Collapses uranium market forces Australian company Paladin to cut back
Paladin freezes expansion Financial Review 08 NOV 2012 Uranium miner Paladin Energy will slash costs by up to $US80 million ($76.97 million) after putting a freeze on development due to the weak uranium price.
Paladin will cuts costs by between $US60 million and $US80 million in fiscal 2013 and 2014, after undertaking an extensive review of costs and production. Continue reading
Many Australians anxious about the grubby deal to sell uranium to India
Anxiety about uranium sales to India arises from the poor safety reputation of that country’s nuclear power industry and its development of nuclear weapons in violation of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty
the visit looked for all the world like a sales pitch. The awarding of an Order of Australia to Indian batsman Sachin
Tandulkar was clearly intended to butter up customers for a big purchase.
The truth is that Australia, taking its cue from the US, is not worried about India having nuclear arms. In fact, it fits in nicely with long-term planning in the Pentagon.
The grubby saga of uranium sales to India, CPA 25 Oct 12 Prime Minister Gillard’s visit to India last week was pure pantomime. She met her counterpart, Mr Manmohan Singh, and took part in all manner of events and photo opportunities in an effort to repair Australia’s damaged reputation on the sub-continent –…– and to seal a deal that has made many observers nervous. Continue reading
Australia jumps to obey USA, on India, uranium, and militarism
Gillard is helping to destabilise the sub-continent by fuelling a dangerous arms race involving India’s rivals, China and Pakistan.
The Labor government’s about face on uranium sales to India under Gillard was carried out on Washington’s orders. In November 2011, the US ambassador to Australia, Jeffrey Bleich, publicly called on Canberra to “sort out” its issues with India, as the US had done when it resolved the “thorny point” of uranium sales through the 2008 nuclear deal that exempted India from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
Australian PM visit to India bolsters new “strategic partnership” WSWS, By Patrick O’Connor 20 October2012 Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s three-day trip to India this week was aimed at deepening military, diplomatic, and economic ties between the two countries.
Washington has encouraged the closer relations as part of its aggressive drive to undermine the influence of China in the Indo-Pacific region. Gillard met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday. High on the agenda was progress towards Australian uranium sales to India, Continue reading
India and Australia both lying about nuclear weapons proliferation
The opening up of nuclear trade with India — first by the US in 2008 and most recently by Australia — has broader implications. It fundamentally changes the proliferation equation for other countries.
The most dangerous lie peddled by industry and by the Australian and Indian governments is that India has a strong track record of nuclear non-proliferation.
The Gillard government has no intention of seriously addressing any of the proliferation, safety, security and regulatory problems, nor does it care about the repression and murder of peaceful citizen protesters in India.
India’s Abysmal Nuclear Record, By Jim Green, New Matilda, 18/10/12 http://newmatilda.com/2012/10/18/indias-abysmal-nuclear-track-record
While the media focuses on Julia Gillard’s stumbles, India’s clunker of a nuclear industry stays unexamined. But hey, what’s a bit of nuclear proliferation between friends? Jim Green from Friends of the Earth on the South Asian nuclear arms race
According to Gemma Bailey, writing in the Australian Financial Review, Prime Minister Gillard has a cunning plan. She will ensure that Australia’s uranium supply treaty with India contains strict conditions on the safe use of the nuclear fuel. The plan, we’re told, “is intended to neutralise opponents who highlight that India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
If only that were true. Here’s Gillard’s real plan: trot out tired old lines about strict conditions and hope that journalists will regurgitate them without question. For the most part, it works. …. At stake is the nuclear arms race in South Asia and broader, global nuclear proliferation concerns. As Ron Walker, a retired Australian diplomat and former Chair of the Board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said last year: “I am horrified that the media have not explained the enormity of this proposal.”
India is at least as culpable as its neighbours in fanning the nuclear arms race in South Asia. Continue reading
Australia’s hypocrisy in planning uranium exports to India
If we really want to assist Indian communities who currently lack access to electricity – and we should – it would be far more effective to prioritise exporting Australian expertise in regional renewable energy systems.
the admission this week from India’s own auditor that the country’s nuclear industry is “dangerously unsafe, disorganised and, in many cases, completely unregulated” – only compounds concerns.
