Radioactive Show

We delve a little deeper into the world of disarmament diplomacy, examining landmark United Nations talks that began in Geneva, Switzerland, in February. The new working group is gathering for three sessions this year to discuss how to take forward disarmament negotiations, and a ban treaty is front and centre. This is Part 1 in a two-part report, featuring an interview with Ray Acheson from Reach...

The third in a 3 part series investigating the Pine Gap 'Facility', a joint US- Aust base, just 20 Km From Alice Springs. I speak to Jacob Grech about the brewing plans for a big protest camp to be held for Pine Gap's 50th anniversary this year. To find out more check out www.closepinegap.org. Also featured is a discussion with Russell Goldflam, long term Alice Springs resident and lawyer for the...

Six sites across Australia are on the federal government's shortlist for a national radioactive waste dump and all 6 communities are fired up. They don't want to become famous as the host with the most poisonous and long-lived waste this country produces, especially if it's feels like a foot in the door for an international high-level dump. Listen in to the "Grand Tour" podcast produced by Hilary...

The show features three women who have been involved in investigating and protesting Pine Gap's operations, as well as Australia's unquestioning military alliance with the US, since the 1970s and 80s. Interviewed are Senator Lee Rhiannon, Jo Valentine, a former Senator for Western Australia, and Sue Wareham, a physician who is the vice president of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War...

The show explores the operations and history of the Pine Gap Joint Defence Facility, a US-Aust run base 20km out of Alice Springs, which has its 50th anniversary this year. This episode is part 1 of 2 and features a conversation with Richard Tanter, an academic and activist, who has studied, taught and authored many pieces about Pine Gap and Australia's defence policy over the decades. A fascinati...

Six nominated sites for a National Radioactive Waste Dump are undergoing further assessment with a public comment period closing on March 11th.  As we've been hearing, there are serious concerns at each site and all are strongly contested.   This episode we speak with Jodie Carter from the No Central West Nuclear Waste Dump group in Bathurst, where the community campaign is continuing to gain mome...

This is the second in a two-part series on the “humanitarian initiative”: a groundbreaking effort by governments, the Red Cross and civil society organizations to re-awaken the global public to the unparallelled danger of nuclear weapons, and to establish a treaty that outlaws them once and for all. In last week’s episode, we heard about two major diplomatic conferences on the horrific effects of...

Fifteen thousand, eight hundred nuclear weapons spread across 14 nations. One thousand, eight hundred ready to be launched within minutes of a warning. This is not the cold war, but the present reality – the daily existential threat with which we have learned to live. This podcast describes what has become known as the “humanitarian initiative”: an effort by governments, the Red Cross and civil so...

Today we'll be taking a look to the year ahead and some of the developments that will be a focus of anti-nuclear activity in 2016.  We'll touch on some of the nuclear free movement events that are coming up and that you can expect to hear about in more detail on the Radioactive Show in months to come. We'll be hearing from several familiar voices to the Radioactive Show the incredibly dedicated &...

Part two of a two part special on the Movement Towards a Nuclear Free Future that happened in April 2015 from Tennessee to NY, in the US.After crossing 8 state borders, we hear from more walk participants on the personal and political aspects of this epic undertaking for peace. We connect the dots between struggles on the nuclear frontlines in Australia and the US. What lies behind the tradition o...

Part one of a two part special on the Movement Towards a Nuclear Free Future that happened in April 2015 from Tenessee to NY, in the US. Radioactive Show Producers joined a contingent from various parts of Australia to participate in the journey which started at the Y12 nuclear weapons facility at Oakridge Tenessee, and travelled by walking, riding and running to the UN in New York. Part one featu...

This week we tune into the radioactive waste dump debate in Hill End, near Sally's Flat, an area that is suddenly in the spotlight for being one of six potential sites for the national radioactive waste dump. We speak with Jodie Carter from the No Central West Nuclear Waste Dump Committee and Nat Wasley from the Beyond Nuclear Initiative. Further afield, we speak with Yankunytjatjara woman Karina...

On Friday 13th November the Federal Governemnt release their shortlist of nominated sites to be investigated for a national nuclear waste dump. Following the incredible success of Traditional Owners in halting the imposition of a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Staion in the NT the Government began a new process where land holders across Australia had the opportunity to nominate a site for considera...

Featuring recordings taken at the 'Renewables not Radioactive ' forum held in the Port Augusta, South Australia, on 19th October 2015. Listen to an eloquent summary of communities' history of struggle against remote radioactive waste dumping, up to the present push, as outlined by Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation. Hear Gillian and Enice Marsh, both Adnyamathanha women, diss...

The Australian Government is doing its best dinosaur impression and trying hard to have a nuclear light-bulb moment, while the rest of the world is backing out of nuclear energy and buckling under the volumes of radioactive waste that need a permanent home. The South Australian Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle drags on irreverently and the hunt for a nuclear dumping ground is on. The n...

On the show this week we hear about a major national touring art exhibition titled 'Black Mist Burnt Country' which commemorates the 60th anniversary of the British atomic test series at Maralinga in South Australia. It revisits the events and its location through the artworks by Indigenous and non-Indigenous contemporary artists across the mediums of painting, print-making, sculpture, installatio...

Walkatjurra Walkabout 2015It's been 5 years of the Walkatjurra Walkabout, a walk from Wiluna to Leonora in Western Australia, led by Traditional Owners and focusing on preventing the expansion of the nuclear industry on country. In this show we hear excerpts from Kado Muir, a Yeelirie Traditional Owner, on his thoughts about the impacts of the mining industry, native title and Aboriginal sovereign...

Pine Gap is a Joint US-Australia signals intelligence facility located near Alice Springs in the arid heart of Australia. It is vitally important to the US war-fighting machine, and often referred to as America's eyes and ears on this side of the globe. We delve into it's relationship to and implication in the morality of drone warfare. We also hear a story of resistance, when a dedicated group of...

 Exploring nuclear themes in pop culture (REPEAT show from 2014 due to popular demand!) Radioactivity... it's awe-inspiring and terrible power seems to be an addictive plot device for countless comic, film and TV producers. This week we're looking at some examples, how they've mutated throughout history (excuse the pun) and what they're trying to tell us. We speak to anti-nuclear afficionados Lucy...

This is part two of a two-part Radioactive Show special. We've got an ear in Saskatchewan, a Canadian province dominated by one company, Cameco, and its uranium mines that riddle the north. We'll hear more about the impacts of uranium mining on Indigenous communities and the environment, and the condescending and insidious ways in which the company tries to buy social license. Our guests finish wi...

Cameco's Saskatchewan Secrets Part 1This is part one of a two-part Radioactive Show special, looking at the uranium mining industry in the north of the Canadian province, Saskatchewan. The industry is dominated by one company, Cameco, and it is omnipresent. The people of Saskatchewan have been dealing with Cameco for more than 30 years, and their story is a painful one of community divisions, illn...