Uranium dust, an unmentionable radioactive fact

The dust that dare not speak its name WA Today September 30, 2009 Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, Elizabeth Farrelly “…………………For us, as for most of the world, central Australia might as well not exist. It is almost a paradigm of unthinkability. It’s Timbuktu. That’s why we do things like nuclear testing there. It’s why BHP Billiton’s proposal to turn the Olympic Dam uranium mine into an open-cut operation is even contemplated for approval. Because it’s there, not here. Or was there – until, like Burnham Wood, it came here.

Open-cut uranium mining? It’s a gash a kilometre deep, churning 410 million tonnes of radioactive dirt per annum, “dewatering” the local aquifers, using 253 megalitres of water a day. No wonder the locals call them water thieves.

Of course, BHP’s environmental impact statement devotes a couple of pars to dust management. BHP proposes water trucks – like the ones they spray roads with. And they’ll monitor airborne particulates at nearby Hiltaba Village (so small even Google Maps can’t find it) and the thriving metropolis of Roxby Downs. That’ll do it.

A possibility the EIS doesn’t contemplate, however, is that several thousand tonnes of the stuff might reach the Opera House, or even Mount Egmont, where it lay so thick people thought their cars had rusted overnight. Where even New Zealand rains couldn’t wash it away…………….What goes around, comes around.

The dust that dare not speak its name

September 30, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, climate change - global warming, environment, South Australia, uranium | antinuclear, Australia, BHP, BHP Billiton, climate change - global warming, nuclear, radioactive, South Australia, uranium | 1 Comment