This week’s nuclear news

This week s news –   Olympic ecstasy – all those lovely medals. It’s hard to get past that, – for example, to find out how many of the 220  or more coronavirus positive people associated with the Games, are actually athletes. It is not polite to discuss the costs of the Games, – money that could have gone into tackling Tokyo’s heath problems, as Tokyo’s state of emergency  hits 4,000 new Covid-19 cases daily.I’m sorry, but I can’t get enthused about an event designed as the ”recovery” from the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. It’s so in line with that other timely myth, that it was OK, in 1945, to obliterate  two whole cities of children, women and men, in each case, with just one diabolical new bomb. (Attached is a video, 5 years old, but still valid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-07xiaBl2vk)World coronavirus–  case numbers keep growing. Climate change:  Critical measures of global heating reaching tipping point.  Climate Change Is Driving Deadly Weather Disasters From Arizona To Mumbai

AUSTRALIA.

Australian Labor Party does not trust Angus Taylor’s ”moronic” approach to energy and economics. A reminder to gullible followers of Angus Taylor – small nuclear reactors are just not economically viable.

 Submission: Medical Association for the Prevention of War (MAPW) supports a new Intermediate Level Solid Waste Storage Facility at Lucas Heights. Higher cancer and stillbirth rates in Aboriginal people living near the Ranger uranium mine.

Webinar. Brisbane remembers Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thurs 5 August 6.30-7.30 p.m. AEST https://events.humanitix.com/hiroshima-commemoration-webinar

INTERNATIONAL

Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki – no excuses for having nuclear weapons !

Degrowth: the necessary climate solution no-one is talking about. – terrific, thought provoking article 

Small nuclear reactors, a dangerous experiment, and distraction from real climate action – David Suzuki.

If man cannot overcome his desire to kill, we are doomed.

JAPAN. A-bomb survivor activist, 89, calls Japan’s failure to back nuclear ban ‘disgraceful‘. International Symposium for Peace 2021: The Road to Nuclear Weapons Abolition- online international conference – held from Hiroshima.

UK. 

  UK debate should not be about excluding China from nuclear build, but about whether nuclear build is even necessary. All logic says that UK’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power project should be abandoned now. 

Britain’s secret shortlist of areas earmarked for the dumping of nuclear waste. English and Welsh concerns – call on Marine management leaders to postpone the dumping of Hinkley radioactive mud in te British Channel. Over 1.5k people sign petition against nuclear waste storage in Lincolnshire, UK.

USA. 

•   Vogtle nuclear power project – more costs revealed, and even more likely to come. Vogtle nuclear power project’s costs – $27 Billion and rising! 
•  Exelon moves to shutdown 2 nuclear power stations in Illinois, amidst subsidy negotiations. 
• U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission doing a ‘special investigation’ at Davis-Besse nuclear station. 
•   Renewables overtook coal and nuclear power generation in the U.S last year .

CHINA. Taishan nuclear reactor shut down for repairs to damage. Over a month after radioactive leak, China decides to shut down Taishan nuclear reactor ”for maintenance”.

IRAN. U.S. Weighing New Sanctions on Iran as Nuclear Deal Hangs in Balance.

ALGERIA. Algeria: deep resentment of French colonialism and the effects of nuclear bombing -still very real today.

Medical Association for the Prevention of War (MAPW) supports a new Intermediate Level Solid Waste Storage Facility at Lucas Heights

MAPW supports the construction of a new Intermediate Level Solid Waste Storage Facility at Lucas Heights.
MAPW strongly recommends:
• an open and independent review of nuclear waste production and disposal in Australia, and
• progressing a shift to cyclotron rather that reactor-based production of isotopes for nuclear medicine as rapidly as feasible.

Arguments that radioactive waste should all be at one site overlook the ongoing need for hospitals to store clinical waste. After nuclear medicine is used in a patient, the vast majority of the residual material and radioactively-contaminated equipment is stored on site while the radioactivity decays away. Within a few days, it has lost so much radioactivity that the material can go to a normal rubbish tip. There will always need to be multiple waste storage locations at sites which utilise radiopharmaceuticals.

Clean cyclotron production of Tc99m has recently been approved and is being implemented in
Canada. This should rapidly become the future of isotope production

Medical Association for the Prevention of War (MAPW) 30 July21, Submission to the Public Works Committee regarding Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Intermediate Level Solid Waste Storage Facility Lucas Heights, NSW.

SUMMARY
MAPW supports the construction of a new Intermediate Level Solid Waste Storage Facility at Lucas Heights. As noted in the ANSTO submission, there will be minimal expected impact on the community and ANSTO has excellent existing security.

This contrasts with the massive distress and community division in regional and remote communities that has been created by a succession of nuclear waste storage proposals.

This facility will be useful over a much greater timeframe if ANSTO’s rapidly expanding production of isotopes for nuclear medicine is reined in. This very heavily subsided export business has only a small minority of the radiopharmaceuticals produced being utilised in the care of Australians. There is no evidence whatsoever of more than minimal cost recovery. The burgeoning amounts of ILW produced will be a liability for Australians or many generations.

More reliable, safer, cheaper and much cleaner cyclotron production of technetium99m (Tc99m) has been shown to work and is being implemented in Canada. Japan, the USA, the UK and several European countries are all looking to implement cyclotron.

