http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/23/2827837.htm?site=alicesprings

Australia’s first nuclear waste dump is likely to be sited in the Northern Territory.

Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson has revealed Muckaty Station, about 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, as the location the Federal Government will pursue for a national radioactive waste repository.

“We will proceed firstly with the only voluntary site that we have, and that goes to the Ngapa land with respect to the Muckaty Station,” he told 105.7 ABC Darwin.

Mr Ferguson said several sites preferred by the Howard government would no longer be pursued.

“We have knocked out the three sites which were not volunteered by the community but were determined by politicians in Canberra,” he said.

This is “despite the fact that scientifically they actually stack up”.

Should environmental and scientific assessments fail at the Muckaty site, Mr Ferguson said the nuclear waste dump could be located elsewhere in Australia.

“I also have the capacity, if I assess that that is not a proper site, to then open up to a national voluntary site nomination process.”

Mr Ferguson said the Government would this week repeal Howard government legislation that would have enabled it to force the waste dump on the Northern Territory.

He said radioactive waste stored at the site would not be linked to Australia’s uranium exports, but to isotopes used in medical treatments.

He said the Muckaty site had been nominated by the Northern Land Council, however he acknowledged that some traditional owners were not in agreement.

“Clearly there are some differences in terms of the Muckaty Land Trust.”

He said before the site could be approved as a waste dump, the Northern Land Council would “have to prove that it’s been done in accordance with the law of the Northern Territory”.

He said a final decision on the dump site would still take a long time.

“If the science stacks up, and if it meets environmental approvals - but thirdly and more importantly, it obtains the necessary approval from the Ngapa people, through the Northern Land Council - then it will potentially be the appropriate site.”

Natalie Wasley from the Beyond Nuclear Initiative says the decision is extremely disappointing.

“There is an agreement that was made between the Northern Land Council, the Federal Government and some traditional owners of the land trust,” she said.

“This agreement has never been made public and there’s been a number of documents submitted by other traditional owners calling for the contract and the agreement to be made public so they can see what’s actually been agreed upon for their country.

“It’s a very contested nomination.”

A woman representing some traditional owners of the Muckaty Land Trust says she wants the Federal Resources Minister to visit her country before making decisions about a nuclear waste facility.

Dianne Stokes represents the area’s Miyilwayi traditional owners and says any past agreement with the Ngapa people is not valid.

“I want to get the traditional owners together, talk about it and maybe have a ceremony to show Martin Ferguson who we are, because he didn’t come when we asked him,” she said.

“We’ve written him a letter to come.

“He never came towards us, he never came and faced us, he never came and talked to us.

“None of the people, not even the NLC, came and talked to the traditional owners.”

–
Beyond Nuclear Initiative
www.beyondnuclearinitiative.wordpress.com
08 8952 2011
0429 900 774

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Shillong, Oct 14 – The influential Khasi Students Union (KSU) has announced a two-night road blockade in Meghalaya beginning Wednesday to protest a proposed uranium mining project in the state.

The road blockade would affect vehicular movement, specially night passenger buses and goods laden trucks, on the national highways between Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.

The blockade will be on from 7 p.m. till 5 a.m. Wednesday, and then again for the same duration Thursday.

‘The KSU at a meeting Tuesday decided to intensify its stir… to protest the Meghalaya government’s decision to lease out land to the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL),’ said KSU president Samuel B. Jyrwa.

‘The KSU believes the uranium project would harm the environment and health of people living adjoining areas,’ Jyrwa said.

The state government has tightened security across the Khasi and Jaintia Hills of southeastern Meghalaya.

‘We are concerned that the proposed road blockades may affect other northeastern states too,’ Meghalaya principal secretary (home) Barkos Warjri told reporters here.

Police heads of the four districts — East Khasi Hills, West KhasiHills, Jaintia Hills and Ri-Bhoi — have been asked to see that the traffic flow along the national and other highways are not disturbed due to the night blockade.

Chief Minister D.D. Lapang told reporters: ‘The uranium reserves are a national property and no one can stop the government from using them.’

‘The government has waited for 20 long years to persuade the people to allow uranium mining at Domiasiat in West Khasi Hills district of southern Meghalaya.’

The KSU and local parties have been spearheading the movement against the Meghalaya government’s decision to allow the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) to carry out pre-project development programmes in 422 square hectares in the uranium-rich
areas of West Khasi Hills.

