nuclear-news

‘Divided society’ without treaty The Canberra Times 30 March 09 Australia must modernise its ”horse and buggy era” constitution to enshrine Aboriginal land rights, customary law and social equality, Australian of the Year Mick Dodson says………………………..

Professor Dodson’s call comes as the United Nations has formally warned the Rudd Government to show it is making progress to end the suspension of Australia’s racial discrimination laws.

The laws were suspended by the Howard government in 2007 to push ahead with the emergency intervention in Aboriginal communities.

The UN’s racial discrimination committee wrote to Australia’s UN ambassador two weeks ago, after receiving formal complaints from Aboriginal representatives claiming intervention measures had ”allegedly led to serious discrimination”.

The committee has questioned the necessity for the Racial Discrimination Act to be suspended. The act is being redrafted in consultation with Aboriginal communities, and the UN has asked the Rudd Government to provide details of all proposed amendments by the end of July.

Nuclear power still offers no safe bets The Philadelphia Inquirer Mar. 29, 2009  Waste disposal and reactor designs are problematic. Susan Q. Stranahan

……………………Today, as the ailing United States again searches for cheap, dependable, and environmentally benign sources of energy, the self-burnished nuclear industry is back at the table, touting a nuclear renaissance and promoting itself as the answer to our needs. How short is our memory?

As many as 30 new reactors are planned for the United States. (That number may drop now that $50 billion in subsidies were eliminated from the federal stimulus bill and credit is scarce.) Among them is a reactor proposed for the Chesapeake Bay about 150 miles south of Three Mile Island, called Calvert Cliffs-3. (Two other reactors already occupy the site.)

Calvert Cliffs-3 has been heralded as the flagship of the nuclear renaissance. But in the words of one nuclear-safety watchdog, it’s more of a rerun…………
The reactor design is so new it has not even been certified for construction in the United States. A similar design, currently being built in Finland, is nearly two years behind schedule and double its original cost. This so-called European Pressurized Reactor has been plagued with quality-control problems – including substandard cooling pipes and slumping concrete. Its owner has reported $1.7 billion in losses. The final tally will not be known until all the lawsuits are resolved………………………

Especially problematic is the issue that has haunted nuclear power since Day One: Waste disposal. Despite all the talk about 30 new reactors, there is no place to put the spent fuel those plants would spew out – waste that remains dangerous for thousands of years. Actually, there is no place to put the tons of waste produced by the nation’s 103 operating reactors – and the prospects of finding a home for that have dimmed considerably in recent weeks.

The Obama administration has eliminated almost all funding for Yucca Mountain, the controversial and costly ($8 billion so far, and counting) site designated 22 years ago as the permanent repository for spent reactor fuel. Absent its completion, spent fuel currently is stored at the reactors themselves, although some facilities no longer have space for more. By most accounts, Yucca Mountain will never open. Thus, we are no closer to a waste repository than we were 30 years ago.

Come to think of it, nuclear power is not our energy salvation; it is still a high-stakes gamble.

Central Australia solar technology could light up India ABC Rural News 30/03/2009 Children living in rural India may soon be able to study at night, thanks to technology developed in Central Australia.The Centre for Appropriate Technologies’ Bushlight program has worked in the NorthernTerritory to provide renewable energy sources for Aboriginal communities.Joe Madiath is from an organisation based in the Indian state of Harissa, which is interested in adapting the program.”We feel that taking solar energy into these villages, these people would have a better quality of life in the form that their evenings can be lengthened and there can be sanitation and water supply.”

French nuclear bomb victims get payouts while British veterans are ignored * *By Susie Boniface, sundaymirror.co.uk 29/03/2009

French victims of nuclear bomb testing are getting a multimillion-pound payout… while British veterans are still being ignored.

This week the French government announced it was “time to be true to its conscience” and revealed a £9million compensation package.

In Britain the Ministry of Defence continues to fight claims by veterans who suffer health problems such as cancers, skin conditions, bone disorders and 10 times the normal rate of birth defects in their children.

But after more than 40 years of similar denials, the authorities in France have agreed to pay out to veterans and civilians who fell ill following tests in the Pacific.

Each claim will be dealt with by a tribunal and – in a major breakthrough – victims will not have to prove they were irradiated, as many records were lost or destroyed.

If the French government wants to fight each payout it must prove something else caused the illnesses.

Meanwhile, of 22,000 British veterans who witnessed test blasts between 1952 and 1967, only 3,000 are still alive.