To 13 February – climate and nuclear news – Australia and beyond

The discussion on climate change is subtly switching from warnings, and debates on, climate change impacts, to adaptation, preparation for those impacts.  What prevents us from thinking ‘meaningfully‘ about climate change.

While all seems quiet on the nuclear front, the nuclear arms race is now grimmer than ever.  Meanwhile angst over nuclear waste continues on both sides of the Atlantic. And I really wish that there were news from secretive Russia and China, about their waste problems.

AUSTRALIA

CLIMATE

• Australia and water: the driest inhabited continent in the age of climate change.   Climate change already having drastic effects on Torres Strait islands.  Extreme weather in Australia – the economic effects : why we need to prepare for this.   Cost of insurance becoming unmanageable in Australia, due to climate change?
•  Australia is not on track to meet Paris emissions target – not without policy support.   Morrison government not recognising the climate impacts already hitting Australia.  How Australia has lost the plot on adapting to climate change.
• There is still no deal on royalties for Adani coal mine with Queensland government.  Adani doesn’t want a “Mega-Mine” any more.  Adani ramps up propaganda war, intimidation of activists. Resources Minister Matt Canavan takes cheap shots at the UN for Adani.  Bob Brown to lead anti coal mine convoy from Hobart to Queensland’s Galilee Basin, and Canberra. Anti Adani protesters rally outside the Sydney Mining Club. Zali Steggall says Labor needs to commit to stopping Adani coalmine.
• This New South Wales court ruling will shake the coal industry to its core.  NSW coal mine ruled out due to climate change, in landmark court decision .

NUCLEAR.  Contrary to what ANSTO says, nuclear waste returning to Australia IS High Level Waste (HLW).  Keeping South Australia nuclear-dump-free – a priority for Candace Champion, Greens candidate for Grey electorate  Nuclear Engineering company Frazer Nash increasing its pro nuclear lobbying in Australia. The Department of Industry an Innovation now spending much time and resources in Hawker.Why?

RENEWABLE ENERGY. New South Wales Labor announces plan for 500,000 households to get rooftop solar.  NSW under pressure to move quickly on renewables as coal clunkers fail .

 

INTERNATIONAL

Global warming temperatures to rise by 1.5 Celsius in 5 years – India to get knocked out. Climate change increasingly ranks as the world’s most pressing security threat – Pew Poll. Climate chaos ahead, as Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets melt?

Increasing danger of the radioactive by-products from the nuclear industry.

Growing cancer rates: the focus must be on prevention, on researching environmental causes.

CENTRAL AMERICA. Central American immigration driven by climate change, but this fact is being ignored.

JAPAN. TEPCO firmly at fault for balking at payouts to disaster victims.  The State of Medical Nuclear Emergency Declared after the Fukushima Meltdown is Still On Today!  Japan’s Reconstruction Agency to air ad for Fukushima products on TV, online and at cinemas. Fire extinguisher system at nuclear plant freezes.

UK.

• British school children in their thousands will strike for climate action.
• Suddenly no public access to Scotland’s nuclear history.
• Likely areas of Wales to be targeted for nuclear waste dumping. UK radioactive trash for Northern Ireland? Newry is being considered. Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein warns about UK considering nuclear waste dumping in Northern Ireland. ‘Plutonium-fuelled ‘madness” – the idea of Britain’s nuclear waste transported for burial in Northern Ireland.
•  Scotland represented at Global Peace Forum, calling for Scotland as nuclear-free zone. Scottish Energy Minister pressed to back closure of Hunterston B nuclear power plant in favour of renewable energy.
• Calls to make Calder Hall the first nuclear reactor in the UK to be decommissioned.

BRAZIL. Brazil prosecutor calls for emergency safety measures at tailings dam at former Poços de Caldas uranium mine. Brazil moving towards nuclear-powered submarine.

BELGIUM. Google refuses to blur its satellite images of nuclear facilities. Belgium heading for a nuclear-free future.

RUSSIA. Russia is open to considering new proposals for a broader nuclear weapons treaty.  Russia’s very threatening new 100-megaton underwater nuclear doomsday device.

NETHERLANDS.  Red Cross urges Netherlands to sign UN nuclear weapons ban treaty.

USA.

• What is USA willing to offer to North Korea at Vietnam Summit?
• Investors in Northrop, Boeing, etc rejoice! USA to spend $500 billion on nuclear weapons.
• U.S. Congress needs to look hard at this – Are Washington’s ‘Advanced’ Reactors a Nuclear Waste?. Call for taxpayers not to fund Bill Gates’ small modular nuclear reactor folly.     Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project an example of the folly of nuclear reprocessing.
•  Potentially criminal activity in Trump campaign – a nuclear connection.
• Reclassifying nuclear wastes: Mayor of Richland, and Tri-City Development Council argue in favour of this.
• Economist doubts the need for New Jersey to subsidise nuclear power stations.
• U.S. Dept of Justice suing Hanford contractor for fraud.  Cost of USA’s cold war nuclear weapons waste clean-up now estimated at $377 Billion.  California disapproves of Federal Dept of Energy’s plan for cleaning up radioactive Santa Susana Field Lab.
•  California’s Dangerous Diablo Nuke Hangs in Gov. Newsom’s Hands.  Denver Federal Center nuclear reactor violations lead to fine, short shutdown.
•  Radioactive dust from nuclear work found in workers’ homes and beyond.
• Nuclear commission overrules judge, upholds license for company to mine uranium in southwest South Dakota.
• The Green New Deal goes to Washington. Controversy over nuclear power, as Green New Deal is unveiled.  Yes, the Green New Deal is expensive,but nothing to compare with the nuclear boondoggle.

NORTH KOREA. North Korea’s moves to hide its nuclear missiles from US strikes.

FRANCE. France to build hypersonic nuclear weapons.

ARCTIC. Secret USA nuclear base in Greenland revealed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a328G8sxoQ

AFRICA. Is nuclear power REALLY a clean-power fix for Africa – as Russia and China push it.

UGANDA. Despite the severe disadvantages to Uganda, of nuclear power, Uganda’s govt succumbs to China’s nuclear marketing.

