On Renewable Energy: False Claims by Switkowski Report and the Nuclear Lobby
The promoters of nuclear power claim that we have to choose between coal and nuclear, that there is no alternative. This is a false choice, between BHP-Billiton and … BHP-Billiton.
Nuclear power: no solution to climate change, Green Left, quoting Mark Diesendorf , 17 April 2010 “………The 2006 Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy Review, chaired by Dr Switkowski.. claimed that “nuclear power is the least-cost low-emission technology that can provide baseload power”. However, there was no basis in the report for such a gratuitous statement, which was outside the terms of reference of the report. Continue reading
Stupidity of South Australia’s pro-uranium govt will cost taxpayers $millions
Justice Anderson awarded the plaintiffs a combined total of $724,000,….Costs will be awarded against the State of South Australia. Senior legal figures in Adelaide and Melbourne estimate that these could be between $4 and $5 million..
Blunder may cost SA millions, The Independent Weekly, HENDRIK GOUT17 Apr, 2010 Hendrik Gout investigates the protest that went terribly wrong and became frightfully expensive. Continue reading
Can we trust nuclear scientists to tell the truth about nuclear technology?
Yes, it’s all very exciting. Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit has made some moves in the direction of nuclear security.
And, yes, it’s a blow to uranium mining shares, now that old weapons fuel is going to be turned into low enriched uranium, and sold cheaply as fuel for nuclear reactors.
BUT – what an opportunity for nuclear scientists, like say ANSTO, to spruik their wares – in recycling, reprocessing technology! And now we’re gonna need some gee-whiz answer to highly radioactive wastes – like say ANSTO ‘s Synroc. (Never mind that all countries decided over 30 years ago that it really wouldn’t work)
ANSTO hoping to get into a lucrative nuclear waste disposal business
Australia ‘to lead in N-waste treatment’April 15, 2010 – New Internationalist Australia is poised to lead the world in providing technology to clean up dangerous nuclear waste, the head of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has announced in the US. Continue reading
Earthquake danger to Nuclear plants, and fuel transport
Quake rattles Chilean-U.S. uranium move , SANTIAGO, Chile, April 14 (UPI) – A Chilean-U.S. nuclear waste disposal arrangement was nearly derailed, with dangerous consequences for North and South America, when a magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile Feb. 27, interfering with deliveries of radioactive waste to U.S. processing plants. Chilean reports on the narrowly missed mishap involving the weapons-grade uranium, published by The Santiago Times, weren’t immediately commented upon by industrial sources and officials……
Chile doesn’t produce nuclear power but has a research reactor and the uranium usually is stored at the reactor site and a military base.
The quake caused widespread concern in Chilean and American nuclear communities. A U.S. team sent to Chile was especially keen to ensure the volatile material didn’t set off a chain reaction while in transit. Quake rattles Chilean-U.S. uranium move – UPI.com
Pakistan back in the nuclear sales business
Pakistan Offers Global Nuclear Fuel Services Again, Planet Ark: 15-Apr-10 , Louis Charbonneau Pakistan, the country of the disgraced nuclear scientist who provided Iran, Libya and North Korea with uranium enrichment technology, is once again offering its atomic fuel services to the world. Continue reading
But anyway, Gareth Evans is right about nuclear fuel recycling.
In a perfect world. the plan to send enriched uranium and plutonium to USA and Russia, to fuel nuclear reactors, might be part of a good move. That would be the move to wind down all nuclear power plants. ( but I doubt that this is the intended plan)
It would also put a stop to the dirty dangerous industry of uranium mining.
However, Gareth Evans points out that recycling nuclear fuel simply creates new stockpiles of very dirty, very dangerous, radioactive wastes. Sure, Gareth Evans’ point of view promotes Australia’s uranium mining companies. But he’s right, anyway.
