Nuclear

Adelaide FoE meeting this Thursday at 6pm

roman October 27, 2020

David Noonan is our guest speaker at this meeting, talking about matters nuclear: the waste dump and Olympic dam mine.

BHP now faces a $6.3 billion (US dollars) law-suit in the UK on behalf of 200,000 Brazilian people. The case alleges the Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP was “woefully negligent” in the run-up to the 2015 dam failure that led to Brazil’s worst environmental disaster.

Mayors of two towns wiped out by the Samarco disaster assert that BHP has been using delaying tactics to avoid paying compensation to thousands of people affected by the flood of tailings waste.

There have long been calls from environmentalists and others for Australian mining companies to be required to apply Australian standards to their overseas mining operations. The logic is sound given the often inadequate practices of Australian mining companies overseas.

But the logic is also a little shaky given that mining standards in Australia leave much room for improvement. Olympic Dam is a case in point.

BHP orchestrated approval in 2019 for a massive new tailings dam at Olympic Dam ? Tailings Storage Facility 6 (TSF6). This tailings dam is to be built in the same risky ‘upstream’ design that featured in both the Samarco disaster and the January 2019 Vale Brumadinho tailings dam disaster that killed over 250 people – mainly mine workers ? in Brazil.
— “BHP betrays international safety efforts” by Dr Jim Green and David Noonan, in The Ecologist

Zoom details: FoE Adelaide meeting
Time: Thursday, Oct 29, 2020 6:00pm Adelaide
Part One: Guest Speaker David Noonan, talking about Nukes — Oct 29, 2020 6:00pm Adelaide time
<tea break> 6:40-6:50
Part Two: Oct 29, 2020 6:50pm More discussion with David,
followed by details of the Transforming SA document,
and a discussion of FoE Adelaide activities.

Come along! It’ll be good to see you.

Nuclear, Old_Notes

UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons signed by 50 states

roman October 27, 2020

ICAN Australia reported on Saturday, Oct 24th:

History was made today as the number of countries ratifying the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons reached 50. Honduras ratified the treaty overnight bringing the world a step closer to the abolition of nuclear weapons. Just a day ago, on United Nations Day, Jamaica and Nauru ratified the treaty.

This milestone means the treaty will become international law on January 22, 2021, increasing pressure on nuclear armed states and other countries to support the treaty. It now has 84 signatories and 50 states parties.

Entry-into-force will cement the illegality of nuclear weapons in international law. This change will influence the behaviour of states, even those which don’t join the treaty, interrupt the flow of funds to nuclear arms producers, stimulate debate and increase pressure on treaty hold-outs.

Why is entry-into-force important?

All countries that have ratified the treaty will be bound by it.

It establishes clearly that nuclear weapons are inhumane, unacceptable, and now illegal, and that no state should possess, use or threaten to use them.

It puts Australia out of step with international law on nuclear weapons.

A ban treaty can change the behaviour of countries that haven’t joined, as demonstrated by the bans on landmines and cluster munitions.

More financial institutions will divest from companies that produce nuclear weapons, in line with policies to exclude weapons banned by international law.

It creates pressure and momentum for more nuclear weapons abolition action.

Just days before the 50th ratification, the US tried to obstruct the treaty’s progress by urging states parties to withdraw. This brazen, and unsuccessful, attempt to undermine international law demonstrates significant desperation to prevent the ban taking effect.

Our next step is to ensure Australia joins this growing global movement by signing and ratifying the treaty.

Nuclear

Critical mass in Canberra puts nuclear dump in doubt

roman September 17, 2020

Kimba radioactive waste plans faces challenge in parliament following release of Senate inquiry report
Plans for a nuclear waste dump in the South Australian outback could still be derailed as opposition against laws clearing its path run into opposition from multiple political players. Michelle Etheridge, Regional Editor, The Advertiser, September 14, 2020
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/kimba-radioactive-waste-plans-faces-challenge-in-parliament-following-release-of-senate-inquiry-report/news-story/5f0c57845cb063a6eed2003673350f78
The Federal Government faces a challenge to pass its radioactive waste bill through Parliament, amid dissent from a Labor Senator, the Greens and Independent Senator Rex Patrick.

