When a dump has a nuclear accident where do you think they will abandon the waste?
Paul Waldon, Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, 15 Apr 17
Kimba South Australia: Neighbours still opposed to nominated nuclear waste facility sites
Mrs Woolford said she and other members of the No Radioactive Waste on Agricultural Land in Kimba or SA group had tried to organise a community forum with all sides represented but said the government did not want to participate.
“A debate with everyone represented would be a fair way for the government to allow people in the community to make up their minds, not just a continuous sell of the alleged benefits.
“People should have the right for their government to provide all sides not just one to suit its purpose,” Mrs Woolford said. .
Neighbours in Kimba are still opposed to nominated nuclear waste facility sites, Eyre Tribune, 10 Apr 2017, DISTRUST in the federal government and the process of nominations in the search for a national low to intermediate radioactive waste site are just some of the reasons Austin Eatts is against the facility being placed at Kimba.
Mr Eatts is a direct neighbour to one of the newly nominated sites in the Kimba district and said the national nuclear waste facility was not something rural or regional people should be responsible for.
He said Eyre Peninsula had a long memory for the impact of politicians’ “dishonesty” during and after nuclear bombs were tested at Maralinga, to the north west of Eyre Peninsula “There is a long history of dishonesty about politicians, they told us then and after that Maralinga was safe. “This is the same message they are giving us now, things will be safe, why should we believe them?“My feelings about Eyre Peninsula and the state having anything nuclear has not changed since then,” Mr Eatts said.
He said he did not want the responsibility of making a decision that would impact generations for hundreds of years not only for Kimba or Eyre Peninsula residents but statewide.
“Once we accept this site here, we have opened the door to further nuclear activity.”
Mr Eatts said the vote to be undertaken by the South Australian Electoral Commission would settle the issue for him however he was concerned if the vote was against further progression it would not be the end of the matter.
“Will it be the end of it for those who want it? “They have already brought it back once after we settled it as a community we didn’t want it,” he said. “Two million dollars (offered to the community by the government) is a lot of money to you and I but for a community it is not much and no amount of money will fix the division in the community.” Continue reading
Medical waste will be only a minor fraction of the nuclear waste planned for outback South Australia
Tim Bickmore Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA
Don’t get sucked in by the “medical gloves & gowns” Canberra con-job:
FACT 1 – South Australia’s current hospital waste storage regimen WILL REMAIN in-situ;
FACT 2 – Radioactive metal from the 1940’s British Montebello Atom Bomb Tests IS DESTINED for the suppository;
FACT 3 – Radioactive concrete & steel from the de-commissioned Lucas Heights HIFAR reactor WILL ALSO be supposited;
FACT 4 – If/when the 10,000 Woomera barrels arrive, Radon gas WILL LEAK. This heavy invisible radioactive odourless & poisonous gas flows like water & accumulates in low-lying areas;
FACT 5 – The so-called Intermediate Level Waste ALSO RELEASES invisible radioactive odourless gasses;
FACT 6 – The lowest area in the Wallerberdina precinct is the Hookina Creek line;
FACT 7 – GLOVES & GOWNS WILL BE A MINOR FRACTION OF THE LOW LEVEL WASTE INVENTORY.https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
Radiation leaking from Woomera radioactive trash dump – for 16,000 years
Tim Bickmore Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA In April 2016 ARPANSA discovered that Radium had leaked from the 10,000 barrels stored at Woomera. http://www.arpansa.gov.au/…/inspections/2016/R16-05292.pdf This means that Radon gas is being released into the environment. Radon is heavy & tends to flow to the lowest point & accumulate. After about 4 days it transforms into a solid & infects the ground surface. As time passes more & more Radon converts to a solid that builds up & continuously increases the radioactivity wherever it may happen to land – which is at the place it arrives at after about 4 days. This will continue to happen for at least 16,000 years. https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
Does Australia REALLY need a radioactive waste facility in outback South Australia?
the biggest unanswered question is whether the planned facility is the best way to manage Australia’s radioactive waste. Extraordinarily, that question has never been asked.
ANSTO [in Sydney] is better placed than a pastoral station or the back paddock of a wheat farm to house this material.
