Coalition ignores nuclear problems: water, cost, dangers
Thirsty energy
ABC News 4 Dec 09 Scott Ludlam says there are issues with where the nuclear power plants would be sited. Continue reading
“Clean” nuclear power now a bribe for weapons non proliferation?
Could it be that the nuclear powers are in so deep that they just don’t know how to get out? Despite the cost, despite the mounting unsolved waste problem, despite the countries seeking nuclear weapons, the Big Powers forge on with the myths of “clean” “cheap”, “climate friendly” nuclear power. From the statement of Gordon Brown, and the US China joint statement (both quoted below) it looks as if the myths will continue to be perpetrated, and that even the failed idea of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership might get a re-run.
‘We can lead construction of a new global order’ Public service.co.uk November 17, 2009 The UK can shape the world of the future by leading in global co-operation, the Prime Minister said in his annual speech on foreign policy at the Lord Mayor’s banquet. Gordon Brown – “………..Britain must continue to lead the renewal of a grand global bargain between nuclear weapon and non-nuclear weapon states. A fair and balanced deal in which non nuclear weapons states must accept clear responsibilities to end proliferation by renouncing nuclear weapons in return for the right to access civil nuclear power;…..
‘We can lead construction of a new global order’ – Public Service
U.S.-China Joint Statement CBS News Political Hotsheet by Brian Montopoli November 17, 2009 Following President Obama’s meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, the White House released a joint statement on the relationship between the two countries,
………The two sides welcomed the establishment of The U.S.-China Energy Cooperation Program (ECP), a partnership between government and industry to enhance energy security and combat climate change. The ECP will leverage private sector resources and expertise to accelerate the deployment of clean energy technology.
The two sides agreed to work together to advance global efforts to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy. They welcomed the recently-concluded Third Executive Committee Meeting of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, and the commitment of the partnership to explore ways to enhance the international framework for civil nuclear energy cooperation. They agreed to consult with one another in order to explore such approaches — including assurance of fuel supply and cradle-to-grave nuclear fuel management so that countries can access peaceful nuclear power while minimizing the risks of proliferation.
In Full: U.S.-China Joint Statement – Political Hotsheet – CBS News
Australian uranium to China not monitored
Australian Uranium to China, a Worry for Many Reasons Second shipment of uranium heads to Australia, environmental whistleblowers still in jail By Shar Adams Epoch Times Staff 18 Nov 09 AUSTRALIA Continue reading
Aborigines’ Maralinga land still radioactive
Maralinga land ‘not ready’ for handing back ABC News Nov 11, 2009 An ex-serviceman who was exposed to radiation during Maralinga atomic testing in the 1960s says land should not be handed over to traditional owners until a contaminated area is cleaned up or fenced off. Continue reading
India aiming to persuade Rudd on Australian uranium
Continued secrecy, denial, about radiological warfare
Before the Bomb – book review – On Line Opinion, by Noel Wauchope – 9/11/2009 Where do we go, to find out about the radiological effects of atomic weapons?We usually seek out the rather patchy and incomplete stories of the victims – those at the “receiving end” of bombing, at Hiroshima, or of the atomic tests of Nevada, of Mururoa, Montebello, Maralinga. These have been covered in several books.But, how much was known about these radiological effects before the Bomb?
Here, at last, is the book that answers this question. And Paul Langley’s book The Prediction of the Radiological Effects of Atomic Bombs From Knowledge Published Prior to August 1945 answers it with evidence in forensic detail, a plenitude of exact primary documentary evidence, including digital evidence available on the Internet.
This is also a book that raises questions: questions that matter very much right now. Today, World War II veterans, Pacific Islanders, Navajo people and Australian Aborigines seek acknowledgment and justice for their diseases from exposure to radiation. Iraqi doctors and communities, and US, Canadian and UK Gulf War veterans claim health damage from depleted uranium. Where is the truth?…………..
It is an Australian shame that recognition has not been given to aboriginal victims. The reaction of Australian authorities has been a record of “lies, denial, racial taunts and suppression of evidence.” In Project Sunshine’s calculations of exposure dose to Australians, two population groups were excluded. These were: Aborigines living in remote areas around the bomb test sites, and the soldiers and others involved in the tests. In other words the two most affected groups.
A later health study continued to exclude the Aborigines, ignoring the testimony of survivors, their memory of the “Black Mist”, and even of those with Beta burns. Secrecy surrounded the investigation. Professor Ernest Titterton, Chairman of the Australian Atomic Weapons Test Safety Committee, kept project information from the Committee. As he stated “I was subject to American control on information.”
Notorious atomic bomb test site returns to aboriginal ownership
Traditional indigenous owners to reclaim Maralinga bomb site THE AUSTRALIAN David Nason November 10, 2009 MORE than 50 years after their ancestral lands were devastated by nuclear testing, the Tjarutja people of western South Australia will next month be handed back the infamous expanse of remote desert the British named Maralinga.
Australia’s conflict of interest: nuclear disarmament
Australia and Iran Pickled Politics Sandra Hajda 31st October, 2009
“…………….The meeting was in fact brokered by the International Commission on Nuclear Non- Proliferation and Disarmament, a body founded by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Continue reading
Need to prevent the spread of nuclear technology
The ICNND and Japanese Civil Society Policy Forum Online By Kawasaki Akira
Australia and Japan have two significant commonalities. One is that they are important allies for the United States within the Asia Pacific region, and that their security is based upon the so-called “nuclear umbrella,” dependent upon US nuclear weapons. 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: a good week for skulduggery and secrecy
Review: Australia; it was a good week for skulduggery and secrecy, even not counting ANSTO’s opinion poll debacle
Defence Dept keeping quiet about planned “termporary” nuke waste dump at Woomera. Martin Ferguson’s secret deal with some NT aborigines over NT nuke waste dumping. BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam disrupted for months, keeping quiet over probable job losses. Greens asking awkward questions about radioactive spill at Lucas Heights. ERA keeping quiet about radioactive leaking at Ranger uranium mine.
Internationally: Obama being ambiguous about nuclear, as nuke lobbying continues over U.S.A’s Climate Bill. Chilean veterans suing govt over radiation harm. Iran being flighty over nuke deal offered to them. AREVA’s “flagship” nuclear reactors limp on expensively. IAEA trying to solve Chernobyl’s still radioactive cooling pond. Sellafield cleanup costing billions with no end in sight. – review of the week that was
Australia’s hypocrisy over nuclear disarmament
The Forgotten Nightmare: Global Cooling
By Robin Davis
21 October, 2009
Countercurrents.orgHere in Australia, advocates of uranium mining and export claim that this gives us a more credible voice in the world arena than we would otherwise have. They say our position as the largest source of uranium and the second largest exporter after Canada makes us more effective in preventing nuclear proliferation than we would otherwise be. In other words, by selling the stuff from which nuclear weapons are made, we are helping to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. Continue reading
British nuclear bomb tests in Australia
Maralinga Our Own Shame – UK Nuclear Bomb Tests in Australia – Care2 News Network (UK) by David Buchan 19 Oct 09 Britain actively used Australian soil and people to conduct it’s nuclear testing program during the 1950s and 1960s. Continue reading
Maralinga atomic testing :The Anangu Story
Maralinga: The Anangu Story 50 years ago secret atomic tests were carried out on Australian soil at a place called “Maralinga” in north–western South Australia. Continue reading
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?
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 