In 1998 South Australian Aboriginals fought against plan for radioactive waste dump
Dumping on Traditional Owners: the ugly face of Australian racism The Drum, Jim Green, 29 March 12 “…..A win for the Kungkas In 1998, the federal government announced its intention to build a national radioactive waste dump near Woomera in South Australia. Leading the battle against the dump were the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, a council of senior Aboriginal women from northern South Australia. Many of the Kungkas personally suffered the impacts of the British nuclear bomb tests at Maralinga in the 1950s.
The Kungkas were sceptical about the government’s claim that radioactive waste destined for the Woomera dump was ‘safe’ – after all, the waste would be kept at the Lucas Heights reactor site south of Sydney if it was perfectly safe, or simply dumped in landfill.
The proposed dump generated such controversy in South Australia that the federal government secured the services of a public relations company. Correspondence between the company and the government was released under Freedom of Information laws. In one exchange, a government official asks the PR company to remove sand-dunes from a photo selected to adorn a brochure. The explanation provided by the government official was that: “Dunes are a sensitive area with respect to Aboriginal Heritage”. The sand-dunes were removed from the photo, only for the government official to ask if the horizon could be straightened up as well.
In July 2003, the federal government used the Lands Acquisition Act 1989 to seize land for the dump. Native Title rights and interests were extinguished at the stroke of a pen. This took place with no forewarning and no consultation with Aboriginal people.
The Kungkas continued to implore the federal government to ‘get their ears out of their pockets’, and after six long years the government did just that. In the lead-up to the 2004 federal election, with the dump issue biting politically, the government decided to cut its losses and abandon its plans for a dump in SA.
The Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta wrote in an open letter:
“People said that you can’t win against the Government. Just a few women. We just kept talking and telling them to get their ears out of their pockets and listen. We never said we were going to give up. Government has big money to buy their way out but we never gave up.”
Toxic trade-off: dumping on Northern Territorians
The ears went straight back in the pockets the following year with the announcement that the government planned to establish a radioactive waste dump in the Northern Territory.
A toxic trade-off of basic services for a radioactive waste dump has been part of this story from the start. Governments have systematically stripped back resources for remote Aboriginal communities, placing increased pressure on them to accept projects like the radioactive waste dump…. http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3919296.html
Racism in Australia’s uranium mining industry
Dumping on Traditional Owners: the ugly face of Australian racism The Drum, Jim Green, 29 March 12 “…….Uranium mining
The patterns of nuclear racism are also evident in Australia’s uranium mining industry. Racism in the mining industry typically involves some or all of the following tactics: ignoring the concerns of Traditional Owners insofar as the legal and political circumstances permit; divide-and-rule tactics; bribery; ‘humbugging’ Traditional Owners (exerting persistent, unwanted pressure); providing Traditional Owners with false or misleading information; and threats, most commonly legal threats.
To give one example, the 1982 South Australian Roxby Downs Indenture Act, which sets the legal framework for the operation of the Olympic Dam copper-uranium mine in South Australia, was amended in 2011 but it retains exemptions from the SA Aboriginal Heritage Act. Traditional Owners were not even consulted. The SA government’s spokesperson in Parliament said :
“BHP were satisfied with the current arrangements and insisted on the continuation of these arrangements, and the government did not consult further than that.”
That disgraceful performance illustrates a broader pattern. Aboriginal land rights and heritage protections are feeble at the best of times. But the legal rights and protections are repeatedly stripped away whenever they get in the way of nuclear or mining interests.
Thus the Olympic Dam mine is largely exempt from the SA Aboriginal Heritage Act. Legislation was passed specifically to exempt the Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory from the Aboriginal Land Rights Act. Native Title rights were extinguished with the stroke of a pen to seize land for a radioactive waste dump in South Australia. And Aboriginal heritage laws and Aboriginal land rights are being trashed with the current push to dump in the Northern Territory.
The situation is scarcely any better than it was in the 1950s when the British were exploding nuclear bombs on Aboriginal land. http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3919296.html
Renmark Council concerned about radioactive waste transport – may declare nulcear-free zone
Council considers nuclear-free declaration, ABC News, March 28, 2012 The Renmark Paringa Council says it is worried about the possible transport of nuclear waste through South Australia’s Riverland. Federal Parliament recently passed legislation to set up a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. The council decided at last night’s meeting to write to the federal Resources and Energy Minister, Martin Ferguson, seeking more information about transport arrangements.