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Australian and international nuclear and climate news this week

How paradise island Sardinia was poisoned by the world’s military | Foreign Correspondent

This week has seen extreme weather in both North and South hemispheres. Yes, there have always been cold snaps and heat waves – “one in a hundred years” events, but climate change is making them more frequent and more extreme.

The world seems to be taking it all too calmly, – that USA and Russia are both about to withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty , opening the way to a renewed arms race, and, with Putin and Trump in charge, increasing the risk of nuclear Armageddon.

AUSTRALIA.

Independent media is here to stay – and to keep the politicians honest.

CLIMATE.

• Climate change is here, in Australia, as temperatures rise faster than predicted.  Climate change is back as a big issue in Australian federal politics. Australian government fudging the facts to make its climate policy look good.  Australia’s Energy Minster Angus Taylor ready to subsidise new coal projects.
• Queensland floods: Townsville reels under record water levels as more rain arrives.  Former fire chief lashes out at government inaction over climate change. Murray-Darling  River report shows public authorities must take climate change risk seriously. 
• Sydney to host international climate conference for women in 2020.
•  Coal power plants in Australia broke down once every three days in 2018.

South Australian government changing Environment Dept, and cutting its budget.   Mark Parnell calls on South Australian government to stop its plans to diminish environmental department.

NUCLEAR. Mark Butler ALP Shadow Minister rules out nuclear power.  Labor Party’s latest policy platform – on nuclear waste, and opposition to nuclear industry development.

Australian Aboriginal politician Jacinta Price cynical about BHP, Rio Tinto backing Uluru Statement (I would be, too!)

RENEWABLE ENERGY. State by state – solar records fell across Australia in 2018.   Energy efficient homes could save households $1,000-plus a year on bills. Western Australia unveils plan to lead global lithium-ion battery boom. Gupta challenges coalers with $1 billion plus solar and storage plan.

 

INTERNATIONAL

2 billion people at risk, as Himalaya’s glaciers melt.  Paradoxically, extreme cold weather indicates that global warming is accelerating. Atlantic ocean circulation is being altered, by climate change.

China urges dialogue, as Russia and USA ramp up nuclear weaponry, pull out of weapons treaty.– Why so little public anxiety about risk of nuclear war? With Putin and Trump in charge!!

How the utilities financial system is rigged to give the nuclear industry the advantage.

Storage of nuclear waste a ‘global crisis’ as stockpile reaches 250,000 tons, Greenpeace warns.

Sending dummies into space, to test effects of radiation on women.

ITALY. Radioactive poisoning by the world’s military – the scandalous case of Sardinia.

JAPAN.

• Propaganda for 2020 Olympics, and for the nuclear industry is behind lifting evacuation order for irradiated town of Namie.  IAEA urges Japan to slow the Fukushima wastes clean-up – delay release to Pacific till after Olympic Games.  Radioactive cesium above legal limit detected in fish caught off Fukushima.  Governor of Fukushima Prefecture promotes Fukushima foods in Hong Kong.
• Radiation leaks at Japan’s Tokai plutonium lab; ‘no workers exposed’.
• Reflection on PM Abe’s sales pitch for nuclear at Davos.

USA. 

• There’s money in climate denialism, as 150 U.S. Congressional Republicans have found!  Extreme cold shuts down N.J. Nuclear Reactor, due to an unusual ice phenomenon.
• IAEA criticises USA’s efforts to sabotage Iran nuclear deal. Donald Trump confirms U.S. withdrawal from INF nuclear treaty.  Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduces Bill to outlaw first strike use of nuclear weapons.
• New radiation panel leader appointed by EPA in the interests of nuclear corporations, not of the public.   FirstEnergy nuclear bailout would be crony capitalism at its worst .
• USA’s $43 billion nuclear waste fund – but no nuclear waste has been buried. Nevada State Officials Are Outraged that the Trump Administration Secretly Shipped Plutonium in from South Carolina. Cleanup estimate for Hanford nuclear site increases by $82B.   North Dakota Community Alliance urges public to watch progress of Bill on high-level radioactive waste.     Clean-up of molten salt nuclear reactor continuing (shut in 1969)M – new plan to reduce the costs.
• Is Vogtle nuclear station expansion now further behind schedule? Report is delayed? Low-flying choppers monitoring radiation in Atlanta (fears of nuclear terrorism?)
•  Judge refuses to unseal criminal charges against Julian Assange.

UK. UK’s ageing nuclear power stations are likely to close early. UK’s Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit’s under-reported analysis – renewables cheaper than new nuclear.

INDIA. India’s Kudankulam nuclear power station means big debt to Russia.

HUNGARY. Countries going into deep nuclear debt to Russia; Hungary the latest victim of this political blackmail.

CANADA. SNC-Lavalin, with its record of corruption should be barred from federal contracts. Grim outlook for uranium industry -financial analyst Jayant Bhandari.

SWITZERLAND. Employee faked radiation test data at Swiss nuclear plant.

FRANCE. Pump malfunction causes shutdown at Flamanville nuclear reactor.

BANGLADESH. Nuclear power: Surviving on secrecy and misinformation.

TAIWAN. Taiwan to abolish nuclear power in 2025.

RUSSIA. Russia also to withdraw from Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, weakening weapons control. Russia’s Plan to Solve the North Korea Nuclear Crisis?

CZECH REPUBLIC. Czech industry minister: nuclear reactor tender not realistic in 2019 .

To 31 January – climate and nuclear news

It must be harder for residents of the Northern hemisphere to get their heads around the idea of global warming causing extreme cold weather, but – climate scientists tell us that this is the case. Easier for residents of the Southern Hemisphere , especially Australia and New Zealand to accept the idea of global warming.

A great pity that government secrecy and the language barrier combine to prevent us learning anything about nuclear matters in China and Russia. Are they finding nuclear power cheap?  Do they have no problems with nuclear waste?  I doubt that.

Meanwhile the British government flounders about, pretending that its nuclear industry has a future, when informed opinion, and the stopping of new programmes indicate that it does not. In the USA, there’s a concerted push by nuclear companies, and some politicians, for “new nukes”, specifically for tax-payer funded Small Modular Nuclear Reactors – the push is led by Bill Gates.

