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The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Australian government’s special laws for the benefit of uranium mining company

Olympic Dam mine is a dam designed to leak an average of three million litres of liquid radioactive waste a day from the tailings storage facility through decades of mining up to 2050.

The federal and SA governments agreed to surface dumping of the tailings rather than to require best practice disposal into the pit.

Our uranium fuelled Fukushima, David Noonan, The Guardian, 22 Feb 12, Australian uranium fuelled the Fukushima nuclear disaster yet our governments have just approved the world’s largest uranium project in BHP Billiton’s proposed new pen pit mine at Roxby Downs.  “We can confirm that Australian obligated nuclear material was at the Fukushima Daiichi site and in each of the reactors – maybe five out of six, or it could have been all of them; almost all of them”.

This frank smoking gun admission by Dr Floyd, the Director-General of the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office (ASNO) in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade came some seven months after the Fukushima crisis had started to unfold. It is quite likely this Australian uranium came from Roxby Downs in SA.

Denial runs deep in the nuclear industry Continue reading →

February 22, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, politics | Leave a comment

Energy efficiency program by Australian government

New Australian government energy efficiency programs opened  Eco Business, February 9th, 2012  By : Energy Matters The Gillard Government has just announced the opening of series of energy efficiency initiatives and assistance targeted towards business, local government, households and communities.

A joint statement from Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government Simon Crean; and Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Mark Dreyfus states these programs will make it easier for regional communities and smaller councils to access assistance and support in the transition to a low carbon future.

The programs include:

Community Energy Efficiency Program – $200 million

To assist local government, not-for-profit and community organisations to undertake energy efficiency upgrades to community infrastructure, including council buildings, stadiums, education facilities, town halls and nursing homes. Continue reading →

February 10, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, ENERGY | Leave a comment

Astroturf in Australia – fake citizen action by fossil fuel lobby

Faked “citizen action” was the brainchild of PR heavyweight Burson Marsteller, whose leaked email “Doubt is our Product” laid bare the ruse behind tobacco’s denial campaign during the tobacco wars.

The same ruse has been used for the last decade by the mining industry to create doubt about global warming….

 a cynical campaign run by ideological advocates Americans for Prosperity, funded by “free marketeer” mining billionaires — the Koch Brothers.

Deception is our product Independent Australia 9 Feb 2012,   Environment editor Sandi Keane exposes the shadowy world of PR, where astroturfing and propaganda is used to coerce the public into sacrificing their own interests for those of big corporations.

Deceiving the public these days is a lucrative industry. Experienced PR practitioners now coerce you through astroturfing and other socially engineered forms of brainwashing to sacrifice your interests for those of their clients – especially those with the biggest war chest – the fossil fuel industry…. Continue reading →

February 9, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, spinbuster | 1 Comment

Australia’s ailing uranium industry

In short, the deal with India is seen by some as little more than a short term means to prop up an industry breathing its last gasp……

[For uranium explorers] the 52 week highs and lows paints the same picture as we saw for the producers – market participants doubt the viability of exploring for a product whose demand may be in jeopardy.  

  Share market participants have spoken and they clearly doubt the future of nuclear energy.

URANIUM STOCKS HIT HARD BUT BULLS ARE BELLOWING, The Bull,    By Bob Kohut | 30.01.2012 As the dismal trading in 2011 global share markets ground down to its agonising year-end finish, some Australian investors were heartened by the news that our government was about to lift the ban on uranium sales to India.. Continue reading →

January 29, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, business and costs | 1 Comment

Conflict of interest? Just where does the climate denialists’ money come from?

Bid to out the money behind the voice against climate change, SMH Graham Readfearn January 27, 2012 – A British journalist’s court bid to unmask the financial backers of a group of climate change sceptics is being used to raise questions about how think-tanks are funded in Australia and whether they deserve tax exemptions.

The UK’s Charity Commission, which regulates charities in the UK, is being asked to release a document that would show the start-up funders of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, chaired by former UK chancellor Lord Nigel Lawson.

Launched in November 2009, the foundation has consistently challenged the mainstream scientific view that human emissions of greenhouse gases represent a significant risk to the planet and societies.

