Canada shipping bomb-grade uranium to U.S.: memo Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press, 27 Dec 11 MONTREAL — Weapons-grade uranium is quietly being transported within Canada, and into the United States, in shipments the country’s nuclear watchdog wants to keep cloaked in secrecy. (more…)
Archive for the ‘secrets and lies’ Category
Weapons grade uranium secretly transported from Canada to USA
January 2, 2012Martin Ferguson, Australia’s Minister For the Nuclear Industry, sabotaging Labor policy on sales to India
October 16, 2011‘Opening up uranium sales to India would fuel the nuclear arms race under way between India and Pakistan, which has potentially catastrophic consequences,” ICAN’s Australian director, Tim Wright, said yesterday. ”The threat of a regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan is real. Selling uranium to India runs counter to Australia’s own security interests, and makes a mockery of its stated commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons.”
The briefing note was written after Mr Ferguson met Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna in January…
The note was dated February 7, three days before The Age revealed a cable leaked to WikiLeaks that asserted Mr Ferguson had told the United States embassy in Canberra that a deal to supply India with nuclear fuel could be reached within three to five years.
Australia, India in talks over uranium sale, The Age, Michael Gordon, October 13, 2011 AUSTRALIA and India have already begun a ”dialogue” that is likely to canvass the sale of uranium to the nuclear-armed nation if Labor dumps its opposition to the trade at the party’s national conference in December. (more…)
Why swon’t the South Australian government release its ‘Assessment Report” om Olympic dam uranium mine expansion?
October 4, 2011Release ‘secret’ Roxby report, 22 Sept 11, The Greens have called for the immediate release of a hidden report that captures the views of State Government agencies on the Olympic Dam
Mega-expansion. Called the ‘Assessment Report’, it is a compulsory step in the approval process for a major development. It summarises the responses by various government agencies to the proponent’s Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and is supposed to be released before the Government announces its approval of a project. However, for recent controversial projects the Rann Government has chosen to only release the Report after they have announced their decision. ”The only reason the Government is choosing not to release the Assessment Report now is to avoid scrutiny,” said SA Greens Parliamentary leader Mark
Parnell.
“The Government is holding back the Report’s release for political reasons - keeping the SA community in the dark. This means that the public doesn’t get a chance to respond. It also allows the Government to dodge tricky questions as the media and others tend to focus on the approval decision, rather than what Government agencies actually think.
“The Rann Government has form in releasing the Assessment Report only after they announce their decision on a project. They did it for Buckland Park and they did it for the Port Stanvac desal plant. ”For a project as important as the Olympic Dam expansion, the Government should be giving the SA community more opportunities to be involved in the
final decision, not less. ”For example, the Assessment Report will be able to tell us what
Government agencies like SARDI really think about the proposed desalination plant at Pt Lowly.
“The Greens call on the State Government to immediately release the Assessment Report, well before they announce their decision on the OlympicDam Expansion.
U.S. politicians paid by uranium company in trip to Canada
September 9, 2011Local, state lawmakers flying to Canada as part of lobbying push for uranium mining, Washington Post, 6 Sept 11, By Anita Kumar, About 15 local and state lawmakers are flying to Canada this month on all-expenses paid trips as part of an on-going lobbying effort by a company pushing lawmakers to lift a moratorium on uranium mining in the state.
Virginia Uranium invited state legislators and local elected officials from Southside Virginia to visit an active mine in Canada as it looks to mine what is thought to be the largest deposit of uranium in the United States, in south central Virginia.
Larry Campbell, a member of the Danville City Council, said he had planned to go on the two-day trip, but that he changed his mind when some of his constituents told him they thought he was being “bought off.”
Virginia Uranium already sent Sen. Frank W. Wagner (R-Virginia Beach) to Saskatchewan, Canada, this year. The trip is similar to the one about a dozen legislators took this summer to France that came under heavy criticism across the state.
The trips are permissible under Virginia law and must be reported to the state as gifts next year…..
