Nuclear

Friends of the Earth Adelaide > Nuclear

Olympic Dam Alert: BHP propose a major new Evaporation Pond 6

October 29, 2019

from David Noonan:
Olympic Dam Alert: BHP propose a major new Evaporation Pond 6 for radioactive acid liquor wastes that will continue deaths of hundreds of birds each year

The federal government are inviting comments on BHP’s “Olympic Dam Evaporation Pond 6” EPBC Act Referral 2019/8526  (scroll down to Date of Notice 21/10/2019).

Public submissions are only open until cob Monday 4th Nov 2019, see info on how to do so at end of this e-mail.

Please consider making a brief submission, key Recommendations are provided below, along with a Background Briefing Paper and a feature press article “BHP vs Birds”.

For info see “Migratory Birds at Risk of Mortality if BHP Continues Use of Evaporation Ponds” a 3 page Briefing written by David Noonan for the ACF, Friends of the Earth and Conservation SA (30 June 2019)

see “BIRDS VS BHP: Evaporation ponds at BHP’s Olympic Dam mine are killing hundreds of birds” article in The Advertiser 10 July 2019

Hundreds of birds are dying each year after mistaking Olympic Dam’s evaporation ponds for wetlands. Environment campaigners want the miner to stop using them… 

A set of Key Recommendations on these issues to please make to the federal government: 

  1. The federal government must subject BHP’s Olympic Dam Evaporation Pond 6 Referral to a public environmental impact assessment process

The federal government must not just approve this major new Olympic Dam Evaporation Pond 6 on the basis of limited non-independent BHP referral documents. Federal responsibilities to protect Matters of National Environmental Significance require the rigor and transparency of a public environmental impact assessment process. BHP can-not be allowed to be the sole arbiter over continued and unnecessary deaths of hundreds of birds each year on Olympic Dam acid liquor evaporation ponds.

  1. BHP must stop the use of Evaporation Ponds in order to reduce mortality to protected Bird Species

The federal government should not approve or allow BHP’s proposed major new Evaporation Pond 6, which will contribute to the deaths of hundreds of birds at Olympic Dam.

The federal government should place Conditions to require that BHP: “must not construct Evaporation Ponds for the purpose of the expanded mine”; and to: “phase out the use of Evaporation ponds as soon as practical”.

This is consistent with the federal EPBC Act Assessment and Decision in Fauna Approval Conditions 18-21 (EPBC 2005/2270, Oct 2011) to protect Matters of National Environmental Significance in Listed Bird Species and the 21 Listed Migratory Bird Species found in the area, from mortality at Olympic Dam. These conditions must now be applied uniformly across the entire Olympic Dam operation.

The federal government must require BHP to prevent and limit impacts and mortality on Listed Bird Species protected under both the federal EPBC Act and the SA National Parks and Wildlife Act.

  1. BHP Olympic Dam operations should be assessed in its entirety with the full range of project impacts subject to public consultation

Given that copper-uranium mining at Olympic Dam is a controlled “nuclear action” and Matter of National Environmental Significance (NES) under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), the integrity of environmental protection requires that the entire Olympic Dam operation be subject to impact assessment so that regulatory conditions can be applied “to consider impacts on the whole environment”.

This is consistent with a key Recommendation by the federal Depart of Environment (“Olympic Dam expansion assessment report EPBC 2005/2270”, Sept 2011, 7. Existing operation, p.62):

“… it is recommended that conditions be applied to the existing operation so that the entire Olympic Dam operation (existing and expanded) is regulated by a single approval under the EPBC Act”.

At a minimum, BHP’s Oct 2019 Olympic Dam Evaporation Pond 6 referral must now trigger a public environmental impact assessment which includes assessment of impacts of the associated “BHP Olympic Dam EPBC Referral 2019/8465 Tailings Storage Facility 6” (to be larger in area than the CBD of Adelaide AND to be up to 30 metres high at the centre of the tailings pile, around the height of a 10 story building) – that BHP applied for in June 2019 and on which the federal Environment Minister is yet to make a decision.

BHP should not be allowed to ‘game’ the EPBC Act Referral system with multiple partial and limited referrals to try and avoid the scope of a warranted comprehensive public assessment of cumulative environmental impacts.

Submit your comments by cob Monday 4th Nov 2019:

Please send your comments on this BHP EPBC Olympic Dam Referral and quote the EPBC Act reference number2019/8526 and the full title of the referral:

“BHP BILLITON OLYMPIC DAM CORPORATION PTY LTD/Mining/Roxby Downs/South Australia/Olympic Dam Evaporation Pond 6”

To Email: epbc.comments@environment.gov.au

Referrals Gateway
Assessment & Governance Branch
Department of the Environment and Energy

If you require further information contact the federal government Referrals Gateway on 02 6274 2496 or email epbc.referrals@environment.gov.au

See info on ‘How to make a submission’ at:

http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/public-notices/assessment-help#referrals

And scroll down to: Invitations for public comment, Referrals.

Nuclear, Old_Notes

Make a submission about the National Radioactive Waste Dump in SA

October 29, 2019

Send a submission to the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (DIIS)

The Federal Government wants to put a National Radioactive Waste Facility in Kimba or the Flinders Ranges in South Australia.

The Department is calling for submissions and says these will be “one of the factors the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia may take into account when determining broad community support for the Facility.”

Please express your view by sending DIIS a submission.

