Selected CSIRO media mentions for the week commencing 25 May. If you encounter a paywall, request a text version by emailing the article title here.
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First national food system stocktake reveals $274b hidden cost – CSIRO has released Australia’s first comprehensive stocktake of the nation’s $800 billion food system, revealing hidden costs of up to $274 billion annually and calling for a coordinated approach to managing complex challenges across the sector… AuMaunfacturing. 2 June 2025 (link, text below).
Rare space object blasts X-rays and radio waves every 44 minutes – Astronomers have detected a rare space object that emits powerful bursts of energy in both radio and X-ray wavelengths every 44 minutes. The object, known as ASKAP J1832-0911, lies around 15,000 light-years away in the Milky Way and is the first of its kind to show such behaviour across both ends of the electromagnetic spectrum… Times of India. 31 May 2025 (link, text below).
New technology developed in Australia could help clear land mines faster, better – Almost three decades since the international adoption of the Mine Ban Treaty, civilians in almost 70 countries still live with the risk of landmines. About 6,000 people a year are killed and wounded globally by explosive remnants. Clearance operations remain both a dangerous and painstaking task. It can take decades to rid a country of explosive remnants, but an Australian company – in partnership with the CSIRO – has developed new technology that it says has the potential to make clearance operations faster, smarter and safer… SBS News In Depth, 31 May 2025 (link, text below).
Offshore regulator investigates Woodside spill off WA’s Ningaloo coast – The federal offshore energy regulator is investigating Woodside Energy’s management of an oil spill off Western Australia’s north-west coast. The “unplanned discharge” occurred on May 8 amid decommissioning activities at the Griffin oil and gas field, about 58 kilometres north-west of Exmouth… ABC news online, 27 May 2025 (link, text below)
POSCO Establishes Australia’s First Core Resource Research Institute in Perth to Boost Advanced Material – POSCO Holdings has inaugurated the Australian Core Resource Research Institute in Perth, Western Australia, marking its ambitious effort to secure cutting-edge technological competitiveness in steel, secondary battery materials, and rare earth elements. This is the first instance of a Korean company establishing a dedicated resource research facility directly in a region rich in raw materials… Korea IT Times, 25 May 2025 (link, text below).
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By Simran Gill, AuMaunfacturing. 2 June 2025
CSIRO has released Australia’s first comprehensive stocktake of the nation’s $800 billion food system, revealing hidden costs of up to $274 billion annually and calling for a coordinated approach to managing complex challenges across the sector.
The report, released on Monday through the Food System Horizons initiative, examined Australia’s food system which feeds approximately 100 million people globally, including 27 million Australians, with food produced by around 100,000 farmers.
The study found Australia has the highest per capita hidden food system costs in the world, primarily from environmental and health impacts not reflected in market prices. These costs include diet-related diseases, environmental degradation and resource depletion.
CSIRO Agriculture and Food Director Dr Michael Robertson said the stocktake provides critical evidence for addressing challenges facing the food system.
“Our food system is more than just producing and exporting commodities – it’s also about providing equitable access to safe, nutritious and healthy food, produced sustainably for all Australians,” Dr Robertson said.
The report highlighted significant concerns including that almost one-third of Australian households experience moderate or severe food insecurity annually, and fewer than five per cent of Australians consume fruit and vegetables consistent with dietary guidelines.
CSIRO Sustainability Research Director Larelle McMillan said food policy in Australia is fragmented across portfolios including agriculture, environment, industry, social services, health, transport and urban planning.
“We need to move from analysing specific parts of the food system, to establishing coordinated reporting for important food system attributes and interactions,” McMillan said.
The report identified three key steps for transformation: recognising the food system as an integrated whole, navigating responsibility across government and industry, and enabling interactions across disconnected parts of the system.
While Australia’s food system generates more than $800 billion annually and provides significant regional employment, the research suggests coordinated reporting and management could better address sustainability, nutrition and equity goals alongside economic objectives.