When Australian uranium leaves our waters it effectively disappears from the radar. This is a profound concern for a fuel that can power either nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons. High-level Indian officials have stated that they need to source uranium from overseas in order to free up their own uranium for military purposes
No smooth passage to India for Australian uranium http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2012/10/18/3612800.htm DAVE SWEENEY, ABC 18 OCT 2012 PRIME MINISTER JULIA GILLARD is in India this week and amid the staged handshakes and solemn exchanges of signed papers. The uranium sales plan is being heavily promoted. But there is growing concern both here and in India about the implications of the move and the fast-tracking of nuclear-armed India into the global atomic club.
No doubt Julia Gillard will be employing the age-old tactic of highlighting a problem that no reasonable person could ignore and then seeking to ‘own’ the solution. Proponents of the sales deal point to the estimated 200 million Indians who do not have reliable access to electricity as a rationale for the sales deal. But to link Australian yellowcake with lights and cookers in remote Indian villages is to draw a very long bow. Continue reading
Farce of Australia’s uranium deal, and award to Indian cricketer
Cricketism has brought India closer to Australia and nuclear grey deals brought them still closer and the announcement by a silly Australian PM to offer the nation’s prestigious awards to foreigners, especially in cricketism exercises. India needs Australian uranium for nuclear terror purposes
Mutual exchange of honorary degrees and awards are very common, like street robberies, in international politics for the promotion of trade in arms and nukes stuff.
Russians supply India nuclear stuff and Australians offer awards.
Why should the Indian regime of corporates and mafias kill people in Kudankulam?
India’s Archons bribes Australia for awards — Cricketism, The Canadian 18 OCTOBER 2012 BY DR. ABDUL RUFF ” …….Madam Gillard arrived in India after a surprise trip to Afghanistan had meetings with business leaders and their protector Singh in Delhi. Indian nuclear mafia abroad is doing well.
Australia’s ruling centre-left Labor party voted to overturn its ban on uranium sales to India last year after a long debate about nuclear weapons and reactor safety following Japan’s atomic crisis. Continue reading
Australia’s rather dodgy “medical” nuclear reactor
ANSTO chief ducks and weaves on 
questioning about incidents at Lucas Heights nuclear reactor
Noel Wauchope 18 Oct 12, I guess that we can rely on the mainstream media to give a sympathetic coverage to Dr Adi Paterson, chief of Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) – who was very distressed after being put on the spot in the Senate yesterday. At one point in the polite, but persistent, questioning by Senator Scott Ludlam, the discussion was interrupted by an interjection from David Reid. Reid was the whistleblower who alerted us all to a radiation incident at Lucas Heights, and was sacked for this
Anyway, the most recent KPMG report on the 2007 incident criticised the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) for its poor response to the incident.
This report was one of several reports on the matter. In February 2011, Australia’s workplace health and safety regulator, Comcare, found the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, or ANSTO, has under-reported accidents and breached safety standards. Investigating radiation incidents, Comcare found that ANSTO breached health and safety laws. It also reported that Mr Reid’s suspension was somewhat extreme and Mr Reid was substantially denied procedural fairness.
In the Senate yesterday Senator Scott Ludlam got devious answers from Dr Paterson, who seemed bent on asserting that the radioactive spill incidents never happened, anyway. No wonder that David Reid angrily interjected!
SENATOR LUDLAM: ” The KPMG report finds that ANSTO technical and supervisory staff and the executive management covered up the fact that three staff were contaminated by the beta emitter yttrium on the relevant day and that Mr Reid witnessed an incident between two men at the contamination barrier on the day in question n. He reported that one man had yttrium contamination, which is a beta radiation emitter, all down his clothes and in his mouth and that the other man’s supervisor was trying to clean him up and was telling him not to report the contamination….Mr Paterson, are you still contesting that these events even occurred at all? “
DR PATERSON: We were not involved in this investigation in a way that would have allowed us to put all of the issues on the table this was a report that was, indeed, intended for ARPANSA. It was not intended to make any findings in relation to ANSTO, and I do not believe it has done.
SENATOR LUDLAM: It is your facility; it is your plant. It is a report about an accident involving your staff at your facility. I am not quite sure why we are creating this distance. It was created for the regulator because they were extremely unhappy—I will contest these contentions later on this morning with ANSTO—with ANSTO’S response to these incidents, which did indeed occur. These are not alleged incidents. These are a matter of public record.
DR PATERSON I believe that we have been very clear on this matter. If indeed this incident did take place— —(interjection here from David Reid)…
SENATOR LUDLAM: So you contest the existence?
DR PATERSON: : I can contest whether there was an incident of this nature at the time that has been outlined in the report.
