Nuclear

Protect SA’s clean green quality food and wine reputation!

robyn November 23, 2015

The SA government is asking for input on how to grow SA’s reputation for quality food and wine.

Let them know that two good ways are to keep the ban on a nuclear waste dump, extend the moratorium on GM crops permanently and ban GM trial crops.

Call or make an online comment – details below.

Tell us how you think we can grow South Australia’s reputation as the nation’s food and wine state.

The third GOVchat provides you with an opportunity to let us know what your ideas are on enhancing South Australia’s reputation as the nation’s food and wine state.

This GOVchat provides you with direct access to these decision makers:

Hon. Leon Bignell, Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries
Hon. Geoff Brock, Minister for Regional Development
Chief Executives
Executive Directors
Our Premium Food and Wine Ambassadors including Paul Henry, Simon Bryant, Rosa Matto, Gareth Lewis and Mark Laucke.

Seeking your ideas

On 25 November 2015, between 5:30pm and 7:30pm we want to hear from you!

Call 1800 216 506 to share your ideas – call up at a time that suits you within the two hour window.

If you can’t call us on the night, you can add your ideas to the online discussion.

Food, Nuclear, Old_Notes

anti-nuclear, Food

NATIONAL NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP IN SA: TROJAN HORSE FOR AN INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP?

robyn November 21, 2015

MEDIA RELEASE

Friday 13^th November 2015

NATIONAL NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP IN SA:

TROJAN HORSE FOR AN INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP?

The Federal Government has released the shortlist of six sites for the location of a national radioactive waste dump. Three of these sites are in South Australia.

Friends of the Earth Adelaide is cautious about the Federal Governments genuine commitment to a voluntary site nomination and selection process.

“The test will be how the government handles community opposition, how inclusive and transparent the site selection process will be, and how it will handle the issue of existing South Australian legislation banning the establishment of a nuclear waste dump,” said Nectaria Calan of Friends of the Earth Adelaide.

The National Radioactive Waste Management Act 2012, the Act governing the site selection process, over-rides existing state legislation prohibiting the establishment of a nuclear waste dump.

“Will the Federal Government impose a nuclear waste dump on states that have legislated against it, or communities that do not want it?” asked Ms Calan.

“The location of a waste dump cannot simply be decided through individual nominations,” said Ms Calan. “It affects the wider community, particularly those in close proximity to the site. Radioactive contamination knows no property boundaries. The principle of voluntarism extends beyond the individual where an action has wider ramifications,” continued Ms Calan.

“There is yet to be an independent inquiry into all our radioactive waste management options, so the nominations process is premature,” said Ms Calan.

Additionally, here in South Australia the Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle is considering the feasibility of an international nuclear waste dump.

“Will a national nuclear waste repository in SA be the trojan horse for an international high level nuclear waste dump down the track?” asked Ms Calan.

“Rather than considering existing nuclear waste in Australia as an intractable problem, the SA government and some proponents of the nuclear industry seem to consider radioactive waste a business opportunity and want to import it, astounding given that so far globally there has been no success in establishing even one facility for the long term storage of high level waste.”

“ The one deep underground repository for intermediate level waste that does exist, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, saw an incident in February last year where a waste barrel exploded, leading to an aboveground release of airborne radiation, after only 15 years in operation,” said Ms Calan. “According to the US Department of Energy, twenty-two workers tested positive to low-level radiation exposure.”

Friends of the Earth Adelaide has serious concerns regarding the regulatory framework that may be applied to a nuclear waste dump in South Australia, whether national or international.

“BHP Billiton, operator of the Olympic dam mine, is exempt from key regulating legislation in SA, including the Freedom of Information Act, and parts of the Radiation Protection and Control Act and the Environmental Protection Act. With such a precedent here in SA for the regulation of the nuclear industry, where is the guarantee that other nuclear projects such as a nuclear waste dump would not also be exempt from laws regulating radiation, environmental protection, and transparency?” asked Ms. Calan.

For comment contact:

Nectaria Calan

Friends of the Earth Adelaide

Clean Futures, FoE, Media releases, Nuclear

anti-nuclear, BHP Billiton; Olympic Dam, clean futures collective, friends of the earth

“Don’t Nuke the Climate” bloc at the People’s Climate Rally Nov 29th

robyn November 10, 2015

On November 29th, will you help create the biggest climate march the world has ever seen?

