Aboriginal people across Australia will fight radioactive waste transport and dumping
only some people agreed to the dump “because they saw the dollar sign”. Although Elders had long warned that the radiation is dangerous,
“Aborigines from across the country will fight nuclear dumping” Goodooga, northwest NSW, 24 February 10 – Aboriginal people will be called from all over Australia to protest in the Northern Territory against any movement of nuclear waste across their traditional lands, an Aboriginal activist says. Continue reading
Fifty Years Later – U.S. Uranium Mining Areas Still Too “Hot”
Enviros: Uranium mines still too hot CYNDY COLE AZ Daily Sun , February 20,
Local environmentalists said Thursday’s findings on past uranium mining confirmed what they suspected: That it led to uranium contamination on the Arizona Strip north of the Grand Canyon, and that mining is not safe. Continue reading
United Nations Envoy Condemns Australian Govt’s Aboriginal “Intervention”
Professor Anaya also criticised compulsory land takeovers proceeded without consent,
UN envoy demands changes to ‘racist’ intervention, Sydney Morning Herald, YUKO NARUSHIMA , February 25, 2010 Continue reading
Govt lies about need for Northern Territory nuke waste dump
Another furphy, this one directly peddled by the Minister, says access to nuclear medicine in Australia is dependent on putting a nuclear waste dump in the NT
Radioactive politics, ABC The Drum Unleashed – 25 Feb 2010, There are a number of furphies about the type of nuclear waste that is produced in Australia. Continue reading
Martin Ferguson pulls a swifty on Northern Territory Nuclear Waste Dump
S.11 of the [new]Bill overrides all state and territory laws that regulate or prohibit nuclear waste dumps
S.12 of the [new]Bill directly overrides the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 in a similar manner to the Howard-era Act. It also overrides the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
Back to the future with Ferguson’s nuclear waste legislation crikey, 24 Feb 2010 “…Labor’s 2007 election commitment was to repeal the CRWMA, which overrode NT laws and any Commonwealth legislation that might have delayed or hindered the investigation of waste dump sites, and replace it with a “a consensual process of site selection”. And Ferguson insisted yesterday that that was exactly what was happening. Continue reading
Why Rudd must keep Garrett as Environment Minister
Peter Garrett was known for his strong anti-nuclear and pro-environment stand. That was before he became a politician. And of course, especially in the Labor Party, you have to be a “team player”. Peter Garrett has been a “team player” on matters like the Tasmanian pulp mill, and on widening the ALP’s policy to allow new uranium mines.
It will be no surprise when Garrett toes the line on future uranium/nuclear/radioactive waste decisions made by the Rudd government, as it kow-tows to BHP Billiton, and its other big industry backers. Garrett will be made to take the flak.
Dissension in Labor caucus over the Muckaty nuclear waste dump plan
Abbott sees ‘mood shifting’ from Rudd HERALDSUN AAP 23 Feb 2010,
“……One point of contention during the caucus meeting was the Rudd government’s expected decision to foist a nuclear waste dump upon the Northern Territory.Two members of caucus are understood to have spoken out against the move.
Resources Minister Martin Ferguson told his colleagues the government wouldn’t run away from “tough decisions” and it had to deal with the nuclear waste
Wobbly words promote the nuclear industry
“CLEAN”
Nuclear “acceptance campaigns” featuring “truth squads” were created so as to create a “pro-energy climate” to “stabilize people’s attitudes.
Stop the Nukespeak and Tell the Truth About Nuclear Technology THE HUFFINGTON POST, by Rory O’Connor, February 23, 2010 “…in Nukespeak, proponents speak of “health effects” when they really mean “cancer.” Accidents such as the infamous one at Three Mile Island are merely “anomalies,” “significant events” or “abnormal occurrences” — and when they recur, they are re-dubbed “normal abnormalities.” Continue reading
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
Method in Obama’s madness- nuclear power just not viable?
Though the President’s critics on the left do not recognize a strategic move in the loan guarantees to new nuclear, there is very likely method in what seems madness. The nuclear industry proved in the 1970s and 1980s, to those who were paying attention, that it is not viable.
New Nuclear to be Hoist on its own Petard, RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLD, February 23, 2010“…the phrase hoist with one’s own petard…means ‘to be harmed by one’s own plan to harm someone else’ or ‘to fall into one’s own trap’…” (Wikipedia)Announcements from the Obama administration of new financial support for the nuclear industry were met by declarations that the long-anticipated nuclear renaissance is finally at hand but the reality is quite different. There is a very real possibility that the President has just caught the nuclear industry in a trap of its own making. Continue reading
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.
U.S. State resists dumping of radioactive depleted uranium
(USA) Utah gov: 2 trains of SC waste won’t come to Utah, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Brock Bergakis, February 22, 2010. SALT LAKE CITY — About 6,500 tons of low-level radioactive waste from South Carolina won’t be coming to Utah as originally planned, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Monday in announcing a verbal agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy.
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.
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
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
Australian Government manipulations on nuclear waste dumping
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
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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