Antinuclear

Friends of the Earth Adelaide – Submission on Australian Radioactive Waste Management Framework

Philip White October 23, 2026

Friends of the Earth Adelaide has lodged a submission on the government’s new draft Australian Radioactive Waste Management Framework (ARWMF). The draft would update the current Framework, which was published in 2018.

The new draft ARWMF has some improvements compared to the existing Framework, notably a recognition that “the most effective way to manage radioactive waste is to avoid generating it”, an acknowledgement that “Australia’s nuclear history has significantly impacted Indigenous Australians”, and a reference to the “United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), including participation in decision-making and the objective of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for measures and projects that affect Indigenous peoples’ lands, territories, resources and culture.”

Our concern is that, in the absence of clear commitments to upholding these principles, these references may amount to little more than lip-service.

We made the following 10 recommendations:

1. A commitment should be made in the ARWMF to report regularly on what steps have been taken to avoid generating radioactive waste and what radioactive waste has thus been avoided.

2. The government should avoid generating unnecessary radioactive waste by cancelling the AUKUS project and not accepting waste from foreign owned nuclear-powered vessels visiting Australian ports and spent nuclear fuel generated by US Virginia class submarines.

3. ARWMF should explicitly exclude acceptance into Australia of foreign radioactive waste.

4. If the government does not cancel AUKUS, it should clearly inform the public what it plans to do with the radioactive waste.

5. The government should immediately drop its Federal Court appeal against Rex Patrick’s freedom of information win in the Administrative Review Tribunal.

6. The government should inform the public about the status of Defence Minister Marles’ promise that “there will be a process that we will determine within the next 12 months for how the [high-level radioactive waste] site will be identified”.

7. The ARWMF should include a specific commitment to honour and uphold the FPIC principles. It should also indicate how it intends to go about fulfilling that commitment.

8. The National Radioactive Waste Management Act 2012 should be amended to withdraw the over-rides of the Native Title Act 1993 and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 and to mandate that UNDRIP and the FPIC principles are followed. The over-ride of State and Territory laws should also be removed.

9. Any involvement of the private sector should be made conditional on three key principles: (1) the polluter pays principle, (2) final responsibility rests with the government, regardless of who produced the waste, and (3) the highest level of transparency.

10. ARWMF should explicitly reject misleading or incrementalist approaches that seek to establish an initial foothold, then expand the scale and/or type of waste beyond what was initially proposed.

Click here to read the full submission.

October 28, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, wastes | Leave a comment