Uranium mining should be included in Australia’s mining tax
Australia Greens Want Mining Tax Raised, Uranium Added in Gillard Hurdle, Bloomberg, By Marion Rae – Sep 16, 2010 The Australian Greens Party wants Prime Minister Julia Gillard to increase a proposed levy on coal and iron ore profits and expand it to include uranium, underscoring the pressure on her two-day old minority government……
The Greens Party won a record 12 percent of the national vote at last month’s national elections, giving them nine seats in the upper house Senate and one in the lower house. Gillard’s Labor Party must placate the Greens to pass legislation and do so without alienating three independent lawmakers who also helped her secure a parliamentary majority…….Australia Greens Want Mining Tax Raised, Uranium Added in Gillard Hurdle – Bloomberg
Nuclear power financially dangerous for India, and USA
Indians have little to gain from caving to U.S. pressure….nuclear electricity is still one of the most uneconomical ways for it to meet its near and mid-term power requirements……..
More important, domestic U.S. legal nuclear liability caps will sunset in 15 years and leave firms totally exposed in the case of a nuclear accident…….
India Unmasks America’s Nuclear Liabilities – WSJ.com, * SEPTEMBER 13, 2010 Private companies should insure themselves, not ask Delhi to do it for them. By HENRY SOKOLSKI Continue reading
South Australian Liberal Party will reject uranium mining in Arkaroola Wilderness
- “The state Liberal Party has decided very clearly that it will reject any move by the State Government to change the environmental status of Arkaroola
- Isobel Redmond vows to block uranium mining in the Arkaroola mining Adelaide Now, Daniel Wills, September 14, 2010 OPPOSITION Leader Isobel Redmond has declared her party will block any future moves to allow uranium mining in the Arkaroola Wildness Sanctuary. Continue reading
Sinking prices, not the Greens, threaten Australia’s uranium industry
“In contrast to claims put out by the uranium industry about its supposed financial benefits, we have seen proposed uranium projects on increasingly shaky financial ground.
“They won’t admit it, but right now volatility in global uranium prices is probably a bigger worry for the industry than the Greens,”
Greens to Stick to Uranium Mining Ban Policy, Mathaba, 15 Sept 10, The Australian Greens have confirmed they will continue to push for a ban on uranium mining across Australia, in line with long-held Greens policy. Continue reading
Nuclear reactors are massive Dirty Bomb targets
Nuclear reactors are massive Dirty Bomb targets. Reactor materials can be used to make atomic weapons. Nuclear waste can be quickly and cheaply used to make deadly carcinogenic Depleted Uranium weapons. The world’s plutonium repositories, which contain hundreds of tons of plutonium extracted from civil reactors, are literal Doomsday Weapons.
Nuclear Renaissance ? : The Market Oracle, By Andrew McKillop, 15 Sept 10, The 2010-2020 decade marks the world’s “Nuclear Renaissance” according to triumphal industry spokesmen. It may result in the construction of 200 – 250 new reactors, mostly in the Emerging countries. The countries signing up to the New Nuclear Miracle, which extends to its debt-linked financing, now range far and wide in the low and mid income South. They include Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and plenty others. Continue reading
Australian Greens are upfront in their opposition to uranium mining
..“The Greens have never used their balance of power in the past to do secret backroom deals or cross-trades on unrelated policy issues–and neither will we do so in the future,”
Australia’s Greens vow no secret uranium deals – MarketWatch, Sept. 14, 2010, By Rachel Pannett, CANBERRA Continue reading
Anti-nuclear sentiment building in Germany
apparent skipping of parliamentary process in such a significant policy for Germany’s energy future will form the crux of the anti-nuclear lobby’s opposition
The Social Democratic Party and the Greens have made it clear that if the deal goes ahead they will make it a major issue in the next election and overturn it if elected.
Germany’s ‘hot autumn’ of nuclear discontent, Sydney Morning Herald, James Norman and Dave Sweeney, September 15, 2010, AUSTRALIA we often view Germany as at the forefront of the global green energy revolution. So the news that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat coalition will move a new accord to extend the life-span of Germany’s 17 existing nuclear power plants by 12 years has been reverberating here.
