Time for Australia to show clear support for Nuclear Weapons Convention
Greens spokesperson for nuclear issues, Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam, said the Government should take the opportunity to make a clear statement of support for a nuclear weapons convention.
WA Senator urges Government to take stand against nuclear weapons in UN tony serve blogs, 28 Oct 10, The Australian Greens today urged the Government to support a United Nations draft resolution calling for a ban on the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons to be voted on tomorrow in New York. Continue reading
Australia’s nuclear power spinners – theme for November
It is well accepted, (even by Ziggy Switkowski in his 2006 report) that Australia does not need nuclear power. Yet, Ziggy and other old nuclear lobbyists are now urgently “spinning” , promoting nuclear energy for Australia. And new spinners are joining them
Apologies to Bob Hawke – I left that old attention-seeker off the picture!
One reason for this nuclear spinning is the fact that Australia will be expected to take back international wastes, as part of its uranium export industry. So, by getting Australia into the entire nuclear fuel cycle, this would make a smoother transition from “our” nuclear wastes, to “theirs” too.
The radioactive waste question is becoming critical in Australia – with the government’s attempt to impose a dump on Aboriginal land, and with Lucas Heights wastes soon. due to return from England.
Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates visited Australia. Their mission? – to get Australia deeper into the US military machine, with Western Australia, like Pine Gap, part of the Space War project.
The USA’s urgent nuclear waste problem might have been on the agenda in talks with Julia Gillard. We, the great unwashed, would not know. (but for USA to export its nuclear rubbish to Australia could be a bit more difficult now – since the European Union declared that export of nuclear waste overseas is unsafe)
Stacked nuclear discussion panel for Melbourne
In November Melbourne University is to grace the public with another stacked nuclear power panel. ( It’s been a while since Ziggy Switkowski was heckled at the last one)
Despite the fact that nuclear power involves issue such as the environment, health, atomic weapons, even economics, the panel will be dominated by pro nuclear interests, with just one (?token) speaker possibly having some knowledge of environment.
Speakers will be: Ziggy Spinowski – paid nuclear spruiker from ANSTO, Dr Selena Ng, from AREVA, Prof John Daley – background in stockbroking, with ANZ – from Grattan Institute which is largely funded by BHP Billiton, Prof Mike Sandford, geologist, from Pro nuclear Melbourne Energy Institute
None of your “soft” scientists there!
Except possibly Prof Lee Godden – ? token woman – lecturer in human rights, indigenous issues, environment
Suppression of information on nuclear radiation
The passage of the Atomic Energy Act in the US empowered that State to control, to the point of prohibition, public discussion of relevant information……The bulk of the world’s population, East and West, suffered from an imposed ignorance about the nature of nuclear weapons and radiation……
Radio-phobia Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog, 25 Oct 10, “……… the Soviet Union built an elaborate, multi-layered system of denial and deception, the main elements of which included the restriction of access to nuclear facilities and personnel, strict information protection measures, an enhanced counterintelligence posture, and technical countermeasures……” Continue reading
Nuclear war’s collateral damage – that’s all of us
Albert Einstein himself said unmistakably, “I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” …. [But] In a nuclear war the “collateral damage” would be the life of all humanity..
Attack on Iran would spark global N-war Daily Times – Pakistan , 21 Oct 10, ’”….. Castro says every govt has obligation to respect right to life of every nationISLAMABAD: The use of nuclear weapons in a new war would mean the end of humanity. This was candidly foreseen by scientist Albert Einstein Continue reading
No decision on UK’s ‘irrelevant’ nuclear submarines until after next election
“Pushing this decision back to after the next election will hopefully allow politicians to catch up with what the majority of the public and a growing number of military voices acknowledge – that nuclear weapons are a costly irrelevance to the threats Britain faces.”
Trident decision delayed until after the election – UK Politics, – The Independent, 20 Oct 10, Arguments about the need to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system will continue to rage until the next general election after the Prime Minister announced a delay of at least six years. Continue reading
Obama got Peace Prize, but still testing nuclear weapons
“He was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. What was that all about? How will the U.S. government apologize to A-bomb survivors?”.
A-bomb survivors outraged at Obama over subcritical nuclear test – The Mainichi Daily News, 14 Oct 10, Victims of atomic bombings expressed their disappointment at U.S. President Barack Obama after his administration carried out its first subcritical nuclear test last month. Continue reading
Secret Pine Gap, the CIA’s largest facility outside USA
Pine Gap hosts the largest CIA facility outside America,…While visiting US lawmakers are taken on tours of Pine Gap, Federal MP’s are denied entry.