A bit of good news – Radioactive Cesium-137 diminishing in 2 Fukushima rivers, after close to 8 years.

AUSTRALIA.

CLIMATE.

Olympian Zali Steggall’s main policy will be climate action, as she contests Tony Abbott’s Warringah election seat.lives.

Adelaide – hottest capital city on record. Second wave of fish deaths in NSW labelled an ‘environmental catastrophe’ (result of diminished flow in Australia’s one great river system)  “Environmental bushfire catastrophe” unfolds in Tasmania  Western Australia bushfire a threat to homes and life.

Traditional Owners in Federal Court continue to resist Adani’s  coal expansion ‘invasion’ Reliability of newer coal power questioned. Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s allegiance is to the coal industry.

NUCLEAR. 

Pauline Hanson’s ONE NATION speaks out for the nuclear industry.  Tania Constable – a new spruiker for Australia’s coal-nuclear lobby.  Warren Mundine picked by Scott Morrison to stand in marginal seat of Gilmore. Warren Mundine, new Liberal candidate, makes it clear that he is pro coal and nuclear, and anti environment. Warren Mundine’s allegiance to the nuclear industry, rather than to the Aboriginal people.

Australian mining companies dominate in human rights abuses in African countries.

Nuclear energy doesn’t make sense in Australia – Climate Council.   Australia Day – 61st anniversary of the start of Australia’s nuclear reactor, and its toxic radioactive trash.

Courageous indigenous appeal to Scotland to stop sending nuclear waste – stop indigenous cultural genocide.

RENEWABLE ENERGY. Grid held together by solar, load management, as coal fails in heat.    Labor supporting community renewables in the South Coast. Queensland government-owned company to install Tesla big battery in Townsville .   Construction begins on 255MW Sunraysia solar farm in NSW.  How our electricity system of the future could be powered by sun, wind and waves.

INTERNATIONAL

Rapid Arctic Warming Linked To Mid-Latitude Weather Extremes. How global warming can lead to extreme cold weather, too.

Climate change reshaping how heat moves around globe. Our global home”is on fire” – Greta Thunberg at the World Economic Forum 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7dVF9xylaw

Doomsday Clock at 2 minutes to midnight – “The New Abnormal”       Nuclear disarmament, non proliferation, “peaceful use” on the agenda as France, Russia, Britain and the United States meet in China. Storage of nuclear waste a ‘global crisis’: report

USA.

• Extreme cold to hit 55 million people in the US as polar vortex brings life-threatening temperatures. This Is Why Global Warming Is Responsible For Freezing Temperatures Across The U.S.
• A rosy time coming for investors, (such as Donald Trump) in nuclear weapons!  USA’s nuclear weapons modernisation plan to cost $494 billion over the next decade. America may be overspending on unnecessary nuclear weapons – the nuclear triad now obsolete?
• USA hoping to profit from nuclear power, by exporting waste clean-up technology.  Activists vow to stop Holtec’s nuclear waste plan for New Mexico.  Holtec defends plans for nuclear waste storage facility in New Mexico.
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission votes 3-2 to weaken nuclear power safety rules.  US Senator Markey Blasts Dangerous New Trump NRC Post-Fukushima Nuclear Safety Rule . Scrutiny on Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s decision to award funding to an advanced nuclear enrichment facility.   It makes sense to exclude Nuclear, Fossils With Carbon Capture,and Biofuels from the Green New Deal.
•  Bill Gates urging U.S. Congress to spend $billions of tax-payer money for developing new nuclear reactors.
• Tiny mobile nuclear reactors for U.S. military – a plan fraught with dangers.
•  Nuclear Regulatory Commission agrees to delay relicensing New Hampshire’s Seabrook nuclear power plant.

JAPAN. Greenpeace slams Japan’s plan to dump radioactive Fukushima water into the ocean.  TEPCO failed to spot leak of contaminated water.  Japan’s plans to sell nuclear plants overseas derailed.

EUROPE. NATO chief says ‘no real progress’ on nuclear treaty.

FRANCE.  France’s government snidely changes law to avoid paying compensation to Polynesian victims of atomic bomb testing. French nuclear company EDF considering retreating from operations in UK.

UK.

• Genetic effects of radiation, and other pollutants, in children of Gulf War veterans.
• Aldermaston – Britain’s bomb factory – it’s a slow motion train crash.
• UK’s new nuclear projects are a financial dead end.  A financial necessity – UK’s nuclear industry to fall into China’s hands. Nationalise the UK nuclear industry– the only way to save it – says Hitachi chairman.
• Tax-payer funding for yet another nuclear folly? Rolls Royce’s Small Modular Reactors.
•  In Britain’s new energy era of wind and solar, nuclear power just does not add up. As a nuclear power project collapses, leading utility chief calls on UK government to increase targets for offshore wind energy.

NORTH KOREA. North Korea’s Nukes and the ‘Forgotten War’.

SOUTH KOREA. South Korea looks for nuclear dismantling pledge by Kim at second summit with Trump.

GERMANY. Germany phasing out coal, but will not import nuclear power as replacement.

SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Arabia could be planning for nuclear weapons. 5 countries scramble to sell nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia.

CZECH REPUBLIC. Shares slump for Europe’s biggest publicly traded power company, due to Czech Republic’s PM’s nuclear power dream.

HUNGARY. Hungary’s problems in financing new nuclear power plant.

Tania Constable – meet Australia’s newest pro nuclear propagandist

Australia’s coal and nuclear lobbies have just recruited a new puppet, Independent Australia,  25 January 2019, Newly-appointed Mining Council CEO Tania Constable has been championing nuclear power at a time when we should be discussing renewables, writes Noel Wauchope.WHAT BAD TIMING. Only in dictatorships – Russia and China – is nuclear power thriving. In the Western world, it’s problematic due to costs and waste issues. As for coal, even China is working to phase it out.

In Australia, renewable energy is going ahead in leaps and bounds. Our coal-loving Liberal Coalition Government is so on the nose, they’ll be forgotten men within a few months.