Later today, freelance journalist Brendan Montague will appeal to the UK’s Information Rights Tribunal for the release of a bank statement provided to the Charity Commission by Lord Lawson, which Mr Montague believes will identify the source of a $50,000 seed donation.

The case has raised the issue of how think-tanks engaged in public policy debates are funded and whether potential conflicts of interest should be declared. None are required by law to publicly disclose their funders. Continue reading →

January 27, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, climate change, secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK | Leave a comment

“The stars are aligning for rooftop solar energy”

Solar guru receives Australia Day honour , 26 January 2012, Anna Salleh ABC Science,  http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/01/26/3415244.htm  Australia needs to look to Germany if it is to realise the potential of solar cell technology, says an expert who is being honoured today. Professor Martin Green of the University of New South Wales has been made a Member of the Order of Australia(AM) for his work on photovoltaics.

“Germany has been the only country that’s had a sensible long-term program in place to promote the use of renewables,” says Green.

Some argue solar cells are not a competitive option for reducing carbon emissions, and are limited by the fact that they don’t generate energy unless the Sun is shining.

But according to Green, the “stars are aligning for conventional roof mounted solar” and it is ripe for a new kick start from governments.  Continue reading →

January 27, 2012 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, Reference, renewable | Leave a comment

Australian Senator taking up the cause for Julian Assange’s human rights

Senator on mission for Assange Andrew Drummond The Age, December 26, 2011 SWEDISH officials have met an Australian senator to discuss the future of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. As extradition proceedings against the 40-year-old Australian continue in London, West Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam has embarked on a European mission to secure guarantees about Assange’s human rights, should he be extradited to Sweden.

Swedish prosecutors want Assange in Stockholm for questioning over allegations that he sexually assaulted two women in the capital in August 2010. Assange denies the claims and is refusing to return to Sweden, fearing that the country will hand him over to the United States, where his secret-leaking website is the subject of an investigation. During the time he spent in Sweden, Senator Ludlam met justice officials and discussed the process faced by people being
extradited to Sweden…..Assange still wore an electronic tracking device and had to report daily to police as part of his bail conditions.
From February 1, Assange will face a panel of seven British Supreme Court judges for a two-day hearing during which he will appeal against the rulings of lower courts that he should be extradited to Stockholm. Senator Ludlam plans to take the information he has gathered in
Stockholm to the Australian Parliament and seek cross-party support to do ”everything possible to prevent this extradition”.  http://www.theage.com.au/national/senator-on-mission-for-assange-20111225-1p9ko.html#ixzz1hgmWKON5

December 26, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, civil liberties | Leave a comment

Disappearance of secret files on Australia’s nuclear weapons plans

Treasures of Australia’s past lost from the National Archives by:Herald Sun Patrick Lion  From:The Daily Telegraph  December 13, 2011  HUNDREDS of rare files – including secret plans for nuclear weapons and personal files of prime ministers – have gone missing from the library responsible for preserving Australia’s history.

Over the past two decades the National Archives has lost at least 748 historic items, some dating back more than 150 years, from its official collection of documents, government files, letters, recordings and photographs.

Among the missing files on nuclear weapons and uranium from the middle of last century is a 1956 report, The Clandestine Introduction Of Nuclear Weapons In Australia…… http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/treasures-of-australias-past-lost-rare-items-missing-from-the-national-archives/story-fn7x8me2-1226220439496

December 14, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Australia wrong to sell uranium to India, says former conservative Prime Minister

A reason India wants access to nuclear trade including uranium is precisely to further its nuclear proliferation. Senior Indian military leaders have publicly said so…..

India reserves the right to classify future reactors as civilian or military. It was not required in return to commit to significant positive measures – indeed, it has made no nuclear disarmament commitments, it has not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Why Gillard’s uranium-to-India policy is dangerously wrong, SMH Malcolm Fraser, December 12, 2011 Canberra’s abject submission to US pressure is shameful. ON SELLING uranium to India, Julia Gillard is wrong, dead wrong. Ramming the policy change through a deeply divided ALP national conference last weekend was not smart politics, but a failure of leadership.

