Uranium projects uneconomic due to weak uranium prices
DJ ERA: Weak Uranium Prices, Weak USD Makes Projects UneconomicMon. TRADING MARKETS November 09, 2009; SYDNEY, Nov 09, 2009 Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) – Uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia Ltd. (ERA.AU), a unit of Rio Tinto Plc (RTP), said Tuesday weak uranium prices as well as the weak U.S. dollar would render new mining projects uneconomic in the longer-term.
This would leave the market heavily dependent on expansions in Kazakstan, in an industry where the global financial crisis was likely to slow new reactor build……………………
Job losses at BHP’s uranium mine
Olympic mine job losses The Age BARRY FITZGERALD November 7, 2009 BHP Billiton has warned of job losses among its contractor workforce at the damaged Olympic Dam copper-gold-uranium mine in South Australia Continue reading
Nuclear power for Australia? – a definite NO
Australia’s Future Power Sources Won’t Include Nuclear – PM CANBERRA -By Ray Brindal, Dow Jones Newswires 4 November 09 – The future sources for Australia’s power needs include coal, natural gas and a range of renewables rather than nuclear, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Wednesday. Continue reading
Protest against BHP as Alternative BHP Report released
In Melbourne today, protesters gather outside BHP Billiton’s head
office in Melbourne, highlighting the impacts of BHP’s plan to make
Olympic Dam the biggest uranium mine in the world.
Friends of the Earth’s national nuclear campaigner Dr Jim Green said:
“For all of BHP Billiton’s hollow rhetoric about corporate social
responsibility, the company operates the Olympic Dam mine in SA under an outdated Indenture Act which exempts the mine from key environmental and Aboriginal heritage laws.
“BHP Billiton has provided over $2 million to Reconciliation Australia.
Yet the company will not relinquish its exemptions from the SA
Aboriginal Heritage Act. The company’s attitude appears to be ‘do as I
say not as I do’. It’s time for this hypocrisy to end.”
Duban Velez, a union delegate for workers at the Cerrejon coal mine in
Colombia, will be at today’s protest in Melbourne to tell his story
about BHP’s inadequate social and environmental standards in Colombia.
Mr Velez will also be attending BHP’s second AGM, in Brisbane on
November 26. Farming families in villages around the mine have been
deprived of their livelihoods as the mine expands and accuse BHP of
failing to negotiate in good faith or offer sufficient assistance or
compensation.
The Alternative Annual Report can be downloaded at:
http://tinyurl.com/yjjluqg
Review: Uranium and nuclear skulduggery
Australia: – Corrupt dealings over Marathon’s uranium exploration. Telstra closes down nuclear veterans’ website – under govt pressure? The case against the govt’s plans for radioactive waste dumping in NT – is taken internationally. mainstream media wrongly portrays Peter Beatties as pro-nuclear. A High Court ruling further limits aborigines’ land rights
International: Nuclear lobby aims to take over US Climate Bill. Revelations of France and Germany’s unsafe radioacttive waste dumping in Siberia. AREVA’s half-built nuclear reactors in Finland and France are plagued with problems, lawsuits, and ever-escalating costs. French govt not likley to compensate Polynesian nuclear bomb test victims. – the week that has been
Making money out of depleted uranium weapons
by Christina Macpherson Raytheon Australia’s Industry Development Unit (IDU). – with the announcement of of a deal between Australia’s Defence Department and Raytheon, a ,lovely new Australian industry is started.
Yes, we can become part of making money by selling the stuff that has been used so profitably in Iraq and Gaza
Dose the Australian public care about this? Worse still, does the Australian public know about this. Where is the mainstream media on issues lik e this?
