Antinuclear

Doubtful that Australia will become the world’s nuclear trash dump

So will Australia become the nuclear waste dump of the world? It looks very doubtful, with too much at stake if things go wrong.

Will Australia become the world’s nuclear waste dump?, Blouin News November 16, 2015 by Michael Lerner  “…….. P.M. Malcolm Turnbull’s idea of possibly storing nuclear waste from elsewhere — permanently — has caused an outpouring of criticism. In a withering op-ed published last week, Dr. Jim Green, the national nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth, Australia, blasted the country’s previous nuclear safety record and economic viability of the storage scheme.

…the country needed to undertake three priority reforms in order to realize [the nuclear waste storage scheme]:

Removing exploration and mining bans in those states where the bans exist; excluding the federal government from the current dual state/federal environmental assessment process; and increasing the number of ports through which uranium can be exported.

All of these steps are controversial, as NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) sentiment runs high when it comes to anything nuclear.

Additionally, the government’s desire to export uranium to India, as per an earlier civilian nuclear power agreement, is even outweighing the recommendations of the nonpartisan committee established to examine the matter. Recommending that shipments not proceed under current circumstances, the committee identified a number of practical steps needed to address safety, security, and legal uncertainty around the deal. However, the official response last week was “the Government does not accept the Committee’s recommendation that exports of uranium to India should be deferred.”…….

one of Green’s arguments against such a scheme was Australia’s “sordid history dealing with long-lived nuclear waste.” He described the appalling engineering details of the “clean-up” the Australian government carried out at the Maralinga nuclear test site in the late 1990s, and quoted nuclear engineer Alan Parkinson, who said “What was done at Maralinga was a cheap and nasty solution that wouldn’t be adopted on white-fellas land.”

A separate official commission is looking into the future of Australia’s nuclear power industry, although the government has demurred on the question of whether or not it would give any support.

So will Australia become the nuclear waste dump of the world? It looks very doubtful, with too much at stake if things go wrong. Even the more modest steps of increasing uranium mining and exports face major hurdles. Perhaps that’s for the best. http://blogs.blouinnews.com/blouinbeatbusiness/2015/11/16/will-australia-become-the-worlds-nuclear-waste-dump/

November 18, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News