Antinuclear

THIS WEEK’S SPECIAL THEME. Australian government headed to impose a nuclear waste dump on Kimba, South Australia

Never mind that South Australia has clear laws prohibiting a nuclear waste dump, the Australian Senate has passed a law enabling the Resources Minister, Keith Pitt, to impose a nuclear waste dump on any site apptroved by the government – but they mean Kimba. Far far away from the source of the nuclear waste (ANSTO’s OPAL nuclear in Sydney) the Napandee farm will be the dump for ANSTO’s toxic wastes. The plan is simply to shove the responsibility for these stranded wastes over to South Australia. The government cons the locals that this will be an economic boon for them

It’s just the latest in the long saga of the nuclear lobby’s attempt to get a nuclear waste dump. It has never been a goal that would make sense – ethically and environmentally . – (an ethical goal would be a complete clean-up drive, permanently getting rid of Australia’s nuclear reactor and its radioactive trash).

But no, this latest push is just part of ANSTO’s grandiose goal of expanding its operations, to produce more toxic trash.

And that may not be all. The Australian saga follows decadesof efforts by the nuclear lobby to make South Australia the nuclear waste dump for the world. That goal, spelt out clearly in 1999 by the company Pangea (now reborn as Arius), was pushed again in the 2016 South Australian Nuclear Fuel Chain Commission

The Napandee dump is1700 km from Lucas Heights. The dump will house the same ”interim” waste conatainers as at ANSTO. They could stay at ANSTO, more safely, for many years. As for a permanent repositary, there are many geolocally more suitable sites much closer to the reactor.

I have no doubt that some who push for the Napandee dump see it as a foot in the door for the old dream of importing the world’s muclear trash.

June 19, 2021 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, Federal nuclear waste dump