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Times of India, 31 May 2025
Astronomers have detected a rare space object that emits powerful bursts of energy in both radio and X-ray wavelengths every 44 minutes. The object, known as ASKAP J1832-0911, lies around 15,000 light-years away in the Milky Way and is the first of its kind to show such behaviour across both ends of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Long-period transients (LPTs) a recently identified class of cosmic bodies typically emit brief pulses of radio waves separated by hours or minutes. But until now, none had been observed producing X-ray emissions. ASKAP J1832-0911 has changed that, emitting energy levels far beyond anything previously recorded in this category.
“This object is unlike anything we have seen before,” said Dr Ziteng (Andy) Wang, lead author of the study and a researcher at Curtin University, part of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR). The findings were published this week in *Nature*.
A lucky observation
ASKAP J1832-0911 was initially detected via radio signals by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), operated by CSIRO on Wajarri Yamaji Country. By sheer coincidence, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory happened to be surveying the same region of sky at the same time, enabling astronomers to match the radio pulses with bursts of X-ray radiation.
“Discovering that ASKAP J1832-0911 was emitting X-rays felt like finding a needle in a haystack,” said Dr Wang. “The ASKAP telescope has a broad view of the sky, but Chandra focuses on a much smaller region, so the overlap was a matter of great fortune.”
Since the first LPT was discovered in 2022, around ten more have been identified. But none has demonstrated behaviour as intense and regular as ASKAP J1832-0911.
New Physics on the horizon?
Astronomers suspect ASKAP J1832-0911 could be either an ageing magnetar a type of dead star with extremely strong magnetic fields or a binary system containing a magnetised white dwarf, the remnant of a low-mass star.
“ASKAP J1831-0911 could be a magnetar, or it could be a pair of stars in a binary system where one is a highly magnetised white dwarf,” Wang explained. “However, even those theories do not fully explain what we are observing. This discovery could indicate a new type of physics or new models of stellar evolution.”
A doorway to more discoveries
According to Professor Nanda Rea from the Institute of Space Science (ICE-CSIC) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), the discovery suggests ASKAP J1832-0911 may be the first of many similar objects.
“Finding one such object hints at the existence of many more,” Rea said. “The discovery of its transient X-ray emission opens fresh insights into their mysterious nature.”
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SBS News In Depth, 31 May 2025
Almost three decades since the international adoption of the Mine Ban Treaty, civilians in almost 70 countries still live with the risk of landmines. About 6,000 people a year are killed and wounded globally by explosive remnants. Clearance operations remain both a dangerous and painstaking task. It can take decades to rid a country of explosive remnants, but an Australian company – in partnership with the CSIRO – has developed new technology that it says has the potential to make clearance operations faster, smarter and safer.
Before the war, she was a teacher.
Now 34 year-old Maryna Kupchenko spends 10 hours a day scouring war-ravaged fields on the outskirts of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.
Clearing landmines, she says, is both a painstaking and perilous task.
“We must remain highly focused for long periods as even the smallest mistake can be fatal.”
Ukraine is now believed to be the most the most dangerous place on earth for unexploded weapons.
Australian volunteer Nick Parsons recently died in a demining incident in the east of the country.
It’s estimated millions of explosives have been strewn across battlefields in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
Almost a quarter of the country is at risk of contamination, and it could take decades to rid the land of these invisible enemies.
Ensuring the safety of people now and into the future is the main reason Ms Kupchenko, a mother of two, became a de-miner.
“I decided that I must do something for my country. Sometimes (I’m) a little bit scared but I understand that my job, I must do it because it’s important.”
Landmines are a lethal legacy of war, where an end to the fighting does not mean an end to the casualties.
NATO estimates 110 million explosive devices lie in wait across the globe, with almost 70 countries affected – a result of historic and new conflicts.
The Vietnam war ended in 1975, but over the past 50 years, more than 40,000 people have been killed by explosive ordnance.
About 60,000 others survived but were maimed.
And in Syria, more than 600 people have died since the fall of the Assad regime in December.
Families have been returning home after years of war to find their villages laden with explosives.
Bruce Edwards, also based in Mykolaiv, is the former Australian Ambassador to Ukraine.
He now works for The HALO Trust, the world’s largest landmine clearance charity.
“Our CEO has described landmines as the ‘eternal vigilant sentry’ and no better is that demonstrated in the likes of Angola, one of our largest programs. In Cambodia, in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka… still we’re seeing deaths and inaccessibility due to these wars that for many people will be far, far from their memory.”