The unequivocal longer-term consequences of this policy backflip are aggravating India’s nuclear arms race with Pakistan and eroding the already failing brakes on proliferation of nuclear weapons. A nuclear war between India and Pakistan is not some theoretical possibility, but a real and growing danger. …. Continue reading →

December 12, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, India, politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Australia’s hypocrisy on uranium exporting and nuclear disarmament

Australia has a relatively ‘strict’ policy of requiring Australian consent to separate and stockpile plutonium produced from Australian uranium. In practice we have failed when put to the test and permission to separate plutonium has never once been refused.
 if uranium sales to India proceed, it will be the first time since the Cold War that we have sold uranium to a country which is engaged in a nuclear arms race.
How low can we go? Plans are in train to sell uranium to the United Arab Emirates, probably followed by other undemocratic state in the Middle East
Australia’s bargain basement Boxing Day special on uranium Online Opinion By Jim Green – , 9 December 2011 How low can Australia go with uranium export policy? Can we match the bargain-basement Boxing Day specials? You bet we can. We now have uranium export agreements with all of the ‘declared’ nuclear weapons
states – the U.S., U.K., China, France, Russia – although not one of them takes seriously its obligation under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to pursue disarmament in good faith.
That weakness, among others, is now being used to justify disregarding the NPT altogether with sales to India. Selling uranium to countries in breach of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament norms violates Australian government
policy and binding Labor platform policy. That’s pretty low. Continue reading →

December 9, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Australian Labor Party trashes Nuclear Non Proliferation in rush to make uranium money out of India

Indeed, proponents of the platform change [to sell uranium to India] generally made no acknowledgment that India was the first and only state in the world to acquire nuclear weapons as a result of international cooperation on the basis of it being for peaceful purposes – nor her belligerent testing in the mid-1990s; her rather public nuclear arms race with Pakistan; her failure to fully comply with international safeguards and monitoring initiatives; her problems with the US despite a comparable bilateral agreement in place concerning technology and expertise. Nor the rather significant point that none of the cited measures are enforceable under international law – they are considerably difficult to monitor, verify and enforce.

Australian Labor Party  downplay arms control considerations, Crikey.com, December 5, 2011 , by NAJ Taylor On Sunday, the Australian Labor Party voted 206 to 185 in favour of changing one part of the party’s longstanding and non-negotiable platform on uranium exports: that recipient states must be members of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).

The express intention of the change in policy platform is to lift the ban on uranium sales to India, who are among those three states globally that remain outside – and have no intention of joining – the NPT. With the opposition Coalition having been in support of such a move for some time, the vote is expected to have immediate policy ramifications.

Of little consequence now, the Greens do have a well-known policy position on uranium that clearly states: “The Australian Greens will […] prohibit the exploration for, and mining and export of, uranium”.

Misrepresenting India’s record – it is a grave error to cite India’s nuclear weapons record – which is sub-optimal, not “exemplary”, as is often recycled – as evidence in support of a policy change that is predominately driven by political, commercial and diplomatic pressures. Continue reading →

December 5, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Australia breaking international law if selling uranium to India

PLANS to sell uranium to India could hit a legal snag because of an anti-nuclear treaty Australia helped create.  Herald Sun, 29 Nov 11Australian National University treaty law expert Don Rothwell says the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone treaty, known as the Rarotonga treaty, stops Australia trading the nuclear material with India.

Prof Rothwell, who questioned the legality of the Malaysian solution before it was rejected by the High Court, has provided advice to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

“If India does not agree to Article III.1 Non-Proliferation Treaty safeguards and Australia were to export uranium to India, Australia would be in violation of its Treaty of Rarotonga obligations,” the legal advice says.

This could lead to a challenge from other countries that are part of the treaty.

 

Prime Minister Julia Gillard wants the ALP to agree to change its platform to allow sales of uranium to India, which she has said would create jobs in Australia and would still have safeguards attached.

A vote will be put to members at the party’s national conference this weekend.

The Coalition already has a policy to allow uranium sales to India.

