Same dump, different Minister
Blog Post | Blog of Scott Ludlam
Wednesday 11th June 2008, 4:09pm
by ScottLudlam in
The Rudd Government needs to take a careful look at Martin Ferguson’s handling of the latest tragic chapter of Australia’s 50-year nuclear waste story.
A cursory review of the history of Government attempts to force nuclear waste dumps on unwilling communities shows an unbroken record of Government failure. It’s time for new thinking.
Former Science Minister Brendan Nelson summed up prevailing attitudes at a press conference in 2005: "why on earth can't people in the middle of nowhere have low level and intermediate level waste?" The ghost of Terra Nullius still haunts the question of what to do with the nation’s radioactive mess.
Mitch is an Arrernte and Luritja woman who speaks for one of the proposed dump sites in the ‘middle of nowhere’ at Harts Range. She said it best: “We didn’t offer up our land…We’re still fighting for food, about education, health and poverty issues, how can we be fighting against uranium mining and waste dumps of top of all that?”
Like the Kungkas (senior women) who led an earlier campaign to stop a waste dump in South Australia, and Western Australians who defeated the Pangea proposal, Territorians banded together and stuck up for themselves. In 2007 they extracted a promise from the Rudd opposition that Howard’s punitive Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act 2005 would be repealed, closing the door on the disgraceful land grab.
Now that’s all up in the air.
Martin Ferguson says “Let the Greens and the fringe groups play their little games, it's the responsibility of this parliament once and for all to resolve it.” Peter Garrett and other Labor MPs are falling over themselves to muddy the waters and re-frame commitments made before the election. It looks like history is about to repeat itself all over again (along has a harshly ironic edge, given Mr Rudd's current diplomatic engagement in Hiroshima).
Before proceeding any further with this spectacular betrayal of the Territorians who believed they had beaten the waste dump, the Prime Minister needs to step in, sideline Mr Ferguson and grab the once-in-a-generation opportunity that has arrived.
For fifty years we’ve had the Lucas Heights research reactor operating in Sydney with no real plan for the treatment of the high level radioactive waste, much of it parked in Western Europe awaiting reprocessing and reclassification as 'Long-Lived Intermediate Level Waste'. The core of the old reactor building is also highly radioactive and will need to be dealt with somehow. The dozens of de-facto low-level waste stores at hospitals and research centres around the country are a side issue compared to the unanswered questions of this high and intermediate level waste.
What is urgently needed is a properly deliberative process about what to do with this material, because in reality the fuel rods may well be much safer where they are at Lucas Heights, than transported halfway across the country and dumped in a hole. There is a strong argument for monitored, dry, above ground or near-surface storage, minimising transport risks and keeping the wastes close to centres of nuclear expertise.
This option needs to be discussed openly, with input from all stakeholders – particularly people living in the vicinity of Lucas Heights - rather than rushing down the same well-worn, failed path of attempting to dump the waste on politically vulnerable communities in central Australia.
Perhaps in the light of reasoned debate we will find that the best option is long-distance shipping to a remote site. But Australia needs to have that conversation.
Because, with a whole world of high level nuclear waste with nowhere to go, there is every reason to believe an national waste dump in the NT could rapidly mutate into something vastly larger.
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Giving someone with such
Giving someone with such utter contempt for the environment as Ferguson a portfolio which deals with the environment in some way is just about the stupidest thing ever. Ferguson has to be one of the most backward-thinking Ministers in the Rudd government, and has no place in a paty offering "new leadership" and building support based on the idea of a break with the last 10 years.
Dumping waste in the middle
Dumping waste in the middle of nowhere is not a bad idea. I don’t even mind if they do it in my area. As long as they DO IT PROPERLY. Don’t just bury it in a trench 10 meters deep. Spend some money and put it in stable bedrock. If the bedrock beneath Lucas Heights is suitable then put it there. If it is not then put it somewhere that is stable. And PLEASE stop generating the stuff. The cons far outweigh the pros for nuclear material and the lifespan of the waste sets up a dangerous legacy for future generations. Let’s just not be so irresponsible.