Council CEO Tony Siviour says it is also considering declaring its district nuclear-free.
“The only understanding that we have is that the proposed route is through the Riverland instead of going through the Blue Mountains, so that concerns us,” he said….. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-28/council-considers-nuclear-free-declaration/3917592
South Australian will have no say about radioactive waste transport through their State
South Australians will be given no say on the transportation of radioactive waste through the state as the National Radioactive Waste Management Act overrides all state laws. SA laws regulating the transport of hazardous materials will have no effect. South Australians will have no say over the mode of transport or the route taken or the timing of waste transportation through the state.
SA must win nuclear battle with feds, Independent Weekly (SA) Jim Green , 27 March 2012
www.indaily.com.au/#folio=10 EIGHT years ago South Australians won a famous victory, forcing the Howard government to abandon its plan to establish a national radioactive waste dump in SA. The victory was all the sweeter because of the schoolyard-bully tactics of the Howard government including its use of compulsory land acquisition powers and its indifference to public opinion and to South Australian legislation banning the imposition of a nuclear dump…..
The current [nuclear waste] debate has important implications for SA. A federal government-commissioned report outlines four possible transport routes between the Lucas Heights nuclear site in NSW and the proposed NT dump site. Two involve trucking waste long distances through SA (one through Adelaide) and a third involves train transport through SA including Adelaide. The report also flags the option of spent nuclear fuel reprocessing waste being shipped from France and the UK to Port Adelaide then being trucked north. Continue reading
Earthquakes in South Australia, latest is near Olympic Dam uranium mine
SEISMIC SURGE IN FAR NORTH: 3.9 EARTHQUAKE NEAR ROXBY DOWNS, Coober Pedy Regional Times, 26 March 12, A 3.9 magnitude earthquake has struck near Olympic Dam in South Australia’s Mid – Far North overnight, in addition to a spate of 4 separate earthquakes in the Far North of the state in the past week.
The succession of medium to significant earthquakes has promted Geoscience Australia to begin setting up seismic monitoring equipment in the Far North where three of the earthquakes occured last week including a 6.1 magnitude quake….. The most recent earthquake which occured overnight is not far from the townships of Roxby Downs and Andamooka near the Stuart Highway, and situated within relatively close proximity to a number of the state’s mining and prospecting operations including the Olympic Dam uranium mine, whose massive orebody engulfs the 35km Masher’s Fault. …… http://cooberpedyregionaltimes.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/seismic-surge-in-far-north-3-9-earthquake-near-roxby-downs/
4 earthquakes in South Australia’s far North within the past week
SPATE OF EARTHQUAKES HIT SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S FAR NORTH, Coober Pedy Regional Times, 24 March 12, A spate of earthquakes all within a week of each other have occurred in South Australia’s Far North with three strikes on the APY Lands. A significant 6.1 earthquake struck near Ernabella (Pukatja), Fregon and Indulkana on the APY Lands at 8.25pm South Australian Daylight Savings Time CDT Friday night 23 March 2012. ..
… Three further earthquakes have struck South Australia’s Far North in the past week.
16 March a 4.3 earthquake struck in the Musgrave Ranges near Ernabella at a depth of 15 km.
20 March a 3.8 earthquake struck in the Musgrave Ranges near Ernabella at a depth of 10 km.
21 March a 3.9 earthquake struck between Oodnadatta and William Creek in the Arckaringa Basin at a depth of 0.007km. http://cooberpedyregionaltimes.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/spate-of-earthquakes-hit-south-australias-far-north/
Australia has been warned of the earthquake danger to Olympic Dam uranium mine
SEISMIC EXPERT: “MAGNITUDE 7 EARTHQUAKE RISK OBSCURED AT OLYMPIC DAM URANIUM MINE”, Coober Pedy Regional Times, 31 May 2010 “Was the Clark Shaft accident at the Olympic Dam mine preceded by a seismic event?”
A geophysicist who investigated earthquakes for the US Geological Survey for 22 years, says that the connection between mining and seismicity [earthquakes] is obscured in Australia, particularly the seismic hazard of the Olympic Dam mine.
