Antinuclear

Is South Australia so desperate that it would become the world’s nuclear toilet?

The Royal Commission did say most of the really dangerous stuff will have dissipated in 500 years. So South Australia should be relatively OK somewhere around 2600.

if this state is known for anything globally, it will likely be as “that place that takes all the world’s dangerous crap’’

Should South Australia be home to the world’s largest nuclear waste dump? The Advertiser July 28, 2016    “…….It’s a sure sign that we’ve given up By Michael McGuire — CASE AGAINST

IS there any greater sign that we have given up as a state than to volunteer to become a receptacle for some of the most dangerous material on the planet? Is there anything that says “We have completely run out of ideas” quite like becoming the place where nuclear waste fuel rods spend their retirement years?

There is a famous quote on the Statue of Liberty that proclaims “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free’’. Perhaps we could put something similar on the Mall’s Balls.

“Give me your poison, your chemicals, your radioactivity, we’ll breathe them for you.’’

Look, I understand the cool-headed intellectual analysis of why some people want South Australia to become home to a nuclear dump. Or a high-level nuclear waste repository to give the thing its full Orwellian moniker. Ridiculous sums of money are mentioned. One report mentioned $445 billion being pumped into the state’s economy over 70 years. Although, that argument was slightly undermined by a later report where Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commissioner Kevin Scarce admitted “there is no existing market to ascertain the price a customer may be willing to pay’’.

It is the focus on the dollars that underlines our own desperation. With the state’s unemployment rate stubbornly remaining the highest in the nation, with job and economic growth worryingly low, we are well disposed to latch on to any magic beans that a kindly stranger may offer.

There has been recent good news on the defence front but it’s not enough to banish the crippling fear that SA is stuck in a long-term downward trend. If the economy was flying, if the unemployment rate was 3.5 per cent, do you think this proposal would have ever seen the light of day?…….

The Royal Commission did say most of the really dangerous stuff will have dissipated in 500 years. So South Australia should be relatively OK somewhere around 2600. Five hundred years ago in 1516, Nostradamus was a young lad, and it seems South Australians are about to make some similar magical thinking leaps to determine what the future will look like.

But maybe this is a bit harsh, a bit emotional, a bit insular. I acknowledge it pains me to think that in the future if this state is known for anything globally, it will likely be as “that place that takes all the world’s dangerous crap’’……http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/should-south-australia-be-home-to-the-worlds-largest-nuclear-waste-dump/news-story/ccec2d6e730d74744590f78acfa77d4f

July 29, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News