucas Heights radioactive waste from UK, – but that is not tied to uranium sales, and that doesn’t have to be on aboriginal land).
Plan for U.S nuclear waste dump in Australia
OBAMA WILL SEND NUCLEAR WASTE TO AUSTRALIA Talking Headlines, by Bill Green, February 18th 2010 Strange that Obama is subsidising huge nuclear plants in Georgia while his government is panicking about nuclear waste. The country has been unable to contain it safely. The huge waste facilities in Washington State are leaking into the Columbia River. Continue reading
Martin Ferguson’s secret meetings on nuclear waste dump
Muckaty firms as nuclear dump Northern Territory News DANIEL BOURCHIER February 21st, 2010 MUCKATY Station is this week expected to be named as the site for the controversial nuclear waste dump.The revelation follows a series of secret meetings Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson held with the Northern Land Council, and separately with NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson and Resources Minister Kon Vatskalis. Continue reading
Funds to aboriginal outstation linked to uranium mining
MLA links outstation funds to uranium mine By Kirsty Nancarrow, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)Feb 18, 2010
The Northern Territory Government could be investing in a new Central Australian outstation as part of a push to develop a uranium mine, a politician has claimed. Continue reading
Dr Caldicott’s message on nuclear health dangers
”That’s the ace up the sleeve of the nuclear industry,” she says. ”It’s a silent, cryptogenic disease that doesn’t denote its origin. You have to do big epidemiological studies like the German study to find out what’s going on.”
Why nuclear energy struggles to get private sector funds Sydney Morning Herald , Paddy Manning, February 20, 2010
People have forgotten – a younger generation perhaps never knew – what is scary about nuclear energy.
Anti-nuclear campaigners such as Dr Helen Caldicott are routinely disparaged nowadays. A quick trawl through the clippings yields choice descriptors: “inane”, “hysteric”, “rabid”, “ageing”, “anti-nuclear messiah” and “warrior princess”. Continue reading
Uranium sales to be discussed at Obama’s visit to Australia
the US will consider importing Australian uranium now that Mr Obama is pushing for more nuclear power stations to be built.
‘I’d have to kill you’: Obama trip details stay secret, By Rick Hind ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Feb 19, 2010
The US ambassador to Australia says he cannot reveal whether US President Barack Obama will visit Darwin or Uluru during his visit to Australia next month.
On his first visit to Darwin, ambassador Jeff Bleich remained tight-lipped on whether the Obama family will visit the Northern Territory…….He says the US will consider importing Australian uranium now that Mr Obama is pushing for more nuclear power stations to be built.
Labor MP to fight against NT nuclear waste dump
Hale to fight own party against nuclear dump ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) By Louisa Rebgetz 20 Feb 2010
As speculation mounts that a nuclear waste dump will be located in the Northern Territory, MP Damian Hale says he will “fight tooth and nail” to prevent it happening. Continue reading
Muckaty Station likely to be the chosen nuclear waste dump site
NT property could be chosen as nuclear waste dump site ABC Rural News , 19/02/2010 The Australian Conservation Foundation believes a station in the Northern Territory could be the location of Australia’s first nuclear waste dump.The Northern Land Council is handling negotiations with the Commonwealth on behalf of the traditional owners that own Muckaty Station, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek. Continue reading
Secret agreement on nuclear waste dump for Northern Territory
Hale to fight own party against nuclear dump – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 20 Feb 2010 “….The ACF’s Dave Sweeney says the only sites still under consideration are in the Territory.”I would put my money that Minister Ferguson will try and bulldoze through the imposition of a waste site at Muckaty at Tennant Creek,” he said.”And I think if he goes down that path and if Federal Labor allows the Minister to break with clear policy we will be in deeply contested territory.”Mr Sweeney says the Commonwealth has entered into an agreement regarding the facility with the Northern Land Council but that agreement is being kept confidential.
Hale to fight own party against nuclear dump – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Nuclear workers scared to speak out
(USA) Workers at San Onofre nuclear plant fear retaliation for reporting problems, memo says | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times 19 Feb 2010 –-Shelby Grad Workers at the San Onofre nuclear power plant fear retaliation if they report problems at the facility operated by Southern California Edison, according to an internal memo released by an Orange County environmental group.The memo, written by a plant engineer, said 25 workers who reported problems at the plant said they feared retaliation from management after they made complaints…..
San Onofre has been the subject of several investigations by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over the last few years for various safety issues
Bob Hawke pushes for Australian lucrative nuclear waste import industry
Aust has a duty to take world’s nuclear waste, Hawke says The Canberra Times BY SCOTT HANNAFORD 20 Feb, 2010 Australia had an unarguable responsibility to accept the world’s nuclear waste and discarded nuclear weapons, and could create a huge new industry for the country by doing so, former prime minister Bob Hawke said last night.
aste, Hawke says – Local News – News – General – The Canberra Times
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 