Antinuclear

The party’s nuclear policy would cancel the process led by Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg that has identified farmland at Barndioota, 400km north of Adelaide, as a potential nuclear waste site, despite objections raised by some traditional owners.

Under the policy, exports of Australian nuclear medicine to overseas patients would be curbed and research would be funded to find alternatives to radiotherapy.

The proposed independent ­inquiry would be charged with recom­mending a long-term solution to storing nuclear waste — typically, used medical equipment and spent fuel rods from Sydney’s Lucas Heights reactor — without imposing a dump site on reluctant communities.

In the meantime, intermediate-level nuclear waste would contin­ue to be warehoused at the Lucas Heights reactor in Sydney’s south.

The inquiry would hear from community groups and experts in engineering, social science, envir­onmental science, community consultation, radiation and medicine, the policy says.

However, witnesses deemed to have a “conflict of interest” — that is, those who might profit from the storage of nuclear waste — would be excluded from the process.

“The Greens policy delivers a way forward by redirecting existing funding of $30 million from the current process to a new deliberative public inquiry focused on transparency and evidence to come up with the best possible ­solutions,” South Australian Greens senator Robert Simms said.

The policy adds to the growing list of demands that Bill Shorten would face in exchange for the minor party’s support in the event of a hung parliament……..

The Greens’ proposed inquiry would run alongside a separate royal commission into British ­nuclear testing in South Australia and Western Australia in the 1950s and 1960s.  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/federal-election-2016/federal-election-2016-greens-would-put-nuke-dump-on-hold/news-story/42fabc8f9172fe65f1f282322fe60ade