Radioactive dust and BHP’s Great Big New Uranium Mine
Government, media, corporations … tum ta da … all happy with the “resources boom” – Never mind the question of uranium wastes, when BHP Billiton sets up its Great Big New Uranium Mine. I mean – where will the radioactive dust go?
Oh dear – to Antarctica, and perhaps a few other places, too – like Australia’s capital cities. What about the towns and regions near Olympic Dam?
Uranium dust from Australia’s mines blown to Antarctica
Australian uranium dust found in Antarctic ice ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 3 May, 2010, An ice core from the Antarctic bears traces of uranium that may have been carried by the wind from Australian mines in 1995, a glacier expert has told a Chilean newspaper.
The minuscule amounts of the radioactive element “correspond to a year (1995) when Australia increased its uranium production,” Ricardo Jana, who participates in an international research effort in the frozen continent, told El Mercurio daily.He said scientists theorise the uranium particles were carried by the wind from Australia and deposited in the northern part of the Antarctic’s Detroit peninsula. Australian uranium dust found in Antarctic ice – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporati
Quiet progress of People for a Nuclear Free Australia
More than half the battle, in getting rid of the toxic uranium , nuclear power, and nuclear weapons industries, is in informing people, about the true nature of the dangers, and financial waste involved.
This is an uphill battle in Australia, as we head off into Third World colonial status, pursuing the short term greed of the “resources boom” . The major political parties are subservient to polluting corporations. The mainstream media is closely allied to mining interests. Australia still has its cultural, colonial cringe – resulting in public ignorance and apathy about the nuclear issue.
People for a Nuclear Free Australia (PFNA) are changing this. By well planned educational materials, the facts are being placed before doctors and other professionals, trade unionists, and members of parliament. The Australian Electrical Trades Union has just produced an excellent film which documents the health implications of uranium mining both to the miners and their families who live near the mines.
To learn more about PFNA, or to contribute to their educational effort, go to http://pnfa.com.au
Non Profit organisations funding decentralised renewable energy
“If we can deliver energy on site, whether it’s a school, college or small town, all that infrastructure is already in place. We just have to bring in the actual equipment. We don’t have to build tens of millions of lines,”
(USA) MountainNonprofits Find Ways To Pay For Renewable Energy, Colorado Business News, CATHERINE TSAI, Associated Press WriterDENVER (AP) May 2, 2010― The Upper Scioto Valley School District in Ohio, battered by a slowdown at a nearby Ford Motor Co. plant, wanted to explore alternative energy when it developed a plan to fix its budget and create jobs. Continue reading
Australian government attempts world’s worst practice on Northern Territory nuclear waste dump
Elders from the Ngapa, Milwayi, Ngarrka, Yapayapa and Wirntiku clans have come all this way to reject the Government’s claim that any one person has the exclusive rights to say yes or no to the waste dump.
Proposed solution lights a lasting fuse, Greens Senator SCOTT LUDLAM
Northern Territory News (20,Sat 01 May 2010)
Some of Australia’s most deprived to host toxic time capsule
THE Federal Government has betrayed Territorians with its decision to put a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station Continue reading
USA just does not know what to do with nuclear waste
Last month, the U.S Department of Energy convened a “Blue Ribbon” commission led by former lawmakers and regulators to study what to do next.
SRS communities angered by nuclear waste decision | ajc.com By Bob KeefeThe Atlanta Journal, April 28, 2010 -ConstitutionWASHINGTON — For decades now, workers and local residents have fully expected that giant canisters of nuclear waste put into temporary storage at the Savannah River Site would eventually be relocated from their backyards to a permanent nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Continue reading
New radioactive waste cleanup bill may stop uranium milling in Colorado
Colo. Legislature passes uranium cleanup bill, Google hosted news, By COLLEEN SLEVIN (AP) – 29 April DENVER — Colorado lawmakers have passed a bill that requires uranium mills to clean up radioactive waste before accepting more radioactive material. Continue reading
Students, senior citizens, – community action stops uranium mining
(India Search for uranium deferred, The Telegraph – Calcutta (Kolkata), Shillong, April 29: The Meghalaya government today decided to keep “in abeyance” the proposed exploratory drilling of uranium in Balpakram National Park in South Garo Hills district in view of stiff opposition from various quarters. Continue reading
Video: Grand Canyon watershed endangered by uranium mining
Ecoflight Grand Canyon Trust YouTube – Ecoflight Grand Canyon Trust
Aerial view of uranium mines threatening Grand Canyon watersheds, Grand Canyon Trust News, April 29, 2010 by gctrust, Roger Clark, Grand Canyon Trust’s Air and Energy program director, recently flew with EcoFlight over uranium mining sites situated around the Grand Canyon and its watersheds that supply water for 25 million people. This bird’s eye view will allow you to understand the potential impact of uranium mining on the water supply for Arizona, southern California and Nevada. Click here to view the video.
