Antinuclear

Concerns about uranium mining have heated up in Australia recently, following government approval of the Olympic Dam  mine, which would be the world’s largest open pit uranium mine.

“(It’s) is a very sad day for South Australia and Australia. Many people around the world will also be appalled at this decision by the Labour Party,” said Footprints for Peace organizer Marcus Atkinson.

“In December 2003, Footprints for Peace, having walked from Olympic Dam uranium mine to Hiroshima in Japan, learnt from Traditional Custodians about the destruction of sacred sites and the enormous amounts of water being taken from the Great Artesian Basin,” Atkinson said.

“In Japan we stayed in Fukushima and heard from locals about the dark future they envisioned for their community. This community’s nightmare has come true in a much more terrifying way than anyone could have imagined. An environmental ministers job should be to protect the environment, but as Tony Burke has demonstrated today it is more about big business and little to do with the environment and our children’s future,” he added.

The latest march, billed as the “Walk away from Uranium Mining”, is to inform the community of the dangers of this industry. The walk began  August 20 in Wiluna in Western Australia, the proposed uranium mine site of Toro Energy and will finish in Perth on October 27, coinciding with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting meeting.

The walk’s participants are traditional Aboriginal custodians, people from all around Australia as well as people from the USA, France, Italy, Greece, Germany, New Zealand and Chile. Many of the walkers have first hand experience of this industry from mining to nuclear power, weapons and waste dumping and represent hundreds of thousands of people from all around the world who want a nuclear free future.

“In the same week the Labour party will pass legislation to limit the amount of carbon pollution, Tony Bourke, the federal environment minister has given the green light to BHP Billiton to build the world’s largest open cut uranium mine,” said Walk Away From Uranium Mining organiser William Taylor said.

“To me, this is a contradiction in the extreme, as Olympic Dam will produce millions of tons of pollution over its lifetime and produce vast quantities of the world’s most dangerous substance, all at a time when the world is turning away from nuclear power and towards renewable energy,” Taylor said. “Tony Bourke should reconsider his decision and rescind the approval of this mine,” he concluded.  http://summitcountyvoice.com/2011/10/11/environment-uranium-mine-plan-spurs-outrage-in-australia/