Landmine clearance operations are agonisingly slow.
Current devices typically detect metal and this can lead to hundreds of false positives, with former battlefields also littered with shrapnel, debris and other metal.
And many mines are now made from plastic – partly because it’s difficult to detect.
But what if you could instead identify explosives?
It’s a method that’s been tried and tested – largely without success – for decades.
But one Australian company may have cracked the code.
Nick Cutmore is the Chief Technology Officer at Sydney based start-up MRead.
“(There’s) nothing around in current technology that can look into the ground and tell you that there’s absolutely explosive there and count the number of explosive molecules present. That’s exactly what we do. People have chased developing this method for 20 years. It’s the holy grail of detection.”
MRead has developed a handheld device that looks like a metal detector, but instead uses technology known as magnetic resonance to detect explosive compounds.
“The technology we’re using is based on radio waves. So the closest analogy that you could think of in your daily life is the MRI scan in a hospital, where you basically have radio waves going into you as the object and the radio waves that come back help to form the image of that scan. We do something similar.”
Last year saw the first breakthrough in Angola – one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.
Trials in live minefields – the same visited by Princess Diana in the late 90s – were a success.
Carried out in collaboration with The HALO Trust, the trials demonstrated that the device’s ability to detect the explosive compound, RDX.
But the team were only halfway there.
TNT is the most common explosive used in landmines.
And in lab testing in Australia last month, there was another breakthrough – it too was identified.
HALO’s Bruce Edwards says it’s a significant development.
“I’m a big fan of saying there is no silver bullet in our work and people ask about gamechangers all the time, If we can have a detector that does detect both RDX and TNT within metal and plastic mines, then this has got to be close to a gamechanger.”
The team hopes the lab results will translate to reality.
A new prototype that can detect both TNT and RDX, explosives believed to be found in 90 per cent of mines globally, is now in development with active minefield trials expected to begin in 2026.
“As I said, no silver bullet, but definitely a breakthrough. It is exciting. Absolutely. And as an Australian, I’ve got to say, it is quite nice to have this Australian contribution being made across the world and I’d love to see them in Ukraine.”
The HALO Trust believes the technology has the potential to speed up clearance operations by 30 per cent – a significant statistic given how many lives are at stake.
About 6,000 (5,757) people a year are killed and wounded globally by mines and explosive remnants.
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ABC news online, 27 May 2025
The federal offshore energy regulator is investigating Woodside Energy’s management of an oil spill off Western Australia’s north-west coast.
The “unplanned discharge” occurred on May 8 amid decommissioning activities at the Griffin oil and gas field, about 58 kilometres north-west of Exmouth.
A subsea pipeline was being flushed when engineers noticed the release of fluids and called off the operation.
In a statement, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) said about 61,000 litres of water and hydrocarbons were discharged into the surrounding ocean.
Of that, a NOPSEMA spokesperson said about 16,000 litres might have been hydrocarbons.
“NOPSEMA is aware of the incident and it is currently under investigation,” they said.
“NOPSEMA’s position is to ensure titleholders undertake decommissioning activities in a safe and timely manner.”
A Woodside spokesperson said the company was monitoring the spill and working with the regulator.
The spokesperson acknowledged the spill contained “remnant aged hydrocarbon and residual chemicals”.
Hydrocarbons are the chief components of petroleum and natural gas.
Environment risk
The gas giant said a team of environmental scientists was dispatched to monitor the spill and deployed tracking buoys.
CSIRO senior research scientist Sharon Hook said hydrocarbons varied in type and more information was needed to predict the environmental impact.
“Heavy oil can coat animals and plants, and form a barrier between it and [its] oxygen source,” she said.
“Lighter oil, like petroleum, evaporates really quickly but can be really quickly absorbed by plants and animals.”
Woodside said it anticipated no contact with shorelines or sensitive habitats, despite the spill’s proximity to the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef.
Denise Fitch, chairperson of the environmental non-profit Cape Conservation Group based in Exmouth, said a record marine heatwave that gripped the WA coastline in recent months had left it vulnerable.
“We’re devastated,” she said.
“These things are a gamble and that coastline has a lot of different currents.
Ms Fitch said there was “no trust left” in the industry.
