Antinuclear

But that was then. Now, old friends in the community no longer speak, and people on the streets of the South Australian town are afraid to talk about the issue that has driven a wedge between neighbours: a proposed nuclear waste dump.

Cortlinye, near Kimba, is one of six sites across Australia the federal government has shortlisted to host the nation’s first permanent nuclear dump for low-level and intermediate waste.

The others are at Sallys Flat near Hill End in NSW, Hale in the Northern Territory, Pinkawillinie and Barndioota in South Australia and Oman Ama in Queensland.

If sites are approved, landowners who volunteered their property would receive up to four times the value of their land, and the community would receive about $10 million for infrastructure or services.

But this fight is “not about money”, said Mr Woolford, who was in Canberra on Tuesday with waste dump opponents from the other five communities to voice their concern. They say Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg refused to meet them, however they met other senior officials.

“[My wife and I] have a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of tears and stress, feeling sick,” Mr Woolford said. “The mental health issues that the process has created, the stress and the anger and the deep division in our community is real.”………

Australia has accumulated the equivalent of more than two Olympic sized swimming pools of low-level radioactive waste from research, medical and industrial use. It has also accumulated intermediate level waste, such as from the production of radiopharmaceuticals………..

Mr Frydenberg said feedback from the initial consultation process will help inform the government’s next steps, which would involve further community consultation, technical assessment and a shortlist of two to three sites.

“Ultimately we are looking for a site which has broad based community support,” he said.

A final site is expected to be identified by the end of this year.

Aboriginal woman Regina Mackenzie said the proposed Barndioota site in the Flinders Ranges threatened important cultural heritage sites. “There was no consultation whatsoever … we just feel it’s an attack on our belief system,” she said.

Hill End spokeswoman Robyn Rayner owns and runs a merino stud with her husband, and said the proposed site was across the road from their home.

“We are here today as a united group. We are from all different walks of Australia but we all share the same [concern], we are totally against this,” she said.

“We want the government to listen. No means no.”

Greens nuclear spokesman senator Scott Ludlam said communities were told the dump would not be built if locals largely objected.

“There’s strong opposition in all six communities [and] the government needs to abandon this idea,” he said.  http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/sleepless-nights-tears-and-stress-communities-fight-turnbull-governments-nuclear-waste-dump-plans-20160301-gn78vi.html#ixzz41gYstdmC