Australia to be part of global weapons industry
SUPPORTING AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE INDUSTRY TO ENTER GLOBAL MARKETS Australian Government Department of Defence The Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, Greg Combet, today welcomed the establishment of Raytheon Australia’s Industry Development Unit (IDU). Continue reading
Pro nuke hype hotting up inAustralia
Fairfax newspapers come out today with headlines about Australians wanting nuclear power. In fact, Australian were asked if they thought the Federal Government should “consider” nuclear power. Not quite the same thing as wanting it. Continue reading
Olympic Dam – 80% out of action for 6 months?
Olympic Dam accident threatens output THE AUSTRALIAN Matt Chambers | October 09, 2009
BHP Billiton’s giant Olympic Dam underground mine could be running at just 20 per cent capacity for up to six months, analysts say, after a loaded iron skip plummeted to the bottom of the 800m-deep main shaft. Continue reading
Court hears uranium protesters locked in container
Court hears uranium protestors locked in container ABC News By Candice Marcu Oct 8, 2009 A civil trial has started in the SA Supreme Court over police treatment of protesters at an outback uranium mine. Continue reading
AREVA spins nuclear to kids
AREVA never misses an opportunity to get the uranium/nuclear soft sell out to kids.
And, apparently the South Australia Museum and the S.A. govt are right behind them. Continue reading
Nuclear hype, but nuclear future uncertain
Review, by Christina Macpherson. It’s been an interesting week. Internationally – two blatant lies are being taken up by prominent world leaders:
1. that developing nuclear power is an essential part of nuclear disarmament
2. that nuclear power is the solution to global warming.
Meanwhile, the global nuclear energy leader, AREVA, is in debt as “poster boy” new reactors in Finland and France continue to have troubles. Thousands of Russians protest against a new nuclear plant.
In Australia, Liberal party MP’s disagree on nuclear policy. The nuclear lobbyist Ziggy Spinowsky is frantically busy pushing nuclear, (as uranium prices remain low). In W.A., BHP is gently “advised” to consider the Ngalia people’s views on uranium developments. Dust storms, with more predicted, raise fears of radon gas reaching millions of Australians and New Zealanders.
A caution about Australia’s uranium future
Australia’s Uranium, by Greg Baker. Parliament of Australia Research paper Sept 2009 “….. Australian and worldwide concerns about the environmental and health dangers of mining and using uranium, the need to store nuclear fission products for very long periods of time and the issues concerned with the decommissioning of nuclear electricity reactors at the end of their useful life may act to linit growth in nuclear generating capacity…” http://www.aph.gov.au/Library/pubs/rp/2009-10/10rp06.pdf
Exposing Ziggy’s spin
Ziggy Switkowski is pretty careful these days, on where he spouts his pro-nuke spin. He doesn’t want demonstrations and hecklers. So, it’s usually to the refined world of corporate Australia. Or at Lucas Heights, where he recently spruiked on the seemingly inevitable move to nuclear power.
Ziggy talks about Australian public pro-nuke opinion, without any evidence to support this. He does not mention cost, nor water use, nor waste disposal.
Ziggy continues to tout nuclear as the solution to global warming, ignoring the factors of nuclear fuel cycle carbon emissions, and the fact that even if it did work, nuclear power would supply only electricity, and would be years too late.
Ziggy prophesies a future of continued unbridled energy consumption while the world is waking up to newer ways, energy conservation, energy efficency, cogeneration. Of course, Ziggy dismisses renewable energy sources, rather as horse and buggy experts might have dismissed the automobile a century ago.
Workers’ anger at BHP’s chief officer pay rise
Workers angry at BHP CEO’s pay rise: CFMEU
Ewin Hannan | September 17, 2009
BHP Billiton has strongly defended the remuneration package of its chief executive, Marius Kloppers, after the coalminers union used his salary to declare “open season” on pay rises……
…Union delegates representing 5000 BHP employees will meet today to consider a push for significant pay rises and improved conditions, with officials saying any call for pay restraint would be met with contempt.
Tony Maher, the national president of the CFMEU’s mining division, said workers were angry at the pay rise awarded to Mr Kloppers……………..
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 