Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton are both supporters of the AUKUS $368 billion nuclear submarine deal and last week Australia announced its first nuclear waste dump at the HMAS Stirling naval base on Garden Island as part of that deal.
Australia going nuclear has just gotten real with the announcement of our first nuclear waste dump and voters will start to take notice.
And without a doubt going nuclear will be a major issue at the next federal election, due in less than 12 months from now, with Peter Dutton and the Liberals also pushing for nuclear power, on behalf of Gina Rinehart, in Australia.
The only report last week, by the old media, was by the ABC in an article published on Friday the 19th of July 2024 titled “HMAS Stirling nuclear waste management facility approval has Rockingham residents worried” which starts off:
Rockingham residents have expressed alarm at the prospect of a radioactive waste facility at HMAS Stirling naval base on Garden Island, following a decision by the nuclear safety watchdog to approve one.
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) has given the green light to prepare a site for the facility, which will be a workshop for servicing and repairing the vessels, and will store waste from nuclear powered submarines.
The facility will also need separate approvals for construction and operation.
The facility, about five kilometres off the coast of Rockingham, which is 50 kilometres south of Perth’s CBD, would provide low-level waste management and maintenance support.
Under the AUKUS security agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom announced in 2021, Australia will acquire nuclear technology to build and sustain its own nuclear submarines.
ARPANSA received 165 submissions about the waste and workshop facility proposal during a 30-day consultation period, but has not made them publicly available.
and:
Former science teacher and Greens candidate James Mumme, who lives locally, is among those who made submissions and said he was concerned about community safety.
“The biggest issue is that this thing is meant to make us feel safe, but it does the complete opposite,” he said. “I’m concerned about radiation leaks.
“Accidents, they do happen, and [there’s the] threat of Cockburn Sound being made a target and the 130,000 people who live in Rockingham being incinerated. (Click here to read more)
To me it’s obvious why almost all the old media have failed to report on Australia’s first nuclear waste dump on Garden Island last week and that is because it’s a major negative for AUKUS and both the Labor Party and Liberal Party.
On the 23rd of July 2024 I published the below video titled “Australia’s first nuclear waste dump approved. Will one be in your backyard?” (Click anywhere on the below video to watch or click here to watch the video on the KCA YouTube channel)
On the 2nd of April 2024 The Guardian published an article titled “‘Poison portal’: US and UK could send nuclear waste to Australia under AUKUS, inquiry told” which starts off:
Australia could become a “poison portal” for international radioactive waste under the AUKUS deal, a parliamentary inquiry into nuclear safety legislation has heard.
New laws to establish a safety framework for Australia’s planned nuclear-powered submarines could also allow the US and UK to send waste here, while both of those countries are struggling to deal with their own waste, as no long-term, high-level waste facilities have been created. (Click here to read more)
On the 23rd of June 2024 the Labor Party posted the below message on their Facebook page which contradicts Labor’s approval of Australia’s first nuclear waste dump last week: (Click here to see the below picture on Labor’s Facebook page)
A couple of weeks ago federal MP Andrew Leigh posted the below message on social media. I can’t find the source but it has been widely reported Andrew Leigh posted it.
Victorian Labor Premier Jacinta Allan posted the below on Twitter on the 19th of June 2024: (Click here to see it on Twitter)
The problem is while Anthony Albanese and Labor are not supporting nuclear power in Australia they are supporting nuclear submarines and nuclear waste dumps so the hypocrisy of Labor running a nuclear scare campaign is mind-blowing.
How is the public meant to trust anything Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Labor say in relation to the safety of nuclear submarines and nuclear waste dumps in Australia when they are running a nuclear scare campaign in regards to nuclear power?
Comments on the KCA YouTube channel for the above video added a lot of value to the nuclear discussion as per below:
Cool hand Luke
nkelly9 @nkelly.9 – Mankind has not solved the problem of dealing with nuclear waste beyond just dumping it somewhere. The waste remains toxic to all forms of life for tens of thousands of years.