A Senate committee probe into the draft legislation paving way for a radioactive waste site at Napandee farm, near Kimba, has recommended it be passed. However, dissenting reports from Labor’s Jenny McAllister, Greens Senator Sarah-Hanson Young and Mr Patrick have raised a raft of concerns, including it preventing the community from seeking a judicial review of the site selection process.

Under the plans, the Government will store low-level waste at Napandee permanently, and intermediate level waste for several decades.

Senator McAllister said the traditional landowners, the Barngarla people, were worried the new legislation specifying the site would override their right to a judicial review that would normally apply if Resources Minister Keith Pitt declared the location. She said the Government had given “no compelling reason” for the change.

Senator Patrick said the bill emerged because “the Government botched its own site selection process to such a degree that it would almost certainly have seen a site selected through a ministerial decision overturned on judicial review”. The Government wanted the Senate to “fix up its mistake”, he said, but it could not do that “without serving up the majority of the stakeholders … with a plate of Government-cooked injustice”.

A Kimba Council-run ballot found 62 per cent of respondents supported the waste facility in their region. The Barngarla people lost a court battle to be included, later holding their own vote, which rejected the plans.

Legislation banning nuclear power in Australia should be retained

roman March 11, 2020

Jim Green, Online Opinion, 27 Feb 2020

Nuclear power in Australia is prohibited under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999. A review of the EPBC Act is underway and there is a strong push from the nuclear industry to remove the bans. However, federal and state laws banning nuclear power have served Australia well and should be retained.

Too cheap to meter or too expensive to matter? Laws banning nuclear power has saved Australia from the huge costs associated with failed and failing reactor projects in Europe and North America, such as the Westinghouse project in South Carolina that was abandoned after the expenditure of at least A$13.4 billion. The Westinghouse / South Carolina fiasco could so easily have been replicated in any of Australia’s states or territories if not for the legal bans.

There are many other examples of shocking nuclear costs and cost overruns, including:

* The cost of the two reactors under construction in the US state of Georgia has doubled and now stands at A$20.4 to 22.6 billion per reactor.

* The cost of the only reactor under construction in France has nearly quadrupled and now stands at A$20.0 billion. It is 10 years behind schedule.

* The cost of the only reactor under construction in Finland has nearly quadrupled and now stands at A$17.7 billion. It is 10 years behind schedule.

* The cost of the four reactors under construction in the United Arab Emirates has increased from A$7.5 billion per reactor to A$10-12 billion per reactor.

* In the UK, the estimated cost of the only two reactors under construction is A$25.9 billion per reactor. A decade ago, the estimated cost was almost seven times lower. The UK National Audit Office estimates that taxpayer subsidies for the project will amount to A$58 billion, despite earlier government promises that no taxpayer subsidies would be made available.… Read more >>

Adelaide FoE Notes, Climate, Nuclear

Radioactive Exposure Tour April 2020

roman March 11, 2020

For over 30 years Friends of the Earth has been running Rad Tours to SA so people can experience first-hand the social and environmental impacts of the nuclear industry.

South Australia has experienced British nuclear bomb tests, extensive uranium exploration and mining, and is currently being targeted by the federal government for a national nuclear waste dump. And some are still lobbying to turn SA into the world’s dump for high-level nuclear waste.

We will visit uranium mining and waste dump sites plus speak to communities affected by the industry. We will also visit some of the beautiful places in SA including the Flinders Ranges and Lake Eyre.

We prioritise places for people who are involved in anti-nuclear campaigning or who are interested in getting involved.

WHEN: April 10?18, 2020 (from Melbourne) or April 11?17 (from Adelaide)

COSTS: $650 regular, $900 solidarity, $450 concession.

CONTACT: Lavanya, radexposuretour@gmail.com, 0468 490 768

Please fill out this form if you’re interested in participating.

More info on the 2020 Radioactive Exposure Tour.

Info on previous Rad Tours

Adelaide FoE Notes, FoE, Nuclear