Antinuclear

The Adelaide Advertiser starts publicity campaign for nuclear reprocessing?

A pious article reminds South Australians that yes, there were health concerns about uranium mining, and yes nuclear waste is  a serious problem.

But by the end of this article – we are told that South Australia  “is an idea site for nuclear waste disposal, both national and international — with the potential for huge financial returns.”

and that “The international nuclear industry has made enormous advances in the past 30 years and many of the concerns raised by Mr Rann may have been addressed.”

and that these concerns “should be addressed, and hopefully dispelled, by the Royal Commission.”

It sounds to me as though the Advertiser, scripted by the nuclear lobby, is softening readers up for the idea of a nuclear reprocessing industry, with the rationale of (supposedly) curing the world’s nuclear waste problem

Rex Jory: SA is an ideal site for nuclear waste disposal, Adelaide Advertiser, 1 Mar 15  “……..As an adviser to former Labor Premier, Don Dunstan, Mr Rann studied aspects of the nuclear industry in Europe and the United States and in the early 1980s wrote a 32 page soft-covered book outlining his concerns about SA’s potential involvement in the nuclear industry.

Mr Rann, now Australian Ambassador to Italy, may have revised some of his beliefs, yet his book raises serious issues which the community and the Labor Party cannot easily ignore. No matter what recent advances have been made in nuclear safety, what was true, or perceived to be true, in 1980 cannot now be rejected without questioning 35 years later.

At the 1977 ALP national conference Mr Dunstan, concerned about the adequacy of existing international nuclear safeguards and waste disposal techniques, persuaded the party to adopt its “Play It Safe” policy effectively restricting uranium mining and outlawing nuclear processing.

Mr Rann said Dunstan had asked public service experts to study the matter and their report on safeguards and waste disposal problems was “absolutely chilling”. Chilling in 1977 and no concern today!

Mr Rann wrote, before work on the giant Roxby Downs copper/gold/uranium mine had begun: “The danger to uranium miners results from the inhalation of radon gas which is released when the ore is mined and milled. When inhaled the gas and its own ‘decay products’ can inflict radiation doses to the lungs, which can result in cancer developing years later.”………

“These countries have yet to decide, let alone solve, the problems of what to do with this waste permanently,” he wrote. “The waste, dangerous for thousands of years, is stored in steel tanks with lives of only 50-80 years and already there have been enormous difficulties with corrosion and leakages, some of them serious.”

March 1, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | media, South Australia