A senior Meghalaya government official said the union ministry of environment and forests had already allowed UCIL to start uranium mining for the annual production of 375,000 tonnes of uranium ore and processing of 1,500 tonnes of the mineral ore per day in West Khasi Hills district.

The UCIL has proposed a Rs.1,046 crore open-cast uranium mining and processing plant at Domiasiat in the West Khasi Hills district. Meghalaya has an estimated 9.22 million tones of uranium ore deposits.

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“The people of the Northern Territory elected the Labor Party. We were led to believe that the nuclear waste
thing would be all overturned and overruled, and at this moment we are extremely disappointed”.
Marlene Bennett, Muckaty Traditional Owner

In 2007 the new Rudd Government promised to end a decade of division on radioactive waste management.

Labor pledged to:
1- Repeal the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act
2- Implement an open, transparent and inclusive process
3- Remove the threat of imposed radioactive waste dumps.
 
This position was warmly welcomed by the Northern Territory government,
Traditional Owners, environment, health and human rights groups and trade unions.
 
So far it has not been acted upon.

Traditional Owners continue to live with the threat of a nuclear dump and the gap
between federal Labor’s promise and performance is growing.
 
It’s time to close the gap. It’s time to honour the promise.
It’s time for an open and responsible approach to radioactive waste management in Australia.

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Let’s give PG back his voice on nuclear issues!

Our demands:

-          Meet with Traditional Owners in NT and fund their travels to meeting from bush communities

-          Repeal the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act

-          Scrap all 4 waste dump sites under assessment

-          Initiate independent public inquiry on waste management 

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Ziggy Switkowski, renowned for his  advocacy for uranium mining and nuclear power, is coming to the University of Western Australia this Monday 4.30pm: let him know we don’t want him here!

Dr Ziggy Switkowski presents: “Energy options in a warming world”.

He will be there advocating uranium mining and nuclear power to businessmen.

We will be there with Ziggy the White Elephant, banners and dissent.

UWA is actively supporting Ziggy Switkowski to come to Perth to speak about how great nuclear power and uranium mining are, specifically speaking to businessmen about the economics of the industry rather than health & safety issues and real facts on the immense amount of resources needed for uranium mines (e.g. 33 million litres of water per day at Roxby Downs uranium mine alone) and the long-term environmental impacts.

First with a speech at the Parmelia Hilton on Monday morning, and then at 4.30pm at UWA itself. Come to one or both actions - 8.30am at Parmelia Hilton for a silent protest and 4.30pm at UWA outside Banquet Hall, The University Club, Hackett Drive, Crawley (Parking: Enter off Hackett Drive, Hackett Entrance 1 Car Park 3).

Dr Ziggy Switkowski is the Chair of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization. He is also a non-executive director of Suncorp, Tabcorp and Healthscope, and Chair of Opera Australia. He is a former chief executive of Telstra, Optus and Kodak (Australia). In 2006 he chaired the Prime Minister’s Review of Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy which returned nuclear power to the country’s strategic debate. He has a PhD in nuclear physics from the University of Melbourne and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engine.

If you are UWA Alumni please RSVP and go inside the event! RSVP details:
Yvette Vittorio
Administrative Officer - Special Projects
Office of Development & Alumni Relations (www.development.uwa.edu.au)
P: +61 8 6488 4774, or F: +61 8 6488 1063, or E: yvette.vittorio@uwa.edu.au

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On May 1, BHP Billiton released the Environmental Impact Statement for its planned expansion of the Olympic Dam (Roxby Downs) uranium/copper mine in SA. A May Day protest was held to voice many members of the publics opposition to the mine and its expansion.

At 2.00pm a mock BHP executive launched the EIS complete with details of everything the company plans to get away with:

· The mine operates under the SA Roxby Downs Indenture Act which exempts it from key environmental and Aboriginal heritage laws that apply everywhere else in SA.

· BHP Billiton plans to make Roxby the largest open-cut mine in the world. Export of uranium is expected to increase from an average of 4,000 tonnes per year to 19,000 tonnes. Enough plutonium to build 2,850 nuclear weapons each year.

· BHP Billiton proposes an increase in water consumption from 35 million litres daily (from the Great Artesian Basin) to 150 million litres daily (up to 42 million litres from the Great Artesian Basin, the remainder from a proposed desalination plant at Port Bonython). The total amounts to over 100,000 litres of water every minute of every day.

