Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items

Vermont State to shut down nuclear reactor

Obama’s nuclear vision suffers setback as Vermont plant faces shutdown Vermont would be the first state to close a nuclear reactor after 38-year-old Yankee’s history of leaking cancer-causing tritium guardian.co.uk 23 February 2010
Barack Obama’s new dream of a nuclear renaissance faces a major reality check tomorrow when the state of Vermont is expected to shut down an ageing nuclear reactor with a history of leaks. Continue reading

February 24, 2010 Posted by | 1 | , , , , | Leave a comment

Uranium price continues its downward spiral

Spot Uranium Remains Under Downward Pressure ninemsn 23/02/2010  By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck Spot uranium prices continue their descent as buyers seem in no hurry and with sellers offering ever more aggressive price cuts to get deals done. The past week, ending Friday, saw a few deals being concluded, but also a further cut to TradeTech’s weekly price benchmark.

Spot Uranium Remains Under Downward Pressure

February 24, 2010 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, business, uranium | , , | Leave a comment

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.

February 23, 2010 Posted by | 1, uranium | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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.

by Bernard Keane

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

February 23, 2010 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, secrets and lies, uranium | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How the nuclear lobby has bought politicians and media

nothing about atomic energy has really changed.Except this: $645 million spent on lobbying and media manipulation.

(USA)$600 Million Lipstick for a Dead Radioactive Pig THE HUFFINGTON POST, Harvey Wasserman February 22, 2010 The mystery has been solved.Where is this “new reactor renaissance” coming from?There has been no deep, thoughtful re-making or re-evaluation of atomic technology. No solution to the nuke waste problem. No making reactors economically sound. No private insurance against radioactive disasters by terror or error. Continue reading

February 23, 2010 Posted by | 1 | , , , | Leave a comment

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

February 23, 2010 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics, uranium | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reactor Sales to China Might Save Failing Nuclear Industry

Here’s how the shell game could work. If the coal industry could sell outdated, pollution-spewing, coal-fired power plants to China, could the nuclear power industry do the same thing? Could they get rid of their unresolved and unfunded decommissioning headache with the same trick?

(USA) How Do You Say “Oh Crap!” in Chinese?, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Alexia Parks, February 22, 2010 China is picking up the worst of American technology along with its best. For example, to keep up with U.S. consumer demand, China has bought and imported the worst of our outdated, pollution-spewing, coal-fired power plants. Continue reading

February 23, 2010 Posted by | 1, uranium | , , , , , | Leave a comment

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).

February 22, 2010 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, Christina reviews, climate change - global warming, energy, uranium | , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Plan for U.S nuclear waste dump in Australia

No container will last 500,000 years. Oh and do we expect payment for looking after the stuff for that long?

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

February 22, 2010 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy, politics international | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

U.S. nuclear energy future depends on solving waste problem

Nuclear energy can’t expand without a nuclear-waste site The Columbus Dispatch, February 21, 2010 “….No permanent place exists in the United States to store high-level radioactive waste. ………. the waste from the power plants already in operation just keeps piling up in temporary storage sites around the nation, which is not safe. Continue reading

February 22, 2010 Posted by | 1 | , , , , | Leave a comment

U.S govt ‘s $96 billion project on nuclear waste, and still no solution

the federal government continues to search for suitable sites for storage of high-level wastes from nuclear power plants and for very long-lived radioactive materials from weapons production.

For the time being high-level waste remain on the sites where they were generated…….

Where to dump nuclear waste? Manila Bulletin By ATTY. ROMEO V. PEFIANCO February 17, 2010, Dumping nuclear waste has been a serious problem in the US since 1970 Continue reading

February 22, 2010 Posted by | 1 | , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

February 20, 2010 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, spinbuster | , , , , , | 3 Comments

Vermont’s leaking nuclear plant casts doubt on nuclear industry’s future

just one of dozens across the country that have seen similar leaks in recent years

VT Nuclear Plant Leaking- Industry Faces Concern Nationwide Fox News February 19, 2010 , by: Molly Line As President Obama advocates expansion of America’s nuclear power industry, pushing for billions of dollars in federal incentives and announcing plans to build the first nuclear plant in decades, a long-running facility in Vermont is leaking a cancer causing carcinogen. Continue reading

February 20, 2010 Posted by | 1 | , , , , | Leave a comment

Over 65 per cent of U.S. energy budget goes to nuclear military facilities

Nukes Aren’t the Answer, OpEdNews, Robert Alvarez 19 Feb 2010 “…………..- More than 65 percent of our energy budget covers military nuclear activities and the cleanup of weapons sites. It’s single largest expenditure maintains some 9,200 intact nuclear warheads. Continue reading

February 20, 2010 Posted by | 1 | , , , , | Leave a comment

Nuclear industry would not exist without tax-payer liability

The Other Nuclear Power Subsidy – A Liability Cap ThePopTort 20 Feb 2010 : “……loan guarantees aren’t the only potential subsidy from which this industry benefits. Since the 1950s, when it passed the Price Anderson Act, Congress put a cap on the liability of the nuclear industry in the event of a major accident. Continue reading

February 20, 2010 Posted by | 1 | , | Leave a comment