The move has signalled a new “hot autumn” of anti-nuclear sentiment in Berlin and beyond. The German policy shift back toward nuclear energy also has clear implications for the country with the world’s largest uranium reserves — Australia. Continue reading
Just a step to the Right – Australia’s new govt on environment
It’s a bit of a worry. No Education Ministry for Australia -( it’s as if education is just about training kids for jobs – not about an informed, creative minded society in all age groups). As for Environment, – tucked away in a new portfolio (Sustainable Population, Communities, Environment and Water) under Tony Burke. He could be good – we don’t yet know.
Meanwhile, higher in the Ministerial food chain, are Martin Ferguson, Minister for Resources and Energy and Greg Combet, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. Combet was a coal engineer, degrees in mining engineering and economics.
Lurking in the wings, Bill Shorten, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, a leader of the putsch that elevated Julia Gillard, and an ardent pro-nuclear advocate. – Christina Macpherson
Greens bring anti-nuclear muscle to Canberra
Greens fight Labor on uranium Andrew Burrell and Sid Maher The Australian September 14, 2010 THE Greens have threatened to use their historic alliance with Labor to stop billions of dollars of planned uranium projects from securing government approval…
Greens nuclear spokesman Scott Ludlam told The Australian his party would use its new-found leverage to attempt to stop all new uranium mines, including those planned in the next few years by BHP Billiton and Canadian giant Cameco. Continue reading
USA – no new nukes, and crumbling old ones,
Because atomic energy can’t compete with natural gas or renewables and efficiency, Exelon has withdrawn its application to build two reactors in Victoria County, Texas.
Is the “Nuclear Renaissance” Dead Yet?, HUFFINGTON POST, Harvey Wasserman: 13 Sept 2010, America’s much hyped “reactor renaissance” is facing a quadruple bypass. In actual new construction, proposed projects and overseas sales, soaring costs are killing new nukes. And the old ones are leaking like Dark Age relics on the brink of disaster. Continue reading
Moscow’s nuclear radiation scandal
no fewer than 18 dangerous radioactive objects within the capital.And they can be found in heavily built-up areas like Kuzminki,…..In Moscow… the map of the radioactive dumps has not been made and all the more so published. People just do not know whether any nuclear waste is nearby and what the level of radiation on the surface is.
Radiation scare for Moscow parks | The Moscow News, – Evgeniya Chaykovskaya – 13 Sept 10, Levels of radiation on Moscow’s streets have reached a level so high that the authorities are about to spend 4.7 billion roubles to get rid of it. Continue reading
Nuclear industry facing sunset, not new dawn
Industry executives and analysts suggest most of those new reactors are unlikely to be built on their proposed schedules, if at all….
Nuclear: New dawn now seems limited to the east, FT.com, By Ed Crooks September 12 2010 The renaissance of nuclear power is a much fabled beast that is often talked about but rarely seen. Continue reading
Quebec and Ontario rejecting nuclear power
Ontario is backing off nuclear power generation of the Canadian-developed CANDU variety, ….. Quebec has a golden opportunity to follow that example.
No to nuclear power, towns say, By Jan Ravensbergen, Montreal Gazette September 10, 2010, MONTREAL – More than 250 Quebec municipalities and regional municipal governments have banded together to demand the province shut the door once and for all on nuclear energy Continue reading
Australian Greens should avoid Peter Garrett’s fate
the experien
ce of Peter Garrett shows that the Greens should be wary ……If a Greens MP or senator were to accept a ministerial position related to the environment or climate change, they would inevitably be forced to compromise….For the sake of the party’s future success, the Greens should decline an environment ministry in the Gillard government.
Peter Garrett: a cautionary tale for the Greens, By Sara Phillips, ABC Environment | 10 Sep 2010 “………speculation that one of the Greens may be given an environment-related ministry in a show of rainbow-coalition unity – much in the way that the Tasmanian Greens have assumed cabinet positions in that state’s minority government. Continue reading
Cameco, BHP, Toro, planning uranium transport through Kalgoorlie and South Australia
Cameco may join with BHP Billiton and others…From there, the product may be sent by train to a port in South Australia,
Cameco May Work With BHP, Toro for Uranium Transport Hub in West Australia, Bloomberg, By James Paton – Sep 10, 2010 Cameco Corp. said it seeks to cooperate with companies including BHP Billiton Ltd. and Toro Energy Ltd. on transporting uranium oxide, potentially through a hub near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia…… Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 