The proposed new ILW facility provides an opportunity to identify and implement world’s best practice ILW disposal options and update and reset nuclear medicine production tocleaner, cheaper and more reliable methods.

MAPW strongly recommends:
• an open and independent review of nuclear waste production and disposal in
Australia, and
• progressing a shift to cyclotron rather that reactor-based production of isotopes for nuclear medicine as rapidly as feasible.

Individual criteria will now be addressed.

No need for Kimba interim nuclear waste storage, as Australian Government budgets for increased storage capacity at Lucas Heights.

the present nuclear waste storage site at Lucas Heights is in no danger of running out of room. ARPANSA (Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency) is the nation’s nuclear regulator. In 2020 in parliamentary testimony, Dr Carl-Magnus Larsson clearly stated, ‘Waste can be safely stored at Lucas Heights for decades to come.’ In fact, the recent federal Budget provided $60 million for further decades of extended storage capacity for Intermediate Long-lived Waste at ANSTO Lucas Heights, building onto the operation of existing stores to 2026. There is no emergency.

As nuclear waste storage Bill passes, the fight continues,   https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/as-nuclear-waste-storage-bill-passes–the-fight-continues?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Eureka%20Street%20Daily%20-%20Tuesday%2027%20July%202021&utm_content=Eureka%20Street%20Daily%20-%20Tuesday%2027%20July%202021+CID_ef6ae62e9543e5b0c91147f8dd3a4683&utm_source=Jescom%20Newsletters&utm_term=READ%20MORE Michele Madigan 26 July 2021   

For several decades, successive federal governments have tried but failed to establish a national nuclear waste repository, primarily to take waste from the nuclear research reactor site operated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) at Lucas Heights, 30 km south of Sydney. Currently, a site near Kimba on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula is being targeted.

Federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt has always had the power to make a ministerial declaration of a particular site for the new national radioactive waste storage facility. But instead of making a selection, for over twelve months he chose to take his NRWMF (National Radioactive Waste Management Facility) Amendment Bill legislation to Parliament. Under his proposed legislation, any group that opposed the site he selected — including the Barngarla Traditional Owners — would not have the power of judicial review.

Last month, the Senate came to a decision approving an amended Bill that would allow Traditional Owners judicial review if the location was disputed. Minister Pitt was forced to admit defeat.

Over the course of the Bill’s passage, the Coalition had the numbers in the House of course, with the legislation passing in 2020 only after informed and strong opposing speeches by Labor, the Greens and Independents. The Senate, however, was a different matter. Labor, the Greens and the majority of the other five Crossbenchers continued for months standing firmly against legislation that denied judicial review to opposition groups.

Minister Pitt, having listed the legislation a number of times, was then forced every time to withdraw his Bill. In regular media statements, Pitt harangued opposing Senators, especially Labor, with increasingly extravagant claims for the necessity of the dump for the future of nuclear medicine.

Government arguments to the contrary, the present nuclear waste storage site at Lucas Heights is in no danger of running out of room. ARPANSA (Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency) is the nation’s nuclear regulator. In 2020 in parliamentary testimony, Dr Carl-Magnus Larsson clearly stated, ‘Waste can be safely stored at Lucas Heights for decades to come.’ In fact, the recent federal Budget provided $60 million for further decades of extended storage capacity for Intermediate Long-lived Waste at ANSTO Lucas Heights, building onto the operation of existing stores to 2026. There is no emergency.

During last month’s Senate debate many salient points were made by the Greens and other Crossbench Senators. During the debate, the previous Minister for Resources Matthew Canavan gave assurances that the invited submissions would be taken into consideration, but 95 per cent of the submissions made were against the proposed new site.

Further, it was pointed out that in the Kimba district, 36 non-residents with property were permitted to vote while the Traditional Owners, and also farmers whose properties were closer to the Napandee site but outside the Kimba Council region, were not.

So where are we up to in this long-running saga?

With the intermediate level waste simply being moved from one part of the nation to be again stored above ground for a cited 100 years, the can is being kicked down the road for future generations to deal with. What is needed is an independent expert inquiry..

And with judicial review allowed in the amended legislation, Labor were able to say they were supporting the Traditional Owners and then voted with the government to ensure the amended Bill became law.

The Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation (BDAC) is finally free to proceed to court. The resources Minister within the coming weeks will formally declare the site, almost certain to be Napandee in the Kimba region in SA. From there, the project will require EPBC (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation) procedure and the regulator ARPANSA licensing, both offering significant public opportunities.

Finally: there are two elections looming: South Australia’s State elections on 19 March, 2022, as well as Federal. Both SA Liberal and Labor past Premiers have initiated successful state legislation ‘prohibiting the establishment of certain nuclear waste facilities’ in this state. Environmentalists are now calling on South Australians to make the federal government’s radioactive waste plan that counters this legislation, an election issue.

At times, in such a long campaign one can ask, is opposition really worth the struggle? 

I received an answer to that question on 18 June, on State Parliament House steps, when a colleague and I conducted a rehearsal for a larger sit-in. In the cold I was in a long dress, gloves, scarf, woollen cap, hoodie jacket. After our shift, my companion went to get the car leaving at my feet our magnificent banner hidden by its worn tarpaulin cover. As a group of high school children rushed past me towards the railway station, a lively-looking student, maybe 15 years old, said something to her teacher. Then she approached and stood in front of me offering an almost-full packet of chips. ‘Do you want them?’ I stared back at her, not understanding. Again: ‘Do you want them?’ Looking down at the old tarpaulin, I realised she was feeding the homeless!

