Sunday 22 February 2015

SA nuclear royal commission a farce

SA nuclear royal commission a farce




512 18



image courtesy Nuclear News Australia


The South Australian government’s royal commission into our nuclear future is a farce, and a dangerous farce, warns Noel Wauchope.



FIRST OF ALL, it is not the province of one State to determine by a
State royal commission that a nuclear industry should be introduced in
Australia. That is a protected issue as a 'A Matter of National Environmental Significance' under the National Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.




Secondly, this royal commission
would be a mammoth waste of money for South Australia, The cost would
run into hundreds of $millions. The Royal Commission into Institutional
Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was allocated over $434 million in
2013 for its first four years of operation. Given that nuclear issues
are the province of national law, not South Australian, this is a
totally unnecessary expense.




Thirdly, the 'public involvement' in
the terms of reference for this royal commission is a farce in itself.
Just look at how this was dealt with by the South Australian government:




8 February: 



The announcement was made. Despite the fact that this whole
initiative is clearly of national importance, it has received minimal
publicity outside Adelaide. The Adelaide Advertiser ran a poll. The Adelaide Advertiser is pretty
much regarded as the nuclear lobby's free propaganda vehicle. No
surprise if their readership turns up the required positive result.




9 February: 



Consultations began on the Terms of Reference for the royal
commission. Premier Jay Weatherill touted nuclear power for climate
change action, though he said it was not economically viable. The better
options, he said, were importing and storing radioactive waste, and
uranium enrichment.




Pro-nuclear former governor, Kevin Scarce, was appointed as “independent” head of the inquiry. No mention of what scientists, etc. might be on the panel.





Premier Weatherill’s pro-nuclear conversion sides him with Liberals,
and against Labor’s national platform. National Labor leader, Bill
shorten, opposes the royal commission proposal. But South Australian Labor Senators are defying Labor policy. Former Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, enthusiastically supports importing nuclear waste into Australia.








16 February:



(closing day for comments on the Terms of Reference for the royal commission) 



There is no need for a royal commission into the nuclear industry for
Australia. Nuclear proponent, Ziggy Switkowski, concluded in the 2006 Switkowski Report that the industry is not economically viable here. Nuclear reactors often far exceed their construction budgets. The last nuclear power plant built in Canada cost AUD$15.1 billion.




Mr. Switkowski predicted the capital cost at $4-6 billion for our first 1000MWe reactor.



However, we already know that, despite some pious statements by Jay
Weatherill about nuclear power’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, action on climate change is not the motivator for this new
inquiry.




According to a report by The Australian on 10 February 2015:



‘He [Premier Jay Weatherill] said he was open to the
prospect of remote parts of the state hosting a nuclear waste deposit
but played down the prospect of a power plant being built.




"I think that's the least likely outcome of the royal commission," he told ABC radio on Monday.



"I think what's most likely is that it will be regarded as not viable for either the state or the nation." '




In the same interview on ABC's The World Today, Weatherill's enthusiasm for storing the world's nuclear waste is clear: 



"The threat of climate change, the fact that we're already in the
nuclear industry but we don't get full benefits from it because we just
send ore overseas in an unprocessed form and we don't accept the
by-products, the waste associated with the ore that we send away.


So all of those things represent opportunities.”







The
big emphasis on importing radioactive waste is a joke — a very
dangerous joke, and becoming more so. With climate change, extreme
weather events are already happening more often and are more severe. It
is probable, though not proven, that the loss of the Malaysian aircraft
over the Indian Ocean was caused by extreme weather.




The long-term danger of transporting
highly radioactive waste from the U.S., Europe, or wherever, for the
short term benefit of a few greedy entrepreneurs in this country is a
risk that Australia does not need to take.




Admittedly, Australia is contractually bound to take back a
relatively small amount of high-level nuclear waste from Lucas Heights
that was formerly stored in France. Common sense would indicate that this nuclear reactor should be closed, and no further waste created.




The Lucas Heights waste could be stored close to that site.



In the current climate of extreme lack of trust between the
Australian public and its politicians, Jay Weatherill's about-face on
nuclear issues will not help Labor and I doubt that the public will have
any faith in this rather secretly and hastily organised Royal
Commission.




Some of us had time to put in a submission to the South Australian Government on the Terms Of Reference.



This is mine:



To the Attorney-General Department,



I request that you consider the following Terms of Reference to be
included for the Royal Commission into nuclear energy. The Royal
Commission will be undermined if it doesn’t include the following Terms
of Reference.




The environmental impacts of uranium mining in South
Australia. This would include especially the effects on South
Australia's water. South Australia is a water-scarce State, and nuclear
facilities require huge amounts of water — both for uranium mining and
nuclear power. Cooling water from nuclear power plants result in heat
pollution of water sources — rivers or sea areas nearby. 




Radioactive waste contaminates groundwater and would threaten Australia's precious Great Artesian Basin.



Foodstuffs from Australia are known to be clean and
radiation free. This status would be threatened by nuclear operations
and lose Australia's reputation for clean food exports. Nuclear
environmental damage also threatens our tourism industry.




Nuclear waste. The Royal Commission must look widely
at nuclear waste management in South Australia, including uranium
tailings. The Commission should examine proposals to host international
nuclear waste and status of the waste industry globally.