Advantages of storing it at the ANSTO facility include that
- it enjoys assured tenure there;
- has a secured site with a high-level Australian Federal Police presence;
- is currently building new storage capacity;
- has already received reprocessed spent nuclear fuel returns from Europe;
- has the best radiation monitoring and nuclear response capacity in the nation; and
- the fact that the waste is there now answers double handling and transport concerns.
Importantly, the Federal nuclear regulator – Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) – has confirmed there is no regulatory constraint to the waste continuing to be managed at ANSTO “for decades“.
Picking the postcode for a radioactive wasteland https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/picking-the-postcode-for-a-radioactive-wasteland,10177 Dave Sweeney 5 April 2017, ‘The Federal focus on finding a postcode for a [nuclear waste] facility has been at the expense of independently testing the assumptions behind the need for one.’
ACCORDING to the fridge magnets and stickers in the shop beside the ageing Big Galah sculpture, the small farming town of Kimba in South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula is the half way point on the east-west journey across Australia.
But right now, the local talk is more about half-lives, following the recent decision by Federal Minister for Resources Matt Canavan to further explore two places in the region as possible sites for a national radioactive waste facility.
The search for a place for Australia’s radioactive waste has been in train – and often off the rails – for more than 20 years. Over that time, successive Federal governments have had multiple fights at multiple sites — mainly across South Australia and the Northern Territory. Currently, there are three South Australian sites under consideration.
For the better part of a year, a site near Hawker in the Flinders Ranges has been under examination. The site, on a pastoral station leased by former Liberal senator and long-time nuclear facility supporter Grant Chapman has been strongly contested by many in the wider community. Critical voices include local Adnyamanthanha Traditional Owners, pastoralists and people concerned about the impacts of the region’s steadily growing tourism sector.
Now the inclusion of two parcels of agricultural land at Kimba has seen new tension in a town that has previously been highly divided over the Federal plan.
Last year, two previously nominated Kimba land options were not taken further by then Minister for Resources Josh Frydenberg because of a lack of community support.
However, supporters of a facility have made a new pitch and have found an ear in the new minister.
The planned facility would be in two parts — a repository for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste (LLW) and an above ground store to hold the more serious and problematic long-lived intermediate level waste (ILW). The store would operate for 100 years, at which time a decision would be made about how and where to future manage this long-lived waste, which needs to be isolated from people and the wider environment for thousands of years.
For a project that has had many configurations over many years, there remains considerable uncertainty about the plan.
Part of the series of unanswered questions include:
- final facility design;
- acceptance criteria;
- employment and governance arrangements; and
- longer term plans for managing Australia’s highest level radioactive waste.
ANSTO admits that Federal waste plan is for reactor generated wastes, and that no longterm disposal plan exists
Who’d want to dump Australia’s nuclear waste here? Well, this guy. At Kimba in the heart of the country, a community is divided – in one case literally so – over a plan to deposit the national stockpile of radioactive waste, Guardian, Max Opray, 4 Apr 17 “…..Hefin Griffiths, chief nuclear officer at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, says the facility is needed for the organisation’s gradually accumulating stockpile of radioactive waste at Lucas Heights, where measures are being rolled out to temporarily increase storage space at the 70-hectare site, which is reaching capacity this year.
According to Griffiths, most the waste earmarked for the new facility would be of low-level radioactivity, such as clothes worn by people working in nuclear medicine, or soil now stored at Woomera.
That would only be hazardous for a “short period”, he says, but the intermediate-level waste needs to be 
stored for far longer. “We’ve got reprocessed residues that have come back from France which will remain radioactive for many thousands of years,” he says.
The returned waste consists of 20 canisters containing 170 litres each, generated by the High Flux Australian reactor, which ran for nearly 50 years before being decommissioned in 2007.
Intermediate-level waste will continue to be generated by the Open Pool Australian Lightwater research reactor and the under-development Synroc waste treatment plant.
The proposed nuclear waste management facility would hold this intermediate waste above-ground for a few decades until a longer term solution can be found. Griffiths says another structure along the lines of the $5.3bn deep-storage facility in Finland will eventually need to be built.
