This week in nuclear and climate news - by Christina Macpheson

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AUSTRALIA

Radioactive wastes.  The Australian government is still licking its wounds from the debacle of their attempt to impose a waste dump on Aboriginal land at Muckaty  - (the shame, with all their resources,  of being beaten by a few elderly and poor black women).  However, that hasn't stopped them from calling for volunteers in Aboriginal communities to accept a (presumably bigger) bribe to host the dump.

Meanwhile, saner voices in Australia are calling for an independent National Commission to assess radioactive waste management based on good science, good process and acceptance that social and human concerns are valid and need to be addressed alongside technical criteria.

Uranium. Queensland government mouths stuff about protecting the Great barrier Reef, but in fact, is quite prepared to export uranium through Townsville, if need be.

Climate Change.  Even a top  former coal executive is getting worried about us having a government driven by anti science and climate denialism

Renewable Energy. The battle rages as renewables become ever more effective and cheaper. Big coal power - AGL, Energy Australia and Origin Energy lobby their tiny minds off trying to get rid of the Renewable Energy Target.  In the  ACT there's a movement against the  proposed 7MW solar farm to be built at Uriarra - to my mind, it's suspiciously like the supposed "community anti-wind" movement . Just wondering how much backing there from the fossil fuel industries.   Not surprising- as this new solar farm will be, in the fashionable jargon - a national game-changer in electricity technology

Solar power. I just can't resist publicising the nifty solar thing that has been going on in Port Augusta, S. Australia for 3 years. Now Council has approved an expansion of Sundrop Farms, which uses cutting-edge solar thermal technology to desalinate seawater for irrigation and to heat and cool greenhouses. The Sundrop Farms System allows land normally not deemed suitable for agriculture or horticulture to produce large quantities of food.

POLITICS.  Nuclear and Climate issues are so serious that they are above politics. I try to keep this in mind. However, it would be hypocrisy to pretend that these issues are not political in Australia. Our children and grand-children's future depends on the management of these issues.  We are in desperate need of getting good government - we don't have that now.

  FIND YOUR MARCH  - Sunday August 31 – for  a better government         https://www.facebook.com/MarchinAugust/posts/294477777390782

Here are just  a few of the 46 towns and cities where people will be marching in protest at the policies of the Abbott government

 

INTERNATIONAL

Nuclear targets. With international heightened tension over Ukraine, Iraq, Gaza, Syria - the dangers of nuclear war and nuclear terrorism increase, which is why attention should be going to the risks posed by all nuclear facilities - as targets for terrorism, whether it be by missiles, bombs, computer malaware, external or internal sabotage. http://nuclear-news.net/

I note that a Belgian nuclear reactor has just been shut down until next year, due to sabotage. In UK 3 French made nuclear reactors have been shut down, due to design flaws, raising questions on the safety of France's own EDF -made nuclear reactors.

Japan: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Mayors made their moving Peace Statements on the anniversaries of the atomic bombings. For  a variety of reasons, the nuclear power restart is just not happening.

Fukushima: New research is revealing the harmful consequences to plants and animals, of the Chernobyl and Fukushima radiation.  Dissolved radioactive particles have bound to organic matter, meaning that they could be long-lived in the environment, and in the food chain.  The release of radioactive water from the crippled reactors remains uncontrollable. Meanwhile, it is found that Japan is still exporting some "hot " cars.

USA. In the month when we recall Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a respected nuclear weapons expert spoke out against nuclear weapons proliferation, and was promptly sacked. So much for freedom of speech in the nuclear culture.

UK.  Scotland's referendum (18 September) -on independence  will decide whether or not the Trident missile system base stays in Scotland. Moving it would add somewhat to its multi-billion pound cost, but is affordable, and would remove a dangerous target from Scotland.

Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) - a new report shows them to be a financial boondoggle - costing even more than large reactors.

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