Woomera to get “temporary” dump of mixed radioactive waste

Alarm over radioactive waste plan KIM WHEATLEY

Adelaide NowOctober 23, 2009

ABOUT 80 drums of radioactive waste has been earmarked to be shifted 450km from Edinburgh RAAF base to a new waste dump at Woomera.
The Defence Department is seeking licence approvals to turn an old explosives storage building into the Koolymilka Waste Storage Facility in the Woomera Prohibited area.

Defence has told The Advertiser that it also plans to shift 206 44-gallon (194 litres) drums – or about 40 cubic metres – from a nearby Woomera site for the new “temporary” waste dump.

Five years ago, the Federal Government scrapped plans to build a low-level nuclear waste dump near Woomera after strong opposition from the State Government – and moves to establish a permanent facility have stalled ever since.

While the State Government has raised no objections to yet another “temporary” facility being established, it is worried about radioactive waste being transported through the state, especially if it is trucked……………..

The Defence Department only provided a small list to The Advertiser of the types of “low and intermediate” waste that will be held in storage, including valves from radar and telecommunications equipment, luminous aircraft dials and smoke detectors.

But it made no mention of suggestions that it would also house contaminated soil from an old CSIRO site in Melbourne and other radioactive material from medical and research facilities from around the nation. http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,26246813-2682,00.html

Advertisement

BHP’s poor safety performance in South Africa

Miners’ safety in spotlight after death
Sydney Morning Herald BARRY FITZGERALD

October 22, 2009

BHP Billiton’s safety performance at its overseas operations has come under fresh scrutiny because of a fatal accident at its Khutala coalmine in South Africa.

The accident was of the type that BHP has previously moved to eliminate from its Pilbara iron ore mines in Western Australia after several deaths last year.

BHP said a mining operations supervisor, Gregory Goslett, 27, was killed at Khutala when he was struck in his light vehicle by coal that had fallen from a loaded haul truck going the other way.

Mining at the open-cut has been suspended and investigations are under way.

NT’s secret: nuke waste dump deal, despite govt promises

Secret $200k nuclear dump contract criticised ABC News By David Coady 22 Oct 09 The Greens are criticising the Federal Government for keeping secret a contract with traditional owners about a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory.

Hypocrisy of Australia over uranium sales

The Forgotten Nightmare: Global Cooling By Robin Davis 21 October, 2009 Countercurrents.org “……Here in Australia, advocates of uranium mining and export claim that this gives us a more credible voice in the world arena than we would otherwise have. They say our position as the largest source of uranium and the second largest exporter after Canada makes us more effective in preventing nuclear proliferation than we would otherwise be. In other words, by selling the stuff from which nuclear weapons are made, we are helping to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

This absurd reasoning extends to the so-called “safeguard” agreements – essentially book-keeping entries – that supposedly track every morsel of “Australian Obligated” uranium during its travels around the world, including its reprocessing and on-selling. We can rest assured that Australian uranium won’t be used to make nuclear weapons – or free up other uranium for that purpose – because we say it can’t and the buyer nations say it won’t………

History tells a different story. Of about 60 countries that have nuclear power or research reactors more than 20 have used their “peaceful” facilities for covert nuclear weapons research or production or both. India, Pakistan, Israel, South Africa and North Korea have all developed nuclear weapons under cover of “peaceful” nuclear programs……………..

The belligerence and blatant double standards demonstrated by the “big five,” who also hold the five permanent seats and veto power on the UN Security Council, provides motivation and “justification” for other states – some repeatedly threatened with attack, including nuclear attack (“all options are on the table”) – to develop a nuclear “deterrent” of their own. “Peaceful” nuclear programs are the obvious way for them to develop the necessary expertise and facilities and to acquire the technology and essential raw material: uranium……………

It seems the straight-faced hypocrisy of successive Australian governments is boundless: joining in the vilification of the latest designated nuclear “rogue” states, worrying over nuclear terrorism and mouthing non-proliferation platitudes on the one hand while allowing exports of the raw material for nuclear proliferation on the other. If Australia were sincere it would leave its uranium in the ground..

