Nuclear

Friends of the Earth Adelaide > Nuclear

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

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. In doing so, our government would end the dangerous fallacy of “extended nuclear deterrence”. Far from protecting us, nuclear weapons threaten our very existence.

The Leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese MP, and Shadow Foreign Minister, Senator Penny Wong, issued a press release on Sunday 25th October, welcoming the 50th ratification and reaffirming Labor’s commitment to joining the treaty in government.

 

For more detail on the impact of entry-into-force on Australia, read our briefing paper.

To take action, click here.

Nuclear

Critical mass in Canberra puts nuclear dump in doubt

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.
Resources Minister Keith Pitt says the nuclear proposal will bring more than 40 jobs to the Kimba area. While many in the community have welcomed nuclear storage as a new industry, providing more than 40 jobs and a $31 million community funding package, others are staunchly opposed. They have cited worries including the impact on agricultural land, and double-handling of intermediate level waste.
Senator Hanson-Young’s report said most of the 105 submissions the committee received opposed the bill and the broader SA community deserved a say in the project.
Mr Pitt said the committee’s report put the Government “one step closer” to a storage site for nuclear waste – “a process which has been ongoing for four decades”.  “The individual dissenting report by Senator McAllister aside, I would like to acknowledge the largely bipartisan approach to the location and construction of this facility,” he said.
Conservation SA chief executive Craig Wilkins and Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Dave Sweeney said the Senate split over the issue reflected broader community division. “This is completely at odds with Federal Government rhetoric of only proceeding with facility if there is clear majority community support,” Mr Wilkins said.
Senator Hanson-Young said the Senate inquiry showed the draft legislation was “a highly flawed bill”. “There are deep concerns that this bill blatantly seeks to prevent any right to judicial review of this process and sets in stone Kimba as the dump site against strong community opposition,” she said.

Adelaide FoE Notes, Clean Futures, Nuclear

Legislation banning nuclear power in Australia should be retained

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.

Nuclear power has clearly priced itself out of the market and will certainly decline over the coming decades. Indeed the nuclear industry is in crisis — as industry insiders and lobbyists freely acknowledge. Westinghouse — the most experienced reactor builder in the world — filed for bankruptcy in 2017 as a result of catastrophic cost overruns on reactor projects. A growing number of countries are phasing out nuclear power, including Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Taiwan and South Korea. (more…)

Adelaide FoE Notes, Climate, Nuclear

Radioactive Exposure Tour April 2020

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

Dumplings not Dumps

November 25, 2019

Everyone likes dumplings, but no one likes dumps.

The Federal government is trying to impose a radioactive waste dump in South Australia, despite State legislation that makes them illegal, opposition from Traditional Owners and a truly flawed plan that’s done nothing but cost money and divide communities.

Please support the communities of the Flinders Ranges and Kimba by sending a submission to the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.

Get friends, family and co-workers together, eat dumplings and say NO to nuclear waste in SA and host a “Dumplings not Dumps” session.

Better yet, if you’re in Adeliade, bring your laptop and write yours on the night while having a dumpling dinner.
Where: The Joinery, 111 Franklin St, Adelaide
When: 6pm – 8pm
Date: Monday 25th November
Faceboook event

 

dumpling noun

dump·?ling | \ ?d?mp-li?

Definition of dumpling

1.

  1. a small mass of dough cooked by boiling or steaming
  2. a usually baked dessert of fruit wrapped in dough

2

: something soft and rounded like a dumpling

especially : a short fat person or animal

  

dump noun

\ ?d?mp  \ dumped; dumping; dumps

Definition of dump

1

  1. an accumulation of refuse and discarded materials
  2. a place where such materials are dumped

2

  1. a quantity of reserve materials accumulated at one place
  2. a place where such materials are stored ammunition dump
  3. a disorderly, slovenly, or objectionable place
  4. an instance of dumping data stored in a computer
  5. often vulgar : an act of defecation —usually used with take

Write a submission to the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science

  • Write submissions against the radioactive waste dump proposed for SA
  • All the info you need to write a submission is at www.foe.org.au/have_your_say
  • You can use this online proforma and either use the existing text or edit to suit or you can write your own submission
  • Submissions are due by 12th December 2019

Eat dumplings, have fun

Dumpling options: There are so many types to choose from – momos, wontons, ravioli, kreplach, pierogi, gnocchi, Jamaican patties, gyoza, knishes, empanadas, samosas and more.

  1. Cheat: Buy some from an asian grocery or supermarket and steam, boil or fry
  2. Really cheat: Go to a restaurant and have a “Dumplings not Dumps” session around the table
  3. Don’t cheat:  Make your own

Share

Take a photo and post with  #DumplingsNotDumps and email to mara.bonacci@foe.org.au

Nuclear, Old_Notes