In a communication [Memo] sent to various federal and state government ministers [and others] on Tuesday 22 May 2010, Seismologist Edward Cranswick discusses the 35-km-long, steeply dipping Mashers Fault which passes through the middle of the Olympic Dam ore body. A fault length which implies an earthquake of maximum about 7.
The same memo is available as a PDF
http://cranswick.net/Kalgoorlie/KalgoorlieEarthquakeOlympicDamMine.pdf
BHP Billiton has proposed to dig the largest open-pit mine on the Earth at Olympic Dam, 4.1 km long, 3.5 km wide, 1 km deep. As a geophysicist who investigated earthquakes for the US Geological Survey for 22 years [1], I strongly criticised BHP’s Olympic Dam Expansion Draft Environmental Impact Statement 2009 (ODXdEIS) [2] because it omitted consideration of seismicity, i.e., rockbursts or earthquakes, caused by open-pit mining, despite the fact that seismic hazard is well-known in the Australian mining industry …..
Traditionally, underground mines are deeper, and therefore, more seismically hazardous than shallow open pits, but the proposed pit at Olympic Dam will be as deep as the underground mine it replaces. Based on the dimensions of the open-pit, the results of McGarr et al. (2002) [19] suggest an earthquake of maximum magnitude 4-6 could occur.
The 35-km-long, steeply dipping Mashers Fault passes through the middle of the Olympic Dam ore body that is to be mined – that fault length implies an earthquake of maximum magnitude about 7…….
It is absurd – irrational, unscrupulously & tragically dishonest and unprofessional – that the ODXdEIS for the proposed largest open-pit mine on Earth does not address the principal hazard to digging that mine, triggered/induced seismicity and rockbursts…… http://cooberpedyregionaltimes.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/seismic-expert-magnitude-7-earthquake-risk-obscured-at-olympic-dam-uranium-mine/
Federal Court challenge to Olympic Dam approval
Environmental Defenders Office (SA) Inc, 22 March 12, Mr Kevin Buzzacott has filed an application in the Federal Court challenging the Commonwealth Environment Minister’s approval of the Olympic Dam expansion. He is represented by the Environmental Defender’s Office (SA) Inc (EDO) in those proceedings.
Mr Buzzacott (known as Uncle Kevin) is an Aboriginal Elder of the Arabunna Nation in Northern South Australia, who is concerned about the impacts of the mine on the environment. The EDO is a community legal centre that specialises in public interest environmental law. Continue reading
Wind energy a winner for South Australia
Wind Power costs a lot less than the savings it makes – it’s like a preventative measure; an insurance that you buy against high electricity prices. In the case of South Australia, they did just that and it paid off.
Wind Works. It’s giving South Australia climate security through decarbonising its economy, energy security through reduced imports of expensive volatile fossil fuels. And it works so well that South Australia can now go further and target 50 per cent of the state to run on wind power and put much more solar on rooftops while planning to integrate this with
Baseload Solar Thermal plants installed in locations like Port Augusta.
South Australia’s big win with wind, REneweconomy, By Matthew Wright 21 March 2012 Wind Power in South Australia has been a howling success; it now provides more electricity in the state than coal and in just a decade the wind industry has developed into one of the world’s leaders – and all to the benefit of South Australians. Continue reading
3000 jobs and cheaper electricity for South Australia with wind power
They are reportedly unpopular but a CSIRO report in January found there was stronger community support for wind farms across Australia than suggested by media coverage.
It found rural residents often backed the developments but did not seek media attention or political engagement to express their views.
SA wants to lead with renewable energy, Business Spectator, 22 March 12, South Australia’s Labor government wants to be a leader in renewable energy and wants more wind farms to do it. SA has more than half of Australia’s wind farms and they provided 26 per cent of the state’s electricity last year, up from 18 per cent in 2010, and less than one per cent just five years ago…… Continue reading
South Australia the chosen route for Lucas Heights radioactive wastes to the Northern Territory?
Nuclear waste headed to South Australia – Greens, Herald Sun, AAP March 15, 2012 THE Greens say the South Australian Government has abandoned its tough stand against the transport of nuclear waste through the state. Greens MP Mark Parnell said former Premier Mike Rann won a High Court challenge against Howard government plans to locate a nuclear waste
dump in SA. Mr Rann also opposed the transport of nuclear waste through the state to a proposed dump in the Northern Territory.
