The week that has been in nuclear and climate news by Christina Macpherson

Sorry - links not supplied here. They are at websites www.nuclear-news.net and www.antinuclear.net

 

My website http://www.nuclear -news was shut down for 24 hours – very cleverly hacked, by I don’t know whom. Could it be that this modest little website is annoying the nuclear industry? I feel quite honoured.

AUSTRALIA

National  Nuclear power Nowhere to put Lucas Heights nuclear waste – but they still keep making it!  Australian government funding research in China into dodgy thorium nuclear reactors

Tony Abbott ignores the chance to benefit Australia by using the low 10-year bond rates

Climate change: The Global Catholic Climate Movement launched in Australia Quakers remove funds from 4 major banks – cannot fund uranium, nuclear weapons, coal.    Despite overwhelming evidence, Australia’s government in denial about climate change .  Liberal Party kids at Uni dutifully toe the Party line on fossil fuels

Uranium  price rally was short-lived     Lowest production for 16 years.  Cameco admits that sagging uranium prices continue to be a problem. Investors are wary, as Australian miner Paladin sells uranium at way below cost of producing it

Aboriginal issues For the convenience of uranium mining, Aborigines are moved off remote homelands

Australia on USA nuclear bandwagon, to sell uranium to India, but technical problems remain

Renewable energy. Billions of dollars and associated jobs in the renewable energy sector are being lost due to Abbott government .  Australian government snubs International Renewable Energy Agency congress.  Australia: globally top potential for renewable energy, bottom chance in market

Still Australia has achieved quite  a lot in 2014, despite the Abbott government’s war against renewables. Rooftop solar is becoming cost competitive with fossil fuel powered electricity. Clean Energy Finance Corporation is provingvery successful in its 40 direct investments and 25 projects co-financed .  International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) reports that Australia’s solar PV highly competitive 

Queensland. Labor promises to promote solar energy, if elected.  Queensland Deputy Premier Jeff Seeneydismissed climate change as “a semi-religious belief”.  McKinlay Shire plans solar panels for business and Council buildings

Victorian health report supports wind farms

NSW. Gunnedah Shire Council takes the solar power plunge

Western Australian Government’s plan to extinguish native title & land rights in one hit

Tasmanian  government moves to  restrict citizen’s power to criticise corporations

 

INTERNATIONAL

Climate change adds to nuclear danger, bringing Doomsday Clock closer to midnight.

Nuclear fusion - far too costly, even if they could get it to work

Marshall Islands’ case against nuclear powers unfolds at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

India:Details remain vague on nuclear deal between Obama and Narendra Modi . USA persuades India to weaken its nuclear liability law – double standards here . Nuclear risks now covered by India’s government  and Weapons proliferation standards weakened .

 USA: Efforts to reform its dysfunctional nuclear weapons complex are just not good enough.  Conflicts of intereston Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise.   USA’s nuclear utilities want ratepayers to cough up for uneconomic nuclear power plants.  Florida lawmaker wants repeal of laws allowing  nuclear power companies to get “advance money” from customers.

Cyber warfare now the goal of USA’s National Security Agency (NSA) New Edward Snowden Files Reveal Scope of NSA Plans for Cyberwarfare

Americans embracing rooftop solar : it makes sense economically

UK:    £3bn to be spent on massive Trident nuclear weapons project, without  Parliament being consulted .     tax-payer landed with the astronomic costs of Sellafield nuclear facility. Government secrecy about China’s involvement in the new £24bn Hinkley nuclear power plant.  British tax-payers to buy into the French-led new Hinkley Pointnuclear power plant consortium

In Scotland, renewable energy beats nuclear power

Iran: US Republicans out to destroy nuclear talks. Rouhani’s and Obama’s difficult path to a compromise

France: freedom of speech threatened by AREVA

Japan: Nuclear watchdog approves release into sea of groundwater near Fukushima reactors. Fukushima radioactive water clean-up is 2 months behind schedule .  Fatal accidents cause TEPCO to suspend decommissioning at Fukushima No. 1 power plant. Japanese government for now gives up its plan to begin transporting radioactive wastes tointerim storage sites

Canada’s record breaking wind energy results

Time to Wake Up: Citizens United Crushed the Debate on Climate Change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxfa8PWFhz0