Antinuclear

Muckaty was never selected scientifically as a nuclear waste dump site

15 July 2005 The Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP, announces three potential locations to be investigated for the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Facility. The three locations are properties located near Katherine and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory: Fishers Ridge, Department of Defence property, southeast of RAAF Base Tindal; Mt Everard, Department of Defence property, northwest of Alice Springs; and Harts Range, Department of Defence property, northeast of Alice Springs. The new facility will co-locate low-level and intermediate-level radioactive wastes.
http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/online/RadioactiveWaste#radio

Christina Macpherson 19 April 13.  It’s hard to discover exactly what sites were recommended by  Bureau of Resource Sciences in the 1990’s, but Muckaty wasn’t one of them.

NRIC, A Radioactive Waste Repository for Australia: Methods for Choosing the Right Site, DPIE, Canberra, 1992.The Commonwealth releases its report National Radioactive Waste Repository Site Selection Study, Phase 1 for public comment by December 1992. The Phase 1 report is prepared by the National Resource Information Centre (NRIC), a science unit within the Department of Primary Industries and Energy (DPIE). The report:

describes the nature of radioactive wastes

briefly describes the criteria for assessing the suitability of sites for hosting a waste repository

outlines a Geographic Information Systembased system for applying the criteria, and
describes the way a repository would be constructed.

Of the eight regions identified by this study, five were selected entirely by using ASSESS. These were the
Tanami, Bloods Range, Everard, Billa Kalina and Olary regions. They were identified as the largest areas
where registering the clusters of cells repeatedly indicated suitability for different scenarios. ASSESS also
showed the distribution of suitable through to unsuitable cells for the other three areas, Jackson, Maralinga
and Mount Isa, but their selection was based on additional considerations, for example, public suggestions
that the Maralinga area might be appropriate.
w the area(s) of interest.
• BILLA KALINA
• BLOODS RANGE
• EVERARD
• JACKSON
• MARALINGA
• MOUNT ISA
• OLARY
• TANAMI

Specific considerations for some regions are:
Mount Isa. Regional groundwater quality is good so a suitable site would be preferred in an area with
very little or no groundwater or groundwater at great depth.
Everard. Transport access and the relatively small size of the suitable areas may be limiting.
Maralinga. The geomorphological setting would need to be characterised in detail to ensure that criterion
c (groundwater movement patterns) can be satisfied.
Jackson. provides a useful comparison with, and a frame of reference for, the other regions. Parts of that
region have been studied in detail and were found suitable for a near-surface radioactive waste
repository.
Bloods Range. comments as for the Mount Isa region. Transport access may be limiting.
Discussion of each region’s comparative advantages and disadvantages provide a basis for public comment.
These comments will be reviewed before Phase 3 commences.
. Five regions were chosen
based on ASSESS and three were identified by consultation.
The five regions identified by ASSESS were:
Billa Kalina, SA
Bloods Range, NT
Everard, SA
Olary, SA and NSW
Tanami, NT
The three regions identified by consultation were
Jackson, WA
Maralinga, SA
Mount Isa, Ql http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/online/RadioactiveWaste

The preferred region
The outcome of the descriptive and analytical comparison of the eight regions is that the Billa Kalina region (Central South Australia)
is to be preferred and is recommended for investigation to identify a suitable repository site. Although other
regions are likely to contain suitable sites, this region contains the largest areas of relative suitability with
respect to the NHMRC selection criteria and on the basis of available data. http://www.ret.gov.au/resources/documents/radioactive_waste/public_discussion_paper_phase_3.pdfThe

The Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP, announces three potential locations to be investigated for the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Facility. The three locations are properties located near Katherine and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory: Fishers Ridge, Department of Defence property, southeast of RAAF Base Tindal; Mt Everard, Department of Defence property, northwest of Alice Springs; and Harts Range, Department of Defence property, northeast of Alice Springs. The new facility will co-locate low-level and intermediate-level radioactive wastes.
http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/online/RadioactiveWaste#radio

April 19, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, Christina reviews