Antinuclear

Labor breaks election promise to set up inappropriate nuclear waste dump

Medical experts – including nuclear medicine practitioners – confirm that Australians can continue to have unimpeded access to diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicines without the need for this dump.

Labor reneges on nuclear waste promise, The Age, DAVE SWEENEY, May 14, 2010 –Before the 2007 election, federal Labor promised a new approach to the management of radioactive waste, characterised by international best practice, full community consultation and consent. It promised to restore transparency, accountability, procedural fairness and legal redress………..And it was scathing of the Howard government’s legal framework – the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act. Senior ALP figures lined up in the Senate like planes above Sydney to denounce the laws as “sordid”, “arrogant” and “draconian”….
………Instead of the promised repeal we got a cynical repackaging.

Labor’s proposed recycled law fails to restore procedural fairness and appeal rights, suspends the application of key indigenous and environmental protections and overrides all Commonwealth, state and territory laws that might delay or frustrate the opening of a waste dump……………There is only one site in Australia under consideration to host Ferguson’s radioactive waste dump – Muckaty, in the Northern Territory.

The Howard government first nominated Muckaty, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, as one of four possible sites for a nuclear waste dump in September 2007.

It was a controversial choice then and remains so now. The federal government secured a “voluntary nomination” from the Northern Land Council and one Aboriginal family group. The terms of that agreement have never been made public.

While some members of the Muckaty Land Trust support a national waste dump in return for cash benefits and access to improved services, many do not……

Another furphy is that access to nuclear medicine in Australia is dependent on putting a nuclear waste dump in the NT.

This is an emotive and improper link. Medical experts – including nuclear medicine practitioners – confirm that Australians can continue to have unimpeded access to diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicines without the need for this dump.

Another furphy is that of urgency. Ferguson argues that we need to move urgently on radioactive waste because “time is not on our side”. With 95 per cent of Australia’s radioactive waste in secure storage in two dedicated Commonwealth facilities it is hard to see Ferguson’s case for urgency.

Muckaty Site For Nuclear Waste Dump

May 14, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics | aboriginal, antinuclear, Australia, Lucas Heights, Muckaty, nuclear, nuclear weapons, radiation, renewable