Virginia Uranium hopes to persuade the General Assembly to repeal the nearly three-decade ban on mining at its regular session in January by convincing lawmakers that mining can be done safely. … http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/2011/09/06/gIQAr37P7J_blog.html
General Atomics in control of regulators in Colorado in uranium toxic pond
September 9, 2011“Basically, the judgment of the nuclear fuels industry and its captive regulators in Colorado is not to be trusted when it comes to matters of health, safety, and a clean environment,”
General Atomics subsidiary wants to stop toxic pond tests, By David O. Williams, Real Aspen – August 14, 2011 Rather than seek an appropriate technological solution, managers of a decommissioned uranium processing mill near Cañon City want the state to let them stop testing a radioactive holding pond because wooden pallets used to cross the pond are sinking into the toxic mud. (more…)
Australia’s Silex Systems part of nuclear power industry
July 30, 2011progress hinges on a world-leading uranium processing method called laser enrichment.
The technology has been acquired by a heavy-hitting US consortium of nuclear companies, Global Laser Enrichment, which has completed a testing program.
Heavy weather for nation’s solitary solar-panel maker, The Australian, TIM BOREHAM , July 18, 2011 AS the head of Australia’s only solar-panel maker, Silex Systems’ Michael Goldsworthy sticks to script and welcomes the pending carbon tax and accompanying billion-dollar renewable subsidy programs that will benefit companies such as Silex….. (more…)
France’s AREVA nuclear company tries to stop Koongarra’s World Heritage listing
July 9, 2011federal Labor made an election promise last year to incorporate Koongarra into Kakadu, removing the possibility of future uranium mining there. Areva formally requested Australia to withdraw its nomination for heritage listing from the agenda of the 35th World Heritage Committee meeting, which will be held in Paris this week
French uranium challenge to Kakadu heritage listing, Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin, The Age, June 20, 2011
FRENCH government-owned company attempted to block countries discussing an Australian request to expand the World heritage-listed Kakadu National Park to include land that contains uranium worth billions of dollars.
Paris-based Areva, the world’s largest nuclear energy company, wants to extract 14,000 tonnes of uranium from its mineral lease in the Koongarra area, which is surrounded by the park. But federal Labor made an election promise last year to incorporate Koongarra into Kakadu, removing the possibility of future uranium mining there. Areva formally requested Australia to withdraw its nomination for heritage listing from the agenda of the 35th World Heritage Committee meeting, which will be held in Paris this week, The Age has learnt…….. A high level World Heritage Committee delegation to Australia in 1998 recommended Koongarra be listed as “in danger” because of threats posed by uranium mining operations. Areva Australia’s website says the company owns the Koongarra uranium deposit, which was discovered in 1971, but there is currently a moratorium on mining it. ■
Mr Burke has put off until August a decision on whether to make a large part of Kimberley in Western Australia a national heritage-listed area. He said he needed more time to consult and study the values of the recommended area and sites. Under heritage listing the federal government would have to approve environmentally and culturally sensitive development projects….French uranium challenge to Kakadu heritage listing
Uranium company’s overly generous “gifts”to Viurginia legislators
July 9, 2011The trips, which are permissible under state law, are reported as gifts…..
Virginia Uranium Inc. picking up tab for trip to France for state lawmakers, Washington Post By Associated Press, : June 17 RICHMOND, Va. — A company that wants to mine a uranium deposit in Southside Virginia is picking up the tab for a trip to France by more than a dozen state legislators who will have a say in whether the state ends a ban on uranium mining. (more…)
Australia’s Energy Minister two faced on uranium sales to India
April 9, 2011Mr Ferguson declined to comment on the contents of a leaked diplomatic cable, revealed in The Age yesterday, suggesting Australia was planning to sell yellowcake to India
No to Indian uranium sales, The Age, Katharine Murphy, February 11, 2011 AUSTRALIA will not sell uranium to India until it signs a nuclear non-proliferation treaty and completes a safeguards agreement, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson says. (more…)
BHP Billiton talks up copper at Olympic Dam, silent about uranium
April 9, 2011Missing from BHP Billiton’s announcement was any mention of the fact that, by the time Olympic Dam reaches full production (and the time frame for what is proposed to be a four stage expansion remains highly uncertain) it will be the world’s biggest uranium producer…..
Silent on uraniumThe Australian Matthew Stevens March 31, 2011 “……. FUKUSHIMA’S nuclear shadow seems to have reached all the way to BHP Billiton headquarters in Melbourne, with the Global Australian yesterday confirming Olympic Dam’s move into full feasibility, but remaining cautiously mute about what that might mean for the future giant’s uranium production. (more…)