This girl is an example of the beautiful future generations whose well-being we are responsible for. They deserve far better than radioactive waste, toxic for 10,00 years, being stored above ground in their state. The fight continues.

Donate to the Barngarla crowdfunder to fund a legal challenge.

Nuclear news this week, Australia and beyond.

It has been a funny week in the news, funny not as in ha ha, but as in weird.  The news here prioritised the Olympics. Oh goody, my countrymen and women won lovely medals, for doing sporty things, very fast.- so, extensive coverage of all that. 

You wouldn’t know that the host city, Tokyo, is now daily getting close to 2000 new cases of coronavirus. You wouldn’t know that megafires are torching U.S. Western  States, and North Eastern Siberia. Briefly mentioned – huge floods inEurope and China.  Oh, and by the way, I think that the pandemic is still on, world wide, with the highly infectious delta variant.
The second biggest story, after the glorious Olympics, has been the success of the billionaire space playboys – Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos. The media can’t wait until Elon Musk and Bill Gates do their next thing – missile envy bringing great things for the world,(though we”re not quite sure what things)

AUSTRALIA

Opposition to nuclear waste transport through the port of Whyalla, South Australia. Port at Cape Hardy could be the entrance place for radioactive waste transport to Kimba, South Australia. Barngarla native title owners were excluded from decision-making on Kimba nuclear waste plan.  A strong convention on radioactive waste safety means that nuclear’s toxic by-products should be kept as close as possible to the point of production

Western Australian site far more suitable than Kimba, South Australia, for nuclear waste dump. Regional site in Western Australia geologically and geographically suited to nuclear waste repository, unlike the Kimba site in S.A. Resources Minister Keith Pitt and his bald-faced lies about the Leonora nuclear waste proposal.

Submissions to the Federal Public Works Committee: 

• The Australian Parliament will have to pay attention to David Noonan’s detailed submission on ANSTO’s ill-advised nuclear waste storage plan.
• Submission: Flinders Local Action Group points out the flaws in ANSTO’s nuclear waste plan. 
•  Submission: Barry Wakelin – ”interim ” storage of nuclear waste at Kimba is a poor plan, with no commitment to planning for a permanent solution.
• Submission: Leon Ashton opposes ANSTO’s flawed plan to set up a stranded nuclear waste dump at Kimba, South Australia. 
•  Submission: AZARK PROJECT says that Kimba nuclear waste plan is completely unnecessary, and irrelevant to nuclear medicine. 
•  Submission Noel Wauchope to Federal Inquiry into nuclear waste storage.. 

•   Showdown over millions in mining royalties to Indigenous trust.

INTERNATIONAL.

Moral Intelligence or Nuclear War.

The world’s climate catastrophe – there is little time left to act.  All We Can Save”: As Climate Disasters Wreck Our Planet, Women Leaders Are Key to Solving the Crisis.  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) preparing assessments for COP26.

Climate change, extreme weather, is taking its toll on the nuclear industry. The nuclear industry determined to influence climate talks before COP26.

Racism and the misguided efforts to expand nuclear energy around the world,

After the lab-leak theory, US-Chinese relations head downhill.

Progressive lawmakers join across the world in a Global Alliance For A Green New Deal.

Huge carbon emissions of space tourism, Space tourism: environmental vandalism for the super-rich . Climate change report: Jeff Bezos & the new wild west show. Jeff Bezos and the corporate colonisation of the stars. Perils to austronauts’ health – high radiation and low gravity.

Emerging technologies and nuclear stability. Small Nuclear Power Plants No Use in Climate Crisis. Bill Gates’ fast nuclear reactor ”Natrium’‘ – not so safe and a nuclear weapons proliferation risk.

Why Scientists Plant Sunflowers After Nuclear Disasters.

Energy-guzzling Bitcoin must be allied to dangerous costly nuclear power.

 ARCTIC. Environmental degradation, illness, international tensions – small nuclear reactors had bad results in the Arctic.  

JAPAN. ”Nuclear Games” expose Japanese government’s spin about the Olympic Games. The fantasy of the Olympic Games as ”recovery” from nuclear disaster, and from Covid-19. Softball match in Fukushima was intended to showcase ”recovery from nuclear disaster”, but that has fallen flat. Fukushima effect: Now, South Korea to check food at Olympics for nuclear radiation. 

 Safety blunders fuel Japan’s mistrust of nuclear power. Using snakes to monitor Fukushima radiation, Radioactive cesium found in honey produced near Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. 

 New Analysis Shows Japan Would Accept U.S. No First Use of Nuclear Weapons Policy 

 Japanese govt’s new Basic Energy Plan will prioritise renewable energy. Japan’s cleaner energy vision marred by burden of nuclear power.

USA.  