But never mind, Australia’s fossil fuel and nuclear lobbies are on the propaganda trail and they’ve just recruited a new puppet, Tania Constable. Appointed as CEO of the Mining Councilin July last year, Ms Constable’s first job is to mouth the standard pro-coal and nuclear platitudes. Here she goes.

A headline in the 22 January edition of The Daily Telegraph reads: ‘Heatwaves proof positive Australia needs nuclear’.

In the article, Constable says:

“Energy costs are rising and renewables can’t meet all our needs but a new generation of clean reactors could.”

‘Heatwaves proof positive Australia needs nuclear’?No, Tania, proof positive that Australia needs solar air conditioners. She seems unaware of the fact that nuclear power is highly water intensive, and subject to shutdowns due to hot weather.

Ms Constable mourns that:

“The influx of part-time power sources such as wind and solar which make it more difficult for older baseload power stations to operate will likely see the early closure of a number of them well before 2030.”

So, it’s renewable energy’s fault that coal is not doing well? She goes on to enthuse about “baseload” power — coal, of course. But that’s seen as a myth, nowdays, as reliable power is no longer synonymous with coal.

She has a bash at the AEMO and CSIRO:

“[They] missed a golden opportunity of lowering power prices, ensuring reliability and lowering emissions through advanced coal technology.”

She doesn’t mention the high costs of this advanced coal technology, needing government subsidy and the fact that it’s not all that clean anyway.

Now she gets to her main point – changing the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 – which happens to be due for review this year.

“The removal of four words — ‘a nuclear power plant’ — in Section 140A(1) (b) would allow nuclear industries to be considered for development in Australia.”

Ms Constable writes approvingly of nuclear power in countries around the world – not a mention of the financial problems of nuclear power development in UK and USA, and Japan, too.  Not a mention of the nuclear waste problems…..

[She goes on to praise “new nukes’ – Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, singling out Terra Power and Transatomics, – But]

First of all, Bill Gates has just had the door slammed on his TerraPower project. He’s closed it down for now, but hopes to find a country that will back it.

Secondly, Transatomic has also had a big setback. Its nuclear start-up folded, in disarray. This company was spruiked by an enthusiastic young woman, Leslie Dewan. The nuclear lobby seems to pick them for the poisoned chalice of propaganda work.   https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/australias-coal-and-nuclear-lobbies-have-just-recruited-a-new-puppet,12313

Pro nuclear campaigner Warren Mundine chosen as Liberal candidate in Australian election

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has parachuted a pro nuclear campaigner, Warren Mundine,  as an election candidate in a marginal seat

Warren Mundine’s nuclear allegiances, Jim Green, Online Opinion, 11 April 2012, more https://nuclear.foe.org.au/warren-mundines-nuclear-allegiances/?fbclid=IwAR32gwKze3jcbZV26e-sqsyRjE0lkFycLcyDj_lVWKVRxac1u4cttGzLeHM

Warren Mundine, a member and former National President of the ALP, and co-convener of the Australian Uranium Association’s Indigenous Dialogue Group, has been promoting the nuclear industry recently. Unfortunately he turns a blind eye to the industry’s crude racism, a problem that ought to be core business for the Indigenous Dialogue Group.

Mundine could have mentioned the legacy of uranium mining in the Wiluna region of WA; to pick one of many examples. Uranium exploration in the region in the 1980s left a legacy of pollution and contamination. Greatly elevated radiation levels have been recorded despite the area being ‘cleaned’ a decade ago. Even after the ‘clean up’, the site was left with rusting drums containing uranium ore. A sign reading “Danger − low level radiation ore exposed” was found lying face down in bushes.

In August 2000, coordinator of the Wiluna-based Marruwayura Aboriginal Corporation Steve Syred said that until 1993, 100−150 people were living three kilometres from the spot where high radiation levels were recorded. Syred told the Kalgoorlie Miner that the Aboriginal community had unsuccessfully resisted uranium exploration in the area in the early 1980s. Since then many people had lived in the area while the Ngangganawili Aboriginal Corporation was based near the contaminated site. Elders still hunted in the area.

Another example ignored by Mundine was in late March when the NSW government passed legislation that excluded uranium from provisions of the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 thus stripping Aboriginal Land Councils of any say in uranium mining.

Yet another example ignored by Mundine was the 2011 amendments to the S.A. Roxby Downs Indenture Act 1982. This is the legislation that governs operations at the Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine and retains exemptions from the S.A. Aboriginal Heritage Act. Traditional Owners were not even consulted in the amendments or exemptions. The S.A. 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. The Olympic Dam mine is largely exempt from the S.A. Aboriginal Heritage Act and any uranium mines in NSW are to be exempt from provisions of the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act. Likewise, sub-section 40(6) of the Commonwealth’s Aboriginal Land Rights Act exempts the Ranger uranium mine in the N.T. from the Act.

Mundine claims that Australia has “a legal framework to negotiate equitably with the traditional owners on whose land many uranium deposits are found”. That claim is disingenuous.

Native Title rights were extinguished with the stroke of a pen by the Howard government to seize land for a radioactive waste dump in South Australia. Aboriginal heritage laws and Aboriginal land rights are being trashed with the current push to dump in the Northern Territory. Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson’s National Radioactive Waste Management Act overrides the Aboriginal Heritage Act, sidesteps the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, and allows for the imposition of a dump on Aboriginal land even in the absence of any consultation with or consent from Traditional Owners.

David Ross, Director of the Central Land Council, noted in a March 14 media release: “This legislation is shameful, it subverts processes under the [Aboriginal] Land Rights Act and is clearly designed to reach the outcome of a dump being located on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory, whether that’s the best place for it or not. This legislation preserves the Muckaty nomination without acknowledging the dissent and conflict amongst the broader traditional owner group about the process and the so-called agreement.

The passage of this legislation will further inflame the tensions and divisions amongst families in Tennant Creek, and cause great stress to many people in that region.”

A small number of Traditional Owners support the N.T. dump proposal. However most are opposed and the Northern Territory Government supports that opposition, key trade unions including the Australia Council of Trade Unions, church groups, medical and health organisations, and environmental groups. If push comes to shove, there will be a blockade at the site to prevent construction of the dump.