Cooling city buildings by using roof gardens
Adelaide in South Australia is leading the way in water-sensitive urban design and green roof technology.
Roof gardens proven to cool buildings ABC Radio The World Today Nicola Gage reported this story on Tuesday, October 9, 2012 ELEANOR HALL: Roof gardens are becoming more prevalent in the world’s major cities.
Now a study has found that not only are they building mini-ecosystems, they’re also cooling buildings significantly and reducing carbon emissions, as Nicola Gage reports.
NICOLA GAGE: Major cities have inherently been linked to pollution and rising carbon emissions, but 22 stories up on the roof of a building in Adelaide, there’s a micro-climate that’s returning wildlife to the city. Continue reading
Australian rare earths company Lynas facing further uncertainty in its Malaysian project
Activists and local residents have vowed to shut the plant – the biggest outside China – which has emerged as a controversial issue in the country’s national elections
opposition politicians and environmentalists have expressed fears that radioactive waste it produces can seep into the ground and water, harming the environment and people’s health.
Hearing on Lynas Malaysia plant postponed http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/hearing-on-lynas-malaysia-plant-postponed/story-fn3dxix6-1226488399907 THE AUSTRALIAN AAP October 04, 2012 A MALAYSIAN court has postponed until next week a hearing on a temporary operating licence granted to Australian miner Lynas Corp for a rare earths plant, an activist says.
Thursday’s decision to postpone hearing to next Wednesday further delays the start of operations at the $US800 million ($A786.82 million) facility, which has been dogged by environmental protests and concerns about radiation.
Lynas secured the operating licence in early September but Kuantan High Court in eastern Pahang state, where the plant is based, put it on hold later that month after an appeal by activists. Continue reading
Australian Government set up a Renewable Energy Package- a good model for USA
What America Can Learn from Australia’s New Clean Energy Future Package http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/09/29/929441/what-america-can-learn-from-australias-new-clean-energy-future-package/ Sep 29, 2012 by Jennifer Morgan, via WRI Insights Australia, one of world’s most carbon-intensive countries, recently began implementing a comprehensive national policy to address climate change and transition to a clean-energy economy. Yesterday, WRI had the pleasure of hosting Mark Dreyfus , Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, who outlined his country’s plans to a group of business, congressional, and NGO representatives.
One point that came through at the event is that Australia’s recent energy and climate choices can be very instructive to the United States. This post provides a quick look at Australia’s new policy and explores how it can inform and inspire U.S. efforts to move toward a low-carbon future.
Why Did Australia Adopt a National Climate and Energy Policy? Continue reading
Australia’s former conservatve Prime Minister warns on danger of USA militarism
An Australian General, Major General Richard Burr, has become a deputy commander of United States Army Pacific. He will be responsible for planning and advising on the further expansion of American armed forces throughout the Western Pacific.
Australia hostage to the politics of the US in the Asian Century, The Drum, MALCOLM FRASER, 27 Sept 12, This week Malcolm Fraser delivered a speech on Australia-US relations in the Asian Century. In this edited extract, the former prime minister says our Government has made us hostage to the politics of the United States. Australia has, under this Labor Government and with apparent consent of the Coalition, become the southern bastion of America’s re-arming in the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia. This is an extraordinary consequence of Australian Government ineptitude and of military planning, which might recognise America’s interest, but pays little account of our own.
It makes us complicit in any military activity that the Americans might undertake. Continue reading
Montebello atomic tests left a legacy of cancer
Pat Coverley, now 83, saw most of his shipmates die young, “of various cancers suspected to be linked to radiation”
The [Royal Commission] findings delivered a scathing indictment of the manner with which these tests were conducted
Despite the findings, Drewe says the British and Australian governments have ever since fobbed off allegations that servicemen were exposed to high levels of radiation, making it almost impossible to mount a successful compensation claim.
One man’s island SMH, September 22, 2012 ”……..Drewe’s arrival by dinghy to the still-contaminated island (visit limit: one hour) was the eerie culmination of a lifelong obsession with the Montebello Islands. “It amazes me how fewAustralians know about these nuclear tests Britain arrogantly conducted in our backyard,” he declares. Continue reading
Lynas rare earths company trying to overturn Western Australia law against importing radioactive wastes
Lynas left holding the baby, Aliran, 14 September 2012 If Lynas Corporation thinks that Western Australia will take its radioactive waste, it can think again, asserts Robin Chapple. Lynas has now submitted an application to the regulator, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), to import radioactive waste from Malaysia,” an Australian High Commission spokesman told The Malaysian Insider today.
