Premier Marshall must enforce South Australia’s legislation prohibiting nuclear waste dump.
21 June 2021 ‒ Friends of the Earth Australia
By accepting amendments to the National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment Bill, the federal government has today abandoned its year-long attempt to shield its plan for a national nuclear waste dump in SA from judicial review. A vote on the Bill is expected this afternoon or tomorrow and the Bill is expected to pass.
Dr. Jim Green, national nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said: “The Morrison government’s disgraceful efforts to override the unanimous opposition of Barngarla Traditional Owners to the proposed nuclear dump will be challenged in the courts and politically. Barngarla Traditional Owners are expected to launch a judicial challenge.
“Friends of the Earth welcomes SA Labor’s policy that Traditional Owners should have a right of veto over nuclear projects given the sad and sorry history of nuclear projects in this state.
“Premier Steven Marshall’s support for a nuclear waste dump that is unanimously opposed by Barngarla Traditional Owners is unconscionable, crude racism and Friends of the Earth calls on the Premier to support Traditional Owners ‒ and all South Australians ‒ instead of shamefully falling into line behind his federal colleagues.
“The SA Nuclear Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act was an initiative of the SA Olsen Liberal government to prevent the imposition of an intermediate-level nuclear fuel waste dump in SA. The state legislation was strengthened by the Rann government in 2002. Premier Marshall should fight Canberra’s push to dump nuclear waste on SA and to override state legislation, as did Premier Olsen and Premier Rann.
“The SA Nuclear Waste Facility (Prohibition) Act mandates a state Parliamentary inquiry in response to any attempt to impose a nuclear waste dump on SA and the Premier should initiate that inquiry immediately.
“Repeated claims that most of the nuclear waste is medical in original are dishonest. Claims that 45 jobs will be generated are deeply implausible. The dump will likely be the thin edge of the wedge; indeed several Coalition Senators today linked the looming passage of the Amendment Bill to the development of a nuclear power industry in Australia.
“Measured by radioactivity, well over 90% of the waste is long-lived intermediate-level waste that the federal government wants to store above ground at Kimba until such time as a deep underground disposal facility is established. No effort is being made to find a location for such a facility so this long-lived waste would remain stored above ground in SA ad infinitum.
“Intermediate-level waste should be stored at ANSTO’s Lucas Heights site until a suitable disposal facility is available. The Morrison government’s plan to move intermediate-level waste from secure above-ground storage at Lucas Heights to far less secure storage at Kimba is absurd and indefensible.
“The Howard government had to common sense to abandon plans to co-locate intermediate-level waste with a repository for low-level waste, and Premier Marshall should insist that the Morrison government do the same.
“South Australians fought long and hard to prevent the Howard government turning SA into the nation’s nuclear waste dump. We fought and won the campaign to stop the Flinders Ranges being used for a national dump. We fought and won the campaign to stop SA being turned into the world’s high-level nuclear waste dump. And now, we will fight until the Morrison government backs off.
“South Australians have greater ambitions for our state than to be someone else’s nuclear waste dump,” Dr. Green concluded.
Contact: Dr. Jim Green 0417 318 368
Nuclear waste storage facility legislation passes Senate.
– The Advertiser 21st June 2021, The Federal Government is now expected to name Kimba as the site of the facility after a key vote in Canberra. A nuclear waste dump set to be built in South Australia has cleared a major hurdle, with a shortlist of sites passing the Senate on Monday night.
Federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt is now required to name a site, which is expected to be Napandee farm, near Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula.Mr Pitt said: “This is an historic moment for our country that will pave the way for a critically important piece of national infrastructure.”He said while the bill has been amended, the Government would not be placing the facility in a community that does not provide broad support for it.
Wallerberdina voted against the facility in 2019, and is not expected to be the site.After months of deadlock, Labor agreed to back the Bill after the government last week proposed changes that would name three possible sites for the facility instead of specifying Kimba.The opposition had refused to back the original Bill over concerns that naming the site in legislation, rather than by a ministerial decision, would prevent the possibility of a future legal challenge.
Labor senator Murray Watt said the amendments were a “good compromise” that allowed for a potential judicial review but also acknowledged the work that had been done to shortlist three sites.Lyndhurst, in northeast SA, Kimba, and Wallerberdina, in the Flinders Ranges, are listed as the three possible sites.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young accused the major political parties of joining to “dump on South Australia”.She said community consultation for the sites had been a “debacle” which treated the traditional owners “terribly”. Labor consulted with the Kimba region’s traditional owners, the Barngarla people, before backing the Bill.The Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation was opposed to the Kimba site, but Mayor Dean Johnson last week said the community just wanted a decision.