A pro bono legal team is assisting Traditional Owners with their legal challenge against the nomination of the Muckaty site. At a Federal Court hearing on March 27, a Commonwealth lawyer argued that the government’s legislation allows the nomination of a dump site to stand even if the evidence regarding traditional ownership is false.

These patterns are evident in other countries. North American Indigenous activist Winona LaDuke from the Anishinabe Nation told the Indigenous World Uranium Summit in 2006: “The greatest minds in the nuclear establishment have been searching for an answer to the radioactive waste problem for fifty years, and they’ve finally got one: haul it down a dirt road and dump it on an Indian reservation”.

Here in Australia the situation is scarcely any better than it was in the 1950s when the British were exploding nuclear bombs on Aboriginal land. Which brings us to another of Mundine’s blind spots. He could have mentioned the latest ‘clean up’ of the Maralinga nuclear test site, which was done on the cheap. Nuclear engineer and whistleblower Alan Parkinson said of the ‘clean-up’: “What was done at Maralinga was a cheap and nasty solution that wouldn’t be adopted on white-fellas land.”

Mundine’s claim to support Aboriginal empowerment is contradicted by his consistent failure to speak out when mining and nuclear interests and governments that support those interests disempower Aboriginal people.

The week in nuclear and climate news

I promised to find good news. It’s not that easy. But  – Sir David Attenborough says ’Human activity has created a new era, yet climate change can be stopped.    And, again, I am struggling with the reality that it is nearly, perhaps already is, too late, to stop the progress of global warming. Which makes climate change a more urgent problem than the nuclear threat.

Even if climate change is now irreversible, it’s no time to give up: the effort now must be to slow its progress, and to plan and adapt to its impacts.

Latest nuclear news indicates that Britain’s nuclear dream is collapsing. Japan’s plans for selling nuclear reactors overseas are collapsing. USA is embroiled in nuclear waste problems. Not so in totalitarian Russia and China, where the State runs the nuclear industry, education, and the media, and maintains secrecy about nuclear costs, unsafety, and waste problems.

AUSTRALIA

NUCLEAR Nuclear lobby wants to overturn Australia’s law prohibiting nuclear power.

ANSTO nuclear waste will compromise safety and security in South Australia.   About nuclear wastes: Ignorance, incompetence and hypocrisy of Dan van Holst Pellekaan, South Australian Minister for Energy and Resources.    Both Liberal and Labor keep mum about South Australia nuclear waste issue.

Ranger mine closure costs to hit more than $800m .

CLIMATE  Australia leads the world in global warming – with the 15 hottest sites.  Australia bakes as record temperatures nudge 50C.   Australia faces ‘new normal’ of year-round bushfires .  Heat in New South Wales – bushfires, health impact, and roads melting.

Canberra aware of climate change, but heatwave adds urgency.  How Canberra can lead the way in cutting carbon emissions to zero.

Fiji PM tells Scott Morrison– Australian coal is killing the Pacific.

Adani still under investigation by Queensland government, over groundwater bores.

Crisis in Australia’s one great river system: climate change a factor.  “Don’t leave Dracula – Murray Darling Basin Authority Water management – in charge of the Blood Bank”.

On NITV A feast of films celebrating indigenous Australia, in leadup to 26 January.

RENEWABLE ENERGY  South Australia’s second big battery goes live, charges up.    Construction begins on 336MW Dundonnell wind farm – one of biggest in Victoria. Northern Territory on track for 10% renewables by 2020, with two new solar farms announced.

INTERNATIONAL

GREENLAND. Greenland ice melt is happening at an unexpectedly fast rate.

ASIA. The threat to millions of people, as glaciers in Central Asia melt.

USA. 

• Increasing rate of melting in North American glaciers.
•  USA to begin pullout from Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, rejecting Russian offer.
• How US and China’s African nuclear mission could provide model for disarming North KoreaSC.      Trump plans North Korea nuclear summit with Kim Jong Un for February . The Trump administration’s dangerous strategy of provocation – led by John Bolton.
• The nuclear lobby has “zero chance” of nuclear getting into a Green New Deal in USA.
• The ‘fatally flawed’ nuclear waste storage facilities at the decomposing San Onofre nuclear site.  Federal Plan Could Reclassify Hanford Nuclear Waste — And Leave it in the Ground.
• Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board says that Los Alamos National Laboratory still has long-standing safety problems. T
• rump signs new bill to weaken nuclear energy regulation.  USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission extending license for Seabrook nuclear power BEFORE THE HEARING ON ITS SAFETY PROBLEMS.

NORTH KOREA. Kim Jong Un continuing to play to the vanity of Donald Trump?

UK.

• Britain’s severe nuclear financial headache.   UK government’s proposed ‘Regulated Asset Base’ (RAB) financing – a cover-up for a nuclear bailout.  Costly saga of Hitachi nuclear power project in North Wales comes to an end.  UK Secretary for Energy reveals the staggering amounts of tax-payer money offered to Hitachi to build nuclear reactors in Wales. Why the UK government is losing its enthusiasm for nuclear power.
• Dungeness B nuclear station – safety problems, reactors still shut down.
• Wind energy ready to supply UK electricity: time to remove the ban on onshore subsidies.  Renewable energy can replace UK’s Moorside, Wylfa and Sizewell C nuclear power at a much cheaper cost. Offshore wind leads, as UK’s renewable energy is on course to overtake fossil fuels.   UK govt’s plan to let down solar householders has not gone down well.
• UK government waits for nuclear test veterans to die, prevents research on genetic effects.

TAIWAN. The pitfalls of Direct Democracy- Taiwan’s referendum and the vote on nuclear power.

ISRAEL. Super Weapon: Israel Could Arm Stealth F-35s with Nuclear Weapons.  Secret Handwritten Memos Reveal How Israel’s Nuclear Program Came to Be.

JAPAN. High radiation levels in Fukushima area, but the Japanese government is pushing people back there.   Time to retire Japan’s aging nuclear reactor at Genkai.   Nagasaki: Life after Nuclear War – the past and the future.

RUSSIA. Russia’s plans for nuclear-powered unmanned underwater weapons.