If you live outside the ballot area, a submission is the only way to have your say! Here are some of the reasons why it is important that you do: 

  • There is strong opposition from Traditional Owners of the targeted sites. The Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation (BDAC) is pursuing legal action against the exclusion of Barngarla Traditional Owners from a proposed ballot to gauge community support in the Kimba region of SA. The Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission last year, alleging contractors damaged a precious cultural site while assessing land for the proposed nuclear dump, and also protesting the exclusion of Traditional Owners from the proposed ‘community ballot’.
  • This is Australia’s waste and a national issue. The burden of responsibility shouldn’t fall on small, regional and remote communities.
  • Communities along the transport route have not been consulted by the government at all, yet they will be affected
  • Flinders Ranges and Kimba communities have been divided by the flawed process and really need the support of people from all over the country.
  • Government seem to be making it up as they go along. Just recently the size of the site required was increased from 100 to 160 hectares. This is 4 years into the process. The government should have known what they are doing before they started.
  • Minister Canavan has recently stated that the amount of low level waste from Woomera destined to be permanently disposed of at the site is less than expected – only about 100 barrels. About 93% of the waste going to the site will be long-lived intermediate level waste produced and currently stored at ANSTO’s Lucas Heights reactor. The government plans to store this waste at the chosen site “temporarily” until a permanent disposal solution is found. Double handling is expensive, unnecessary and increases transport risks. There is no proven need to move it twice.  Why build this facility when 93% of the waste going there is only for temporary storage?

Please go to www.foe.org.au/have_your_say to find out what you can do!

Submissions can be made by:

Email: radioactivewaste@industry.gov.au

Post: The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science

National Radioactive Waste Section

GPO Box 2013, Canberra ACT 2601

Please write your own submission or use our online proforma here.

Sign up to No Dump Alliance

Please join the No Dump Alliance as a group or individual and encourage others to do the same. We need as many people as possible to join us in the fight for responsible radioactive waste management.

Donate

Click here to chip in to the campaign

No Dump Alliance

www.nodumpalliance.org.au

Nuclear, Old_Notes

Nuclear Power – No Solution to Climate Change

August 17, 2019

There has been a lot of discussion in all media recently about nuclear power for Australia but…
is this just a distraction from the real issues around the climate crisis?
Friends of the Earth Australia Statement

August 2019

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Renewables and storage technology can provide a far greater contribution to power supply and to climate change abatement compared to an equivalent investment in nuclear power. Peter Farley, a fellow of the Australian Institution of Engineers, wrote in January 2019: “As for nuclear the 2,200 MW Plant Vogtle [in the US] is costing US$25 billion, plus financing costs, insurance and long term waste storage. For the full cost of US$30 billion, we could build 7,000 MW of wind, 7,000 MW of tracking solar, 10,000 MW of rooftop solar, 5,000MW of pumped hydro and 5,000 MW of batteries. That is why nuclear is irrelevant in Australia.”

 

Support for nuclear power in Australia has nothing to do with energy policy – it is instead an aspect of the ‘culture wars’ driven by conservative ideologues (examples include current and former politicians Clive Palmer, Tony Abbott, Cory Bernardi, Barnaby Joyce, Mark Latham, Jim Molan, Craig Kelly, Eric Abetz, and David Leyonhjelm; and media shock-jocks such as Alan Jones, Andrew Bolt and Peta Credlin). With few exceptions, those promoting nuclear power in Australia also support coal, they oppose renewables, they attack environmentalists, they deny climate change science, and they have little knowledge of energy issues and options. The Minerals Council of Australia – which has close connections with the Coalition parties – is another prominent supporter of both coal and nuclear power.

In January 2019, the Climate Council, comprising Australia’s leading climate scientists and other policy experts, issued a policy statement concluding that nuclear power plants “are not appropriate for Australia – and probably never will be”. The statement continued: “Nuclear power stations are highly controversial, can’t be built under existing law in any Australian state or territory, are a more expensive source of power than renewable energy, and present significant challenges in terms of the storage and transport of nuclear waste, and use of water”.

Friends of the Earth Australia agrees with the Climate Council. Proposals to introduce nuclear power to Australia are misguided and should be rejected for the reasons discussed below (and others not discussed here, including the risk of catastrophic accidents).

Download the full statement as a PDF

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Adelaide FoE Notes, Clean Futures, Nuclear

NGOs Ask Australia to Suspend Lynas’ Rare Earth Export to its Malaysian Plant

August 17, 2019

MEDIA RELEASE | Friday 16 August 2019

AUSTRALIA | Yesterday, Australian rare earth producer Lynas Corporation has been granted conditional six-month licence extension by the Malaysian Government. However, environmental and human rights non-government organisations in Australia have joined their counterparts in Malaysia in expressing grave concerns at this decision.

Lynas owns and operates a rare earth mine in Western Australia and ships lanthanide concentrate from its Mount Weld mine to Malaysia to its controversial secondary processing plant to extract rare earth oxides and carbonates for its Japanese and Chinese customers. This process leaves behind an enormous amount of toxic waste laced with thorium, uranium, heavy metals and other chemicals.

Friends of the Earth Australia, AID/WATCH, together with Australian chapters of Malaysian BERSIH Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections and Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia Melbourne (SABMOZ) have responded to a petition that has gained momentum in Malaysia demanding that Australia suspends Lynas’ rare earth export to Malaysia because Lynas has no safe disposal facility for its radioactive waste.

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Adelaide FoE Notes, Mining, Nuclear