· The production of radioactive tailings, stored above ground, will increase seven-fold to 70 million tonnes annually. The tailings contain a toxic, acidic soup of radionuclides and heavy metals.

· Electricity demand for the mine will increase from 120 megawatts to 690 megawatts - equivalent to 42% of South Australia’s current total electricity consumption.

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A big thanks to those who came along to the fantastic public meetings in Sydney and Wollongong last week: hearing from Northern Territory Traditional Owners speak out against the proposed nuclear waste dump at Muckaty.  The public meetings and protest of the World Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference on Wednesday morning were fantastic!

You can check out information, campaign materials, films and more at: http://beyondnuclearinitiative.wordpress.com/

Below are two speeches from a public meeting at the Illawarra Aboriginal Cultural Centre on Dharwal country (Wollongong) on April 22, 2009.

A couple of weeks prior to the meeting, a shipment of spent fuel rods from the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor had been transported in the dead of night through Wollongong to be taken out of Port Kembla in New South Wales.

Dianne Stokes, Mark Lane and Mark Chungaloo (Traditional Owners of the proposed federal radioactive waste dump site at Muckaty in the Northern Territory ) were keen to meet with other communities affected by the Lucas Heights facility- if an NT dump is built then these fuel rods are eventually mooted to be dumped on their land.

Fred Moore-lifetime union activist

Garry Keane- MUA Illawarra Branch Secretary

Some of the news coverage of the protest:

Garrett urged to speak up on nuclear issues

ABC Online
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/22/2549572.htm?section=justin

Politicians, Aboriginal leaders and environment groups have joined forces to protest against an international conference on the nuclear industry, currently meeting in Sydney.

The coalition is also calling for an end to the Northern Territory radioactive waste dump proposal.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlum says the Labor Party has had a year and a half in Government, but still has not dealt with radioactive waste management issues.

He is calling on the Environment Minister Peter Garrett to consult on the issue.

“It’s been an incredible disappointment to me that Peter Garett as Environment Minister has completely gone missing on this issue, and the Prime Minister has given the running of radioactive waste on uranium mining issues to Martin Ferguson, the Industry Minister,” he said.

“We’re not hearing from the Environment Minister and that’s why the Greens and the community groups who are represented here today are stepping up to do his job for him.”

Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation says sustainable energy rather than nuclear power is the way forward.

“There are jobs, dollars, export growth and the ability for this country to be a platform for a sustainable energy future,” he said.

“Now we can be that, or we can cling to the coast and let our country become a quarry and the increasing pressure for material that goes out as ore to come back as waste to be perpetually stored here.

“That’s not a future we want to see.”

Rowdy protesters target nuclear meeting

© 2009 AAP

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Protest at BHP Billiton office
Grenfell St, Adelaide
Friday, May 1, 2pm onwards

On May 1, BHP Billiton will release the Environmental Impact Statement for its planned expansion of the Olympic Dam (Roxby Downs) uranium/copper mine in SA. Come along to this May Day protest to voice your opposition.
At 2.00pm a mock BHP executive will launch the EIS complete with details of everything the company plans to get away with:
·    The mine operates under the SA Roxby Downs Indenture Act which exempts it from key environmental and Aboriginal heritage laws that apply everywhere else in SA.
 
·    BHP Billiton plans to make Roxby the largest open-cut mine in the world. Export of uranium is expected to increase from an average of 4,000 tonnes per year to 19,000 tonnes. Enough plutonium to build 2,850 nuclear weapons each year.
 
·    BHP Billiton proposes an increase in water consumption from 35 million litres daily (from the Great Artesian Basin) to 150 million litres daily (up to 42 million litres from the Great Artesian Basin, the remainder from a proposed desalination plant at Port Bonython). The total amounts to over 100,000 litres of water every minute of every day.
 
·   The production of radioactive tailings, stored above ground, will increase seven-fold to 70 million tonnes annually. The tailings contain a toxic, acidic soup of radionuclides and heavy metals.
 
·    Electricity demand for the mine will increase from 120 megawatts to 690 megawatts - equivalent to 42% of South Australia’s current total electricity consumption.
Let your voice be heard, and lets make sure BHP is held accountable to the same laws as everyone else.
This is a combined  FoE (Friends of the Earth) and ANTSA (Anti Nukes Team SA) Action

Please contact: kathy.whitta@foe.org.au or Amanda naturearthlove@hotmail.com

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BHP culture jam tastes a lot like wheat paste…

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