Strategic US Military Intel Base in Pine Gap, Australia,
Global Research, by Richard Neville Ground Truth: Pine Gap, Australia On the flight from Sydney to Alice Springs the desert unfolds for hours beneath the window. On descent it is possible to glimpse a space age compound on the sand backed by the MacDonnell Ranges and distinguished by a clump of enormous white pop art “golf balls”. This is Pine Gap, a US military base built on the traditional land of the indigenous Arrente people, Continue reading
Nuclear weapons are instruments of internationally criminal behaviour
The start of any progress towards resolving our nuclear predicament as human beings must come from the realization that nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence have never been legitimate instruments of state policy, but have always constituted instrumentalities of internationally lawless and criminal behaviour.
Nuclear Secrecy- Australia – theme for October
Australia has long been involved in the secrecy surrounding the nuclear industry, and still is today.
It started in the early 1940s, as Australia supplied uranium for the nuclear weapons of America and Britain. From 1952, the UK’s atomic weapons were tested in South Australia and Western Australia.
Australia’s Atomic Energy Commission was set up in 1953, with the purpose of developing nuclear power, and the later option of nuclear weapons. In the 1960s and ’70ssecret litary bases at North West Cape, Pine Gap and Nurrungar tied Australia to the US nuclear war-fighting machine.
It is generally accepted that the CIA engineered the dismissal of Australia’s Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, due to particular concern of the USA government to keep Australia in the dark over these bases, particularly Pine Gap. In America, Christopher Boyce was gaoled as a traitor, 1n 1977. He alleged that the CIA had engineered Whitlam’s downfall and had not honoured the 1966 agreement to share the military information gained at Pine Gap.
Manifesto pledges more nuclear weapons – USA Republicans
It was the Bush Republican administration that got us into Iraq and Afghanistan, dragging reluctant allies with them. If they win control of the House and Senate they plan on expanding the domestic stockpile of nuclear arms. Who these missiles are defending us from remains a question.
Missile Madness…….. – Dunfermline Press, 6th October, 2010 The Republican party released their political ‘Pledge to America’ manifesto and it is really disturbing. Rebuilding the US ballistic missile programme (ICBMs) is what caught my attention. Returning to the days of missile silos across the US is part of their planned defense initiative. Do we really need another Cold War? Continue reading
Australia’s uranium – part of a dangerous nuclear cycle
There is no way the use of uranium purchased from countries such as Australia can be policed. Once another country owns the uranium it can use it for military purposes,
The Danger of Nuclear Power Stations, Adventure Australia, October 07, 2010 Countries are going ahead with investment in nuclear power despite very real dangers. Similar crises to Chernobyl and Three Mile Island will definitely occur in the future with catastrophic results for resident of neighboring nations of the country experiencing the problem. Continue reading
Jim Green refutes Ziggy Spinowsky on nuclear weapons proliferation
“For eight years in the White House, every weapons-proliferation problem we dealt with was connected to a civilian reactor program. And if we ever got to the point where we wanted to use nuclear reactors to back out a lot of coal … we’d have to put them in so many places we’d run that proliferation risk right off the reasonability scale.” – former US
Vice President Al Gore……It is disingenuous for O’Neil, Switkowski and other apologists for the nuclear industry to deny the links between nuclear power and proliferation.
The myth of the peaceful atom, The Punch, by Jim Green, 6 Oct 2010, The connection between power and proliferation is the inconvenient truth of the nuclear industry. Articles in The Australian in recent weeks by Ziggy Switkowski and academic Andrew O’Neil trivialise the links between nuclear power and nuclear weapons… Continue reading
BHP Billiton and uranium mining – a bad investment
Across the globe from uranium mines to coal, nickel and copper BHP have a trail of bad human rights records, poor working conditions for workers, environmental damage and dodging responsibilities.
Tell BHP Billiton Uranium mining is bad investment! – Uranium Free, Oct 10, In 2006 BHP Billiton bought up Western Mining Corporation and with it their uranium mine assets at Olympic Dam in South Australia and Yeelirrie in Western Australia. Since then people around Australia and internationally have been calling on BHP to back out of uranium, an expensive, toxic industry which produces radioactive waste and weapons usable material. Continue reading
Serious doubts on ANSTO and Silex Systems uranium enrichment technology
The technology in question was licensed from Silex Systems, an Australian company that’s been quietly conducting enrichment research at a small facility near Sydney for the last quarter century.But many experts are skeptical….a huge and extremely risky bet.”…..they also present a major headache for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other nuclear watchdog groups attempting to spot clandestine enrichment plants,
Laser Uranium Enrichment Makes a Comeback The controversial technology poses proliferation risks, but nuclear firms press on, IEEE Spectrum: By Sandra Upson / October 2010 Continue reading
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