Greens propose a more rational way to deal with Lucas Heights’ returning nuclear wastes
“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.
Federal election 2016: Greens would put nuke dump on hold JARED OWENS The Australian,June 10, 2016 The Greens are pushing to stockpile radioactive waste in suburban Sydney, pending an independent inquiry that would expressly exclude evidence from anyone who might profit from a dedicated nuclear dump.
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 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. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/federal-election-2016/federal-election-2016-greens-would-put-nuke-dump-on-hold/news-story/42fabc8f9172fe65f1f282322fe60ade
No comments yet.
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 
Leave a comment