Julie Bishop's nuclear waste dump in earthquake zone

July 18, 2007 - The Northern Territory site recently nominated for a national nuclear waste facility by the Federal government is near one of the nation's earthquake hotspots. Muckaty Station is about 120km north of Tennant Creek - one of the most seismologically active areas in Australia...

There have been 239 earthquakes in that area in the past decade and 1298 earthquakes since 1988. Tennant Creek had a 6.3 quake in 1988, according to Geoscience Australia, which tore up the town.

Anti-nuclear waste dump campaigners have long condemned the nomination of Muckaty Station as a site.

The Environment Centre NT says it's "political expediency rather than proper scientific evaluation in terms of siting a waste dump," she said. Seismologists say the frequent quakes are due to a fault line running through the area. "The quakes are frequent, due to a weak fault-line running through the area," Geoscience Australia said. Two small quakes have hit the Tennant Creek area in the past three weeks.

The proposed nuclear waste dump site has been opposed by environmentalists, the NT Government and traditional owners. Despite overwhelming community opposition, the Federal Government seems determined to let nothing stand in its way to procure a site in the Northern Territory to dump its radioactive waste.

ASEN* say that despite giving an "absolute categorical assurance" that the NT would not be targeted for a Commonwealth dump, in June 2005 the Howard government announced that three defence sites in the NT would be assessed for suitability. All sites have people living within 10 kilometres. None of the sites were short listed when the Federal Government undertook a scientific study to find a site.

At a media conference in June 2005, then Science Minister Brendan Nelson expressed the reasoning behind targeting the NT, asking "why on earth can't people in the middle of nowhere have low level and intermediate level waste?"

The Northern Land Council has offered overt support for the NT dump proposal. Yet, according to ASEN* many Elders have spoken out to strongly oppose a dump on their own country, and have travelled to NT parliament and interstate to voice their concerns.

The NLC also supported Science Minister Julie Bishop’s recent amendments to the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act, which further restrict opportunities for public input into site selection for the dump. The changes to the legislation mean that a nomination of a site by a Land Council will no longer require:

+ consultation with the traditional owners
+ that the nomination be understood by the traditional owners
+ that the traditional owners have consented as a group
+ that any community that may be affected has been consulted and had adequate opportunity to express its views

The proposed changes also remove the right of any group to appeal site nomination on the grounds of procedural fairness.

The risk of transporting radioactive waste is also major concern for communities living along potential routes.

NUCLEAR PLOY
Recently, Dr Helen Caldicott, an anti-nuclear activist of more than 20 years, said she feared Prime Minister John Howard would turn Australia into the dumping ground for the world's nuclear waste. She said the takeover of Aboriginal land titles, part of the government's assault on Indigenous communities, is a ruse to clear the way for the dumping of waste in remote areas.

"The land grab from the Aborigines is actually about uranium and nuclear waste," Dr Caldicott said. "It is obvious - you don't take land away from people just because their children are being sexually abused." Dr Caldicott said Australia should reject nuclear power, ban uranium mining and concentrate on developing renewable energies such as wind, solar and hot rocks.

She said the health consequences of uranium mining, nuclear power and nuclear power plants were serious and would induce epidemics of disease, malignancy and deformity that would be experienced for generations.

"Australia is in great danger of becoming a major nuclear nation now," she said. "I think it is very, very, very dangerous medically. I am worried that people making decisions do not understand medicine or genetics. They (the government) are being pushed by the economy and wealthy corporations, like Western Mining and BHP Billiton, who seem to have no regard for the health and well-being of this generation and all future generations."

KE07

*Terrorising the Territory with Toxic Trash - ASEN, jan07.

Sources:
Herald Sun
Terrorising the Territory with Toxic Trash - ASEN
NUCLEAR DUMP DANGEROUS FOR TERRITORY - Foe
Geoscience Australia
National Indigenous Times: NT takeover ploy for nuclear waste dump
Wikinews - Opposing_a_nuclear_waste_dump_in_the_Northern_Territory
Australian government paves way for nuclear waste dump in Northern Territory

End Olympic Dam special treatment

June 6, 2007: Greens want to end Olympic Dam's special treatment - The Greens will move in the South Australian Parliament to scrap exemptions to state laws given to BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam mine in outback SA. The $7 billion BHP Billiton Olympic Dam project is planned to become the world’s biggest uranium producer, the third or fourth largest copper mine, and one of Australia’s largest gold mines...