This revelation beggars belief as just a few days ago a two-year temporary licence to operate was granted to Lynas, who intend to ship radioactive ores through Fremantle Port to export them to their plant in Malaysia, now seem to be asserting that they should be able to import the wastes of those ores back onto Australian soil.
Malaysia’s nuclear regulator Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) had said that the Australian miner was legally bound to remove radioactive waste from its Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) and return the residue to Australia under conditions of the temporary operating licence.
However, this news flies in the face of Australian government policy, and indeed Western Australian legislation, which asserts that Australia does not accept or import radioactive waste from other countries.
Robin Chapple MLC, Greens spokesperson for Mining Issues, commented on Lynas’ recent move: “It seems that again Lynas thinks it is outside the law as it is operating in Malaysia, and may be subject to less rigorous legal scrutiny. Well, it isn’t, and if it thinks that Western Australia will take this radioactive waste, it can think again.
“It didn’t consult with community on shipping its radioactive ores through Fremantle port, and it certainly hasn’t consulted on shipping back the radioactive waste. The WA Nuclear Waste Storage (Prohibition) Act 1999 prohibits it here. Period!
But really, you have to laugh. Lynas has now been tripped up by its own lack of willingness to take heed of Australia’s expectations with respect to sustainable mining and environmental, social and legal standards, and hasn’t it got it’s come-uppance. Talk about being left holding the baby!… http://aliran.com/10198.html
Australian Aboriginals reach out to Julian Assange
Sovereign Aboriginal nations consider sanctuary for Julian Assange, Green Left , September 14, 2012 The Indigenous Social Justice Association released the statement below on September 14.
Several sovereign Aboriginal nations are considering giving Julian Assange refuge and sanctuary in their nations.
It was argued that as Julian is an Australian citizen he should be allowed to seek sanctuary in one of the sovereign Aboriginal nations in the lands known as Australia.
Whilst the federal government is held in thrall to the dictates of the US, we are not and are therefore quite free to support Julian in every way we possibly can. Offering safe refuge is but one way. Why should Julian be forced to seek refuge in a South American country and not his own?
Despite the ongoing protestations of the foreign affairs minister, Bob Carr, in reality the federal government is doing very little to assist Julian being press-ganged to the United States via Sweden. That is why Julian sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy.
Our Welcome to Aboriginal Land Passport Ceremony will take place from 11am to 4pm at The Settlement, 17 Edward Street, Darlington on Saturday, September 15.
We are honoured to be able to present to Mamdouh Habib and John Shipton on behalf of his son, Julian Assange, the Aboriginal Nations Passport for travel through the Aboriginal nations…… http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/52227
Gloom in South Australia over uranium mining future
Kloppers’ bleak Olympic hopes by: Michael Owen, The Australian September 04, A BLEAK outlook has been presented by BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers for an expanded Olympic Dam mine ever operating in South Australia.
Mr Kloppers yesterday held talks with Premier Jay Weatherill in Adelaide to explain why the miner’s board last month indefinitely shelved the $28.7 billion project. He emerged from the hour-long meeting to say there was no timeframe for the project and no guarantee it would ever go ahead.
This came more than a week after The Weekend Australian revealed that Mr Kloppers had warned the expansion might never happen because the project was now dependent on the uncertain development of cheaper “leaching” technology to expand the mine’s future production. He had said that unlike “optimistic” scientists, the miner was “insufficiently certain that an eventual project will happen”. Mr Kloppers reiterated that message yesterday after meeting with the Premier. “We have been working and expending a lot of money on trying to make this project a reality,” Mr Kloppers said…… ”I can’t give you any timeframe on how these things could progress.”
Asked if he could give a guarantee the mine would be redeveloped, he said: “No, I cannot.”
Mr Weatherill tried to maintain a positive message, but conceded the current model planned for the expansion “does not work”.. they are not able to advance a time when the technology will be proven, nor are they able to give us certainty about whether the technology will be capable of being proven, and therefore they will not be in a position to give us certainty about when the mine proceeds.”…
Mr Weatherill said that after his meeting yesterday, any future expansion was even further away than he had previously thought……
The opposition said all of the government’s tough-talking about BHP meeting its December deadline to go-ahead with the expansion and the project’s benefits for the state, had proven to be “bluff and bluster”. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/kloppers-bleak-olympic-hopes/story-fn59niix-1226464289847
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of the week– Nuclear Reactor Information Task Force
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
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