Aerial view of uranium mines threatening Grand Canyon watersheds « Grand Canyon Trust News
USA’s Radiation Exposure Compensation Act addresses ‘gruesome legacy’ of atomic testing
The new bill, introduced by Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico on April 19 to address the “gruesome legacy” of Cold War era weapons development, expands coverage to the entire states of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Colorado, as well as those harmed by the original Trinity blast in 1945, in Alamogordo, N.M., and by the nuclear tests conducted upwind of Guam in the Pacific
Keeping Fear Alive. BuzzFlash.org, ROBERT C. KOEHLER, 29 April 2010, “………legislation introduced into Congress this month to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act has put the suffering born by so many Americans — who lived downwind of the nuclear tests, worked in the industry or mined the uranium — back into the news. Continue reading
Australia – To Russia with Nukes
“the reality is that Australia would effectively be relinquishing responsibility for supplying the raw ingredient for bomb fuel to a nuclear weapons state with an acknowledged lack of transparency in its civil/military arrangements,”
Melbourne, 29 April 2010: The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN) is deeply disappointed at Foreign Minister Stephen Smith’s announcement that Australia will ratify a new agreement allowing uranium exports to Russia.
The move will see Australia supplying uranium to a nuclear weapons state whose nuclear security is poor, whose facilities are off-limits to international inspectors, and whose record on disarmament is woeful. Continue reading
Russia’s nuclear security and nuclear weapons proliferation dangers
A great example of Russia’s unscrupulousness is the $1 billion Bushehr nuclear station in Iran……..….
………….the plant designs promoted by Russian companies (in particular, the floating stations) present high proliferation and environmental risks because they use uranium of a very high enrichment level, have caused accidents in the past, and create a byproduct that scientists are yet to learn how to dispose of.
Russia: A Nuclear Security Leader? Partnership for a Secure America , by Volha Charnysh |26 April 2010, Considered the Pandora’s box of nuclear security issues for decades, Russia is now being recast as a nuclear security leader……. However, Russia’s active and at times reckless pursuit of nuclear business contradicts its claim to nuclear security leadership and could weaken the commitments made at the Summit. Continue reading
Australian government credibility on the line
A South Australian government official promises that Australia will change its rules, so as to sell uranium to India, even though India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Meanwhile, fears of radiation exposure grow, in India, for India has no security safeguards for radioactive materials.
The Australian government prepares to sell uranium to Russia, even though Russia is furthering Iran’s nuclear technology, and despite Russia’s continuing bad record on nuclear security.
Radiation exposure victim dies in India
Indian Man Dies After Radiation Exposure, New York Times, By JIM YARDLEY April 27, 2010, NEW DELHI — A man hospitalized for radiation exposure died Monday night from multiple organ failure, the first fatality stemming from a major case of radiation exposure earlier this month that forced authorities to temporarily cordon off an industrial area near the heart of the national capital….. Continue reading
Indian families face fatal illness of radiation victims
AIIMS admits it can’t treat radiation victims, Abhishek Anshu April 28, 2010. New Delhi Death triggers fear among kin of other patients The death of a radiation victim on Monday, who was undergoing treatment at AIIMS, has created panic among families of other victims. Kin of four critically ill victims, undergoing treatment in AIIMS, Apollo and Army hospitals, are doubtful about their recovery. Most of the victims are the sole bread-winners for their families…
The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> AIIMS admits it can’t treat radiation victims
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