Antinuclear

[in 1960s] The idea was that Australia would become the ‘Saudi Arabia of uranium’, but not everyone agreed. Many wondered whether the Cold War would become a nuclear war, and noted the environmental hazards associated with both uranium mining and nuclear power plants. The threat to Indigenous land rights was added to these concerns when uranium was discovered at various places in the Alligator Rivers region of the Northern Territory, much of which would become Kakadu National Park………

‘The traditional owners had always opposed the Ranger uranium project and that became very obvious and explicitly clear to the Ranger Inquiry,’ says Mudd. ‘But ultimately, in the words of the Ranger Inquiry, and this is almost an exact version, “In the end we form the view that their opinion shall not prevail.” So in other words, “We recognise that you oppose the Ranger uranium project, but in the end that doesn’t matter.”

‘They recognised and gave the land rights to Mirarr Gundjeihmi and other groups in that region through the Gagudju Land Trust, but basically the price of getting their land rights was having to accept the Ranger uranium project, which was the one thing that they absolutely fiercely opposed.’

The Ranger mine was opened by then deputy PM Doug Anthony in June 1979. During the 1980s, Ranger and Narbarlek, a small deposit also in the Alligator Rivers Region, were joined by a third uranium mine, Olympic Dam in South Australia, the world’s largest uranium deposit…….

The ultimate plan for Ranger was that the site would be rehabilitated and incorporated in Kakadu, though that now seems unlikely. Since 1979, Environment Australia has documented over 200 environmental incidents at Ranger, including the discharge of a million litres of radioactive slurry in 2013.

‘There are two major open cut mines at Ranger,’ explains Mudd. ‘The first one has been filled with tailings and is now in the process of having a cover and waste rock put over the top of that and completely backfilling it. Pit three is in the process of that happening now as well, so they are discharging tailings into pit three, and eventually the tailings dam will be dug up at Ranger and put into pit three, and then pit three will be capped and then waste rock put over the top of that and then the land re-contoured.’

‘So to Mirarr, I guess what they see is very, very large disturbance, they see mountains of waste rock and low-grade ore, and sometimes that does affect their views of important sites like Djidbidjidbi or just the landscape.

‘It will never look the same again and the site will have to be monitored for decades to come after it is finished being rehabilitated so that we can make sure that it is actually in a stable chemical condition, the biodiversity is doing okay and the ecosystem is functional and so on.’

According to ERA figures, rehabilitation is expected to cost close to $500 million.

‘They’ve got about $67 million set aside as a bond for that,’ says Mudd. ‘So that means they’ve got well over $400 million left to find. Now, there are cash reserves sitting in the bank of ERA and I think that’s something of the order of $260 million. That’s got to also pay for ongoing operations as well as the activities of the company at the moment…….http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/history-of-uranium-mining-in-australia/6607212