Why would you want to build a Nuclear powerplant?
Because the world needs electricity and all the cool kids are doing it.
So you think building a Nuclear powerplant will make you cool?
Yah Grandma, they are huge, and shiny and they generate megawatts and they have big cooling towers and stuff!
Well how much clean water to they take to cool the reactor?
Oh hundrens of gazillions of gallons.
Well what are all the little fishes supposed to do when you take their water?
Oh I don’t know Grandma.
You know that mining uranium creates lots of toxic waste. What would happen to that?
Oh I don’t know Grandma.
You know that uranium is dangerous. What would you do with it when you were done playing with it?
Oh I don’t know Grandma.
Well you know, you need to think about that before you start playing with Nuclear power right?
I guesssss Grandma but shucks?
Why don’t you go play outside and we will talk about it more after you think about it.
OK Grandma!
Give us a kiss..
GRANDMA..
Go play now.
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Australia has an active antinuclear movement even though though they have no Nuclear powerplants in operation they are a huge source of uranium through the 3 mines in operation.
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Even the Aborigines know better than to mess around with some things.
Uranium Mining and Aboriginal People -by Vincent Forrester
I follow the culture of my people. We belong to the land. We are the caretakers for the land. Our lifetime on this earth is only a blink in time, so our lifetime is spent protecting and caring for this land for future generations………
…..I want to tell you how I feel about uranium and how the whole nuclear cycle affects our land, our lives, our traditions….The people who I believe to be among the worst affected by the nuclear cycle are my people, the Aboriginal owners of Australia.It is our land which white miners rip apart to extract the poisonous yellowcake, and it is on our land where they dump the polluted tailingsI
It is on Aboriginal land that the British, with support from the Australian government of the time, exploded deadly nuclear weapons, with no regard for our people, their land or their future.
And it is on Aboriginal land that the government is examining the possibility of dumping deadly radioactive waste in untried synthetic rock.
I say to you, when you consider your attitudes to Australian involvement in the uranium industry, that you think first about what you are doing to our people……….
……..what do Aboriginal people of Arnhem Land know of these dangers? Our people in Arnhem Land and throughout Australia are not sufficiently informed about the extent of damages occurring from uranium mining. Nor do we know the extent to which they are being exposed to radiation in the atmosphere. Nor do we know the extent of contamination already present in the food chain.
There is simply no proper information given to Aboriginal people living in the area about the effects of uranium mining on the land. The monitoring scientists have made no attempt to interpret their findings to the affected Aboriginal people………..”
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But then there is the mining end of it:
Taxpayers cut BHP fuel bills CATHY ALEXANDER (AAP), CANBERRA The Advertiser 06 May 2008 – “State TAXPAYERS will subsidise the fuel bill of mining giant BHP Billiton by more than $100 million to help it work the world’s largest uranium deposit, a conservation group claims. State TAXPAYERS will subsidise the fuel bill of mining giant BHP Billiton by more than $100 million to help it work the world’s largest uranium deposit, a conservation group claims. ….
……………The foundation estimates the subsidy will be worth $29 million a year to BHP to expand Olympic Dam, where the company also mines the world’s fourth largest remaining copper deposit. “BHP does not need you and me to subsidise their diesel,” ACF executive director Don Henry said……………
…………The subsidy would be worth $117 million over the life of the study, ACF said.
Mr Henry said the fuel tax credits scheme would cost the Government $4.9 billion a year.
He has called on the Government to scrap the subsidy for the mining and transport sectors in next week’s Budget although it should be retained for farmers.
The money saved could be redirected to public transport
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And it is pretty ugly just in its own right:
Herald Sun Christopher Russell and Nick Henderson May 02, 2008 – “BHP Billiton and the South Australian Government have been forced to scotch rumours of major doubts and delays over the Olympic Dam expansion.
The company said it was on schedule with its planning for the expansion of the copper-gold-uranium mine. Planning was more complicated than first anticipated…………
……….The rumours – reported on a Sydney website and then raised by SA Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith on ABC radio yesterday – said the project was plagued by problems and cost blowouts.
These included that the mine might not go ahead as an open-cut but would only be an expanded underground operation.
The rumours said costs of the pre-feasibility study, under which the company is considering all its options, had increased substantially and that BHP chief executive Marius Kloppers had refused to meet the extra costs……………………………..”.
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But then there are these people as well….
Australian antinuclear sites
People for a Nuclear Free Australia www.nuclearfree.com.au
Nuclear Free Australia www.nukefreeaus.org
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom www.wilpf.org.au
CODEPINK -Women for Peace http://home.vicnet.net.au/~codepink/
Anti Nuclear Alliance of WA www.anawa.org,au
NoNukes South Australia www.geocities.com/nonukesa
Nuclear Free Queensland www.nuclearfreequeensland
NORTHERN TERRITORY NEWS http://www.ntnews.info/
The Wilderness Society http://nuclear.wilderness.org.au/
Arid Lands Environment Centre www.alec.org.au
Sutherland Shire Environment Centre NSW http://www.ssec.org.au/
Canberra Region Antinuclear Campaign www.nonukescanberra.org
Independent media Pete’s Intelligence Blog spyingbadthings.blogspot.com
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Facts on all aspects of the nuclear industry www.energyscience.org.au
Friends of the Earth www.foe.org.au
The Sustainable Energy and AntiUranium Service http://www.sea-us.org.au/
Medical Association for the Prevention of War www.mapw.org.au
Jim Green. Nuclear and Environmental research www.geocities.com/jimgreen3/
Opposing US/Australia military operations in Australia arranged in secrecy
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