Antinuclear

Indigenous group considers legal battle over proposed Port Augusta nuclear power plant

ABC Stateline / By Arj Ganesan and James Wakelin 21 July 24

In short:

Earmarking Port Augusta for the opposition’s nuclear plan has proved wildly unpopular with Indigenous leaders, who say mining and dumping nuclear material is akin to “killing your mother”.

Others say they believe Australia is lagging behind and needs to embrace nuclear energy.

What’s next?

Questions remain, with voters saying they are still in the dark about how much the plan will cost and how the privately owned land would be acquired.

Earmarking Port Augusta for Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan has proved wildly unpopular with an Indigenous leader, who says he feels so strongly about the issue that he is willing to go to court to fight the proposal.

Nukunu elder Lindsay Thomas said his community was against mining fissionable elements, such as uranium as a whole.

“Our people don’t believe in this, we don’t believe it should have even been dug out of the ground anywhere in Australia,” he said.

“We believe it’s poison.”

Mr Thomas said First Nations people had a spiritual connection to the land and he was proud of the work the Barngarla people had done in stopping the federal government’s attempt to dump nuclear medical waste in Kimba.

“You put that stuff in the ground, that kills that earth forever, we can’t do that, we cannot do that,” he said.

“That’s like killing your mother.”

Some locals concerned nuclear is too risky

Citizen scientist and master diver Jeff Bowey is also opposed to Port Augusta as a location for nuclear energy.

Mr Bowey said it was too risky as the water around the Upper Spencer Gulf took “three to five years” to move through.

“You get a spill or some impact into the Gulf itself, you literally destroy what we’ve got,” he said.

“The Gulf is on a knife’s edge, all we need is like one little bit more impact and we’ll probably lose the Gulf and all of the positives that it has.

“We have species here — animals, fish life, plant life, marine life — that’s found nowhere else on earth…………………………………………………………………………………..

Many questions regarding the proposed plant remain.

Voters are still in the dark about how much the plan will cost or how the government will acquire the privately owned land……………………..  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-21/port-augusta-nuclear-power-plant-legal-battle/104105048

July 22, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, South Australia