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    March 11, 2012

Australian Rallies Remember Fukushima Disaster

   Phil Mercer | Sydney
   A man walks past the head office of BHP Billiton in central Melbourne.
   (File Photo)
   Photo: Reuters
   A man walks past the head office of BHP Billiton in central Melbourne.
   (File Photo)

   Hundreds of anti-nuclear demonstrators have converged on the Australian
   headquarters of global mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto to mark
   one year since Japan's nuclear crisis. The 500-strong march Sunday
   through southern Melbourne called for an end to uranium mining in
   Australia.
   Rallies have been held across Australia to mark the first anniversary
   of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The rallies are also part of a
   national day of action to end uranium mining in Australia.
   There were events in Sydney, and in Melbourne a protest included
   speeches and performances by representatives of the expatriate Japanese
   community as well as Australia's Indigenous communities, who are
   worried about the effects of mining near tribal lands. There was a
   minute's silence for the victims of Japan's devastating earthquake,
   tsunami and nuclear catastrophe. The rally was followed by a march past
   the headquarters of Australia's largest uranium miners, BHP Billiton
   and Rio Tinto.
   The Australian Conservation Foundation is demanding an independent
   review of the costs and consequences of Australia's uranium trade and
   insists that the nuclear power industry has lost public confidence and
   credibility following the Fukushima disaster.
   Foundation spokesman Dave Sweeney says Australia must abandon its
   exports of uranium.
   'We have 40 per cent of the world's uranium in Australia. We supply 20
   per cent of the global market and this is the basic fuel for nuclear
   power, it is the basic fuel for nuclear weapons," he said. "On a good
   day it becomes high-level radioactive waste and on a bad day it become
   Fukushima fallout and I think the question for Australia is do we want
   to continue to do that?'
   Australia does not use nuclear power but is the world's third-ranking
   uranium producer behind Kazakhstan and Canada, exporting almost 7,000
   tons of uranium oxide concentrate, or yellowcake, worth more than $1.2
   billion last year.
   It also has the world's largest uranium reserves, about 46 percent of
   the global total, according to the Australia's Department of Resources.
   The Australian Uranium Association said the disaster in Japan a year
   ago forced the global nuclear industry to pause and to learn valuable
   lessons and insisted that many countries still saw nuclear energy as a
   'secure and reliable source of electricity.'
   Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has praised the Japanese people
   for their resilience and courage.
   In a statement she said the anniversary would be a 'day of painful
   memories for the Japanese people.'
   Gillard was the first foreign leader to visit the disaster zone last
   March.

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