CHINA.  Pentagon report on China’s nuclear weapons program, still “significantly below” the U.S.  Concerns about safety of China’s planned 46 nuclear reactors within a radius of about 100 km from Hong Kong and Macau. Chinese residents concerned over imports of rice produced near Fukushima disaster area.

GERMANY. Germany urges Russia to destroy missile to save nuclear treaty.

FINLAND. Wild mushrooms in Finland still containing high radioactive cesium from Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.

Australia’s one great river system being destroyed by corruption and mismanagement

Northern Basin Aboriginal Nations, 21 Jan 19 MDBA Water management: “Don’t leave Dracula in charge of the Blood bank”
KEY POINTS

1. Support for a Royal Commission
2. Representation at the decision making table of MDBA
3. Acknowledge Legal Rights of First Nations as determined in Mabo (2)
4. Explain why different standards are set for First Nations’ Organisations
5. Demand Criminal Prosecutions be an integral part of Royal Commission findings

Northern Basin Aboriginal Nations (NBAN) Deputy Chair, Ghillar Michael Anderson and NBAN Director Cheryl Buchanan announce NBAN’s support for Sarah Hanson-Young’s call for a Royal Commission into the mismanagement and over extraction of the waters of the Murray Darling Basin. [The Guardian, 16 January 2019]

NBAN has now learnt that the disaster that we are experiencing in the Murray/Darling Basin is a perfect electric dry storm of massive fish kills and drying riverbeds.

It is NOT caused just by the drought but is also a culmination of man-made mismanagement; corruption at the highest levels; and major development without scientific evidence-based planning in the formative years of the MDBA.

NBAN has great difficulty in understanding why the so-called experts water planners would attempt to normalise our current circumstances. First Nations now demand urgent answers and to be included in all future top-level water planning within the Murray Darling Basin……..

NBAN is critical of the fact that NSW Water planners admit that from 2012 to 2018 they did nothing to properly prepare for evidence-based planning in relation to water management in the northern basin, and that their assessments in terms of quantities of water are based on hypothetical values and assumptions. Now there is a mad rush to review water planning on the basis of A, B and C water licencing in the Barwon/Darling and there is a suggestion to amalgamate these water licences into two or one licence. NBAN’s problem with this is that there are too many vested interests in the process calling for this to happen. Water planning from NBAN’s point of view needs to be reviewed so as to plan on the basis of what real volumes of water are in each valley catchment. With all the science and technology we have in today’s society there is no excuse for hypotheticals and assumptions.

From NBAN’s perspective these admissions clearly demonstrate that there are failures by the Water Ministers responsible for due diligence in their portfolios and departments.

Playing the blame game and shirking responsibility will not help our dying rivers. Clearly, corporate water users, irrigators and mining companies are driving the agenda. For example, the Broken Hill pipeline is for the mining interests rather than the community. Then we need to take into account the Proposed Uranium Mining near Menindee.

The Board of the MDBA is made up of members who have vested interests. A clear example of this is the Chairman, Brian Andrews, (former Speaker of the House of Representatives under PM John Howard) who is an orchardist dependant on irrigation waters from the Murray River in South Australia.

NBAN further expresses deep concern for the integrity of politicians and MDBA authority members. Clearly, there is an inference in recent media reporting that what is currently going on in the MDBA is a major defrauding of the public purse, which can never be condoned. This is in tandem with water theft by irrigators who were never investigated and escape prosecution for their criminal acts. As the Sydney Morning Heraldreported on 8 March 2018:……….

Also there was the warning of water theft by irrigators in the northern basin by a former MDBA staffer Maryanne Slattery, who now works for the Australia Institute, testified to this effect at the South Australian Royal Commission, based on satellite imagery tracking the fate of environmental water flows. This experimental project called Data Cube was rudely interrupted and shut down by MDBA, because Ms Slattery was exposing the theft of environmental water by illegal diversion. It was also reported MDBA staff were denied by the MDBA Board the right to give evidence to the Royal Commission and Minister Littleproud refused to co-operate with the Commissioner, Brett Walker QC,

The greens Senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, is correct to call for a Commonwealth Government Royal Commission into the water management and expenditure of public funds in the MDB. The question that is on everybody’s lips right now is: What have they done with the $13B. Clearly, cotton growers and irrigators are getting money for nothing and continue to live on their lands drawing on other Commonwealth funds under Works and measures programs through ‘Toolkit’ measures for water efficiency.

NBAN is seriously concerned about what was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on 9 March 2018 in . In this article it was reported that:Cry me a river: Mismanagement and corruption have left the Darling dry.

Surely, what Barnaby Joyce has done is criminal. When the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) bought Yulara village, the Commonwealth financial regulators questioned why the ILC acquired the village resort for $60M above market price. To this end the Commonwealth government chastised the ILC and lowered the market price to its correct value, thereby denying the right ILC to sell their interest at the price they paid for it, which denied them millions of dollars.

This demonstrates that there continues to be two standards: one for First Nations Peoples and one for non-First Nations Peoples. What makes this worse is the fact that sitting politicians are involved in a major profiteering scam on a scale never seen before in this country.

Clearly having people like the Minister David Littleproud being given the portfolio of Agriculture and Water and coming from the same location where Barnaby Joyce first gained his start in Politics at the Commonwealth level does raise serious concerns about the integrity of portfolio allocations in the Commonwealth government. People like Barnaby Joyce and David Littleproud can be accused of not disclosing their full interest in farming and irrigation. There is much to be desired in these appointments as Barnaby Joyce and Littleproud are sitting members of the national party. They are elected to look after the interests of their constituents and in the case of the appointment of Barnaby Joyce and Littleproud to the Water portfolio is likened to the appointment of Dracula being appointed to be in charge of the Blood Bank.

This demonstrates that there continues to be two standards: one for First Nations Peoples and one for non-First Nations Peoples. What makes this worse is the fact that sitting politicians are involved in a major profiteering scam on a scale never seen before in this country.