As world leaders gather in Paris to discuss a global agreement on climate change, we will be part of an international movement- on Sunday November 29th.

Starting from the Torrens Parade Ground, we will march for a transition to renewable energy, secure job creation, and a fairer, more resilient economy, for clean air, a healthy environment, and for a safe climate in the People’s Jobs Justice Climate March.

In a vibrant, musical, and visually creative show of people power and the diversity of our movement, the march will take us down King William Street through the centre of Adelaide.

We will march in sector blocks, each making up a part of the collective, while demonstrating its unique qualities through banners, placards, costumes etc.

At Victoria Square/Tarndanyangga the march will blend into a festival, where there will be music, food, speeches, and stalls.

Join the anti-nuclear “Don’t Nuke the Climate” block and march behind our SA: RENEWABLE NOT RADIOACTIVE banner. Meet 10:30am Torrens Parade Ground on the day.

Contact Robyn Wood for more info robyn.wood@foe.org.au 0423 219 096

Actions, Clean Futures, Climate, Nuclear, Old_Notes

Adelaide, anti-nuclear, clean futures collective, climate change, community, friends of the earth, Sustainability

Media Release: THE APPEARANCE OF BIAS – NOT A GOOD LOOK

robyn November 6, 2015

MEDIA RELEASE

Thursday 5^th November, 2015

THE ROYAL COMMISSION INTO THE NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE:

THE APPEARANCE OF BIAS – NOT A GOOD LOOK

Today the Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle will be hearing oral evidence from London based insurance company Nuclear Risk Insurers, on the subject of insuring against a nuclear accident. On 1st October 2015, Dr Timothy Stone, member of the Royal Commission’s Executive Advisory Committee, was appointed director of this company.

“How critically will evidence given by this company be treated, when a member of the Executive Advisory Committee is also one of its directors?” asked Nectaria Calan of Friends of the Earth Adelaide.

On Friday 30^th October GE Hitachi gave oral evidence to the Royal Commission on their new PRISM reactor design. GE Hitachi is a global nuclear alliance between General Electric (US) and Hitachi (Japan). Hitachi is the parent company of Horizon Nuclear Power, a UK energy company developing new nuclear power stations, of which Dr Stone is also a director.

“Dr Stone’s connections with these companies highlights the broader issue here, which is his direct involvement in the nuclear industry, regardless of whether companies he’s employed by are giving evidence. He also owns Alpha-n Infrastructure, an elusive company with a partially built website which promotes nuclear power. This interest has not been disclosed by the Royal Commission on its website,” said Ms Calan.

Dr Stone is not the only Royal Commission member directly involved in the nuclear industry. Julian Kelly, its Technical Research Team Leader, is currently the Chief Technology Officer of Thor Energy, a Norwegian company focusing on the use of Thorium in nuclear reactors.

“If you’re directly involved in the very industry the Royal Commission is considering expanding, you potentially stand to gain something if a recommendation is made that this industry expand. At the very least there is an appearance of bias here that will undermine the credibility of the Royal Commissions findings,” said Ms Calan.

Details on today’s public session can be found here:

http://nuclearrc.sa.gov.au/app/uploads/2015/10/151105-Topic-12-Day-1.pdf

For comment contact:

Nectaria Calan

Friends of the Earth Adelaide

Clean Futures, Media releases, Nuclear, Old_Notes

anti-nuclear, clean futures collective

‘Containment’ film about nuclear waste storage 19 November

robyn November 3, 2015

Containment film maker and Harvard Professor Robb Moss will present at the screening and be involved in a Q & A after the screening. Please spread the word and come along to this one-off and timely film screening.

Where: Uni SA – City West HH408

Cost: $5 un-waged / $10 waged

Reserve your tickets online at conservationsa.org.au and pay cash at the door.

About Containment:

Can we contain some of the deadliest, most long-lasting substances ever produced? Left over from the Cold War are a hundred million gallons of radioactive sludge, covering vast radioactive lands. Governments around the world, desperate to protect future generations, have begun imagining society 10,000 years from now in order to create monuments that will speak across the time.

Part observational essay filmed in weapons plants, Fukushima and deep underground ? and part graphic novel ? Containment weaves between an uneasy present and an imaginative, troubled far future, exploring the idea that over millennia, nothing stays put.

Facebook event page

FoE, Nuclear, Old_Notes