• Trump insurgents came within seconds of capturing ‘nuclear football‘ on Jan. 6. Pentagon review: What happens if ‘nuclear football’ is lost?
• Democrat lawmakers call on President Biden to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in the upcoming Nuclear Posture Review.    Biden administration approves $25 Billion Pentagon budget increase, despite calls from House Democrats opposing this. 
• Pro nuclear U.S. lawmakers again introduce Bill to promote nuclear industry. 
•  Most Hanford nuclear site workers report exposure to toxic or radioactive chemicals.      
• Advanced’ Nuclear Reactors? Don’t Hold Your Breath. Small nuclear reactor project cut back to half size, due to financial worries. The impending cost of small nuclear reactors is a real worry, as Utah halves the number of reactors planned. 
• First Energy company to pay fine for bribing Ohio officials to bail out nuclear power stations. Judge rules distribution of compensation for investors who lost fortunes in multi billion-dollar nuclear reactor failure in South Carolina.
•  Wiscasset – just one of thousands of American communities stuck with stranded nuclear wastes.  
•  Problems of nuclear power in space.

PACIFIC ISLANDS. Maohi Lives Matter’: Tahiti protesters condemn French nuclear testing legacy . Emmanuel Macron in French Polynesia – not likely to satisfy campaigners resentful of France’s nuclear tests legacy.

EUROPE, Floods threaten nuclear power stations: call for endangered reactors to be shut down.

UK. China’s nuclear power firm could be blocked from UK projects. The Green Jobs Taskforce. Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior aims to help workers to transition to renewable energy work. Facebook blocks users from Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)’s website. Villagers in England very apprehensive about government plans for a nuclear waste dump..

FRANCE. Macron dithers on nuclear power investment as issue divides France. Despite the rain, France’s nuclear reactors are still threatened by global heating.

CHINA. China threatens Japan with nuclear war over intervention in Taiwan,

Problems at China’s nuclear power plant at Taishan are serious enough to warrant shutdown, French co-owner warns. China to activate molten salt nuclear reactor, but it’s not clear if they have solved its safety problems.

CANADA. Risk of cracks in pressure tubes of Canada’s ageing nuclear reactors – how long can they keep operating safely? Canada’s small nuclear reactor project is looking like just a pipe-dream. Moltex Energy’s nuclear pyroprocessing project with plutonium would produce weapons grade material and encourage weapons proliferation. Investigation of uranium miners’health to be carried out by pro nuclear bodies. City Council in Calgary not happy about ”rushed” agreement to own stranded nuclear wastes in Maine.

GERMANY. Do Germany and the Netherlands want to say goodbye to US nuclear weapons? 

NORTH KOREA. The tally of North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

INDONESIA. Shoddy, shoddy, shoddy: How they built the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.

ARCTIC. Environmental degradation, illness, international tensions – small nuclear reactors had bad results in the Arctic.  

Submission: Flinders Local Action Group points out the flaws in ANSTO’s nuclear waste plan

Intermediate Level Waste is the key element of greatest concern in the current NRWMF proposal.
• ANSTO has informed to us that Intermediate Level is the most dangerous and long-lived nuclear waste in Australia, with a toxic life in excess of 10,000 years. Our research tells us that in Europe little distinction is made between Intermediate and High Level waste – both remain potentially extremely dangerous over enormous time periods.

Submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, Greg Bannon, (On behalf of the Flinders Local Action Group 23 July 21,

SUBJECT: Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) Intermediate Level Solid Waste (ILSW) Storage Facility Lucas Heights, NSW

INTRODUCTION: The Flinders Local Action Group (FLAG) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to this Public Works Standing Committee.

FLAG was formed to challenge the 2015 nomination of Wallerberdina Station in the Flinders Ranges district, and its inclusion on the shortlist of three potential South Australian sites for the proposed National Radioactive Waste Management Facility (NRWMF). The Group is made up of indigenous and non-indigenous members of the community.

We have become very well informed on the NRWMF proposal, seeking out and researching information from independent sources to weigh up against what has been provided to the community by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (DIIS – now the Department of Industry, Science, Energy & Resources, DISER). As both the proposer and promoter of the NRWMF, the Department cannot claim any sort of neutral position.

SUMMARY:
• ANSTO’s preferred Option 2 must be considered on the basis that interim storage will be until a permanent disposal site has been established. This would provide the licensing pathway to disposal required by the independent regulator, ARPANSA.
• There is no logic or economic sense in double-handling ILW from temporary storage at Lucas Heights to further temporary storage somewhere else, in preparation for yet another transfer to a third location for final disposal at some time in the future.
• There is no economic sense in establishing a facility for low level waste alone when a disposal site, critical for ILSW and more than suitable for LLW, is still to be established.

SUBMISSION POINTS:
Temporary Intermediate Level Solid Waste (ILSW) Storage:
The Department has guaranteed that all waste to be received at the NRWMF will be in a dry, compacted or compactable form. ANSTO defines ILSW as the result of conditioning Intermediate Level Liquid Waste under the Synroc process. In solid or liquid form, it is still Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste (ILRW). We do not accept any difference between what we have been opposing and refer to as ILRW, and ILSW.

Intermediate Level Waste is the key element of greatest concern in the current NRWMF proposal.
• ANSTO has informed to us that Intermediate Level is the most dangerous and long-lived nuclear waste in Australia, with a toxic life in excess of 10,000 years. Our research tells us that in Europe little distinction is made between Intermediate and High Level waste – both remain potentially extremely dangerous over enormous time periods.

Until now, the only plan for ILSW has been to remove it from temporary storage at Lucas Heights and transport it halfway across the country to a proposed NRWMF – still to be established. There it will remain in further temporary storage, for an undefined period, colocated
with Low Level Radioactive Waste.