“There’s no trust in their being capable of preventing oil spills,” she said.
“There have been, even in the last 12-to -8 months, a number of incidents where there have been spills and where decommissioning has caused issues or hasn’t been done properly.”
With the remnant infrastructure in Commonwealth waters, NOPSEMA directed Woodside to decommission it.
At the time of the spill, 18 of 21 Griffin pipelines had been successfully flushed in preparation for removal.
The site has previously come under fire by regulators and environmentalists.
Greenpeace criticised Woodside in 2021 for leaving a 93-metre-tall “riser turret mooring” in the seabed, where it had been sunk years prior by BHP.
Woodside eventually recovered the structure in December 2024 after NOPSEMA threatened fines.
All eyes on Woodside
Revelations of the incident come as Woodside awaits final federal approval for its North West Shelf gas hub extension to operate through to 2070.
The plant processes natural gas pulled from the continental shelf surrounding the Griffin field spill site, one of the largest known reserves of the resource in Australia.
The day of the spill also coincided with Woodside’s annual general meeting in Perth, where protesters disrupted proceedings to highlight concerns over climate change.
Soon after, the company announced it had amended its proposed Browse development in the Kimberley, based on advice from WA’s Environmental Protection Agency.
Woodside said it would shrink the project’s footprint to no longer include Scott Reef shallow water habitats or Sandy Islet.
It also pledged to implement a newly-trialled technology that could minimise the risk of a subsea spill and “immediately stop the flow of hydrocarbons to the environment” within 12 hours.
Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt is set to make his decision on the North West Shelf extension in days.
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Korea IT Times, 25 May 2025
POSCO Holdings has inaugurated the Australian Core Resource Research Institute in Perth, Western Australia, marking its ambitious effort to secure cutting-edge technological competitiveness in steel, secondary battery materials, and rare earth elements. This is the first instance of a Korean company establishing a dedicated resource research facility directly in a region rich in raw materials.
The opening ceremony took place on May 30 in Perth, attended by POSCO Group Chairman Jin-Hwa Jang, Future Technology Research Institute Director Gi-Su Kim, along with representatives from Australian resource companies such as Hancock, BHP, Rio Tinto, and PLS (formerly Pilbara Minerals). Participants also included scholars and researchers from institutions like CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), MRIWA (Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia), Curtin University, and other local academic and industry organizations involved in resource development.
Addressing the gathering, Chairman Jang emphasized, “Since first receiving Australian iron ore in 1971, POSCO has fostered strong trust and collaboration with the Australian government and industry. Today, with the establishment of the Australian Core Resource Research Institute, we aim to leverage Australia’s abundant natural resources combined with POSCO’s advanced material technologies to increase the value of our key business sectors and develop strategic hubs for raw material processing and critical mineral acquisition.”
POSCO Group recognizes the importance of localizing research activities, not only for cost-efficient raw material procurement—given the high raw material cost structure of steel and secondary battery sectors—but also for advancing technologies that can reduce carbon emissions. To this end, it has established the specialized research center in Australia, the first of its kind among Korean companies, situated close to mining sites and global research institutions.
Chairman Jang has repeatedly stressed the significance of structural innovation in cost management and technological breakthroughs. He pointed out that aligning research, production, and sales strategies across all business processes is key to overcoming industry challenges.
The Australian Core Resource Research Institute is set to serve as a hub for POSCO’s core mineral R&D activities, focusing on technologies such as low-carbon ironmaking and raw material utilization, as well as cost reduction techniques for lithium and nickel in relevant supply chains. The institute will also pursue research into rare earth element supply chains and high-efficiency separation and refining technologies, exploring opportunities for next-generation critical minerals and potential new resources through local partnership and information exchange.
Since the early 1980s, POSCO has actively participated in developing Australia’s supply chain for key minerals like iron ore and lithium. It contributed to the development of the Roy Hill mine for stable iron ore sourcing and operates a joint venture with PLS for producing lithium hydroxide for secondary batteries.
Moreover, Chairman Jang, who also serves as Korea-Australia Economic Cooperation Committee Chairman, advocates expanding cooperation beyond traditional resource partnerships into integrated economic collaboration, fostering closer industry relations between the two nations and supporting industrial development and innovation.