firefighters with protective gear wash a west german car near the east german border after it arrived from poland with radioactive fallout from the chernobyl nuclear plant disaster may 3 1986

Chernobyl Heart is a documentary film by Maryann DeLeo. The film won the Best Documentary Short Subject award at the 2004 Academy Awards.

In the film, DeLeo travels through Ukraine and Belarus observing the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on the health of children in the area. Many children suffered from a cardiac degradation condition now known in the area as “Chernobyl heart”, in addition to other severe radiation poisoning effects.

Kim Stewart, Friends of the Earth spokeswoman, will talk briefly about why the Chernobyl catastrophe is relevant today, particularly in context of the Queensland Government’s decision to recommence uranium mining.

Event hosted by Friends of the Earth Brisbane and Rally for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament.

How to get there – take bus 199 to Stop 7 on Boundary Street in West End. The bus stops outside venue.

Free screening of documentary “Chernobyl Heart”
24 April at 18:00
Lock’n'Load Bistro in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

“There’ll be a Vigil at 298 Fearnley St Manunda from 6 till 10.00 pm Thursday 11 April . Bring stories and some food to share. The Vigil will mix prayer and stories and Eulogy and food.

Bryan’s requiem Mass will be held at 10 am on 12 April at St Monica’s cathedral Cairns.” – Margaret Pestorius

Our thoughts are with his family.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/04/04/3729611.htm

High Risk – Low Returns: the case against uranium mining in Queensland

Read the report [here]

In October 2012 the LNP government broke its clear commitment not to allow uranium mining in Queensland. This commitment was the position of the LNP at the March 2012 state election and was reaffirmed after they took office. In the absence of open, inclusive and evidence based policy making the Newman LNP government has set up the Uranium Implementation Committee. The Committee has not sought broad community input and has not been asked to assess the arguments for and against uranium mining in Queensland. The Committee’s mandate is the far  narrower task of recommending how uranium mining should be managed, not whether it should occur.

Why should Queensland forego the economic benefits of uranium mining when some other states permit uranium mines? In a nutshell, it is because the economic benefits are grossly overstated and are outweighed by the wide-ranging environmental, public health and weapons proliferation problems and risks.

Uranium accounted for 0.19 per cent of Australia’s export revenue in 2011/12 (the last available figures). By the most generous estimate, uranium accounts for 0.015% of all jobs in Australia. For Queensland, there is the additional limitation that the state has around just 2% of Australia’s uranium resources. Clearly, the industry has no capacity to deliver significant economic or employment benefits.

Instead of acknowledging the extremely limited economic potential of uranium mining in Queensland the LNP state government, the Australian Uranium Association and the Queensland Resources Council have continued a pattern of extravagant and unsubstantiated claims regarding jobs, revenue and royalties. Enthusiasm is no substitute for evidence and limited sectoral self-interest is not the same as the public interest. The assumptions and analysis of those promoting the uranium sector in Queensland needs to be challenged and reviewed.

Most companies interested in uranium in Queensland are foreign companies, any profits of which would not remain in Queensland. The mining industry has a history of fly-in fly-out contract employment, which does not necessarily bring many or lasting jobs or significant prosperity to local economies. And once the ore is extracted, the company will leave the community to manage the radioactive tailings, effectively forever. Private profit would leave the region while increased public risk and legacy would remain.

Uranium mining poses a significant threat to Queensland’s unique environment and way of life. It is implausible that the limited economic benefits associated with any future uranium operations in Queensland could outweigh the diverse problems and risks associated with uranium mining detailed in this paper.

The specific radioactive and fissionable characteristics of uranium make uranium mining fundamentally different from other types of mining. Uranium mining is associated with:

• radiological risks to workers and the public;
• direct and continuing contamination threats to ground and surface waters and the environment surrounding and downstream and downwind from mine sites
• risks to other industries such as agriculture and tourism due to environmental damage and contamination from tailings and mine wastes,
• the flow-on risks of the nuclear fuel chain and the risks inherent in nuclear power, including the fact that Australian uranium directly fuelled the continuing Fukushima nuclear crisis.
• the generation – at all stages of the industrial process – of large volumes of long-lived radioactive wastes, including intractable high-level nuclear waste created in nuclear reactors.
• the spread and legitimization of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

It is our considered view that the uranium mining sector fails key sustainability, safety and social benefit tests and should not be permitted or advanced.