• Temporary storage does not solve the national problem, which is the permanent, safe disposal for all of Australia’s nuclear waste, including the most dangerous and long-lived category, ILSW.

• ANSTO’s submission to the Standing Committee outlines five options “to assess the most efficient and effective approach to the design and construction of new storage capacity”.

We note that Option 2 (4.1.2. – ANSTO submission) “provides a direct continuation of existing operations for storing waste…(with the)…benefits of low capital outlay…minimalorganisational change…at low business risk make this the preferred option”.
• This would be of great encouragement to our Group if it means that ANSTO intends to continue interim storage of ILSW at Lucas Heights until the promised “single, state-of-the-art, world’s best practice radioactive waste management facility” (quotes from DIIS information) for the permanent disposal of both waste categories, ILW and LLW, is established.
• After more than 60 years of producing nuclear waste and 40 years of failed attempts to establish a national nuclear waste facility it is hard to accept that the only plan for the country’s most dangerous radioactive material continues to be temporary storage for an indefinite period of time. This would be a classic example of that over-used metaphor “kicking the can down the road”

National Radioactive Waste Management Facility:
If ILSW remains at Lucas Heights until a permanent disposal site is established, there is no necessity
for a facility to separately manage Low Level waste.
• The flaw in the NRWMF proposal has always been that, despite the Department’s assertion to the contrary, there was never to be a single national facility. Low level waste would be disposed of there, with Intermediate Level co-located alongside on a temporary basis, for an indefinite period, until a disposal facility was established somewhere else.
• The economic benefits promoted to the community from a nearby NRWMF were promised because the decision was announced to co-locate Intermediate Level Waste at the same site.
This was the reason given to both communities, Flinders and Kimba, for the Ministerial announcement that the 15 full-time equivalent jobs initially promised were suddenly increased to 45 along with a number of other economic incentives.
•Any site that is suitable for the permanent disposal of ILSW is suitable for the disposal of Low
Level waste.

CONCLUSION:
Our Group readily accepts the benefits that result from Australian atomic research and the production
of medical isotopes. We accept the need for a NRWMF to consolidate and dispose of all the
country’s nuclear waste in one location.

What is hard to accept, and still being experienced, are the disruptive and divisive effects this
process has had on our communities. Inflated promises of economic benefits have raised overly
optimistic expectations in some people. Cold, hard logic shows that these expectations will not be
met by the model that is currently being proposed.

Federal Inquiry into ANSTO nuclear waste storage, submissions due by 30 July 2021

David J Noonan B.Sc., M.Env.St.,Independent Environment Campaigner and Sole Trader Consultant, A ‘Voice’ of the No Dump Alliance 24 July 21

There is a federal Inquiry into ANSTO nuclear waste storage,
Open for submissions to Friday 30 July, at: pwc@aph.gov.au

see more info on the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works Inquiry webpage: 
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Intermediate Level Solid Waste Storage Facility Lucas Heights, NSW – Parliament of Australia (aph.gov.au)
FOE has prepared a short letter of submission option, at: 
Nuclear Waste Submission – Friends of the Earth Melbourne (melbournefoe.org.au)for longer submission info suggestions – see input by David Noonan available at:
Noonan-PWC-Inquiry-submission-ANSTO-ILW-July2021.pdf (foe.org.au)

my Recommendations are below (if you make any usage its best in your own words)

RE: Extended storage of ANSTO’s ILW on-site at Lucas Heights is warranted until availability of a final disposal option. The indefinite Store for ANSTO nuclear fuel waste & ILW in SA is untenable.

Dear SecretaryPlease consider this Submission (22 page pdf) with five Recommendations (see p.4) and the request for public release of key ANSTO ILW Reports and further information sought from ANSTO (see p.5-6).

Recommendations to the Public Works Committee Inquiry:

Recommendation 1: ANSTO’s proposed public works on Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) storage must be altered to provide for the necessary and proper Contingency to retain ILW on-site in safe and secure extended storage at Lucas Heights “until the availability of a final disposal option”.

Recommendation 2: ANSTO must not pre-empt ARPANSA Licensing decisions. ANSTO must plan for the valid Contingency that an ARPANSA Approval for proposed indefinite duration above ground nuclear fuel waste and ILW storage in SA may not be granted.

Recommendation 3: The PWC must require and confirm the suitability of any assented ANSTO public works to provide for – and comply with – the necessary Contingency to retain ILW on-site at Lucas Heights until a final disposal option is available.

Recommendation 4: Transparency requiresANSTO must release key ILW Reports and further information to provide an adequate basis for informed decision making in consideration by the PWC and to facilitate informed public interest input to this Inquiry. Including: Two ANSTO Intermediate Level nuclear waste Reports required as part of ARPANSA Licensing Conditions and due to the regulator by 30 June 2020, AND the formal response(s) by ARPANSA.

Recommendation 5: The PWC Inquiry should consider that proposed indefinite storage of ANSTO nuclear fuel waste and ILW in SA is untenable and compromises safety and security in SA. ANSTO’s premise to transfer ILW into indefinite storage in regional SA is contrary to International Best Practice (IBP) and does not comply with ARPANSA Committee advice.

In Conclusion: Extended storage of ANSTO’s ILW on-site at Lucas Heights is a warranted public interest measure and a necessary Contingency until availability of a final disposal option.

