AUSTRALIA
Election mania grips the media. Not a mention of nuclear/uranium issues. But Gem Romuld of International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons- has come up with a nifty little table, to show you where the major parties stand on these issues. I will attach it to this email.
As far as I could tell, the Australian media did not see fit to commemorate Hiroshima Day. However, there were many events around Australia, where people came together for this. – such as Melbourne’s Hiroshima Day Vigil, Sydney’s Sunday March and Rally. There will be more, as Nagasaki is remembered, too - August 10 - Melbourne - Hiroshima and Nagasaki Memorial Concert 2013, and August 9 – Sydney Nagasaki Day Film screening.
The media is a real worry in Australia. They have HAD to report on the crisis now at Fukushima, as there seems no workable solution to the escalating problem of radioactive water leaking. I predict that the nuclear lobby’s next push will be a renewed attack on radiation as a health hazard. They’ll need this, as radioactive water pours into the ocean, from Fukushima, and enters the marine food chain. We will be told yet again that “low dose radiation” is OK. Ionising radiation is a complex topic, and now that the Australian mainstream press have pretty well sacked all their science writers – just who is going to give the facts to the public?
Renewable energy. Even though the brakes are on, in the very real fear of an Abbott government destroying Australia’s clean energy laws, still, things are happening.
- A large scale solar photovoltaic plant to go ahead in New South Wales.
- Work started on the Ararat (Victoria) wind farm, today.
- The Zero Carbon Australia Buildings Plan was launched today – a foresighted plan for energy efficiency.
- The Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems at the Australia National University reports that Australia could be 100% powered by renewable energy by 2040.
Uranium price has sunk to an unsustainable level – media takes this as proof that it will have a booming future – a kind of religious belief?
INTERNATIONAL
Fukushima is even in the mainstream in the news, as Prime Minister Abe acknowledges the radioactive water crisis there. Japan’s new nuclear regulator is not pulling punches, stating that it is an emergency situation. Radioactive water has been leaking out for 2 years, with the amount reaching 300 tonnes a day. Water accumulating below the nuclear reactors is causing the ground to sink. There’s a very real risk of the buildings collapsing. This would be especially dire in the case of reactor no 4, which has an elevated pool of radioactive spent fuel rods.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Days being recognised around the world, with calls for a Nuclear Weapons Convention – a process to ban nuclear weapons, as similar processes have closed down chemical and biological weapons, and land mines. An international poll conducted in 26 countries found that 78 percent of people support a treaty that would outlaw and eliminate nuclear weapons. Similarly, 151 of 195 UN member nations have a stated policy supporting a ban on nuclear weapons.
- USA. The Pentagon’s plan for AirSea Battle entails a pre-emptve attack on China. This new posture is quietly being adopted without public awareness.
- The decline in nuclear power is gathering pace. EDF, the world’s largest nuclear company announced that it now abandons nuclear power projects in USA, and will focus on renewable energy.
- Global warming is taking its toll on nuclear reactors, with Entergy’s Cape Cod Bay’s Pilgrim nuclear plant forced to cut back due to excess heat.
- The Attorneys General of New York and Vermont have joined the fight against California’s San Onofre nuclear power plant in an effort to stop federal regulators from erasing all record of a judicial ruling that the public has a right to intervene before major amendments are granted to an operating license. An important battle – it means upholding the Supreme Court’s power, rather than having the Nuclear Regulatory Commission overriding it.
South Korea’s nuclear industry is in somewhat of a turmoil, with continuing revelations of corruption, falsification of safety documents.
UK. The supposedly anti nuclear Liberal Democrats are on the verge of selling out, to join the Tories in a pro nuclear policy, as both parties try to organise a subsidy for new nuclear, but one that doesn’t look like a subsidy.
- Christina Macpherson