South Australian nuclear waste dump enthusiasts write to politicians
List of signatories:
Nuclear debate: Businessmen, academics, scientists call on SA politicians to keep discussion alive, ABC News, By political reporter Nick Harmsen, 9 dec 16, A group of prominent South Australian business people, academics and scientists have signed an open letter to the state’s politicians urging them to keep discussion alive on the merits of an international nuclear waste dump.
The Liberal Party has categorically ruled out pursuing the dump opportunity, which a royal commission estimated could deliver the state $257 billion in long-term revenue.
But the list of signatories include some of the Liberal Party’s biggest individual donors, including former Clipsal owner Robert Gerard and Coopers Brewery managing director Tim Cooper.
Mr Gerard has donated more than $1 million to the Liberal Party, including $96,210 in 2013-14, while Dr Cooper donated $22,000 to the party in 2014-15.
Other signatories include Adelaide Crows chairman Rob Chapman, property developer Theo Maras and South Australia’s chief scientist Dr Leanna Read.
The group argues in the letter that a nuclear storage facility would present enormous potential opportunities.
These include:
- Thousands of skilled, highly paid jobs
- Opportunities to engage with Aboriginal communities
- Benefits for tourism, renewable energy, advanced manufacturing and agriculture
- The capacity to fully fund state services in health, environment, transportation, education and social development
- A chance to attract scientific and technological investment.
……..Representative surveys conducted for SA’s Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission (NFCRC) Consultation and Response Agency showed more South Australians were in favour than not of the Government continuing to investigate nuclear storage.
But an outright majority of 53 per cent were opposed to the contention that SA should manage, store and dispose of other countries’ nuclear waste.
Premier Jay Weatherill announced last month he wanted to hold a state-wide referendum on the nuclear waste dump proposal after a citizens’ jury decided against the idea……
The prominent South Australians requested further investigations to get a clearer understanding of the project’s feasibility and urged state and federal governments to meet with prospective client nations………
List of signatories:
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December 9, 2016 -
Posted by Christina MacPherson |
politics, South Australia, wastes
The Editor
Sunday Mail
Your editorial on new ideas (Sunday Mail, 11/12/16) strikes me as opportunistic and misguided.
After a bankrupt and desperate SA Government spent over $10million of our money in a failed attempt to foist a nuclear dump on SA we still have people who want to go ahead not just with the dump but with the whole nuclear disaster. They want the SA Government to throw good money after bad.
In doing so they not only want to disregard the citizens jury but the heavily pro-nuclear Royal Commission, which found that the only solution was to treat SA like some third world economy, which should be grateful to import the world’s growing stockpiles of nuclear waste. A thing that no other country has done or wants to do including those that have existing nuclear industries.
The pro-nuclear Royal Commission ruled out any other part of the nuclear industry. This includes nuclear submarines, nuclear power and nuclear fuel production.
Time for the Sunday Mail to move on.
Dennis Matthews