As for the facility that would hold the waste in the meantime, Griffiths says only a detailed technical assessment could confirm Kimba’s suitability, but proximity to agricultural land and the 1,700km journey from Lucas Heights would not be insurmountable obstacles.
Craig Wilkins, the chief executive of the Conservation Council of South Australia, argues a study should be undertaken on the prospect of storing the waste at Lucas Heights, close to nuclear experts, rather than “out of sight, out of mind”.
“We also have concerns about how incredibly divisive this process is on communities already doing it tough,” he says. “When you have individual landowners putting it forward to kickstart the local conversation it pits neighbour against neighbour.
“Last time it nearly tore Kimba apart. It is clear from last time there is significant community opposition.”
Successive federal governments over decades have failed to lock down a remote-area site to store nuclear waste because of regional opposition, and in a separate process the SA Labor government has struggled to sell a plan to develop a high-level nuclear waste storage facility, with a citizen’s jury last year resoundingly rejecting the concept.
Kimba was first floated as a potential location by the Liberal federal member for Grey, Rohan Ramsay, who in 2015 volunteered his property near the town before it was rejected owing to perceived conflict of interest………..https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/04/whod-want-to-dump-australias-nuclear-waste-here-well-this-guy?CMP=share_btn_tw
South Australian Liberal Party to launch advertising campaign against Nuclear Royal Commission plan to import nuclear wastes
Off The Record: Orchestra now in baton race to replace young gun, The Advertiser April 1, 2017 “…….Hitting voters with ion fist OUR atomic adventure might be dead and buried, but a series of targeted nuclear strikes are about to be launched by the Liberals.
Having last November torpedoed Premier Jay Weatherill’s half-hearted push for an international nuclear waste dump, the Libs will now attack him for secret plans to put the dump in various sites across the state, Off the Record has learned.
A localised digital and leaflet campaign will accuse Mr Weatherill and his high-level waste dump of risking the destruction of agricultural industry and the environment through toxic nuclear leaks.
The advertising blitz will expand closer to next March’s election.
Regional areas likely to host a dump will be the focus, along with women worried about their children’s futures and those once known as “doctors’ wives” – affluent inner-city Liberal types concerned about the environment and social issues.
Of course, as no site was earmarked by the nuclear royal commission in its final report last May, the Liberals have fertile ground to declare any community could be at risk from the nuclear ogre…… http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/off-the-record-orchestra-now-in-baton-race-to-replace-young-gun/news-story/22c63df9efeb84f31fe3adf21ca65aa9
Some enthusiasts for nuclear waste dump at Kimba, but many opponents
The couple [ Megan and Matt Lienert]say the federal government consultation process has only tried to sell the positives. “It’s like they’re here to sell a car,” James says. “Oh, you don’t want it? Here’s some free seat covers.”
Jacinta jumps in: “Here’s $2m to go to the next stage.
“[The federal government provides] the facts from one side, that’s all we’ve got since day dot. They don’t bring anybody here so people can make an informed decision.
Who’d want to dump Australia’s nuclear waste here? Well, this guy At Kimba in the heart of the country, a community is divided – in one case literally so – over a plan to deposit the national stockpile of radioactive waste, Guardian, Max Opray, 4 Apr 17, At a point almost halfway between the east and west coasts of Australia, a mob of emus scamper along the Napandee property fenceline. The mallee scrub out this way appears otherwise deserted, the kind of remote location where one could hide a dead body and get away with it – but what about an entire country’s radioactive waste?
Landowner Jeff Baldock is determined to find out. Speaking in a considered gravelly tone through a bristling grey moustache, the third-generation farmer has an Ian Chappell-esque air about him as he defends the decision to formally nominate his land in Kimba, South Australia, as a site for the federal government’s national radioactive waste management facility. It would serve as a repository for intermediate-level waste from the Lucas Heights nuclear site in New South Wales and low-level waste from across Australia.
“We’ve got five grandkids living here on the properties with us,” he says. “If we thought it was dangerous we wouldn’t do this. If I thought it’d upset our grain or sheep we wouldn’t be doing it.”