Safety. Though nuclear accidents are rare, their
consequences are catastrophic. Terrorism is a risk — nuclear facilities
and transport of radioactive materials are becoming an attractive target
for terrorist attacks. 




Climate change. Climate change is causing sea levels
to rise which, in turn, would threaten nuclear facilities near the
coast, such as at Port Adelaide. Risks of storm surges and even tsunamis
cannot be discounted. Climate change will increase droughts, adding to
the water shortage problems that already beset the nuclear industry.




Climate change brings extreme weather, with greater risk to
transport. The recent Malaysian airliner disappearance in the Indian
Ocean was almost certainly due to an unprecedented extreme weather
event. As we must expect more of these extreme events, this brings into
question the danger of transporting radioactive wastes over long
distances. 




Australia is contracted to take back a relatively small amount of
radioactive waste that originated from Lucas Heights. That is hazard
enough, without contemplating an international waste repository as an
import business. 




Legacy sites. South Australia’s contaminated nuclear
sites including Maralinga, the Port Pirie Uranium Treatment Complex,
and Radium Hill. There are unresolved concerns over the status of these
sites (in relation to public health and environmental impacts) and the
Royal Commission provides an opportunity to finally resolve these
issues.




Insurance, financial risk, public liabilities and subsidies. A comprehensive examination of the potential liability of the SA Government in the case of an incident or accident is needed.



Exploration of alternative energy sources to address the challenge of climate change, including the potential for growth in renewables and other low carbon technologies



Yours sincerely,







Noel Wauchope










You can follow Noel on Twitter @ChristinaMac1.



Also read Sandi Keane’s investigation
into the Howard government's ‘cradle to the grave’ fantasy of turning
Australia into the world’s nuclear waste dump (including plutonium from
the U.S. weapons industry.






Creative Commons Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia

Friday 6 February 2015

Abbott's chief biz adviser says climate science is driven by money & power. But wait 'til you see HIS track-record...

Abbott's chief biz adviser says climate science is driven by money & power. But wait 'til you see HIS track-record...



Abbott’s chief biz adviser says climate science is driven by money & power. But wait ’til you see HIS track-record…

Maurice Newman image and quote


Maurice Newman isn’t a climate scientist. He’s not a meteorologist either. In fact, he’s not a scientist at all. Of any sort. He’s a stockbroker and investment banker. He was Managing Director of the Deutsche Bank Group in Australia and Chairman of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).


He’s also Tony Abbott’s chief business adviser, and he said this in The Australian today:


The climate change movement is rooted in power, money and
emotion — not science… In fact, it’s the people behind this movement
who pose the greatest threat to humanity, not the climate.”

Pot calling the kettle black


Newman’s quote reminds me of this insightful meme:


Plot idea


Here’s why…


In addition to being a celebrated climate scientist,
stockbroker and investment banker, Newman is a lifetime member of a club
of rich climate-science deniers and mining magnates. The Mont Pelerin
Society. (Although he doesn’t publicise it, it’s public domain
information. He’s listed as a member on Mont Pelerin’s own website.)



Maurice Newman Mont Pelerin member register


So what is the Mont Pelerin Society? It’s a club of just over
500 economic libertarians. People who want a free market, unfettered by
pesky government regulations. Because, you know, big corporations will
always do the right thing if the government would just give them the
chance to prove themselves. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more.
<cough Enron cough sub-prime-mortgage-crisis-coverup>.



Oil billionaire and renowned climate-science denier, Charles Koch, is a member too. He’s a key financier (and member) of the Heartland Institute, which says carbon dioxide isn’t a pollutant, and climate change is good for us! Australia’s own Institute of Public Affairs is another member. They’re sponsored by big mining and other corporations with a direct stake in the climate change debate, and they’ve have been lobbying the government
for years to repeal the carbon tax, abolish the Department of Climate
Change and the Clean Energy Fund, repeal the renewable energy target and
withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol.



That tells you the sort of people he hangs out with.


Perhaps more importantly, though, the Mont Pelerin Society is one of more than 100 groups that together received $118 million in secret payments from anonymous conservative billionaires to try to discredit climate science. According to The Guardian investigation:


The funds, doled out between 2002 and 2010, helped build a
vast network of thinktanks and activist groups working to a single
purpose: to redefine climate change from neutral scientific fact to a
highly polarising “wedge issue” for hardcore conservatives.”

So… tell me again who’s motivated by power and money?


Given Newman’s resume, associations and (one would assume) wealth,
it’s deliciously ironic that he would accuse climate scientists of being
driven by power and money.



What’s not so delicious is the mainstream media’s determination to
turn a blind eye to his hypocrisy and agenda. Worse, their eagerness to
allow him to broadcast his misinformation in newspapers that millions of
Australians still view as credible.



Perhaps worst of all, the fact that Abbott and the Australian government are directly influenced by him.

Thursday 5 February 2015

Jan 2015: Bluegum Plantation Logging and Koalas



Published on 2 Feb 2015
Late
January 2015: Mother Koala and Baby in a bluegum plantation near
Bessiebelle in South West Victoria. The plantation is owned by
Australian Bluegum Plantations. The Contractors are C3 Australia. The
plantation is certified by Forest Stewardship Council. Hundreds of
koalas are reported to be living in plantations in the local area. How
many more will be injured or killed? See this report by Friends of the
Earth