This week a joint effort by Unions and NGOs will release an alternative to the QLD government’s Uranium Implementation Report: “High Risk – Low Return: the case against uranium mining in Queensland”.

Read the report [here]

Supported by:

Australian Conservation Foundation - Australian Manufacturing Workers Union - Electrical Trades Union - Friends of the Earth - North Queensland Conservation Council - Queensland Conservation Council - Queensland Nuclear Free Alliance - The Wilderness Society

National authorities have admitted that Australian uranium was present at all of the compromised reactors, and Australian uranium producers have confirmed that they supply fuel to the Japanese nuclear operators. In fact, the Ranger uranium mine in World Heritage listed Kakadu national park was established on the basis of an agreement between our two governments.

On visiting the mine, and seeing for the first time the source of the Fukushima fuel, Akira Kawasaki from Peace Boat reflects on our shared suffering, and shared responsibility to work towards a nuclear free future

7pm, Thursday March 21st, QLd Council of Unions building, 14 Peel St, South Brisbane

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/events/423449191082539

Other peace events in Australia this week:

***Sunday March 17***
No War. Iraq 10 years on (fundraiser for the Sydney Greens)
Location: Sydney, 107 Redfern Street, Redfern

***Thursday March 21 (7pm)***
Following the US to War, Lessons from Iraq, Building a dialogue for a Peaceful and Independent Australia (featuring Senator Andrew Bartlett, Donna Mulhearn & Peter Ardnt)
Location: Brisbane, QLD Council of Unions, 16 Peel Street, South Brisbane

While much of the media attention fades, radiation continues to impact upon the lives of hundreds of thousands of Japanese people. There are also significant issues around institutional discrimination of those whose homes were within the contamination zone as well as misinformation about the nature of radiation. Families are dealing with stress, upheaval and break down as over 120, 000 people have been forced to leave their homes, communities and businesses.

Australian uranium was in the reactors at Fukushima and we continue to export uranium to Japan. It is important for Australians to hear the full story of the risks and consequences of these exports.

‘Face to Face with Fukushima’ tour will see a delegation from Japan visit Australia on a speaking tour in March 2013 to coincide with the second anniversary of the nuclear disaster at the Daiichi power plant in Fukushima, Japan.

The tour will include public meetings in Darwin, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane and Sydney and meetings with Indigenous Australians who have uranium mine impacts on their lands.

The delegation will also share their experience and describe life in Japan since the 2011 Tsunami and Daiichi nuclear disaster, a disaster on par with the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986.

The tour aims to highlight the long term and ongoing radioactive contamination problems in Japan.  Delegates will also share stories of people finding hope, working together, rebuilding their country.

Facebook Brisbane Event:

https://www.facebook.com/events/349326995181156/

Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns will be taking to the streets today – the last sitting day of Queensland Parliament – to voice their united concerns about the Newman government’s backflip on uranium mining. 

“Today marks both the last sitting day of the Queensland Parliament for this year and the beginning of region-wide public action to oppose the opening of uranium mines in this state, says Queensland Nuclear Free Alliance spokesperson Robin Taubenfeld.

“Uranium is a toxic industry.  Regional communities in the north: Townsville, Mt Isa and the Gulf region in particular face the real threat of radioactive contamination of waterways, hazards in transportation of uranium via road, rail or through ports, and risks to workers health if uranium mining goes ahead.”

“The government will be using this summer break time to prepare its Uranium Implementation plan to release to the public next year. 

The Nuclear Free Alliance will be using this time to consolidate our across the state campaign to ensure that no uranium mining plan will ever be implemented in this state.”

