Muckaty radioactive waste dump not necessary for nuclear medicine
HEALTH PROFESSIONALS DISPUTE CANBERRA’S NUCLEAR DUMP CLAIMS , 12 sept 11, The Public Health Association of Australia and the Medical Association for the Prevention of War are tonight hosting a special forum at Charles Darwin University to address Canberra’s plan for a radioactive waste storage and disposal facility in the NT. Topics will include refuting the Federal Government’s claims about the connection between nuclear medicine and the proposed waste facility.
The forum is timely with the federal Senate scheduled to debate the highly-controversial National Radioactive Waste Management Bill (NRWMB) this week, and with the Federal Court scheduled to hear a legal challenge against the nomination of the Muckaty site next month. Medical groups have previously written to Federal Senators calling on them to reject the NRWMB (online at <http://tiny.cc/2c7z0>).
With this appeal, The Public Health Association of Australia, the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance (NT), Doctors for the Environment Australia and the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation (SA) have also called on a public inquiry into the need for a radioisotope disposal facility.
Dr Peter Karamoskos, a Nuclear Radiologist from Melbourne and one of the speakers at tonight’s forum, said: “Linking the alleged need for a central radioactive waste storage facility with the production of isotopes for nuclear medicine is misleading. The outcome of the controversy over the proposed waste facility in the NT will in no way affect my nuclear medicine practice nor that of any of my colleagues around Australia. The claim that a waste facility is required to support nuclear medicine is mischievous scare-mongering.”
Adelaide River-based General Practitioner Dr Michael Fonda, who is also addressing the forum tonight, said: “Even if a central waste facility was required, that is no reason to impose it in the NT. A Bureau of Resource Sciences preliminary siting study in the 1990s identified eight sites around Australia considered ‘suitable’ for further consideration. The Muckaty site was not considered suitable yet the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill identifies Muckaty as the only site under active consideration for a radioactive waste facility.
“The Federal Government should go back to square one and thoroughly consider radioactive waste management options,” Dr Fonda concluded.
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