What a great first article
What a great first article from our newly eleceted senator from WA. Great to see he is off to a good start so far. Lets hope it continues. On the core issue that this Senator raises. I feel like it is "groundhog day" with the Rudd government most of the time on quite a few issues. There is no vision there for a fresh government i feel. On the issue of Nuclear waste and facilities. I think they should all be closed down as we need to be focussing on Renewables basically.
I once had this weird idea
I once had this weird idea of a traveling circus with nuke waste,so to spread the money looking after it to every small place in Australia! So the nuke gypsies tramps and thieves,lay their money down for six months,and us locals are up to our necks in government cash. Trouble is the song in the background changed to Promise Me Son Not To Do The Things I 've Done...... and seeing I am still hitch-hiking I would be walking into trouble...The Coward Of The County.
When the French were doing
When the French were doing their nuclear tests in the 1980s, and they told us that it was completely safe, Bob Hawke replied, "if it's safe, do it in Paris."
So my answer about radioactive waste dumps in Australia is, "if it's safe, put it under Parliament House." I mean, it's already underground...
Agreed Kiashu. There is a
Agreed Kiashu. There is a huge moth balled stainless steel and concrete commercial kitchen in the bowels of P/house that would do the trick. This would result in slightly more toxic out-gassing from the house than normal, and would only affect those responsible. An elegant solution.
I find it incredibly
I find it incredibly disrespectful to Aboriginal people that the government would store radioactive waste on Aboriginal land. Especially after the Maralinga tests.
It needs to be determined -
It needs to be determined - scientifically - what the best option is for the siting of a long-term storage facility for radioactive waste is.
Perhaps the idea of putting it out in the middle of nowhere in South Australia or the NT is the most scientifically sound and responsible option, or perhaps it isn't, and it's only the more preferable option when the political expedition factor is factored into it - perhaps, even if it better to store the radioactive waste close to the major population centres where the majority of the waste is generated, say, Sydney or Melbourne, they don't want it in the voter's backyards.
The fact is, however, that it's got to go somewhere. A realistic approach to the reality of radioactive waste is needed, and I hope the Greens are sensible and realistic about that (I'm reasonably sure they are, at this point.)
Comments along the lines of "stop generating the stuff!" are absurd - do you ever want to be able to have a nuclear medicine procedure if you need it? Do you want to live in a developed society which benefits from the technological applications of radioactive sources, and the use of radioactivity in science, research, medicine and industry, and benefit from advances in basic scientific research, medical imaging, advances in the biomedical sciences and so forth?
The fact is, our way of life in a developed, technological society involves potentially hazardous waste. Some of it is radioactive. It's our collective responsibility to handle it realistically and safely.
For most of us, the fact is, there is radioactive waste in all our backyards - essentially all of our major universities and hospitals create radioactive waste and possess radioactive waste, along with some industries.
A lot of it is just sitting in the basements of our universities and hospitals, because there is nowhere else to put it.
Radioactive waste is not just the product of nuclear power - which we don't have - and it's not just the product of ANSTO's research reactor(s).
Even if we didn't have that nuclear reactor, we would have to deal with radioactive waste - radiochemistry and radiopharmaceutical production at ANSTO, for just one example, produces radioactive waste, and that's irrespective of whether you're producing radioisotopes in a reactor, a cyclotron, or importing radioisotopes.
If, on rational, scientific grounds, the safest place for a storage facility is in remote NT or SA, then that is where it should be - however, if it makes more sense to have it closer to the east coast, where most of the waste probably comes from, then that is where it should be, even if some of those people in the electorate don't like it.
There will always be some members of the public who "don't want it in their backyard" - but it's got to go in somebody's backyard, so listening to every member of the public ahead of studying the most expeditious, environmentally and scientifically sound and safest solution is a mistake.
With regards to the intermediate-level vitrified fission product waste resulting from the reprocessing of nuclear fuel from Lucas Heights, where is the material at the moment? I assume it's going to be shipped back to Australia following reprocessing in France - so it doesn't really need to stay at Lucas Heights - if it is already at Lucas Heights, then sure, there's a case to be made that it can stay there if it can safely be stored there, but it can be delivered where ever when it's shipped back into the country.
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