Nuclear Free

Click here for Nuclear Free Calendar 2011 !!

 

Statement from the Australian Student Environment Network on the current nuclear crisis in Fukushima, Japan:

Nuclear Spin and Solutions for Students

In the wake of the Fukushima crisis, people around the world are protesting the nuclear industry. The earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan was a human tragedy, however it does offer the opportunity to reflect on the role of nuclear power as we move away from fossil-fuel dependent forms of energy production. On reflection, we need to shut down the uranium industry now. Ban it. Where will it end if we don’t?

Australian uranium is a source for the nuclear industry and therefore a starting point for nuclear reactors and for nuclear weapons. However, although targeted communities and environment/health organisations continue to struggle against nuclear projects, anti nuclear activity was at its peak in the 70s and 80s when MAUM was organising. The Australian uranium industry has continued to flog nuclear spin throughout the Fukushima crisis and remains in denial. Money and power feed the denialism of the nuclear industry and the victims of this game are the people with less power. The true cost of the profits made by corporations trading in nuclear power and weapons is the lives of hundreds of thousands of people: 66 years ago Hiroshima, 25 years ago Chernobyl, Yesterday Fukushima, today depleted uranium ammunition spread throughout Libya. The dangers posed by nuclear products in the future are very real, and place millions of people’s lives at risk. We need people power to balance the spin of the powerful pro-uranium governments and mining companies.

The nuclear spinners are camouflaged within the system. They are in our universities, and they are educating people the wrong way. We have to demand accountability from our academics; there are too many in the university system with strong yet undeclared links to the uranium industry. Universities should be creating graduates who are more than merely servants of capitalism, graduates who are entrusted with the breadth of knowledge to criticise a rich and powerful industry, and the skills to assess whether we want nuclear products to be a part of our future.

Students have to demonstrate the way out of a nuclear future for the planet. The first responsibility of all humans is to look after their environment where they live, to keep it clean and free, to look after the air, the water and the earth. Our survival depends on these resources and we cannot allow them to be poisoned. We have to get in touch with the environment that supports us, and spread the knowledge to keep it safe.

Nuclear energy is dependent upon uranium, which, just like coal, is a finite resource. Alternative means of energy generation, such as wind, solar, thermal and water turbine utilise renewable resources. Talk of nuclear power as a safe alternative to fossil fuels should be halted. It is clear that the funding currently going toward nuclear power could be better spent on further research and development of renewable energy sources.

How do we shut down the nuclear industry and avoid any future accidents?

We need to get the truth out there. Protests, solidarity gatherings, education events and talking to people will all bring the power back into balance. We have to get together and think about real solutions to close down the nuclear industry.

Deep in the Northern Territory is a beautiful and sacred place called Muckaty, and it is being considered as the site of a national nuclear waste dump in Australia. ASEN Nuclear Free is actively campaigning against this proposal and supports the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance each year.

Please contact ASEN at info@asen.org.au or your campus environment officer to join the e-list and come along to the next national meeting in August.

LATEST CAMPAIGN: Nuclear Freeways Project

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST YELLOWCAKE UPDATES FROM THE ROAD!

Email: yellowcakeroad@gmail.com

The Yellow Cake Road Collective envision a nuclear free future in Australia and aim to prevent the movement of nuclear waste throughout the country.

With the ALP continuing to impose a radioactive waste facility on Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory, there is strong opposition from over 50 traditional owners of the site.

Increasing economic disadvantage in remote areas means many Aboriginal communities are feeling pressure to accept nuclear projects on their country as a source of jobs and income- sometimes in exchange for essential infrastructure like roads and housing. Despite this pressure, communities continue to resist the expansion of the nuclear industry in Australia.

The Yellow Cake Road collective support these aboriginal communities and plan to work closely with them to raise awareness of the injustice of the imposed national waste dump on their land.  The Nuclear Freeways project will involve generating awareness and promoting action through highlighting the risks of the transportation of nuclear waste from the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor to the NT to communities along the potential transport routes.

FUNDRAISER/UPDATE - Thursday 9th December at Mori Gallery

We have returned from our trip along the proposed transport route and would like to invite all to a fundraiser/update!  

All WELCOME!

 

History:

 

To launch the project, there will be a public meeting in Sydney and Wollongong with guest speakers including Muckaty traditional owners; Dianne Stokes, Mark Lane, Mark Chungaloo and Gladys Brown. All welcome!

Nuclear Freeways Project Launch

• Tuesday 27th July 2010

             1-7 Belmore St, Surry Hills 

• Wednesday 28th July 2010

             22 Kenny St, Wollongong

 

Donations:

We estimate that organising the forums in Sydney and Wollongong, producing resources and the transport and logistical costs of travelling from Sydney to the Northern Territory could be up to $20,000. The major cost will be transport for Traditional Owners to Sydney and back, as well as to the upcoming Australian Nuclear Free Alliance meeting in Alice Springs. 

We need your political and financial support to stop the waste dump and enable traditional owners to lead this campaign!

Donate: All donations big or small would be greatly appreciated at: 

http://foe.org.au/donate/product_info.php?products_id=77

THANK YOU!

Other campaigns:

As people around the world demand action on climate change, governments continue to use the climate crisis to push forward regressive and corporate driven policies.

There is an aggressive global push to rebrand nuclear power as a ‘green, clean’ solution to climate change, with claims a ‘nuclear renaissance’ is ahead.

Nuclear Power is No Solution to Climate Change: too dirty, too dangerous.

Carbon emissions calculation must take into account the entire life cycle of uranium; mining, processing, transportation, construction and de-commissioning of reactors and radioactive waste disposal and management.

In Australia, building a nuclear reactor to supply the capital cities in all six states would reduce national emissions by just 4% - nuclear is no solution to climate change.

Further, there is still no method for storage or disposal of high level radioactive waste that can guarantee to isolate it from the environment, workers and communities for the hundreds of thousand of years it remains dangerous.

And despite ‘safeguards’ on uranium exports, as Minister Anthony Albanese has said, “you can guarantee that uranium mining will lead to nuclear waste, but you can’t guarantee it won’t lead to nuclear weapons”.

Australia’s Role: Beginning and Ending the Global Nuclear Fuel Chain

Since the ALP dropped its ‘no new uranium mines’ policy in April 2007, there has been a plethora of uranium exploration applications across the NT, SA and WA. Olympic Dam Uranium Mine in SA, is proposed to expand four – fold to become the biggest uranium mine in the world.

At APEC in 2007, the Australian government became a signatory to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), further entrenching its role in the global nuclear fuel chain. Australia has 38% of the world’s known uranium deposits and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has expressed a wish for
Australia to become “the largest miner and exporter of uranium in the world”.

Remaining a signatory of GNEP will increase pressure for Australia to take back high-level radioactive waste produced in overseas reactors in a ‘leasing’ style arrangement.

Get Active!

2010 is crunch time with the proposed NT Nuclear Waste Dump, numerous new uranium mines to be approved in the NT and SA, and huge expansions of Roxby Downs and Ranger uranium mines. Now is a great time to get active for a nuclear free future.

In 2010, we plan to continue working with local and Northern Territory Traditional Owners; link with other campaigns - particularly climate justice and Stop the NT Intervention; and begin to raise pressure at the Maroubra Electorate Office of Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett; and organise strong demonstrations for the Australian Labor Party National Conference in Sydney in July. We need you to to be a part of raising a nuclear-free voice in Sydney!