Gareth Evans against recycling nuclear fuel, and FOR Australian uranium miners
Mr Evans and a former US ambassador-at-large, Robert Gallucci, said recycling created stockpiles of dangerous materials ripe for theft……...
Recycling fuel should end: Evans, Sydney Morning Herald, April 15, 2010, WASHINGTON: A former Australian foreign minister, Gareth Evans, was at the centre of a dispute over reactor suppliers recycling nuclear fuel even as US officials sought to skirt the issue during a summit in Washington organised by the President, Barack Obama. Continue reading
Uranium shares threatened by Nuclear Security Summit decisions
Nuclear Summit Changes Uranium Outlook ninemsn 14/04/2010 By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck US President Obama’s success in convincing world leaders the best way forward is through the conversion of hundreds of thousands of tons of weapons-usable nuclear fuel into non-military fuel for power stations might be good news for world peace, but probably not so for investors in uranium companies.
This week’s nuclear summit in Washington has ended with a general pledge by participants from all over the globe to convert hundreds of thousands of tons of weapons-usable nuclear fuel by 2014, plus an intention to set a 2012 summit in South Korea to measure progress.This inevitably means the supply-outlook has dramatically changed for the sector this week. Nuclear Summit Changes Uranium Outlook
graph from Purchasing 14 April, Uranium prices are stuck in a slump – 2010-04-14 18:23:54 | Purchasing
UK pledges disarmament while upgrading nuclear weapons
It is shameful that both main political parties, far from phasing out our our so-called deterrent, insist on upgrading a weapons system that is as anachronistic as it is unaffordable.
The world unites against nuclear danger: so why is Gordon Brown upgrading Trident? Telegraph UK By Mary Riddell World April 14th, 2010 “…….While Mr Netanyahu is a prime obstacle to global security, Britain cannot claim nearly as much credit as it would like. Gordon Brown, who is pledged, like Obama, to creating a nuclear free world, is going an odd way about it. Continue reading
Yes, why isn’t Rudd at the Nuclear Summit?
Not much Australian media coverage of the Nuclear Summit either. Not a word on ABC Television last night.
Could it be that Rudd’s corporate backers, like BHP Billiton, are not very keen on Obama’s plan to get old nuclear weapons turned into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors? Perhaps Rudd would rather not be seen to be joining in undermining the uranium mining industry?
Obama, Rudd, speak on nuclear security
Listen:
- Windows Media
Australia’s PM won’t be at world nuclear summit Radio Australia,April 9, 2010 Presenter: Linda Mottram
Speakers: Barack Obama, U-S President; Kevin Rudd, Australia’s Prime Minister; Rory Medcalf, director, International Security Program, Lowy Institute for International Policy
Radio Australia:Connect Asia:Story:Australia’s PM won’t be at world nuclear summit
Why is Australia so quiet about the Nuclear Summit?
It would appear to be irresponsible for Australia not to be represented at leadership level when the full security implications of the nuclear fuel cycle are being debated
Australia’s PM won’t be at world nuclear summit Radio Australia,April 9, 2010 “……… Still, some say it’s crucial that Mr Rudd goes to Washinton next week. Continue reading
Megatons to Megawatts will turn old nuclear weapons into fuel for commercial nuclear power!
turns highly enriched uranium into lightly enriched uranium.
Nuclear twist sees Russian warheads warming US homes Herald Sun AFP , April 13, 2010, IN A strange twist of Cold War enmity on the melt, uranium from what once were Russian nuclear warheads is used to heat and light American homes, thanks to the Megatons to Megawatts Program – a successful example of nuclear non-proliferation. Continue reading
Kazakhstan first to join plan to close nuclear weapons
[Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev] was the first foreign leader to renounce the possession and use of nuclear weapons.
Why Kazakhstan Is Front and Center at the Global Nuclear Security Summit THE HUFFINGTON POST, Al Eisele, 11 April 2010, Al Eisele: Why Kazakhstan Is Front and Center at the Global Nuclear Security Summit Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 