Saturday 20th September 2008:International Uranium Action Day
Melbourne Action MCG, meet at Jolimont Station 5pm!
bring banners & good humour, e-mail bar_barrick(at)yahoo.com.au
+ Olympic Dam Uranium exports have resulted in production of 7,290 tonnes of high-level nuclear waste (spent nuclear fuel)
+ Olympic Dam exports have resulted in production of enough plutonium to build over 2,200 nuclear weapons, 1% of what is exported from Roxby could end up as 22 nuclear weapons the potential to kill over 2 million people!
+ BHP also enjoys the most ridiculous privileges through the Roxby Downs Indenture Act, which exempts them from legislation including the Aboriginal Heritage Act, the Water Resources Act and the Freedom of Information Act.
Other upcoming Dates:
Thursday 23rd October 2008: BHP AGM London
Thursday 27th November 2008: BHP AGM Melbourne
Maralinga Day: 27th September
Dawn service in Ceduna SA
(other events/ actions e-mail to bar_barrick(at)yahoo.com.au)
Australia Nuclear Free Alliance meeting Darwin NT: 29 - 31 August 2008
Hiroshima Day: 9th August 2008
Melbourne- Rally 1pm State Library
RALLY ENDORSED BY: Japanese For Peace; Victorian Trades Hall Council; Latin American Solidarity Network; Victorian Greens; Friends Of the Earth Melbourne; Alliance for Indigenous Self Determination; Socialist Alternative; Campaign For International Cooperation and Disarmament; Refugee Action Collective; Lyn Allison; Solidarity; Socialist Alliance; Resistance; Melbourne Stop The War Coalition; Ozpeace; Asia Pacific Defence & Security Exhibition Campaign; Psychologists For Peace; Bellarine Seastar; Otway Conservation Council; Unity For Peace; Moreland Peace Group; Womens Web; Nuclear Disarmament Party
for more info see www.nukefreeaus.org
submissions due 1st October 2008
Anti bases coalition- Defence white paper consultation
Please help us make sure that the voices of the peace, social justice and environmental movements are heard in the public consultation on the Defence White Paper.For more details see www.anti-bases.org
Please remember to register your interest in attending the community consultation in your area. Dates and venues, together with other information, can be found at www.defence.gov.au/whitepaper/consultation.htm. You can also email your submission from this site.
ROXSTOP ACTIONS
Monday 20th October
world water week ACTION
180 Lonsdale St Melbourne, time to be announced
Thursday 23rd October
BHP London AGM
State Library Melbourne, time to be announced
Thursday 27th November
BHP Melbourne AGM
time and location to be announced
-this will be updated continually with details for actions in different states, if you are interested in being active in organising actions in your area please e-mail bar_barrick(at)yahoo.com.au
Background
Melbourne is home to the offices of BHP Billiton, the worlds’ largest resource company.
In 2005 BHP bought the Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine at Roxby Downs in South Australia and are proposing a massive expansion. The planned expansion would make Olympic Dam the biggest uranium mine in the world and would see a five-fold increase in water usage at the mine, the production of large volumes of radioactive waste and mine tailings and a massive increase in energy use.
The mine, located 500 kms north of Adelaide on Kokatha country, has been operating since 1988. Since then, it has produced a staggering amount of radioactive waste on site. The mine already has a tailings dump of 70 million tonnes. These tailings are radioactive and contain a host of other deadly heavy metals. This is growing at a rate of 10 million tonnes a year and BHP has no long-term management or rehabilitation plan. BHP says it plans to manage the radioactive waste dump to "industry standards" - in other words, the company will walk away from its toxic legacy soon after the mine's closure, yet the radioactive waste will pose an environmental and public health threat for millenia.
The radioactive impacts do not stop there. The end product of the nuclear fuel cycle is highly toxic radioactive waste that needs to be isolated from people and the environment for hundreds of thousands of years. Over 50 years on, the nuclear industry has failed to provide a solution to the problem of waste. All over the world unwilling communities are at risk of having a radioactive waste dump imposed on them.
This dangerous legacy of toxic waste will be left for future generations and will provide them with an incalculable cost extending far beyond the life of a nuclear power plant.
The export of Australia ’s uranium around the world contributes to risks of nuclear accidents, terrorism, ‘dirty bombs’ and nuclear weapons proliferation.
The mining of uranium has always been controversial, drawing widespread opposition from community organizations and people across Australia for over 35 years. It’s time to put a stop to an end to the toxic trade.
Water
Water is a key issue. The mine uses over 35 million litres of water daily, drawn from the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) and piped through Arabunna land. The precious mound springs - fragile, unique ecological systems supported by the GAB - have been adversely effected and in some cases destroyed. To accommodate the planned expansion, BHP wants to increase its water take up to 150 million litres per day. They are considering controversial plans to desalinate water from the Spencer Gulf .
There are numerous other issues which make Roxby Downs a vital issue:
* BHP is the single largest electricity user in SA and the single largest greenhouse gas polluter in SA.
* Spills and leaks have been common; for example, in 2003, five spills resulted in the release of over 650,000 litres of radioactive and toxic liquids.
* BHP enjoys completely unjustifiable legal privileges under the SA Roxby Indenture Act; this Act overrides the Environment Protection Act, the Water Resources Act, the Aboriginal Heritage Act and also provides exemptions from the Freedom of Information Act
You make the difference. Help create a clean, green future free from the nuclear threat.