Antinuclear

ARIUS ASSOCIATION’s Submission to #NuclearCommissionSAust confuses ethics with greed

AriusAssociation Submission to the Royal Commission on Management, Storage and Disposal of Nuclear and Radioactive Waste

Arius is a a non profit body, (but friendly to the nuclear industry).  It addresses  nuclear waste disposal. It details structures and measures needed. Arius relies heavily on information from [the failed South Australian]   Pangea Project. Its purported aim is  for an “ethical project” – ‘to fulfil our ethical responsibilities to future generations’

Arius is upbeat about economic advantages, upbeat about safety and security. It appears to be complacent about a safe uneventful future for nuclear industry.

Nowhere does Arius discuss the historic disasters of the nuclear industry, its intrinsic connection with nuclear weapons proliferation, not the increasing risks of terrorism.

In discussing nuclear waste from an ethical point of view, the option of just stopping making the stuff is not considered.

Despite Arius’ confidence in nuclear industry waste disposal technology, they are ware of the implications:

” The Extremely Long Times that must be considered Repository safety analyses are routinely carried out for a million years into the future. These time scales challenge the conventional basis for the design of technological systems. Designs for such systems are usually based on a combination of past experience and theoretical projections, which can be supported by testing and observations of performance on relevant time scales. Because it is not possible to test and observe the engineered components of a repository over representative time scales, a repository’s safety would ideally be guaranteed by natural processes that have already demonstrated their performance over millions of years.”

However, their central theme seems to be to enthuse over the financial benefits to South Australia.

January 18, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Submissions to Royal Commission S.A.