Antinuclear

Hans-Peter Schnelboegl’s submission on draft Terms of Reference for Nuclear Royal Commission

the Royal Commission itself may act in breach of the “Nuclear Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act” by promoting  radioactive waste storage in SA.

Submission on draft Terms of Reference to the SA Royal Commission on our role in nuclear energy

The draft Terms of Reference for the Royal Commission are heavily  leaning in favour of new nuclear ventures rather than investigating the issue impartially:

The first paragraph includes supportive phrases like:
“whether there is any potential for the expansion”
”any circumstances necessary for such an increase”
“opportunities created by expanding”
“the measures that might be required to facilitate and regulate that
increase in activity”

This is balanced by just one cautious phrase:
“any risks … created by expanding”
The other paragraphs of the draft ToR’s show a similar imbalance.

I request that the ToR’s be expanded to explicitly include

Precautionary Principle
Intergenerational Equity
Long-term Consequences
Public and Workers’ Health
Impacts on Freedom and Democracy
Nuclear versus Alternative energy sources – comparison of cost and risks

The reasons are in short:

It is well known that the nuclear industry involves severe dangers  from radiation exposure. Radiation can not be perceived by any of the  human senses. The health consequences of exposure to radiation are,
in most cases, experienced much later when no connection to the  exposure is drawn.

Furthermore, nuclear ventures are characterised by the potential for  severest nuclear accidents and incidents like The nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki where hundreds of  thousands of inhabitants were incinerated in an instant or slowly died  from burns, cancers …

The explosion of a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl. Scientists using  mainly epidemiological data have shown that by 2004 already 1 million  people had died from the consequences of the accident. This number is growing.
The meltdown of four Fukushima reactors fuelled by Australian uranium.
The resulting contamination of our oceans, especially the Pacific  Ocean, is steadily increasing.

Uranium mining in Australia has a deadly impact on mine workers,  nearby residents and, most of all, on future generations.
For decades Australian governments have refused to establish a  database for uranium mine workers’ health, and the currently partially  established database seems skewed like the draft terms of this Royal
Commission.
It seems mining companies are now using highly sensitive blood tests  to detect cancers and weakened defences against cancers early, and  then simply terminate employment.
Much worse than the impact on mine workers will be the impact on  future generations using contaminated groundwater and/or being exposed  to radioactive dust storms dispersing the fine radioactive materials  in tailings dams.

This is compounded by the fact that the hazards of  radiation and the proper maintenance of radiation hot spots will be  forgotten within a few hundred years. Already today local kids and  tourists are swimming in contaminated mining dams.

The Impacts on Freedom and Democracy stem mainly from the strong  public opposition to any nuclear industries and the subsequent  attempts by governments to quell that opposition.
This happened when the French government developed its vast nuclear industry: Widespread opposition and protests were suffocated by  horrendous police brutality permanently damaging French democracy.

In South Australia, police brutality led to the locking up of peaceful  protesters in a shipping container at the Beverley uranium mine site –  in full sun, for hours without water and toilets. This resulted in a
million dollar court verdict against the South Australian government,  i.e. the SA taxpayer.

Those responsible for ignoring the public’s  opposition to uranium mining and approving the hazardous mine, for  brutally suffocating peaceful protests with methods akin to torture,  they were neither jailed nor fined.
Another SA example of destructive impacts of nuclear industries on  freedom and democracy is the special status of the Olympic Dam mine:  A number of public rights have been suspended for the mine.
For example FoI: The SA government is not allowed to pass on information from the mine without the consent of the mine. This is  highly relevant when it comes to the frequent accidents and incidents
at the site. I remember two major fires of very large storage ponds  for used process chemicals (kerosene and the like) and numerous pipes  resulting in a plum of thick smoke passing over SA. There was very
little or no reliable information available about the radioactive  contents of the smoke.

Further, Aboriginal heritage protection and certain environmental  regulations have been suspended for the Olympic Dam uranium mine.

And finally, the Royal Commission itself may act in breach of the “Nuclear Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act” by promoting  radioactive waste storage in SA.

March 14, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, politics, South Australia