Australia 2015 in nuclear news

You wouldn’t think this, from the mainstream media coverage, but 2015 has been a successful year for the Australian nuclear-free movement, with Aboriginal led opposition to nuclear waste dump plans, the end to the Ranger uranium mine, and a lively anti-nuclear movement. In polling, 72% of Australians oppose this nation becoming the world’s radioactive trash dump.

The key nuclear issue for 2015 was radioactive trash. Australia is obligated to take back nuclear trash, reprocessed in France, UK and Argentina, but which originated at the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney.

An intelligent visitor from Mars might wonder as to why Australia doesn’t just shut down that reactor, store that small amount of trash at Lucas Heights, and stop producing more, especially as a nuclear reactor is now not necessary for production of medical radioisotopes.

But hey – you’d have to explain to that Martian that Lucas Heights is the nuclear lobby’s foot in the door to Australia, and also that the lobby hopes to confuse Australians into accepting something entirely different – a global nuclear waste import business.

Hence the setting up of South Australia’s Nuclear Fuel Chain Royal Commission, an attempt to establish a waste-dump in South Australia. With breathtaking hypocrisy, this clearly biased Royal Commission pretends that this is just a South Australian matter. Australia’s government and truly pathetic mainstream media go along with this hypocrisy, so the question of Australia becoming the world’s nuclear toilet is just not even discussed across the nation.

The Australian government had already learned, to its cost, that Northern Territory indigenous landowners can defeat their plans for nuclear waste dumping on Aboriginal land. So the government was forced to set up an unwieldy system of inviting volunteers to host the nuclear waste that must be received back from France in 2016. So far,only non indigenous volunteers have been forthcoming, and these met with strong local opposition.

Despite continual funding cutbacks, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency is pushing ahead, and investing in projects which will change the face of Australia’s energy market — if the government allows it for any longer. Australia leads the world in home rooftop solar.

The Nuclear Fuel Chain Royal Commission might have bitten off more than it intended to. There were numerous powerful and well constructed Submissions to this Commission, opposing its nuclear waste dump plan. You can read some of these at the Submissions pages on my Antinuclear website.

Space does not here permit discussion of Australia’s rather embarrassing role at the December Paris climate talks.