nuclear-news

Reflections on the past week in nuclear news

Christina Macpherson’s websites & blogs

It has been a week of protests – so intense that the mainstream media has felt obliged to actually cover them.  In Australia, the Lizards Revenge http://lizardsrevenge.net/  brought hundreds of protestors travelling hundreds, even thousands of miles. for a festival of music, entertainment and information  –  to the very heart of the uranium industry – BHP’s Olympic Dam mine in South Australia. A massive police and security presence did not bring about the violence (that the media might have enjoyed).

The Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia led the protest in Fremantle, targeting the Australian uranium conference, and particularly, Toro Energy.

In Japan,  in the sweltering heat,  170,000 people  rallied outside Prime Minister Noda’s residence peacefully voicing their protest at the restart of one nuclear reactor.  As in Australia, this protest was peaceful.

In other developments, the rise of thyroid abnormalities in Fukushima children indicates the continuing seriousness of the health effects of Fukushima.   The nuclear lobby continues to push the completely unproven and scientifically unaccepted theories of low doses of radiation being “good for you”, or at least harmless.   The USA’s nuclear revival well and truly stalled, due to the growing recognition that “new nuclear” can’t go ahead without a real plan for waste disposal. Meanwhile Britain struggles with the unacceptable costs of its planned nuclear expansion, and even more, with its dilemma over what to do with its huge plutonium waste pile at Sellafield.

July 20, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes