Nuclear

Friends of the Earth Adelaide > Nuclear

Arabana Mound Springs stories v. BHP

November 28, 2025

Arabana Traditional Owners, elders and rangers, and environmentalist David Noonan got strong ABC media coverage about BHP’s water extraction for its Olympic Dam copper–uranium mine. Long term water extraction has had severe impacts on the unique and fragile Mound Springs of the Great Artesian Basin (GAB).

1. The second of two ABC stories, ‘Call to protect the Springs now’, was broadcast on ABC SA Ch.2 TV News on Monday 24th Nov 2025 and is available on IVIEW. See Intro “Under pressure, how fresh water extraction is taking a toll on an ancient underground reserve” at 30 sec in, and story “Water concerns” at 4 minutes 55 sec in:

https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NU2506S328S00

(ABC IVIEW may ask you to free sign in.)

See also related article on ABC News website, Calls to end water extraction from Great Artesian Basin before culturally significant springs are lost – ABC News, published Monday 24th Nov.

2. The first of two ABC stories with Arabana Elders and Rangers on Mound Springs of GAB was broadcast on ABC SA TV News on Sunday 23rd November 2025. It is also available on IVIEW. Coverage starts about 11 min 25 secs in, and runs 4.5 mins:

https://iview.abc.net.au/show/abc-news-sa/series/0/video/NU2506S327S00

See also related article on ABC News website Water is under pressure in the Great Artesian Basin – ABC News, published Sunday 23rd Nov.

3. You can read a more detailed article by David Noonan published in Friends of the Earth Australia’s national magazine Chain Reaction, #149, April 2025, p.36-37:

The SA government and BHP need to protect the Great Artesian Basin Mound Springs

 

Adelaide FoE Notes, Nuclear

Nuke Submarine ‘community consultation’

November 23, 2025

Australian Naval Infrastructure (ANI) is conducting a ‘community consultation’ about its plan to lodge a site licence application for the ‘Nuclear-Powered Submarine Construction Yard Project’. An application has to be lodged with the new Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Regulator before it can prepare a site for a Naval Nuclear Propulsion facility.

We wonder why they are in such a hurry to apply for a site licence when the Strategic Impact Assessment (SIA – Commonwealth process) and the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS – State government process) haven’t even been finalised. FoE Adelaide made submissions to both these processes (click to read our SIA submission & our EIS submission) in March 2025, but no public submissions and no follow-up report have been published. We also made a submission on the new nuclear powered submarine Regulations, which came into effect on 1 November 2025 without any response to the public comments received.

Click here (251123FoEAdelaideSubmission) to read our submission to ANI’s site licence ‘community consultation’.

And let us never forget that acquiring nuclear powered submarines is a bad idea in the first place.

Adelaide FoE Notes, FoE, Nuclear

AUKUS nuclear waste targets SA

November 10, 2025

David Noonan via Beyond Nuclear <beyond-nuclear@googlegroups.com> wrote:

see ‘AUKUS nuclear waste targets SA’ a new 2-page Briefer, please distribute and consider getting involved.

with Calls on all SA politicians (Federal & State) and candidates for the SA State Election on 21st March to declare their positions on storage of AUKUS nuclear waste in SA, and a Call for full disclosure on the Federal Gov’s ongoing nuclear waste storage siting review ‘process’.

please consider taking up this initiative in your own way and raising awareness toward the SA Election, so we can have an informed debate on the Calls:

Q: Will you accept or reject Federal imposed storage of AUKUS nuclear waste in SA?

Q: Will you respect and support Indigenous Peoples Human Rights to Say No to Federal siting of AUKUS nuclear waste storage on their country in SA?

Q: Will you rule out untenable ‘decommissioning’ of nuclear subs and nuclear reactors at Osborne Port Adelaide, or else-where in SA?

“The people and environment of South Australia must be protected from Federal imposed storage of AUKUS High-Level nuclear waste”

Brief by David Noonan Independent Environment Campaigner 

— https://nuclear.foe.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Noonan-AUKUS-nuclear-wastes-target-SA-Briefer-9-Nov-2025.pdf

Adelaide FoE Notes, Nuclear

No Consent for Missiles – Rally Friday 10 October, at noon

October 7, 2025

You are invited to stand in solidarity with Aunty Sue at the “No Consent for Missiles” rally, this Friday 10 October at 12noon,
beginning at the Australian Space Agency, Lot 14 (corner of North Terrace and Frome Road, Adelaide, Kaurna Land).
The rally will then march to Parliament House.
 
STATEMENT OF NO CONSENT
Aunty Sue has addressed a Statement of No Consent to Southern Launch and every company that works with them—including the Australian Defence Force, Australian Space Agency, Thales, Varda, HyImpulse, Reaction Dynamics, German Aerospace Centre, AtSpace, and Perigee.
She has made it clear: there is NO CONSENT for the ongoing militarisation of Googatha Country.
In July, this statement was delivered in person to the head offices of these companies around the world.
Each company is now unambiguously aware: they are not welcome on the so-called “Koonibba Test Range.”
No more rockets.
No more missiles.
No more radioactive capsules.
This is sacred Googatha Country. It is not a military zone.
Please attend if you can—and share this message widely.

In solidarity,
Port Adelaide Community Opposing AUKUS (PACOA)

Actions, Adelaide FoE Notes, Nuclear

FoE representatives critique AUKUS at Parliamentary hearing

October 7, 2025

On Thursday October 2, representatives of FoE Adelaide (Philip White) and FoE Australia (Jim Green) appeared at a public hearing into the agreement between Australia and the UK on nuclear powered submarines. The hearing was held by the Australian Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Treaties.

We were joined by David Sweeney of the Australian Conservation Foundation and Tim-Deere Jones, who wrote a report for FoE Australia on the UK nuclear submarine program. He tuned in from Wales — it was the middle of the night for him.

We pointed out some home truths about the nuclear powered submarines that the government proposes to acquire from the US and the UK. For example, nuclear-powered submarines entail serious safety and nuclear proliferation risks, the nuclear waste problem has not been solved, and these submarines will make Australians less safe, not more safe as proclaimed by the government. These are problems that will come back to bite us all eventually.

We demanded that the government conduct a broad-ranging public review into the whole AUKUS nuclear submarine project.

The full hearing can be viewed on the following link:

https://www.aph.gov.au/News_and_Events/Watch_Read_Listen/ParlView/video/3948797

Our session was up first, but some of the sessions which followed are well worth listening to as well.

Written submissions can be downloaded by clicking the ‘Submissions’ link on the following page:

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Treaties/AUKUSNuclearSubmarine

FoE Adelaide’s submission is submission number 6 and FoE Australia’s submission is number 5 (with Tim Deere-Jones’ report as an attachment).

Adelaide FoE Notes, Nuclear, Weapons proliferation