The week to 4 December – Climate and Nuclear News -Australia and beyond

The world is at the crossroads as U.N. Climate Change Conference takes place in Poland. Many experts think that we have passed the point of no return. UN Climate Conference faces the daunting need for the world to quit coal. World Bank funding for action on climate change, and for adaptation to climate change.  David Attenborough urges world leaders to LEAD .

Nuclear power, touted as the solution to climate change, is on fact, only a hindrance to action on climate change.

AUSTRALIA

With bushfires and floods, Australia now ranks in the top 10 world’s natural disaster counntries.

Bushfires, Climate Change, and Nuclear Sites – how the threats of climate and nuclear merge.

Release of Federal Inquiry Report into community contamination from toxic chemicals.

NUCLEAR. Nuclear authorities planning for NUCLEAR PROCESSING at Kimba or Hawker dump site!  Government Divides Hawker and Kimba Communities While Hiding Suitable Alternate Radioactive Waste Sites. Community excluded from Australia’s nuclear waste dump Community Consultation. Concerned citizens of Kimba petition the Senate to remove Kimba site from radioactive waste site shortlist. Woomera a more suitable site for a nuclear waste dump – Senator Rex Patrick. Was Woomera rejected as nuclear dump site, because the plan is to later IMPORT NUCLEAR WASTE?

Western Australia’s uranium promise: 10 years later it’s a complete flop. Report casts doubt over the viability of the Mulga Rock project.

CLIMATE.  Total fire ban South Australia -(including Flinders)  a dangerous place to put a nuclear waste dump? Multiple bushfires on Yorke Peninsula South Australia.  Queensland experiencing fires of unprecedented fury, similar to California’s wildfires.   Western Australia set for a scorching summer.

Schoolkids say -Climate change is the biggest threat to our futures, not striking from school.  Yes, Prime Minister, I’m striking from school: consider it a climate lesson.  School students who went on strike for climate action are more likely to have successful careers. Australia’s climate action schoolkids – more intelligent, better informed, than Australia’s government. Australia’s Resources Minister Matt Canavan scorns children who protest for climate action.  Weird responses of righteous fury, against students who protested about about climate change.

Michael West shows the obstacles to Adani actually starting the Carmichael coal project. Queensland Premier sceptical that Adani coal mine will ever eventuate.   Adani’s announcement they are ‘ready to go’ must be reality tested.

Climate change and the Great Barrier Reef. Research on Australia’s climate history. Al Gore to conduct climate leadership training in Brisbane.

Noongar traditional owners challenge settlement that will extinguish native title. Native title win for Nanda people in Western Australia.

False claims against Julian Assange pave the way for USA to imprison him (DOES AUSTRALIA NOT CARE?)

RENEWABLE ENERGY  South Australia now supplying electricity to Victoria, as wind power surges.  Renewables to be providing 80 per cent of electricity market by 2030. UK company chooses Sydney for Australian HQ . Why coal – and not renewables – is root cause of surging Australia power prices. Milestone – Australia renewables output hits 9GW for first time. Top solar postcodes of Australia – state by state. Clean Energy Council calls for NSW renewables target, as another state election looms.

INTERNATIONAL

World Meteorological Organization warns: world running out of time to combat climate change. World’s Worst Public Health Crisis  – Climate Change. The over-looked solution to climate change – equality for women. Flawed arguments in nuclear industry’s push to be seen as climate change solution.

The other big Trump-Putin story: Nuclear weapons treaty hangs in the balance as Russia-US tensions rise.

Molten salt nuclear reactors not commercially viable, but useful for military.

NORTH KOREA. A mistake to expect Kim Jong Un to give a full renunciation of nuclear weapons in advance.

FRANCE. Why France must shut down many nuclear reactors. Report shows how unprepared France is, in the event of a nuclear accident. Appeal lodged to stop commissioning of Flamanville EPR nuclear reactor vessel. France abandons plans for the Astrid (Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration).

TAIWAN. Taiwan Votes to Maintain Import Ban on Fukushima Food Imports. Taiwan doesn’t know what to do with radioactive trash, so decommissioning of 1st nuclear power plant is delayed.

UK.

• Will 1000s of Small Nuclear Reactors, built super-fast, save the world from climate change?
• “Marking your own homework” – Britain’s plan for inspecting its own nuclear safeguards – Brexatom !
• UK’s Defence Safety Authority (DSA) suppresses reports on safety of nuclear weapons. UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE)‘s failure to deal with its high level nuclear waste – now sending it to Sellafield.
• EDF plans to restart Hunterston nuclear reactors because – hey! some of the 350 cracks are only small!
• UK’s so-called “nuclear renaissance” is in crisis again.
• Radiation Free Lakeland investigates radioactive beach, while Cumbrian media doesn’t bother to.

USA.

•  Exposing The Pentagon’s Massive Accounting Fraud. The danger of nuclear war through irrational decision-making by Donald Trump. Trump may need Congress approval to withdraw from Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.  U.S. Congress could stop the endless wars.
• Massive problem of USA’s high level nuclear waste – scientists struggling for a solution. U.S. Energy Dept plans to reclassify Hanford nuclear sludge – from “high level”to “low level”. Holtec nuclear waste casks at San Onofre are too thin-walled and must be replaced.  San Onofre plant aims to resume transfers of nuclear waste in January.
• Delay in compensation for NUCLEAR LAB EMPLOYEES WITH RADIATION-LINKED CANCERS.
• Dark money, so-called “independent” Nuclear Matters, Georgia’s Public Service Commission and regulatory capture. Deal to purchase Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant is off.

JAPAN.  Japan to scrap Turkey nuclear project.     Thyroid cancer impact on children and teens following Fukushima nuclear accident. 2020 Olympics being used to put a nice gloss on nuclear industry, and Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. Fukushima evacuees forced back into unacceptably high radiation zones.

CANADA.  Saskatchewan sues federal government over cost to clean up abandoned uranium mine.

SOUTH AFRICA. South Africa’s Portfolio Committee on Energy (PCE) praises Nuclear power, glosses over cost, waste, problems.  Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (Necsa) embroiled in dodgy deals, conflicts of interest.

AUSTRALIA. Australian schoolchildren on strike for action on climate change.

INDIA. Political connections in Holtec’s plans for boosting nuclear power in India.

BELGIUM. Belgium re-authorised nuclear power without having an environmental assessment – EU Magistrate criticises.