Some highlights from the Senate nuclear waste dump debate
Greens: running most strongly on the waste issue as an example of systemic racism/ rights and history of Aboriginal resistance. Big parties are dumping on SA and we will not forget.
Rowan Ramsey apparently interjected ‘bullshit’ from the gallery during Lidia Thorpe’s speech – caused a fuss but no censure (“I didn’t hear the comment and so cannot rule on it” says the President)
Labor: disappointingly fulsome re ANSTO and on the same song sheet as the govt re nuclear medicine being the cause for the dump being needed. Kim Carr quite over the top re project of ‘genuine national importance’…and “I trust further judicial processes don’t lead to further delay”.
One useful thing Labor said was that the Govt “should explain why ILW should be moved from one temporary site to another”……this is an important door to further open….
Government: pushed the argument that the dump is needed for medical purposes. The most surprising thing was that multiple Libs spoke of the facility as an important step in advancing a future nuclear power industry in Australia – very enthusiastic in making this link and talking up the domestic nuclear option….again, an area to further highlight in coming times.
I was able to listen only to parts of the debate. I wait for Hansard transcript. My impressions:
I found Labor’s explanation mealy-mouthed and hypocritical – pretending fulsomely that they support Aboriginal rights etc – when we know darn well that they won’t lift a finger or spend a cent on helping the Barngarla with their legal action against the dump.
Greens Senator Jordan Steel John was forceful in explaining the racism behind the dump proposal.
Independent Senator Rex Patrick gave impressive information onthe greater suitability of other sites, especially Woomera.
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Racism on show in the Australian Senate.
Senator Lidia Thorpe addressed the Senate today on the subject of the newly amended National Radioactive Waste Bill.
”…We need a new approach – unequivocal rejection of this fundamentally flawed and deeply disrespectful Bill.
How can Labor acknowledge the traditional owners when you can support a Bill that will destroy women’s sacred sites? Labor you should stand up and vote this Bill down along with us”
Senator Thorpe spoke passionately and eloquently, explaining First Nation people’s stromg opposition to the planned nuclear waste dump.
And whaddya know – from the Gallery yelled an old white man, a Member of the House ofrReps, but not a member of this Chamber. Yes, Rowan Ramsey MP, yelled ”Bullshit”.
Just as well the Hon Ramsey is a white man, confronting a black woman. Otherwise, if it were the other way round, you can bet your boots that the interjector would have been expelled from the Gallery……
And here’s some of what Senator Thorpe said (inexact transcript):” Greens speak up for the Barngarla people, oppose this Bill. The clearly expressed opposition of Aboriginal people. They strongly oppose the Wallerberdina site, and need to protect that sacred women’s site. Today’s proposed amendment again paves way for radioactive dump on this sacred site. The amendment puts all 3 sites back on the table. None of these sites have the consent of the traditional owners. None of these traditional owners want their sacred sites degraded.The ”community” consent was conducted on the basis that only rate-payers could vote. The Barngarla Aboriginal Corporation commissioned an independent company to conduct a ballot, with the result – unanimous opposition.
Labor – you’re agreeing with the amendment so that the traditional owners can fight this plan in court. Is Labor going to pay for their lagal action? Stop pretending that you’re here for the first people in this country. We say NO and we will continue to fight against the destruction of our country. Radioactive waste is something that will outlast you and this Parliament………We need a new pproach – unequivocal rejection of this fundamentally flawed and deeply disrespectful Bill. How can Labor acknowledge the traditional owners when you can support a Bill that will destroy womeb’s sacred sites. Labor you should stand up and vote this Bill down along with us.
Australian Senate now deliberating on the controversial Nuclear Waste Dump Bill
The Australian Senate is about to finally debate and decide on a new amendment to the National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Specification, Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020, which has been languishing in the Senate for months.
The crux of the matter is that whereas the Bill previously designated Napandee, a farm near Kimba, South Australia, as the site for a nuclear waste dump, it now slightly, (but significantly) changes that , mentioning the possibility of other sites. Minister Keith Pitt is now almost certain to formally declare Napandee as the site.
