Radiation chemical spill at Lucas Heights nuclear reactor
Staff not evacuated after spill at Lucas Heights THE AUSTRALIAN October 21, 2009 Australian Associated Press OPERATORS at Sydney’s Lucas Heights nuclear reactor were not evacuated after a radiation chemical spill, a Senate committee has heard. An internal audit conducted by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation found safety procedures were breached in August 2008 after a vial of molybdenum 99 – used in the production of nuclear medicine – was dislodged.
Asked by Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam if the molybdenum was left unreported for three hours, ANSTO chief executive Adi Paterson said the organisation’s report had referred to this incident………..
A spokesman for Senator Ludlam said that if safety procedures could not be followed at Australia’s nuclear reactor, “God help” Australia if ANSTO was put in charge of a full scale nuclear power facility.
Staff not evacuated after spill at Lucas Heights | The Australian
Uranium water contamination in Kakadu National Park
Probe into uranium mine leak continues ABC News Oct 20, 2009 The Commonwealth supervising scientist of the Ranger uranium mine at Kakadu National Park says investigations are continuing into water contamination at the site. Continue reading
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
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?
Raytheon – profits, depleted uranium and war crimes
Support the EDO Decommissioners – resisting war crimes is not a crime UK 19 Oct 09 “……………Raytheon should be in the dock they are the worlds biggest producer of missiles and poisoned countless civilians and soldiers with Depleted Uranium. Continue reading
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-nuclear professor got his facts wrong
Lesley Kemeny’s inaccuracies – The Age, by Jim Green 17 Oct 09 Lesley Kemeny claims that 60 countries have ’embraced’ nuclear power yet a moment’s research shows that the figure is 31 (‘ Nuclear energy key to future’, The Age, Oct 14). He lauds Australia’s “superb” uranium mining industry. Yet a 2003 Senate References and Legislation Committee report found “a pattern of under-performance and non-compliance” in the industry, identified many gaps in knowledge, and concluded that changes were necessary “in order to protect the environment and its inhabitants from serious or irreversible damage”.
A shame no-one listened − the following year at the Ranger uranium mine in the NT, 150 workers were exposed to drinking water containing uranium levels 400 times greater than the Australian safety standard. Mining company ERA was fined $150,000 — a rare example of a uranium mining company being prosecuted for breaching operating conditions.
Mr Kemeny gives a figure of 5 grams of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour of nuclear power, yet the Switkowski report puts the figure 12 times higher. The Switkowski report also demonstrates what a blunt instrument nuclear power is in the climate change battle − it found that building six nuclear reactors would reduce Australia’s emissions by just 4% if they displaced coal-fired plants, just 2% if they displaced gas, and nothing if they displaced renewables and energy efficiency measures.
Central Australia’s radioactive waste threat discussed internationally
Radioactive sites get overseas pressure ABC News By Kirsty Nancarrow i Oct 16, 2009
Anti-nuclear campaigners from Central Australia are hoping to put international pressure on the Commonwealth to abandon plans for a nuclear waste facility in the Northern Territory.
Natalie Wasley from the Beyond Nuclear Initiative says it is providing a briefing and a DVD to be screened and distributed to delegates at a conference in Sweden this weekend on the management of radioactive waste.
She says the Australian Government’s failure to consult people who are likely to be affected by the four sites being considered is out of step with what other countries are doing.
Radioactive sites get overseas pressure – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Western Australian government’s “blind spot” about uranium mining
Greens sceptical about uranium mine assessment ABC News Oct 16, 2009 The Greens say they doubt the Western Australian Government will be swayed on the level of environmental assessment it is proposing for a uranium mine on the Goldfields.The Government last week extended the time available for public comment on the assessment level for BHP Billiton’s Yeelirrie mine by four weeks.
WA Greens’ Senator Scott Ludlam says while he encourages more people to respond within the consultation period, he is sceptical it will make a difference.”Nobody seriously believes this State Government or this Environment Minister is going to take a look at the evidence that the community will put on the table …………… Government has got a particular blind spot around uranium mining ……….
Greens sceptical about uranium mine assessment – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Misleading headlines about nuclear
Peter Beattie warms to nuclear energy
Jamie Walker | October 17, 2009Article from: The Australian“………..Mr Beattie’s chief reservation about nuclear power is not on principle or safety grounds — it is the expense of building reactors. Just off the plane from Los Angeles, where he is Queensland’s trade commissioner for North and South America,……..Asked to what extent nuclear would be a part of Australia’s energy future, he said he doubted it would amount to much. “There is an argument for nuclear,” he said. “But I think, frankly, the new energies will leave nuclear behind. I mean, on all the assessments I ever saw when we were in government nuclear was too expensive — we are too small a population in Australia.”
Nuclear vets class action, then mysterious closure of their website
Coober Pedy Regional Times Maralinga Anniversary October 15, 1953 – 1967 and nuclear veteran’s website is closed down.
Only a few weeks ago, the Australian veterans of the atomic tests launched a class action against the Australian Federal Government on the basis that at the time of exposing Australian troops to nuclear blasts the Government knew that the exposed troops were placed in danger from internalisation of fission products. Continue reading
Olympic Dam uranium mine jobs at risk
Workers fear lay-offs as they wait for repairs
Sydney Morning Herald BARRY FITZGERALD
October 15, 2009
There have been no lay-offs among the 3000 employees and contractors at BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam copper, uranium and gold mine in South Australia after the loss of 80 per cent of the underground mine’s hoisting capacity.
But with speculation continuing that the Clark shaft could take up to six months to repair, fears are growing in the outback town that services the mine, Roxby Downs, that BHP could soon be forced to resort to a skeleton workforce.
BHP is still not commenting on the likely impact of the October 6 incident and will not confirm reports that the 850-metre Clark shaft was knocked out of action when a fully loaded ore skip crashed. Automated ore-loading equipment at the bottom of the shaft and winding gear – including a four-kilometre cable – on the surface were damaged………….Leading analysts have tipped that the Clark shaft could be inoperative for between two and six months. The Clark shaft accounts for about 80 per cent of the 10 million tonne-a-year mining operation. http://www.smh.com.au/business/workers-fear-layoffs-as-they-wait-for-repairs-20091014-gxic.html
Maralinga atomic test site unsafe, aborigines affected
Coober Pedy Regional Times Maralinga Anniversary October 15, 1953 – 1967 and nuclear veteran’s website is closed down. “…………..October 15 is the anniversary of the first nuclear test at Maralinga, Totem 1.– the beginning of atomic testing in Australia 1953 – 1967, and the contamination of traditional Kokatha Lands in the Western Desert of South Australia. The Action Australia page on the ANVAR website contained the details. Continue reading
1 This month
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