What Remains: Nuclear Legacies of the Montebello Islands

September 7, 2025

ICAN is hosting a Zoom discussion on this Tuesday, September 09, 2025 • 6:30pm – 7:30pm Adelaide

In the 1950s, the Montebello Islands off the Pilbara coast in Western Australia were the site of three British nuclear tests. The first, in 1952, detonated inside a warship anchored off Trimouille Island, followed in 1956 by two larger blasts as part of Operation Mosaic.

In July 2025, a group of artists, writers, researchers, and nuclear survivors travelled to the Montebello Islands to explore the lasting impacts of British nuclear testing there. They will come together in a conversational panel to reflect on what they witnessed and experienced, and discuss what they will carry forward from their time on the islands.

Featuring:

  • Jesse Boylan – Artist and ICAN Media and Comms Adviser (Convener).
  • Maxine Goodwin – ICAN Ambassador and nuclear veteran descendant.
  • Dr Liz Tynan – Writer and Academic. Tynan is author of The Secret of Emu Field: Britain’s Forgotten Atomic Tests in Australia & Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story. Her new book on the history of the Montebello Islands nuclear tests is due out in 2026.
  • Merilyn Fairskye – Visual artist living in Sydney. Her work explores the relationships between technology, atomic landscapes and community and have taken her on location to the Polygon in Kazakhstan, Sellafield, Chernobyl, and other key nuclear sites.
  • Paul Grace, Writer and nuclear veteran descendant. Author of Operation Hurricane: The story of Britain’s first atomic test and the legacy that remains.
  • Gary Blinco – Nuclear veteran descendant.
  • Tobias Holden – Student

The discussion is open to all. Please register at the link below.

       

Sponsored by

register via ICAN Australia

Adelaide FoE Notes, Nuclear

AUKUS – End it now

September 7, 2025

On the 4th Anniversary of Scott Morrison’s infamous, autocratic commitment of Australia to AUKUS without any public or parliamentary discussion…
IPAN, the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network, are holding a seminar with Guest Speaker Jim Green on AUKUS and Nuclear Waste, and reports from Anti-AUKUS activities around Australia.

That’s 6:30 to 8pm, Monday September 15th, Adelaide time for the talk and discussion on building the movement to cancel AUKUS and the Force Posture Agreement.

 

 

REGISTER via QR code (left) or
https://events.humanitix.com/aukus-end-it-now

Adelaide FoE Notes, Nuclear, Weapons proliferation, Zoom talks

Say No to Nuclear Financing – World Bank and ADB

September 1, 2025

Until now the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have not provided finance for nuclear energy projects.
 
However, on June 10 the World Bank’s Board decided to lift its ban on financing nuclear projects. The ADB is currently reviewing its energy policy, and indications suggest it may also move to allow support for nuclear power.
 
This international petition, which is endorsed by a large number of organisations including Friends of the Earth Australia and the Australian Conservation Foundation, is now open for individual signatures.
 
 
Please sign on.

Adelaide FoE Notes, FoE, Nuclear

AUKUS Submarine Regulations: FoE Adelaide submission

July 24, 2025

Friends of the Earth Adelaide today (24 July 2025) sent a submission in response to the government’s call for public comments on draft Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Regulations. These Regulations were drafted under the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Act, which was passed in October last year. Our submission can be accessed here.
 
The consultation is open until 30 July 2025. Details can be found on the following web site:
 
 
FoE Adelaide’s submission can be summarised as follows:
 
— AUKUS should be cancelled. It compromises Australia’s sovereignty and is not in our strategic, economic, or environmental interests.
— If it is not cancelled, there should be a proper consultation about the Stirling and Osborne designated zones, which were declared in the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Act without consultation.
— The principles of “free, prior and informed consent” should be followed in siting any site for storage and disposal of radioactive waste.
— That includes respecting laws of State and Territory governments that restrict or prohibit siting of nuclear waste facilities.
— The Regulator must be completely independent of the Defence portfolio. In the current proposal it will be answerable to the Minister for Defence.
— All submissions should be published in full, unless the submitter specifically requests otherwise. Government representatives informed us on 17 July at a public forum in Port Adelaide that they only intend to publish a summary put together by bureaucrats.
 
Philip White

Adelaide FoE Notes, FoE, Nuclear

Issues on nuclear waste storage

July 15, 2025

Recommendations by David Noonan comprise public interest disclosures that are required by Defence for an informed, transparent and accountable process on AUKUS Regulations 2025.

1. Civil Society faces federal imposition of untenable AUKUS N-sub nuclear waste storage.
Defence must respect affected Australian communities and Indigenous People’s ‘Right to Know’ the nuclear risks they face in imposed AUKUS nuclear waste storage facilities:

1.1 Defence must declare its intention to over-ride the SA Nuclear Waste Storage (Prohibition) Act 2000 to impose AUKUS N-sub reactor nuclear waste storage at Osborne, Port Adelaide.

1.2 Defence must publicly disclose which Australian regions and Indigenous Peoples are currently under consideration for imposed siting and compulsory land acquisition for an AUKUS High-Level nuclear waste storage, and which – if any – existing Defence lands are included in the regional short list that is currently being prepared across SA, the NT and WA.

1.3 Defence must become accountable over the future and fate of the Woomera Area, understood in national media to be a ‘favoured location’ for storage and disposal of AUKUS Nsub nuclear waste (“Woomera looms as national nuclear waste dump site including for AUKUS submarine high-level waste afr.com AFR 11 August 2023).

1.4 Defence must declare its reserved right to override the SA Nuclear Waste Storage (Prohibition) Act 2000 through powers in the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Act 2024 Section.135 “Operation of State and Territory laws” to impose an AUKUS nuclear waste dump on outback lands and unwilling community in SA, by decree through these AUKUS Regulations.

2. Indigenous People have a UN recognised Human Right to Say No to nuclear wastes. Defence should respect the clear views of Indigenous Labor Senator Patrick Dodson and act to make the AUKUS Regulations consistent with the Recommendations of a Federal Inquiry Report (Nov 2023) into the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, stating:

“the Commonwealth Government ensure its approach to developing legislation and policy on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people be consistent with the Articles outlined in the UNDRIP”.

2.1 Defence must provide a clear disclosure as to whether or not they will commit to respect and comply with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Article 29 provision of Indigenous Peoples Rights to “Free, Prior and Informed Consent”, as a Right to Say No, over storage or disposal of hazardous materials on their lands – in this case AUKUS High-Level & Intermediate Level nuclear waste storage.

3. The undemocratic AUKUS Regulations “Section 105 (3) State and Territory laws that do not apply in relation to a regulated activity” that is intended to take up powers to impose Nsub nuclear reactor wastes which are currently illegal in SA, in the NT, and in WA, must be withdrawn by the AUKUS Minister Richard Marles MP and by Defence.

David Noonan’s full submission:

Noonan-AUKUS-N-sub-regulations-to-override-SA-laws-July-2025

FoE

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