Australia is complicit in Japan stockpiling plutonium
a problem succinctly explained back in 1982 by current South Australian Premier Mike Rann: “Again and again it has been demonstrated here and overseas that when problems over safeguards prove difficult, commercial considerations will come first.”.…The Rudd Government needs to break this habit and establish an independent inquiry to identify measures to tighten the safeguards system.
The Myth Of The Peaceful Atom, newmatilda.com, By Jim Green, 20 April 2010, “…………Last December, the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), co-chaired by Australian Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi from Japan, released its first report.
Like other bodies ICNND chooses to skim over the proliferation risks arising from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel — Continue reading
Queen Noor of Jordan, and “Countdown to Zero”
“I am one of a million for whom Islam and Western cultures are not incompatible,” she said, reminding the nearly filled auditorium that she is Muslim…Her Majesty says nuclear weapons have no place in a world striving to achieve international security. Rather terror can be their only purpose.
Queen Noor On Nukes, THE HUFFINGTON POST, April 19, 2010, Cross-Cultural Understanding, at CU Boulder “……..Queen Noor al Hussein of Jordan is the founder of Global Zero, a worldwide movement that seeks to eliminate both actual and potential stockpiles of nuclear weapons across the globe by year 2030. Continue reading
Rudd govt trying to deceive Australian public over radioactive waste dump
Labor Lied About Nuclear Waste, New Matilda, By Scott Ludlam , 17 April 2010, The Rudd Government is trying to force a nuclear waste dump on a remote Aboriginal community and is hoping that most voters won’t care or notice,Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s proposed “solution” to our 60 year radioactive waste legacy has sparked a major confrontation. Continue reading
New Anti-Nuclear Movement Gathering Strength
The New Anti-Nuclear Movement, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Frida Berrigan:, 16 April 2010, “……… At the end of April, people will be coming to New York City from all over the world to participate in and monitor the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference. They will gather at the “For a Nuclear Free, Peaceful, Just and Sustainable World” conference at Riverside Church in Manhattan on April 30 and May 1. Continue reading
Israeli soldiers made infertile by depleted uranium
Experts say the dramatic drop in Israel’s sperm count could eliminate their ability to reproduce.
Israel’s Declining Sperm Quality Tied to Depleted Uranium Exposure, Atlantic Free Press, by Tim King, 16 April 2010 Israel’s population is facing a dire threat: a drastic depopulation, from the use of weapons that leave behind Depleted Uranium (DU). 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
Now use of weapons fuel sends uranium price plummeting
Greens welcome fall in uranium price, Scott Ludlam 15th April 2010, The Australian Greens have welcomed this week’s fall in global uranium prices, due to a global peace deal to reduce nuclear weapons.“When world leaders sign off agreements to reduce their weapons arsenals the uranium market becomes flooded with weapons-usable nuclear fuel,” the Party’s Nuclear Spokesperson, WA Senator Scott Ludlam said…. Continue reading
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
Limitations of Nuclear Security Summit’s achiievement
What the summit did not address in any detail was the likelier and more easily achievable possibility that a terrorist organisation might obtain highly radioactive material and attach it to a conventional, crudely made dirty bomb that could still spread lethal material over a wide area.
World takes aim at nukes | The Australian, Brad Norington, Washington correspondent, April 16, 2010 Obama’s plan, endorsed at the summit by all attending countries including Australia, is to conduct an enormous accounting exercise with the objective of securing all nuclear materials across the world during the next four years. 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
Defence Minister says Australia Backs Nuclear Summit Security Plan
“We converted from highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium based technologies for research reactor fuel and radioisotope production.
Australia backs US nuclear meet outcome, Sydney Morning Herald, April 14, 2010 Defence Minister John Faulkner, who has been attending a nuclear security summit hosted by US President Barack Obama, says Australia welcomes the call to secure all vulnerable nuclear material within four years……. Continue reading
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
Local govts would have to deal with catastrophic nuclear blast
Nuclear blast victims would have to wait , By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY 14 April 2010. The White House has warned state and local governments not to expect a “significant federal response” at the scene of a terrorist nuclear attack for 24 to 72 hours after the blast, according to a planning guide. Continue reading 1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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