ANSTO’s public works are premised on an il-considered, unassured and arguably untenable transfer of ILW into indefinite storage of ANSTO nuclear fuel waste and ILW in regional SA.

I have provided a range of public Briefing materials, for instance: “Nuclear Waste Store siting at Napandee also targets the Port of Whyalla” (see p.21-22).

Nuclear, and some other, news this week

Today, Dr Helen Caldicott speaks out forcefully on the omnicidal threat of nuclear war, on male aggression, and the need for women to take control in national governments.

On matters nuclear – not much is happening – news items this week, from UK, Canada, France and USA show that  nuclear development is stalling.    Meanwhile renewable energy is charging ahead globally – cheaper and faster. I am not able to keep up with solar, wind, developments etc.

CORONAVIRUS –  What’s happening in Canada and around the world.

CLIMATE.  Cascading Tipping Points & Permafrost. Germany the latest victim of extreme weather.

A bit of good news. Huge Supply of Water is Saved From Evaporation When Solar Panels Are  Built Over Canals 

AUSTRALIA

• ANSTO aims to speed up return to Australia of highly hazardous nuclear wastes. 
• Military exercises put the Great Barrier Reef in danger. US and Allies’ military machine – out of Afghanistan (where it’s needed)and into the Pacific – against its new enemy – The Great Barrier Reef.  
• Australia’s weapons lobby drumming up fear of nuclear attack by China, against all logic.
• Liberal-led committee raises concerns about Morrison government’s charity crackdown.
• Australian cities not prepared for the coming heatwaves- poor urban planning.

INTERNATIONAL.

With all its wisdom, the human race is killing itself.

As the world starts to panic over climate change, nuclear evangelists offer spurious solutions.

British court ruling heightens danger of Assange extradition to the US.

How Right-Wing Extremists Pose A Nuclear Threat.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is well aware of that danger we don’t discuss – NUCLEAR TERRORISM.

Automation in nuclear weapon systems: lessons from the man who saved the world.

The Catholic Worker Movement, and its anti-nuclear heroes in prison.

EUROPE. Expert opinion: why nuclear energy should not be included as sustainable in Europe’s green taxonomy financing.

USA. 

•  If you thought that space research had nothing to do with weapons – think again! Astronauts to Mars – a game of cancer-russian-roulette, especially dangerous to women.
• Most Hanford nuclear cleanup workers exposed to hazardous materials: Washington state report. 
•  USA’s Department of Energy brushes aside the community’s concerns about the so-called MARVELlous small nuclear reactor plan. USA keen to market nuclear reactors to Poland (and indeed – to anybody).
•  A worrying combination – nuclear + Bitcoin.   The unholy alliance – nuclear power and bitcoin?
• New book ”I Alone Can Fix It” -raises question that Trump could have been ready to launch a nuclear war. 
•   Significant downsizing of NuScale’s small nuclear reactor project for Idaho – (cost of project unknown). 
• Students from North Arizona researched and wrote about the effects of uranium mining, especially on indigenous people.

CANADA. Small Nuclear Reactors are all the hype. But here’s the reality.

FRANCE. French nuclear company EDF struggles with increasing debt and poor prospects for its nuclear fleet. A new problem for France’s nuclear company EDF threatens to further delay its plans for new model European Pressurised Reactor (EPR2). Costly dismantling of France’s Brennilis nuclear power plant continues, 35 years after shutdown.

PACIFIC ISLANDS. Nuclear-free Asia Pacific Report.

SPAIN. Spain’s nuclear regulator blocks permit for a uranium concentrate plant.

JAPAN. Japan’s government acknowledges that solar power will be cheaper than nuclear. Japanese government considers extending maximum nuclear reactor lifespan beyond 60 years. 

 

US and Allies’ military machine – out of Afghanistan (where it’s needed) and into the Pacific – against its new enemy – The Great Barrier Reef

War games on despite pandemic, threat to Great Barrier Reef  https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/war-games-despite-pandemic-threat-great-barrier-reef, Kerry SmithJuly 16, 2021  Lurking off the coast of China’s eastern seaboard now are three United States aircraft carrier battle groups (each with about 30 support vessels).

They will be joined by a British aircraft carrier group and Australian and Canadian warships as part of biennial military exercises, which start on July 18 and last until the end of the month.

Talisman Sabre 2021 (TS21) will involve a US expeditionary strike group from the USS America, the amphibious assault ship based at Sasebo Naval Base in Japan, and 17,000 Australian, US and foreign troops in combined land, sea and air war exercises.  

According to Stars and Stripes, for the first time, there will be live-fire training: the US Army will fire a Patriot missile defense system from Shoalwater Bay in Queensland at a pair of drone targets on July 16.

This is within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and other environmentally and culturally significant areas.

The war games will also take place in Darwin in the Northern Territory and Evans Head, New South Wales. 

All are thousands of kilometres away from their home base, and provocatively close to the new declared enemy — China.

Forces from Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea will take part and Australia-based personnel from India, Indonesia, France and Germany will observe.

Meanwhile, the ABC’s “defence correspondent” hyperventilated on July 14 that a solitary Chinese military ship, outside Australian territorial waters, poses a threat to national security.

The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) is concerned about both the war games and its impact on environmentally and culturally significant sites.