Federal parliament yesterday passed a Bill authorising the NT dump and Mr Parnell said the State Government now appeared to accept nuclear waste from the Lucas Heights reactor in Sydney would travel through SA….. “This transport is completely unnecessary,” Mr Parnell said today.
“Even if you accept the need to build a waste-storage facility in the Northern Territory, which the Greens totally reject, the most direct route from Lucas Heights to the NT is nowhere near South Australia.”
Mr Parnell said in 2009 a federal government report found that transporting waste through SA was an option that would avoid the
emotive idea of taking it through the Blue Mountains. But he said if the waste came through SA it would travel through Australia’s foodbowl and tourist areas such as the SA Riverland. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/nuclear-waste-headed-to-south-australia-greens/story-e6frf7jx-1226300436521
South Australia’s wind energy experience debunks the myths of the anti wind lobby
Australia can draw on real-life experience in South Australia. And it serves to debunk a few myths: wind does not need like-for-like back-up, or anything near it. It does achieve abatement, it does displace fossil fuel generation, and it is not anywhere near as expensive as some claim.
wind accounts for more than 20 per cent of SA’s electricity consumption, making it the second largest in percentage terms in the world after Denmark, and the highest on a per capita basis.
State’s wind farms help debunk a few myths BY: GILES PARKINSON, The Australian March 16, 2012 IS wind energy as useless as its critics say it is? Is it really so expensive and ineffective that its emissions abatement is achieved at 10 times
the cost of gas-fired generation?
That was the conclusion of a British study sponsored by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, chaired by former Conservative chancellor and noted climate sceptic Nigel Lawson. Wind power upsets a few people, not least the climate sceptics who simply can’t comprehend its utility. Continue reading
Ignorance is bliss? South Australian government doesn’t know about nuke waste transport
SA left in the dark on nuclear waste, Adelaide Now, March 15, 2012 THE Federal Government is yet to reveal if nuclear waste from hospitals and laboratories will be trucked through South Australia. Greens MP Mark Parnell yesterday raised concerns in State Parliament that transporting nuclear waste to a proposed NT dump posed risks to SA farms.
But Environment Minister Paul Caica said later: “Matters of a proposed transport route are yet to be raised with the State Government.” http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/ipad/sa-left-in-the-dark-on-nuclear-waste/story-fn6bqphm-1226299807952
South Australian government does an about turn on nuclear waste transport
SA Govt selling out SA over nuke waste, 15 March 12, The SA Government appears to have abandoned its opposition to the transfer of radioactive waste from interstate through South Australia, says Greens Parliamentary Leader Mark Parnell.
In response to a question from the Greens in the SA Upper House about the implications for SA in the passing of a bill yesterday in the Federal Parliament authorising a nuclear waste facility in the NT, Minister Gail Gago said: “It is anticipated that the commonwealth would enter into discussions and keep the state fully informed of any future transport of significant quantities of radioactive waste through South Australia”
This response is in stark contrast to the vehement opposition by former Premier Mike Rann to the transport and storage of nuclear wastes into South Australia that led to a successful High Court challenge in 2003. Following the High Court victory, then Premier Rann said “Eighty per cent of South Australians were opposed to the radioactive waste dump and particularly opposed to radioactive waste from the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney being brought across our borders and along our roads.” Continue reading
In the interests of their fossil fuel backers, Liberal Party attacks wind energy
Is Rowan looking after the interests of his constituents, or of the fossil fuel industry? He is correct, as I understand it, in pointing out that there are times when the generated wind power loads the SA grid to its limit, and that there will be a need for more interconnection between SA and the eastern states if wind power is to expand much further. However, the Liberal Party’s systematic attacks on sustainable energy and support for the fossil fuel industry in its campaign to stop the rise in sustainable energy shows a complete abandonment of ethical standards…
More Coalition attacks on wind power and renewables, Independent Australia, 08 Mar 2012 Liberal MP Rowan Ramsay is yet another Coalition MP keen to promote fossil fuels over renewables — especially wind. Environmentalist Dave Clarke responds to a speech Ramsay made recently attacking wind power projects in South Australia. Rowan Ramsey gave a speech in the Australian Parliament in mid-February 2012, which was biased against wind power. In this speech he made a number of claims and inferences that were questionable at best and false at worst. Continue reading
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