Greens MLC Mark Parnell will introduce a private member's bill to remove the mining company's exemptions from laws on Aboriginal heritage, environment protection and natural resource management. He says the exemptions were granted 25 years ago and times have changed.

Mr Parnell is also concerned that BHP Billiton is not bound by the same water use laws as other companies, giving it an unfair advantage. "I think that there are certainly problems with water resources. This mine does not have to comply with the same regime as everyone else and they're also not bound by the same pollution laws that other companies have to operate under," he said. "If the company is as good as the Government says then there should be no problem in removing these special exemptions.

"I think now that the only fair way is to make sure that all industrial players in this state operate under the same rules. You shouldn't have special rules for your favourite companies and other laws for the rest."

A spokesman for BHP Billiton says the indenture legislation does not allow the company to evade its legal obligations and the Olympic Dam mine is the most intensively regulated operation in SA.

BHP Billiton is considering a further major expansion of Olympic Dam to more than double its current production capacity - proposing to expand its mining and processing from around 200,000 tonnes per year of copper to approximately 500,000 tonnes per year. BHP Billiton would then be the world's biggest spender on an open cut mine. It would be a bigger hole than Kalgoorlie's "Super Pit", with more than a pit 3.6km x 3.65km and 1km deep.

Olympic Dam has long term contracts for the sale of uranium oxide concentrates to customers in the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Canada and the United States.

It is expected that at least 160 million tonnes of radioactive waste will be produced over the life-span of Olympic Dam mine. The waste includes radioactive wash water known as tailings which are stored in 75 hectare retention ponds with levees 30 metres high.

The Olympic Dam operations secured exemptions to the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988, the Development Act 1993, the Environmental Protection Act 1993, the Freedom of Information Act 1991, the Mining Act 1971, Natural Resources Act 2004 (including the Water Resources Act 1997)

This raft of exemptions embodied in the Roxby Downs Indenture Act effectively places this mine outside the law protecting accepted social, environmental and cultural values, and makes the company’s commitments to complying with strict standards manifestly unbelievable.

Radioactive and highly acidic tailings are a by-product of the milling process at Olympic Dam. Currently these are stored in a Tailings Dam called the Tailings Retention System (TRS). This system is vast, covering more than 500 hectares and standing 10 metres in height. More than 10 million tonnes of tailings per year are added to this massive reservoir.

In 1994 a massive leak from the TRS was reported. Over four years, three million cubic metres of liquid leaked through the aquifer.

Meanwhile, Safework SA is investigating an explosion at the Olympic Dam site in May. Contact was made with explosive during drilling work, causing the explosion. A worker was treated for injuries caused by rock debris.

In July 2005, a worker died while blasting a tunnel at the Olympic Dam mine.

SOURCES:
ABC News
Mine Web
ABC News
BHP
BHP: olympic dam eis
Wikipedia - Olympic_Dam
Olympic Dam Mine
MPI
ANAWA

WA to trial fifty Zero Emission Vehicles

Friday, 9 February 2007 - Back in the 1950s, an electric car was among the fastest, most efficient cars ever built. It ran on electricity and produced no carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Almost 60 years on, as peak oil approaches and with CO2 vehicle emissions contributing to rapid global warming, electric cars are coming back. Despite strong community support, Australia has been slower on the uptake. But tow the Western australian government is calling for a trial of zero emission vehicles..
In an announcement today, the WA Government says it will allow a trial of 50 small zero emission vehicles (ZEV-lites), making it the first and only to do so - provided the Federal Government permits the cars to be imported into Australia.

Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan today said: "These types of electric vehicles are already a common sight on London’s streets where they also attract benefits such as free parking, on street recharging points, and exemption from the congestion charge".