“TS21 will involve amphibious assaults, movement of heavy vehicles, use of live ammunition as well as the use of U.S. nuclear-powered and nuclear-weapon capable vessels,” IPAN spokesperson Annette Brownlie said.

“These activities are incompatible with the protection of the environment and, in particular, the Great Barrier Reef.

“During Talisman Sabre 2013, the US jettisoned four unarmed bombs on the Great Barrier Reef when they had difficulty dropping them on their intended target, Townshend Island,” Brownlie said.

The objective of Talisman Sabre is to further integrate the Australian military with the US — now ranked among the world’s worst polluters.

IPAN said the ADF did not engage in a Public Environment Report process for TS21 and has yet to release an environmental assessment for the areas in which TS21 will take place.

However, the Department of Defence did produce an environmental awareness video for visiting troops that promotes the military use of the Great Barrier Reef. The video reminds troops to consider the reef and not to litter.

“Talisman Sabre is a threat to the reef and to the environment. Putting out a video is a completely inadequate response,” Brownlie said.

This comes as federal environment minister Sussan Ley is lobbying to keep the Great Barrier Reef off the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Committee’s “in danger” list.

Despite a global pandemic, about 1800 foreign military personnel have arrived in Darwin to participate.

Nuclear news – week to 12 July

No – there’s not really much happening in the nuclear sphere.  What is happening is the increasing pro nuke propaganda. It is so noticeable in my country, Australia. Not that it’s widespread (yet), but the pro-nuke spiel from the Murdochracy is so patently, silly, and ill-informed that it deserves mention for its absurdity. I hope to write more about this next time.

CLIMATE  Serious as the pandemic is, –  I’m thinking that in the total picture,  it does not compare with the weather extremes, the suffering, the forced refugees, that the world faces from global heating.

 When it happens in America, the media does sit up and take notice. It’s happening in California, with raging temperatures and raging wildfires. I know that this is terrible, and not funny, but still, I wonder if some climate change denialists might be having second thoughts , as they’re finding it hard to get oysters and other luxury shellfish –   seeing that these coastal marine organisms are being cooked now, before they can be harvested.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTZD5K6JBGk

CORONAVIRUS.  World Health Organisation sounds alarm as global deaths top 4 million, delta variant spreads to 100 countries.

AUSTRALIA.

South Australian law demands an Inquiry into the Federal government’s nuclear waste storage plan. Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation (BDAC) will take legal action against nuclear dump plan if Resources Minister Keith Pitt names Napandee as the site. 

 Australian Members of Parliament from right and left parties call on US President Biden to drop charges against Julian Assange,

INTERNATIONAL

Reaching net zero without nuclear.   Nuclear Energy Will Not Be the Solution to Climate Change – not enough time, even if it were effective.

If They Chose, Biden and Putin Could Make the World Radically Safer,   Nuclear arms control hasn’t worked. We need a new approach.

Key witness in Julian Assange case admits to lies in indictment.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlLbAVSHeA8    U.S. government offers meaningless assurances on Julian Assange’s well-being, as it gets right to appeal on UK court ruling against his extradition. U.S. proposals about extradition of Julian Assange are designed to keep him in prison for life.

Rapid growth of global renewable energy: it’s the major energy source in Europe.

Mobile phones/cellphones – the health danger from electromagnetic radiation.

JAPAN. The 44 year process for demolishing TEPCO’s Fukushima No. 2 nuclear station, – with nowhere to put the radioactive trash. Japan’s nuclear regulator to order review of earthquake risks of Genkai nuclear plant. The danger of Japan’s increasing stockpile of plutonium.  Fukushima’s ”nuclear recovery Olympics’‘ has gone even more wrong, as spectators banned.

EUROPE. Both UK and European Commission want nuclear energy excluded from clean energy investments -”otherwise clean energy finances would not be credible”.

GERMANY, As Germany’s election approaches, political parties differ on the future of U.S. nuclear weapons based there,.

UK. 

• As wind power becomes half the price of nuclear, nuclear power may not be an election winner. British households will pay for nuclear construction long before it supplies any electricity, under the govt’s new plan. Investors won’t back the nuclear ”white elephant’‘, neither should the UK taxpayers. UK residents face higher electricity bills, paying in advance, for the construction of new nuclear reactors.
•   Green party makes gains in East Suffolk Council by-election – area that includes planned Sizewell nuclear station.
• Nuclear fusion – a very unlikely development for Bradwell. 
•  The UK and Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) deplore the new secrecy on defence nuclear safety reports.

IRAN.Iran trying to enrich uranium metal that could help develop nuclear weapon, UN watchdog says.

FRANCE. “EDF’s Chinese dream seems well and truly over“- a minor nuclear incident becomes a major industrial disaster for the French nuclear firm. France’s government helps settle the debts of bankrupt nuclear company AREVA (which is now resuscitated as ORANO) France refuses to hand over maps of nuclear tests in Algeria.

TAIWAN. Taiwan Shuts Another Reactor as Part of Nuclear-Free Goal,.

USA. 

