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.
Ferguson putting it over us on Muckaty nuclear waste dump
a small group of traditional owners were paid $200,000 to volunteer their land, but that the government had refused to make the agreement public
Nuclear waste dump should be ‘scrapped’
BigPond News February 23, 2010
Mr Sweeney ….. argued the government was still forcing a nuclear waste dump on a community that doesn’t want it. He says about 60 traditional owners have signed a petition opposing the development of the dump at Muckaty, some of whom Mr Ferguson claims volunteered the land. 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.
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
Australian Government manipulations on nuclear waste dumping
How to site a nuclear waste dump – Crikey,
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
Reactor Sales to China Might Save Failing Nuclear Industry
Here’s how the shell game could work. If the coal industry could sell outdated, pollution-spewing, coal-fired power plants to China, could the nuclear power industry do the same thing? Could they get rid of their unresolved and unfunded decommissioning headache with the same trick?
(USA) How Do You Say “Oh Crap!” in Chinese?, THE HUFFINGTON POST, Alexia Parks, February 22, 2010 China is picking up the worst of American technology along with its best. For example, to keep up with U.S. consumer demand, China has bought and imported the worst of our outdated, pollution-spewing, coal-fired power plants. Continue reading
Australia: Nuclear Waste Dump, Obama Visit, Uranium Expansion.
It’s all happening in hyping the nuclear industry in Australia. Expensive advertising by the nuclear lobby (Environmentalists for Nuclear Power), big nobs promoting it (e.g. Bob Hawke), and Ziggy Spinowsky everywhere.
What great timing! Just as the Australian government plans to
put a radioactive nuclear waste dump on aboriginal land, President Barack Obama is to visit Australia to discuss uranium, while BHP Billiton is about to launch a huge expansion of its Olympic Dam uranium mine.
Let’s not forget that Australia is still signed up to the The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), by which as a uranium supplier, Australia would be obliged to take back radioactive waste from sales of uranium to the U.S.A..
(Australia is also obligated to take back a small amount of our own Lucas Heights radioactive waste from UK, – but that is not tied to uranium sales, and that doesn’t have to be on aboriginal land).
U.S govt ‘s $96 billion project on nuclear waste, and still no solution
the federal government continues to search for suitable sites for storage of high-level wastes from nuclear power plants and for very long-lived radioactive materials from weapons production.
For the time being high-level waste remain on the sites where they were generated…….
Where to dump nuclear waste? Manila Bulletin By ATTY. ROMEO V. PEFIANCO February 17, 2010, Dumping nuclear waste has been a serious problem in the US since 1970 Continue reading
Dr Caldicott’s message on nuclear health dangers
”That’s the ace up the sleeve of the nuclear industry,” she says. ”It’s a silent, cryptogenic disease that doesn’t denote its origin. You have to do big epidemiological studies like the German study to find out what’s going on.”
Why nuclear energy struggles to get private sector funds Sydney Morning Herald , Paddy Manning, February 20, 2010
People have forgotten – a younger generation perhaps never knew – what is scary about nuclear energy.
Anti-nuclear campaigners such as Dr Helen Caldicott are routinely disparaged nowadays. A quick trawl through the clippings yields choice descriptors: “inane”, “hysteric”, “rabid”, “ageing”, “anti-nuclear messiah” and “warrior princess”. Continue reading
Vermont’s leaking nuclear plant casts doubt on nuclear industry’s future
just one of dozens across the country that have seen similar leaks in recent years
VT Nuclear Plant Leaking- Industry Faces Concern Nationwide Fox News February 19, 2010 , by: Molly Line As President Obama advocates expansion of America’s nuclear power industry, pushing for billions of dollars in federal incentives and announcing plans to build the first nuclear plant in decades, a long-running facility in Vermont is leaking a cancer causing carcinogen. Continue reading
Over 65 per cent of U.S. energy budget goes to nuclear military facilities
Nukes Aren’t the Answer, OpEdNews, Robert Alvarez 19 Feb 2010 “…………..- More than 65 percent of our energy budget covers military nuclear activities and the cleanup of weapons sites. It’s single largest expenditure maintains some 9,200 intact nuclear warheads. Continue reading
Labor MP to fight against NT nuclear waste dump
Hale to fight own party against nuclear dump ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) By Louisa Rebgetz 20 Feb 2010
As speculation mounts that a nuclear waste dump will be located in the Northern Territory, MP Damian Hale says he will “fight tooth and nail” to prevent it happening. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 