Defence will be handling the waste. The same Defence that couldn’t even manage to deal with firefighting foam and poisoned vast swathes of land and waterways. (Click here and here to read more about Defences toxic firefighting foam scandal)
Japan is, compared to us, and in its own right, a technological powerhouse, and yet it could not build a nuclear facility that was safe and furthermore can only deal with its mounting toxic nuclear waste by dumping millions of tonnes of contaminated water in to the Pacific Ocean. This will be happening in an ongoing basis.
This is all batshit crazy. Nuclear, always safe, until it isn’t. How entitled must people think they are to think it is okay leave behind a toxic mess for those that come after them to deal with, especially when we have viable alternatives.
Des Mondo @desmondo7042 – America and UK struggles to deal with nuclear waste says it all.
You can read more comments by clicking here: KCA YouTube channel.
The politicians and the old media are badly letting the public down by failing to report the facts and I’ll have more to say on Australia’s nuclear issue before the federal election.
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Categories: Peter Dutton, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
To waste $360 billion on six submarines that we do not need and will never see, that rope us into becoming a nuclear target on the pretence that it will protect us is complete and utter lunacy. Where has this form of thought originated from? From a colonial exploitive judicial system that continues to rule or should I say ruin this wonderful land. Remove the lawyer class from the pedestal with their Sue Sue Sue Song and replace them with practical people who understand the principals of common sense governed by Murphy`s Law.
This thinking, and other Labor policies, I believe comes from Labor attempting to limit negative MSM reporting on Labor policies and Labor people.
Bill Shorten blamed this negative media reporting on his 2019 election loss. Not his chosen polices.
So being in lockstep with most, if not all Liberal polices, including all of ex PMs Howard, Turnbull and especially Morrison is their hope to retain government.
AUKUS for a man who doesn’t believe in government (as Morrison said at the Perth Victory church after his 2022 election loss ) meant a well paid post politics consulting job with Trump colleague Mike Pompeo in the USA.
Many Australians needs and wishes are not considered by the current Albanese government as it is necessary to fund the AUKUS deal which will result in submarines always owned by the USA and to be used in a future war against China. Our biggest trading partner, allowing us the standard of living most of us enjoy.
On the subject of nuclear waste there is something that has been in my mind for many years – I think that Howard did one of his dodgy lying deals when he said we would not accept USA’s nuclear waste, while arranging sale of uranium to USA. He then (from memory) leased the rods to USA so that when they came back as waste they were technically Australia’s as they had been leased, not sold – is this correct? Have we been storing USA waste for decades ?
Australia being a dumping ground for foreign powers? I’m shocked. It’s not as if Australia has a policy of being keen to be the dumping ground of anything and everything. 😏
I’m of the view that Australian politicians would force feed raw sewage into every child’s mouth if a foreign power asked them to. Our politicians are parasites and not one should be treated with anything but pure contempt.
I am so disappointed that Labor who have banned a nuclear waste dump in South Australia can now allow this to happen in WA. I think it might be time to consider voting for a strong Independant to enter parliament. Labor is being bullied by the press and the wealthy far right moguls. It’s time to stand up and exert their position of government to listen to what people want. It doesn’t make sense any more.
The problem for Labor is that they were wedged on AUKUS by the master of wedge politics, Scott Morrison. AUKUS was brokered under a coalition government. Politics in Australia has become increasingly toxic. If labor had opposed AUKUS then the Liberal and National parties would have cried “see Labor is weak on national security”.
32 countries with nuclear power generating 10% of the words electricity & brainless Australia just won’t be dragged into the future…. pathetic really and as for nuclear subs, they last much longer than wind turbines & solar panels and never need refuelling….. google Roxby Down
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton, our fearless leaders, are enthusiastically backing the AUKUS $368 billion nuclear submarine deal, which now includes Australia’s first nuclear waste dump at HMAS Stirling.
Because …
Who wouldn’t want radioactive waste in their backyard? Residents in Rockingham are just thrilled with the idea!!!
With the next election looming, Albanese and Dutton’s nuclear dreams are sure to be a hit with voters, especially those who enjoy glowing in the dark.
And let’s not forget their unwavering support for nuclear power—nothing says “trustworthy leadership” like a radioactive scare campaign.
Bravo, gentlemen! This is the thin edge of the radioactive waste wedge!
Neither of them are qualified to even discuss anything Nuclear.