• William Perry and Jerry Brown address the unwisdom of spending $2 trillion on new nuclear weapons. U.S. Space Force opens new centre to facilitate war in space. Nuclear weapons testing has never really stopped. We just call underground testing ”subcritical”. 
• The nuclear rort in Georgia. Consumers may end up paying for billions of dollars in cost overruns on the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion. In the USA State of Ohio, pro nuclear legislation is helped along by misinformation on renewable energy. 
•   U.S. nuclear lobby wants to sell advanced nuclear technology to China, on the spurious claims of ”safety” and ”advancing climate action”. 
• Nuclear injustice in New Mexico must end.
•  EPA Withdraws Disastrous Trump-Era Radioactive Roads Approval.

RUSSIA. Dialogue between Russia and USA must include subject of offensive weapons in outer space – says Russian Foreign Minister.

NORTH KOREA. North Korea Needs the Bomb to Protect Itself From America.

The week in nuclear news

Today I found an article which, although it’s about America, expressed a dilemma for the whole world.  Tom Engelhardt  of  Tom Dispatch discussed the 3 global horrors of  – the pandemic, climate change, and nuclear weapons. I recommend his article, lucidly explaining how vast sums of money now goes into nuclear weapons, and not into defeating the pandemic, nor saving the world from the slow apocalypse of global heating.
Coronavirus: What’s happening in Canada and around the world.Climate Change Disaster Isn’t a Future Threat — It’s Already Here.
Good news?  I’m sure there is some, but it’s hard to find.  News is, by  its nature, bad – because most people behave fairly reasonably –   and therefore, reasonable behaviour and normal life are not newsworthy.

AUSTRALIA.

• 
   Maralinga nuclear bomb tests – British and Australian governments’ callous cruelty to First Nations people. 
•   Premier Marshall should stand up for South Australia and reject the federal Liberal’s unlawful, unfair, unsafe and unnecessary nuclear waste dump plan. 
•   Keith Pitt MP, Minister for Resources, enthuses about nuclear power.   Barnaby Joyce is back as Deputy PM – pushing for nuclear and coal.  Bob Hawke – his allegiance to USA was greater than to the union movement.      
•  Australian government’s unnecessary crackdown on charities and on peaceful protest. 
•   THE AUSTRALIAN newspaper sinks to a new low in pro nuclear propaganda. (A reminder to Australians – Even nuclear executives must be embarrassed at the pro nuke propaganda aimed at young women. and – Exposed! Extinction Rebellion fact checks pro nuclear front, and Zion Lights.)

Wittenoom – largest contaminated area in the southern hemisphere.

INTERNATIONAL

Even this conservative journal recognises renewables as the only meaningful future energy source – nuclear is irrelevant.

The world is bequeathing to our descendants the costly nightmare of unsolved nuclear waste disposal,

Canada is a warning: more and more of the world will soon be too hot for humans.

The space tourism plans of Bezos, Musk and Branson are morally reprehensible.

JAPAN. Japan is not being transparent about the radioactive content in Fukushima wastewater. The hybrid boars of Fukushima. Fukushima: Radioactive boars create mutant hybrid species decade after nuclear disaster.

EUROPE. 5 European nations warn the European Commission that nuclear energy must be excluded from the EU’s green finance taxonomy.

MIDDLE EAST. Nuclear Reactor Security Risk: Middle East and Gulf Region.

GERMANY. Protest week beginning July 4 outside Ramstein Air Base, Germany.Germany’s success in phasing out nuclear energy, and remarkable uptake of solar. Germany joins 15 other nations to call for an end to nuclear testing ‘once and for all’.

CHINA. China’s handling of Taishan nuclear plant leak shows need for transparency. How Taishan almost became China’s Chernobyl.  

UK. United Kingdom will not finance any nuclear-energy related expenditures under its Green Financing Framework Dounreay nuclear waste clean-up– an enormous job, for just a temporary solution. Bradwell anti-nuclear campaigners may face fight against nuclear fusion plan. UK’s Ministry of Defence kept ‘devastating’ nuclear accident risks under wraps.

USA. 

•  The all-American story of the twin horrors climate change and nuclear weapons.
• Short time left to make a comment on this very dangerous costly USA Hypersonic plan.    Further developments for space warfare planning. NASA pretending that space radiation is sort of OK for women, but it’s not. Time for US nuclear strategy to embrace no first use. Need for a USA”no first use” of nuclear weapons policy – the concern of regional U.S. allies. 

CANADA. Five good reasons to support the City of Ottawa’s request for a regional assessment of radioactive waste disposal projects in the Ottawa Valley.  In extreme heat wave, forest fire threatens Sakatchewan uranium mine – another example of global heating hitting nuclear activities. Hundreds dead as record-breaking heat wave hits Canada and United States.

FRANCE. 

•   EDF launches the “EPR2” After the Flamanville and Finland fiascoes, what could go wrong? 
•  Under cover of the nation’s preoccupation with the pandemic, France changes the rules, to permit nuclear installations in urbanised areas. 
•  European Court of Justice condemns France for preventing anti-nuclear group from access to legal justice.

ALGERIA. Buried in the sand of Southern Algeria – the radioactive pollution from French nuclear tests.

IRAN. US must guarantee it will not leave nuclear deal again, says Iran. U.N. chief urges U.S. to remove Iran sanctions as agreed in 2015.

RUSSIA. Russia tests giant nuclear submarine equipped with secret weapons.

TAIWAN. Taiwan’s strategy to phaseout nuclear energy and move to renewables. Taiwan on its path toward denuclearization.

SEYCHELLES. Seychelles Votes to Ratify the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons,.