With a maximum speed of around 70km/h and a range of 100km, the vehicles have very low running costs and when recharged using renewable energy such as GreenPower, produce no particulate or greenhouse gas emissions. Even with ordinary electrical energy it is still far more greenhouse friendly than any other low emission vehicle on the road. In the past, safety concerns had been raised as the reason for blocking the use of these vehicles in Australia.

However, French Government figures show that ZEV-lites had lower accident and fatality rates than cars, motorbikes and mopeds. The WA trial would enable a limited number of ZEV-lites to be closely monitored to assess the vehicle’s performance under Australian road conditions. The Federal Government had previously declined to issue import approvals for ZEV-lites claiming that no State had showed an interest in registering the vehicles.

"We urge the Federal Government to reconsider this decision given that WA has confirmed it is prepared to shoulder the burden of managing the trial of the vehicles," the Minister said. Ms MacTiernan said that a combination of climate change and peak oil would require significant changes in the transport sector and that ZEV-lites could offer a versatile and environmentally sound transport option.

The Australian Greens welcomed the WA government's decision to trial 50 Reva electric cars and called on the Howard government to issue an import permit. Greens transport spokesperson Senator Christine Milne said the electric car could play an important role in helping to reduce the growing greenhouse emissions from the transport sector but the "Howard government had so far thwarted a trial. The WA government is to be congratulated for taking on the Howard government over the use of the Reva electric car on Australia's roads," Senator Milne said.

She said the vehicles are approved for use on public roads in many countries but the Howard government has frustrated the efforts of people to import the Reva and has refused to create an appropriate vehicle licensing category for the electric car.

"Instead of promoting fuel guzzling V8 vehicles as Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane is, the federal government should help redirect Australia's automotive manufacturers towards producing vehicles with improved environmental performance, thereby ensuring a long-term future for the industry," said Senator Milne

In November 2006, the South Australian-based owners of an electric car that had been destined to be crushed were given a reprieve by the Western Australian Government. The Solar Shop imported the Reva Electric car a year ago, but has been unable to comply with Australian Design Rules and feared they would have to destroy it to avoid a fine.

The Western Australian Government wrote to the Federal Government to ask for an extension on their import approval certificate. Solar Shop manager Adrian Ferraretto says, while he is happy the car will not be crushed, they were hoping for a different outcome from the Federal Government.

"They've been asking us to treat it as a conventional car as opposed to the category to which it was designed to, which is a heavy quadricycle," he said last year. "The reason why we have issues with this is because pretty much every other country in the world has a light vehicle category and pretty much every electrical vehicle in the world falls within this category, so if we don't have a light vehicle category, we don't have electric vehicles in Australia."

The Federal Government says the calls for a new category are unrealistic.

In November 2006 Greens WA MLC Giz Watson said it was time the Federal Government recognised the need to establish a new category and suitable safety standards to facilitate the rollout of clean green cars in Australia.
CAR makers are dragging the chain on introducing alternative-fuel vehicles into Australia, despite high oil prices and growing consumer demand.

Despite countinuosly higher petrol prices, Australian car makers have no immediate plans to go greener. American parents of Ford and Holden offer several alternative-fuel options in the US, where hybrids made up 1.2 per cent of vehicle sales. Environment groups are calling for government intervention to ensure the introduction of cleaner, more economical vehicles.

"We would buy them if they were here," Jeff Angel of the Total Environment Centre said. "The more they produce, the cheaper these cars are going to become. Car manufacturers should start becoming part of the solution."

SOURCES:
WA calls for trial of zero emission vehicles - Media Statement
Greens welcome Reva car decision - Media Release
Top car makers stall on hybrids in Australia - SMH
WA intervenes to save electric car - ABC News. November 6, 2006
Road, safety chiefs 'ganged up' to stall electric cars - Sydney Morning Herald, 4 October 2006
Who killed the electric car? - Giz Watson
REVA Australia website
Start your (electric) engines: the race to revive the electric car is on - WWF
Movie: Who Killed the Electric Car
Reva wins ‘Most Ethical car’ award in the UK - ENS News