Petition against storing nuclear waste on pastoral land

With nuclear power stations across the globe, deciding where to store nuclear waste safely is a priority that seems to have slipped under the media radar for awhile now. However, now that MP Ian Macfarlane has re-introduced plans for a nuclear waste dump in NT after changing the original location for the dump on Aboriginal land at Muckaty station, it seems more than likely that the government will settle on using a pastoral station.

A pastoral station with stored nuclear waste? What if the storage leaks? How are we to know if there is the possibility for this?

Firstly, information as to the details of how the waste will be stored and where it will be stored on one of these stations is not readily available to the public; problem number one. Secondly, keeping this dump on a property full of livestock that will eventually be available as meat for consumers to purchase in supermarkets is undeniably a problem. Farmers have agreed that the benefits financially from creating this dump will outweigh the ‘low-risk’, but is that good enough? Although cattle would not be raised directly on the location where the dump was, who is to say how far away a location would need to be to be safe from contamination if there were any issues?

by Stephanie Hosler Petition Organiser

1. Also, if you would like to try and bring MP Ian Macfarlane’s attention to the issue, this is his email address, which can be found on the Parliament of Australia website.
   Ian.Macfarlane.MP@aph.gov.au

October 10, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | ACTION