Tim Wright, the Australian director of ICAN, said the Prime Minister had failed to consult her lawyers. “Not only is the sale of uranium to India illegal, it is also highly dangerous given that India is rapidly bolstering its nuclear forces,” Mr Wright said….http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/rarotonga-treaty-may-prevent-sale-of-uranium-to-india/story-fn7x8me2-1226208772517

November 29, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, Legal | Leave a comment

Australian uranium companies further down the drain

Oz Minerals pulls out of Toro uranium JV,9 News, 19 Nov 11 OZ Minerals has pulled out of a uranium exploration joint venture with Toro Energy in South Australia, saying no economic uranium has yet been found at the Mt Woods project.
The Toro board has accepted a $3.75 million cash offer from OZ Minerals as consideration for the termination, Toro said in astatement on Friday. ”No potentially economic uranium results have been reported from the Mt Woods project,” Toro said…. Shares in Toro were down 3.41 per cent at 8.5 cents at 1540 AEDT while OZ Mineral shares were 1.89 per cent weaker, compared to losses in the broader market of about 1.8 per cent.
http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newsbusiness/aap/8376270/oz-minerals-pulls-out-of-toro-uranium-jv

Malawi’s uranium earnings decrease, Daily Times,  17 November 2011   Kingsley Jassi               “….. As the country continues to reel foreign exchange losses incurred through poor tobacco prices and loss of donor aid, more bad news has emerged from the Kayelekera Uranium Mine in Karonga where earnings have gone down due to low uranium prices on the world market.Paladin Energy reveals in its latest report that revenue from sales of Kayerekera uranium in the third quarter of the year 2011 up to September have dropped US$337 million in the quarter, a drop from USD470 realised in the quarter ending June.   The company attributes the poor prices to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan that destroyed nuclear power plant consequently, reducing uranium demand on the market….
http://www.bnltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2415:malawis-uranium-earnings-decrease&catid=59:business&Itemid=390

November 19, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, Uranium | Leave a comment

Australians kept in the dark on USA new military base in Darwin

We need more details of US build-up: Brown, SMH, 17 Nov 11,  Australian Greens leader Bob Brown fears nuclear submarines could be stationed off the coast of Australia as part of a US military build-up in the Top End……

The expansion of the existing collaboration between the Australian Defence Force and the US Marine Corps and US Air Force will allow America to enhance its presence in the Asia-Pacific region

Senator Brown wants to see more details of the deal, announced jointly by Prime Minister Julia Gillard and US President Barack Obama on Wednesday. He also wants a parliamentary debate on the deal. ”I object to Australian people and parliament not knowing what the details are,” Senator Brown told ABC radio on Thursday. Continue reading →

November 17, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, politics international, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Obama sets uranium policy for Australia as he flips by

Gillard uranium move linked to US: report, Business Spectator, 16 Nov 2011  Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s move to open the door to uranium exports to India reportedly follows talks with the Obama administration. The US has been pursuing a closer partnership with India and considers Australia a key part of its strategy, The Australian reported on Wednesday.

Ms Gillard has denied that the decision was made to coincide with President Barack Obama’s visit to Australia and said it was her decision alone.The Australian, however, reported that US and Australian officials have been in intense strategic discussions about India for several months. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Gillard-uranium-move-linked-to-US-report-NMLD2?OpenDocument&src=hp3

India can thank Uncle Sam for Julia Gillard’s uranium backflip, First Post India, 16 Nov 11 Uttara Choudhury   New York: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s dramatic decision to open the door to uranium exports to India came after talks with the Obama administration, which viewed the ban as a “fly in the ointment” to greater engagement between Washington, New Delhi and Australia in the Indian Ocean region…….

Gillard announced on Tuesday that she will ask the Australian Labour Party to dump its ban on uranium sales to India, at its national conference next month. The ban was imposed by former prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2008 as India wasn’t a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Gillard has denied her decision to seek to overturn the ban is in order to fall in line with the US. She bristled when questioned on the timing of the announcement which coincided with Obama’s state visit to Australia. Gillard said the decision was hers alone…..

She did, however, point to the US-India civil nuclear agreement of 2008, which lifted the “de facto international ban” on the sale of uranium to India….. While Beijing has learned to live with American forces on its eastern periphery, the possibility of an intimate US-India military relationship, as well as India’s position astride China’s key maritime shipping lanes, has generated fears of encirclement…

November 16, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, politics international, Uranium, USA | Leave a comment

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