If his property is selected, Baldock stands to be paid four times the value of 100 hectares of the land, but he says the real advantage would be providing economic benefit to the thousand or so residents of a struggling agricultural district.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our town – sorry, our community,” he says. “The antis talk about farmers versus the townies. To me it’s one community.”
It isn’t the first time Baldock has nominated land for consideration. Last year the federal government ruled out another property of his after the assessment process was abandoned because of local resistance. But Baldock says those against the proposal didn’t give it a chance………
In nominating again along with another landowner, Baldock has reopened wounds that were only just starting to heal in a community tightly bound by the challenges of an isolated life in the northern reaches of the Eyre peninsula. Last year Kimba held two of the six possible locations flagged by the government for the nuclear waste site, with one other in SA, and one each in Queensland, NSW and the Northern Territory.
Only one of those, the Barndioota site in SA’s Flinders Ranges, advanced to stage two, but it is meeting considerable resistance from Adnyamathanha traditional owners owing to its proximity to significant Indigenous cultural sites. The return to Kimba suggests the choices are narrowing – or vanishing. In March the resources minister, Matt Canavan, launched the new consultation on Kimba, …….. Continue reading
Radioactive soil dumped at Mary Kathleen mine
Cabinet papers: Radioactive soil from UQ dumped at Mary Kathleen mine http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government/cabinet-papers-radioactive-soil-from-uq-dumped-at-mary-kathleen-mine/news-story/9bad4b01ffb900f38233aa87474d0cfd January 1, 2017 A HUGE amount of radioactive soil – enough to top-dress a football oval – from the University of Queensland was dumped in the disused Mary Kathleen open-cut uranium mine north of Mount Isa in June 1986 with the approval of the Bjelke-Petersen government.
Cabinet papers released today after 30 years reveal a submission in August 1986 from then mines minister Ivan Gibbs, outlining how 330 cubic metres of contaminated soil was trucked to the mine site and unloaded into the water.
The submission said that in 1984, the UQ Experimental Mine at Indooroopilly was found to have radioactive material from uranium ore samples taken at the Anderson Lode (14km west of Mount Isa).
“Officers of the Health Department carried out a detailed survey of the site and concluded that the pilot plant tailings had caused contamination of the soil under and around the stockpile area, the total mass of contaminated material required to be moved amounting to about 330 cubic metres,” Gibbs’ submission said.
“Discussions were held with officers of my department to identify a suitable site for disposal of the material and I approved for it to be dumped into the abandoned open cut.
“Expert advice has been received that seepage will not take place from the open cut to the surrounding rocks, and studies have shown that the water level in the open cut will stabilise at least 40m below the overflow level.’’
Gibbs said the soil was classed “low specific activity material’’ under the code of practice for the safe transport of radioactive substances. A convoy of trucks transported the soil to the open-cut mine and dumped it below water level. “The access ramp was sealed with large rocks,’’ Gibbs said. “Each truck was washed down and checked for zero radioactive contamination.”
The submission stated that the government was satisfied that material in the abandoned mine would not have any effect on surface or groundwater in the area.
Gibbs said local National Party MP Bob Katter and Mount Isa mayor Tony McGrady objected to the disposal and sought assurances that no more soil would be dumped there.
Gibbs said: “Although it is highly unlikely that the cost of transporting any radioactive material to Mary Kathleen would be justified in future, the possibility of using the abandoned open cut for special cases should not be totally excluded.’’
Radioactive Repeat: federal radioactive waste Groundhog Day increases uncertainty
A small town on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula is again in the frame as a site for Australia’s nuclear waste despite being ruled out of consideration less than one year ago because of deep community concern and opposition to the plan.
Yesterday federal Resource Minister Matt Canavan formally accepted two revised site nominations and initiated a 90 day process to measure community views on a planned facility for the disposal of low level and extended storage of higher level radioactive wastes. Last April two previously nominated sites in the region were ruled out of federal consideration.
“This plan is simply not the best way to advance responsible radioactive waste management in Australia”, said ACF nuclear campaigner Dave Sweeney.
“Revisiting a community that has already made its view clear looks more like Canberra’s frustration than community consultation.