The Forgotten Nightmare: Global Cooling By Robin Davis

OLympic Dam uranium mine disrupted for months

BHP warns of Olympic Dam disruption until 2010  Guardian.co.uk. 22 Oct 09 Following yesterday’s mixed production report from Xstrata, comes a similar theme from BHP Billiton. “……….

BHP also warned of higher than normal stockpiles of commodities in the key Chinese market. Charles Kernot at Evolution Securities issued a sell note, saying:

Production was mixed and is still broadly below year-ago levels (with the exception of oil and gas). Commodity expectations are the bug-bear with near-term demand likely to weaken rather than strengthen.

The group’s outlook statement… confirms our view that Chinese restocking is at an end and current metal stocks are at higher than normal levels. The rest of the world is still suffering and there is no expectation of higher demand until after mid-2010 – nine months away…………….The news has left BHP shares down 30p at £17.96.

BHP warns of Olympic Dam dispruption until 2010 | Business | guardian.co.uk

Public should know about Ranger uranium mine leak

Probe into uranium mine leak continues ABC News  Oct 20, 2009  The Commonwealth supervising scientist of the Ranger uranium mine at Kakadu National Park says investigations are continuing into water contamination at the site.

Staff not evacuated after spill at Lucas Heights

Staff not evacuated after spill at Lucas Heights  THE AUSTRALIAN October 21, 2009  Australian Associated Press  OPERATORS at Sydney’s Lucas Heights nuclear reactor were not evacuated after a radiation chemical spill, a Senate committee has heard.

Britain’ atmospheric atomic bomb tests

Maralinga Our Own Shame – UK Nuclear Bomb Tests in Australia   – Care2 News Network (UK) by David Buchan 19 Oct 09  Britain actively used Australian soil and people to conduct it’s nuclear testing program during the 1950s and 1960s.

Japan, Australia lead talks on nuclear arms reduction

Japan, Australia lead talks on nuclear arms reduction Google News (AFP) –  19 Oct 09 TOKYO — An international committee led by Japan and Australia began a fourth round of talks Sunday to draft recommendations on how to achieve a nuclear weapon-free world.The International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) began the three days of talks in Hiroshima, site of a US atomic bombing at the end of World War II.Former foreign ministers Gareth Evans of Australia and Yoriko Kawaguchi of Japan are leading the talks, joined by former US defence secretary William Perry and former Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland, among others.The group plans to issue recommendations in January ahead of the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in Vienna.The ICNND was launched in 2008 as a joint initiative between Japan and Australia.

AFP: Japan, Australia lead talks on nuclear arms reduction

National Park land taken over for uranium mining

uranium Mining in a National Park October 16, 2009 by archiearchive  Here in the Rudall River National Park we are soon to discover that a National Park  ……….. the mineral is uranium and the back yard is the home of the traditional Martu people. A place where they hunt, where they swim in the water holes and where the footprint of man is washed away with the next season’s rains.

Unless they are the men are from Cameco. In which case they will mine uranium from a parcel of land which used to be a part of a gazetted National Park. This parcel was excised from the Park by a Government decree.

So for maybe seven or ten years a mine will operate and then the miners will leave. Left behind will be the pollution they promise won’t happen. Just like at the Ranger Uranium Mine in the Kakadu National Park. I mean “the Ranger Uranium Mine with-in the Kakadu National Park.” For that was another parcel of land excised from a National Park.  There are 100,000 litres of contaminated water leaking into the ground water each day from the Ranger mine.

 The Australian Government says we should not be worried about this.And they are quite correct. There is no need for any politician in Canberra, no bureaucrat in his ivory tower or any mining executive in his overseas mansion to worry about that contamination. After all, his children and grand children will not hunt the land, relying on the groundwater for their life. They will not swim in the contaminated water holes nor eat the fish caught in those waterholes.

No uranium mine in Australia has failed to pollute the land it is on or the land outside the mine’s boundaries.But the Government tells us we should not worry.

Uranium Mining in a National Park « Ærchies Archive – The Curmudgeon’s Magazine