Clearly having people like the Minister David Littleproud being given the portfolio of Agriculture and Water and coming from the same location where Barnaby Joyce first gained his start in Politics at the Commonwealth level does raise serious concerns about the integrity of portfolio allocations in the Commonwealth government. People like Barnaby Joyce and David Littleproud can be accused of not disclosing their full interest in farming and irrigation. There is much to be desired in these appointments as Barnaby Joyce and Littleproud are sitting members of the national party. They are elected to look after the interests of their constituents and in the case of the appointment of Barnaby Joyce and Littleproud to the Water portfolio is likened to the appointment of Dracula being appointed to be in charge of the Blood Bank.

On the 16th, the NBAN Delegation then met Dr Lindsay White, Director Northern Basin Section, Lindsay White is also responsible for Wetlands, Policy and Northern Water Use Branch Commonwealth Environmental Water Office, and Hilary Johnson, Director, Southern Basin Section, Southern Water Use, Aquatic Science and Community Engagement Branch Commonwealth Environmental Water Office.

NBAN advised the CEWO that within the river systems we have sacred waterholes where our creative water spirits live. These culturally significant water spirits are dependent on regular flows. For First nations Peoples these flows are what we call cultural flows. Without the modern development pre-Christmas rainfalls would have replenished these waterholes and they would have sufficient water to take them through the current drought or until a new rain event within the northern regions. But, with modern development and mis-management these water holes are under serious threat and our Native Fish will lose their refuges. Past river recordings prior to development demonstrate that this is the case with these waterholes. It is important to understand that these Waterholes are critical fish refuges and serve to protect species diversity and are responsible for repopulating rivers in recovery after flooding.

The Delegation sought clarification of the role of the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holders. What shocked the delegation was the limitation of the CEWO, because the First Nation held the view that CEWO were responsible for not just managing environmental water flows, but also were responsible for the actual purchasing of any water requirements. Instead we were advised that the purchasing responsibilities lay with the Minister and the Department of Agriculture. Under the Current circumstances much of the responsibilities associated with managing environmental water needs lay at the feet of the Ministers responsible.

The NBAN delegation now demand that First Nations People’s must be at the table in all future water and environmental planning at all levels of government.

In calling for the royal Commission, NBAN demand that criminal prosecution be part of the terms of reference to hold those responsible, accountable, and to bring transparency into the murky process that has persisted to this day.

NBAN Sources: nationalunitygovernment.org/content/mdba-water-management-dont-leave-dracula-charge-blood-bank
pdf: nationalunitygovernment.org/pdf/2019/NBAN-Media-Release-17-January-2019.pdf

Australia’s Liberal and Labor parties unite – keeping quiet about imposing nuclear waste on South Australia

Susan Craig Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, 18 Jan 19, 

Federal Labor tell us the nuclear waste is TOO DANGEROUS for Lucas Heights, NSW, “we’ve got to get it out of there because it’s too dangerous to have it in densely populated metropolitan Sydney.

Federal Liberal tell us it’s PERFECTLY SAFE. It’s confounding that a post code can change the risk level of nuclear waste!

Both Scott and Bill are on the same bus. They refuse to make this an election issue. South Australians need to get on our own bus and demand that this issue be brought out into the open.

The current plan for a nuclear waste dump for South Australia is dangerous. Intermediate level nuclear waste is 100% fatal, after exposure life expectancy is around 4 – 6 weeks, it’s radioactive for 10,000 years and it will be stored above ground in a tin shed. It’s time for a cohesive, intelligent worlds best practice plan be developed to keep all Australian’s and our environment safe, now and into the future. 

South Australia’s safety and security will be compromised by ANSTO’s nuclear waste

ANSTO nuclear waste to compromise safety and security in SA, https://www.foe.org.au/ansto_nuclear_waste_to_compromise_safety_and_security_in_sa David Noonan, 17 Jan 19  The federal government intends shipments of irradiated nuclear fuel waste to be imposed through Whyalla or Port Pirie to go onto indefinite above-ground storage at a nuclear dump site at either Kimba or Hawker ‒ all of which is illegal under state law in South Australia.

Two shipments of reprocessed nuclear waste ‒ arising from the reprocessing of fuel irradiated in research reactors operated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) ‒ are intended in the first two years of nuclear store operations in SA. A shipment is due from Sellafield in UK in the early 2020s, and ANSTO plans a shipment of nuclear waste that was reprocessed in France then shipped to ANSTO’s Lucas Heights site (south of Sydney) in 2015.

ome 100 B-Double truckloads of federal government Intermediate Level Wastes (ILW) ‒ predominantly ANSTO waste from Lucas Heights ‒ are also to be trucked into SA in the first four years of nuclear store operations in SA.

SA communities face decades of potential accident and terrorist risks and impacts from ongoing ANSTO nuclear waste transports, with all of the next 40 years of ANSTO reactor waste also to be shipped and trucked to SA for indefinite above-ground storage.

The federal nuclear regulator, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), states that nuclear fuel wastes and other ILW require radiation shielding and require isolation from the environment for over 10,000 years. Yet the current plan is to store this waste in SA in a fancy shed for indefinite storage described as “interim” and as “long term above-ground storage (approximately 100 years)”.

After 60 years, ANSTO still has no nuclear waste disposal capacity, while ANSTO’s nuclear waste production is set to increase to more than double waste stockpiles over the next 40 years.

 

The government’s April 2018 ‘Australian Radioactive Waste Management Framework’¹ reports total ILW at 1,770 cubic metres (m3), with 95% by volume arising as federal government wastes.

The federal government plans to produce a further 1,960 m3 of ILW over next 40 years, with 95% (1,850 m3) arising from ANSTO’s reactor operations – all to be trucked into SA for indefinite above-ground storage at either Kimba or Hawker.

All of these federal government nuclear waste plans face serious obstacles and community opposition. They are illegal under state law in SA; are in breach of formal advice of the Nuclear Safety Committee to the federal regulator ARPANSA²; and do not represent International Best Practice.

The import, transport, storage and disposal of ANSTO nuclear fuel wastes were prohibited by the SA Liberal government in 2000; then in 2002‒03 the incoming SA Labor government extended the legislation to cover other radioactive wastes. Yet the federal Coalition government intends to override state law to impose nuclear wastes onto SA.