The whole process has been obscure, while being highly promoted to the local community as both a ”Australian medical necessity” and a ”local economic boon”. Information provided to the local area has been promotional material and speakers from ANSTO and the Industry Department, but with no independent voices explaining the negative aspects. Local residents, farmers, and business people are calling on the government for a portion of the grant funding to Kimba to be allocated to an independent review and assessment of the project.
The Barngarla Traditional Owners were excluded from a community vote that approved the project, as were other landholders close to the Napandee site. They will now have the right to legally challenge the nuclear dump plan.Residents of the wider Eyre Peninsula, have had no say in the Kimba decision. Nor have the various communities whose residents are likely to object to having radioactive waste carried through their area, in this unnecessarily long transport from one temporary storage to another. South Australia has clear laws prohibiting the establishment of a nuclear waste dump in that State, the Nuclear Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act 2000.
The most significant contributor to this planned waste dumping will be intermediate level nuclear waste produced by ANSTO’s nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights, Sydney. These toxic wastes are in interim storage in large canisters at Lucas Heights, where they are safely managed and guarded.. There is ample room for more storage at Lucas Heights, and no reason for this double handling, sending the same temporary storage canisters to Kimba.
If this Bill is now passed by the Senate, it will bring on a more chaotic situation of uncertainty for the people of Kimba, but with not one step towards what is really needed.
The Senate should reject this poorly devised Bill. Australians deserve a thorough, properly researched independent inquiry into finding a permanent and safe solution to ANSTO’s nuclear waste problem.
The Taishan death blow
China’s EPR reactor accident should end French reactor projects
The Taishan death blow — Beyond Nuclear International Radioactive leak at Chinese reactor could finish French nuclear exports https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/72759838/posts/3403922693
By Stéphane Lhomme, Nuclear Observatory
If the opacity maintained by the Chinese regime prevents us, for the time being, from knowing the exact consequences of the radioactive leak involving the EPR no.1 reactor at Taishan, revealed on June 14 by CNN, it is, on the other hand, already possible to see how this unfolded and to recommend some next steps.
The fault in the fuel duct seals inside the Taishan EPR dates back to October 2020, that is to say, it had already been going on for more than eight months: the operators of the reactor — the Chinese and the French company Framatome — were perfectly well aware of the gravity of the situation and had jointly decided to hide the existence of the problem from not only the surrounding population but also from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Luckily, the information ended up seeping out via the American subsidiary of Framatome (Areva NP Inc.). This latter, likely after discussions with the CIA and the White House, happily informed CNN.
Indeed, now that the situation at the EPR at Taishan is known around the world, it will be difficult for the Chinese to continue to operate the reactor under conditions that are most likely beyond its “scope of authorized operational safety” — contrary to what Framatome claims in order not to offend the Chinese.
It is widely known publicly that China and the USA, the two biggest global powers, are huge geopolitical and economic rivals. It is clear that if the Taishan 1 EPR, and perhaps its twin, Taishan 2, must be shut down for an extended period, this will be an inconvenience for China, which occasionally lacks electricity in this region. Hence the guilty pleasure felt by the Americans in revealing the problem.
But this will still remain only a limited problem for China where, contrary to what one sometimes reads or hears, nuclear power is a marginal energy source, consisting of less than 1% of the country’s energy consumption.
On the other hand, it is quite possible that the French nuclear industry will be the big loser in this affair, one that could represent a fatal blow for EDF’s EPR construction projects in France and overseas. Indeed, given that the EPR construction sites managed by the French — Areva in Finland, EDF in France and Great Britain — are veritable industrial and financial disasters, the promoters of the EPR reactor have been desperately clinging to the “good Chinese example”.
That is because the two EPRs at Taishan were built and brought on line (in December 2018 and September 2019 respectively) with “only” a few years delay and the cost overruns were officially limited to a few billion (according to China which, one must remember, is a dictatorship where “information” is totally controlled).
The situation currently unfolding in China demonstrates that, despite the alleged prowess of the Chinese nucleocrats, the Taishan EPRs are not going any better than those the French are trying desperately to build. This event will certainly sow enormous doubt among the few foreign leaders who are still considering ordering EPR reactors, despite all their setbacks. It is surely the straw that broke the camel’s back, or rather the radioactive leak that caused the (defective) EPR containment to overflow.
Likewise, this incident should motivate French political leaders (but also Finnish and British ones) to finally take responsibility and definitively halt EPR construction at Olkiluoto (Finland), Flamanville (France) and Hinkley Point (Great Britain), and to stop announcing future EPR projects in India and elsewhere.
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1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 