One was a welfare recipient raised in a single parent family. And the other was a deadbeat FLATFOOT.
How about people in Government who know what they are talking about. That would be different.
The question I ask is why is this the best we can do? Politicians aren’t the problem. We are. We’re asleep, leaving everything to others. Socrates got it right two and a half millennia ago: “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” But there’s more from the old whiz kid: “A person who is true to his morals will reach conflict in public service because there is no such thing as a politician who is not morally compromised.” I’ll write again if I can find something cheerful to say.
Thin edge of the wedge indeed.
I dont understand the subs at all. Why would we spend so much money on subs that are to loiter underwater and hopefully undetected somewhere near Shanghai just to unload a few thousand tonnes of TNT into our near neighbour. The sub then has to return to West Australia to reload. I believe that our pollies have already agreed that by the time the subs arrive they will carry nuclear warheads. A sub load of TNT wouldn’t even cause a major traffic jam in Shanghai.
There is a probably endless stream of problems. Who will volunteer to spend 6 months underwater with 150 other people. What kind of people would want that? Easy solved we rent a crew either from the Americans and if they cant spare any because they are having trouble manning their subs we will employ foreigners who want a residency permit and create a mercenary navy. Would we allow women on board? For 6 months? What if Australia is attacked by Indonesia? The Americans wont want war with Indonesia so will we be allowed to use the subs to fight? We will certainly not be able to use them without the US support. That’s called interoperability. So What? We have already sold our sovereignty for the Joint Strike Fighters. Remember that we were not allowed to use our Swiss aircraft in Vietnam because the Swiss thought we were committing war crimes by being involved.
Ahh, just quietly, Garden Island is in Sydney Harbour, next to Potts Point. Sorry to be a pendant.
There is also a Garden Island in WA as here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_Island_(Western_Australia)
So many issues rolled into one so none are addressed properly and major issues get trivialised.
Let’s go dot point – and start at the grass roots of this issue.
• Carbon dioxide does NOT control our climate- atmospheric physics clearly shows it’s a minor player – water vapour is the major player. Therefore-
• Australia should be using coal, now and for the next hundred years and stop wasting billions on “renewables” that are actually unreliable and intermittent. (A whole topic by itself)
That pushes the nuclear question back a decade and it’s Albos incompetence that has left the door open for a grub like Dutton to try to wedge the poorly informed, but we should clear all the bureaucratic “yes” people out of the CSIRO and fill it with competent innovative engineers again and task them to design nuclear facilities to power the nation in the future (I would also task them to seriously investigate thorium) BUT on the nuclear issue-
• Nuclear power is very safe-verified by all the facilities worldwide.
• Waste is not the issue it’s made out to be by the dooms dayers – new generation facilities reprocess a lot of the old waste and this will continue to improve.
• Nuclear subs are only a real deterrent if they have nuclear weapons – we should have these. They would then be a real deterrent against anyone deciding to attack us.
Time for Australia to grow up and be a responsible adult rather than this petulant teenager that believes we can show the world how to behave and they will just follow us which is all the anti-nuclear movement is, lies and deceptions – holding up the likes of Chernobyl as the boogyman which was actually a demonstration of how dangerous bureaucrats are and they are actually who is controlling Australia currently – that needs to stop.
But the nuke boosters who say it is essential to have nuclear power have told me that the magic waste eating nuclear reactors will be here soon, just like the SMRs and they will be cheap so stop worrying.
AUKUS is the worst decision ever made by the Labor party. The subs are not suitable for defence around the relatively shallow Australian continental shelf, only suitable for long range attack. Drone technology by the time we get the subs will make them already redundant. What happens if one gets blown up in Australian waters?
It is clear that the Coalition’s nuclear plan is a brain dead idea. Too expensive and takes too long so we would have to rely on planet cooking fossil fuels for longer. Nuclear is the last refuge of the climate change denialist.
Armchair experts spruik outrageous examples of the hypothetical risks their closed minds perceive. Until Australia starts making plans for its own survival in a hostile world, the big players will chew us up and spit us out. Surely some of the 30 plus nations using nuclear power would respond to an Australian request for current construction times, recent costs, sources of peaking power and any waste disposal problems experienced. It is past time for some facts with which to overcome political BS.