Advice provided to the CEO of ARPANSA by ARPANSA’s ‘Nuclear Safety Committee’ in Nov. 2013 states that:

“International best practice points to the need to have in place a policy and infrastructure for final management and ultimate disposal of waste before activities generating waste commence.”

“[T]he dual handling and transport process associated with interim storage does not represent international best practice”

“Dual handling also has implications for security.”

More recently, in Nov. 2016, the Nuclear Safety Committee advised the CEO of ARPANSA on the “ongoing requirement to clearly and effectively engage all stakeholders, including those along transport routes” and the Committee said that such engagement is “essential”.³

However, in an arrogant, flawed process, the federal government named port cities in SA as required ports to take shipments of nuclear waste in a report⁴ posted on the internet but failed to even inform the targeted communities and their local councils.

The story broke on Southern Cross TV on Aug. 6. The next day the ABC quoted Port Pirie’s Mayor saying Council was “blind-sided” by the federal government position to potentially require Port Pirie as a nuclear waste port. On Aug. 9 the story ran on p.1 of the Whyalla News, with the Whyalla Mayor saying Council won’t accept this.

Communities in Whyalla or Port Pirie ‒ and in Port Augusta which was named on a number of potential required nuclear waste transport routes ‒ face “complete shutdown” in transport of nuclear wastes through their cities but have been excluded from having a say by this federal government.

The federal Coalition government must stop this untenable nuclear waste threat to compromise safety and security in SA and accept extended storage of ANSTO nuclear fuel waste and ILW at Lucas Heights.

As the alternate federal government, the ALP is yet to say what they may do if elected in 2019.

More information: www.nuclear.foe.org.au/noonan

References:….

1. www.radioactivewaste.gov.au/sites/prod.radioactivewaste/files/files/Australian%20Radioactive%20Waste%20Management%20Framework.pdf
2. www.arpansa.gov.au/sites/default/files/legacy/pubs/nsc/nsc_iwsadvice.pdf
3. www.arpansa.gov.au/sites/default/files/legacy/pubs/nsc/nrwmf-stakeholder-engagement.rtf
4. https://prod-radioactivewaste.industry.slicedtech.com.au/sites/prod.radioactivewaste/files/60565376_NRWMF%20Site%20Characterisation%20Technical%20Report_Wallerberdina_20.07.2018_FINAL_Optimized.pdf

Published in Chain Reaction #134, December 2018. National magazine of Friends of the Earth Australia. www.foe.org.au/chain_reaction

Climate and nuclear news, week to 15 January

I scratch around for good news on climate. Alex Smith, of Radio Ecoshock, notes that ‘several long-time climate bloggers and Facebook activists are “retiring” to their private lives.’ He quotes one: “I’m no longer interested in awakening the masses. The masses made it clear that they are not interested.”

The grand old man of coastal science Dr. Orrin Pilkey warns: start withdrawing from the coast-line now, or wait for the coming panic. As Australia’s government promotes coal mining and coal power, and avoids any action on climate change, every State and Territory in Australia is being  hit with record heat.  Decentralising the energy supply system – renewables are creating a new world order.

On the nuclear scene, the New Nuclear Arms Race remains the biggest threat in 2019. Meanwhile, as the nuclear industry fails economically, the mainstream media continues to pour out articles about “new nukes” – Small and Medium Nuclear Reactors (SMRs),  Molten salt reactors. – articles that read like straight handouts from the nuclear lobby.

AUSTRALIA

Australia’s environment – a winner at National Labor Party Conference.

Australian Julian Assange in new danger as Ecuador caves in to USA pressure (and Australian govt does nothing)

NUCLEAR – UK “reviewing” files on nuclear bomb tests in Australia– this smacks of a cover-up. –Proposed nuclear waste dump in Flinders Ranges – an urgent issue for South Australians, and all Australians.   From uranium mining to nature conservation – Kakadu National Park to get $216 million boost.

CLIMATE

Air conditioners make a massive contribution to global warming (Why not promote SOLAR air-conditioning?)

Bushfire in Adelaide Hills is still a threat.  Victoria’s iconic Great Ocean Road at risk from sea level rise.  Adani Contractor Locked Up and Blockaded.

RENEWABLE ENERGY

The problem of hazardous waste from discarded old solar panels.  Australia’s “largest” wind farm wins planning approval for Victoria.

INTERNATIONAL

Space travel? The human body is not compatible with ionising radiation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uujpLFMCp-A&t=12s

Japan, the U.S. and France failing in their efforts to sell nuclear reactors overseas, (or at home).

UK. UK to use Regulatory Asset Base (RAB) funding for Wylfa nuclear plant, exposing consumers to financial risk?  UK’s nuclear energy renaissance derailed, as Japanese companies step back from nuclear investment? Hitachi to post $2 billion special loss, will suspend UK nuclear power operations. Hitachi looks certain to cancel its plans for a £16bn nuclear power station in Wales. Increasing major cracks in Hunterston nuclear reactors: call to close them permanently.

USA.   State of Washington opposes federal plan to reclassify Hanford nuclear waste. State of Oregon not happy with federal govt plan to declassify some high level nuclear wastes.  Iowa Utilities Board OK’s Alliant ending nuclear power purchase: Duane Arnold nuclear plant to shut down. “Nuclear modernization” a euphemism that ushers in a new and dangerous global nuclear arms race. USA Dept of Energy again confirms its plans to use SRS plutonium for nuclear weapons.

JAPAN. Funding deadlock looks set to sink Japan’s last overseas nuclear project.  Japan abandoning ambition to sell nuclear power reactors to Turkey.   Major financial group in Japan bans lending to those developing, making or possessing nuclear weapons.  Radiation doses underestimated in study of city in Fukushima. Japan Atomic Power Co. (JAPC) denies granting local prior consent for Tokai reactor restart

OCEANIA. Nuclear weapons tests in the Enewetak Atol: rising sea levels add to the toxic legacy.

RUSSIA. Russian blogger reveals photo of venting cloud of radioactive dust from 1987 nuclear test gone wrong.  Russia might revive its fearful automatic nuclear weapons launch system.