No Uranium actions:  THURSDAY NOVEMBER 29

Brisbane:  Rally & March to Parliament with Queensland UNCUT

Place: Reddacliff Place (Cnr George & Queen Sts)

Time:  5pm

More info: Qld Nuclear Free Alliance: 0411 118 737

Townsville: Rally to keep Queensland uranium-free

Place: Amphitheatre behind the Riverway Arts Centre,

Village Boulevarde (off Riverway Drive),

                               Thuringowa

Time:  4.45pm start – 5.45pm

More info:  North Qld Conservation Council: (07) 4771 6226

Cairns:      No uranium mines action
Place: Esplanade Lagoon area, Cairns

Time: 5pm

More info: Cairns & Far North Environment Council: (07) 4032 1746

Read more:

http://foodirradiationwatch.org/2012/11/02/would-you-like-radiation-with-that-irradiated-tomatoes-a-toxic-treatment-of-a-beloved-fruit/

Food Irradiation Watch is an affiliate of Friends of the Earth Australia and a member group of the Queensland Nuclear Free Alliance.

Greens: Larissa Waters, Adam Stone (Qld), Scott Ludlam (WA)

Dear Mr Newman

I know we probably don’t see eye-to-eye on much.

I’m with the Greens, you’re with the LNP, and we tend to take a different view of a good number of things.

But that’s all good and healthy.  It gives Queenslanders greater choice when they queue up at the ballot box every few years.  May a thousand flowers blossom and all that.

I’m not writing to argue about our differences on this occasion.  I’ve detailed my objections to our State getting involved in the uranium trade on these pages only a few weeks ago.

I’m writing about what I thought we had in common: a commitment to democracy.  The kind where we each tell voters our plans and they choose which they like best.

Remember when you said: “Anna Bligh lied about asset sales to get elected last time, Julia Gillard lied about the carbon tax, and sadly, they will lie again”?  You were sad about those lies because you considered them to be undemocratic and unfair to the community, right?

But now we are to have uranium mining in Queensland despite your reassurances before the election that “The parliamentary team are very, very clear that we have no plans to develop any sort of uranium mines in Queensland”.

Are you sad again?  I am.

I heard you saying on the radio yesterday that you truly didn’t have any plans for uranium mining in Queensland until Monday.  But then you had to mine uranium because the Federal Labor Government said so.

You also said that Federal Labor changed its plans by deciding to try to sell uranium to India and that meant you had to change your plans too.

Like you, I’d rather not feel sad, so I tried to comfort myself with these explanations.  But then I remembered that the Labor Party decided to pursue uranium sales to India back in December last year, well before you promised us you had no plans to mine uranium in our State.

And I have trouble with the “Labor made me” angle because Labor also wanted you to help trial the National Disability Insurance Scheme and to contribute to the solar thermal power plantplanned near Chinchilla, among other things, but you didn’t want to so you said “no”.

We also have a constitution that explicitly says that Julia Gillard is not allowed to make you go uranium mining.

Hopefully this has all been some kind of mix up.  That seems quite likely, now that I think of it.  After all, your media release on Monday said that your decision “followed sustained public debate on uranium mining in Queensland”, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when all you’ve said about uranium mining so far is that you’re not going to allow it.

Funny sort of debate:

“I won’t allow it.”

“No you won’t.”

“Will not…”

You also said yesterday that you haven’t done any economic modelling yet to show that lifting the ban will create jobs and investment.

You’ve announced this by accident, haven’t you?!  You meant to do it just before the next State election, following some economic modelling and public debate, and right before we all get to vote on whether we think it’s a good idea!

I must say, that’s a tremendous relief!  I’m very glad we cleared that up.  Neither of us needs to feel sad that democracy has been compromised.

You can go into the next election saying why you think uranium mining is a good idea, I’ll say why I think it isn’t, everyone will vote, and we’ll all live with the result.

And you won’t even have to wait any longer for your uranium mines because the Australian Uranium Association has said that none will be built for at least five to seven years because the uranium price is too low.

It’s a win-win.  I look forward to the debate.

Love, Adam.

Adam Stone is the lead senate candidate for the Queensland Greens in the upcoming federal election.

This letter first appeared in the Sunshine Coast Daily, 27 Oct, 2012.  Used with permission. http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/open-letter-calls-out-newman-uranium-lie/1599545/