“Less than a year ago Minister Canavan’s predecessor Josh Frydenberg ruled the Kimba region out, now it is back on the table. This radioactive waste is a direct hazard for many thousands of years – far longer than any politician’s promise. Short term thinking about long term waste is not good policy or practise.”
ACF joined other environment and public health representatives in the Kimba area last week in a visit that included a public meeting, stakeholder meetings and a regional tour. There is clear and continuing community concern and opposition to the waste plan.
The plan will put further pressure on an already stressed community and further highlights the continued uncertainty in the governments wider approach given it is also exploring a controversial site in the Flinders Ranges at the same.
“There has never been an independent assessment of long-term management options in Australia, rather just a decades long search for a postcode,” said Dave Sweeney. “It is time to stop repeating past mistakes and adopt a new and better approach”.
ACF supports a wide civil society and stakeholder call for Australia’s radioactive waste to be managed in improved storage facilities at existing federal sites to allow for a credible, comprehensive and open exploration of the full range of future management options.
Federal Government running amok in SA communities over nuclear waste
The Federal Government’s decision to advance two sites at Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula for assessment to house Australia’s nuclear waste will cause stress, division and uncertainty for SA communities.
Less than a year ago two proposed sites near Kimba were removed from a national shortlist because of community opposition.
“The Federal Government is toying with the lives of South Australian communities,” said Conservation SA Chief Executive Craig Wilkins.
“Kimba’s original nominations were scrapped due to a lack of broad community support and that opposition remains. This process is damaging and dividing our towns. It is thoughtless, inconsiderate and inconsistent.”
The planned national facility would store intermediate level radioactive waste currently at Lucas Heights in Sydney and dispose of low level waste and contaminated soil from Woomera.
Wallerberdina, a highly contested site in the Flinders Ranges, has been the focus of the federal site search to date and remains on the table despite community opposition.
“The expansion of the site search to Kimba is also a federal vote of no confidence in the Wallerberdina site,” said Mr Wilkins.
“Instead of causing more division and stress across our regional communities the Federal Government should take all the sites off the table. We need a responsible and inclusive approach to radioactive waste management where a proper process is prioritised over our key farming and tourist postcodes.”
South Australia has a history of resistance to radioactive waste projects, from defeat of a plan to establish a facility in the north of the state under the Howard Government to widespread public backlash over the recent push to import and store international nuclear waste.
“We have long-standing state legislation that prevents the establishment of radioactive waste dumps. We will use this and more in our work to support regional communities and keep South Australia free of nuclear waste dumps,” concluded Mr Wilkins.
Sydney Morning Herald on radioactive waste dump – ignores Lucas’ Heights’ high level nuclear reactor waste
Controversial nuclear waste plans back under the spotlight, SMH, Steven Trask , 14 Mar 17 Issues at two of Australia’s largest radioactive waste storage facilities have put a controversial government plan back under the spotlight.
For years the federal government has tried in vain to build a national dump for the country’s nuclear waste. Staunch opposition from prospective locations has repeatedly stalled the project, which opponents believe is an environmental disaster waiting to happen.
Each year Australia produces about a shipping container full of low and intermediate-level waste through industrial, medical and research applications. Much of the country’s waste is stored at a CSIRO facility in Woomera, South Australia, and a government warehouse in Lucas Heights, Sydney.
Lucas Heights is approaching full capacity and Fairfax Media has revealed significant concerns about conditions at the CSIRO facility…….
The search for a publicly acceptable site to store nuclear waste has plagued successive governments since the doomed National Repository Project in 1992.
Started by the Labour government in 1992, the project was wound-up without success in 2004 by Liberal Prime Minister John Howard. ……
Last week the government announced two sites in Kimba, South Australia, had been formally nominated by landowners to host the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility…….http://www.smh.com.au/national/controversial-nuclear-waste-plans-back-under-the-spotlight-20170308-gutd72.html
The Consultation and Response Agency (CARA) about nuclear policy closing. Will its report be made public?
Dear Mr Weatherill,
‘The Consultation and Response Agency (CARA), which delivered the state’s largest engagement program on record last year, and the CARA Advisory Board, have now provided their final advice to Government and will be closed.’
UNDEMOCRATIC NUCLEAR WASTE LAW DISEMPOWERS COMMUNITIES AND TRADITIONAL OWNERS
Friends of the Earth Australia is today releasing a detailed report on the National Radioactive Waste Management Act 2012 (NRWMA). The report ‒ written by Monash University fifth-year law student Amanda Ngo ‒ comes against the backdrop of the federal government’s targeting of a site near Hawker in SA’s Flinders Ranges for a national radioactive waste store and repository.
The NRWMA is heavy-handed, undemocratic legislation that gives the federal government the power to extinguish rights and interests in land targeted for a radioactive waste facility. In so doing the Minister must “take into account any relevant comments by persons with a right or interest in the land” but there is no requirement to secure consent. Traditional Owners, local communities, pastoralists, business owners, local councils and State/Territory Governments are all disadvantaged and disempowered by the NRWMA.
The NRWMA disempowers Traditional Owners ‒ in this case Adnyamathanha Traditional Owners ‒ in multiple ways, including:
- The nomination of a site for a radioactive waste facility is valid even if Aboriginal owners were not consulted and did not give consent.
- The NRWMA has sections which nullify State or Territory laws that protect the archaeological or heritage values of land or objects, including those which relate to Indigenous traditions.
- The NRWMA curtails the application of Commonwealth laws including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 and the Native Title Act 1993 in the important site-selection stage.
- The Native Title Act 1993 is expressly overridden in relation to land acquisition for a radioactive waste facility.
Adnyamathanha Traditional Owners have been clear in their opposition to the planned radioactive waste facility in the Flinders Ranges. “I call upon the Federal and State Governments to put an end to this volatile position that the Adnyamathanha people are facing,” said Adnyamathanha Traditional Owner Enice Marsh. “Native Title and the Aboriginal Heritage Act are not protecting our land. This needs a complete review or a Royal Commission. The Barndioota site in the Flinders Ranges must be struck off as a potential radioactive waste dump site and the National Radioactive Waste Management Act needs to be amended to give us the right to say ‘no’.”
Adnyamathanha Traditional Owner Regina McKenzie, who lives on Yappala Station near the proposed dump site, said: “The NRWMA is a political attack on Adnyamathanha women’s spiritual beliefs. The destruction of our culture and significant woman’s sites is a form of assimilation and thus breaches Article 8.1 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The NRWMA also breaches Article 25 of the UN Declaration which refers to our spiritual relationship with the land and the right to maintain and strengthen our culture. This is a breach of our Aboriginal human rights and our people and amounts to cultural genocide.”
The NRWMA has been criticised in both Senate Inquiries and a Federal Court challenge to an earlier federal government attempt to impose a national radioactive waste facility at Muckaty in the Northern Territory.
The NRWMA also puts the federal government’s radioactive waste agenda above environmental protection as it seeks to curtail the application of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Dr Jim Green, national nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth Australia, said: “A senior government official claims the NRWMA is based on ‘world’s best practice’. In fact, the legislation systematically disempowers local communities and Traditional Owners and weakens environmental protections. It needs to be radically amended or replaced with legislation that protects the environment and gives local communities and Traditional Owners the right to say no to nuclear waste dumps.”
Amanda Ngo’s paper, ‘National Radioactive Waste Management Act 2012′, is posted at http://tinyurl.com/nrwma-2017
Incompetent management of CSIRO’s nuclear waste – used by ARPANSA to promote South Australian Hawker waste dump plan?
This article looks like one of those softening up articles that ANSTO and ARPANSA like
to put out – to persuade the Australian public that a radioactive waste dump is needed, in the beautiful Flinders Ranges.
It’s time that we all really woke up to the fact that the nuclear industry, its ignorant lobbyists and craven politicians, are incompetent simpletons regarding the global nuclear mess, and should not be trusted with their decisions that are aimed at furthering this toxic industry.
Rusted barrels of radioactive waste cost CSIRO $30 million Steven Trask, Canberra Times, 7 Mar 17
CSIRO faces a $30 million clean up bill after barrels of radioactive waste at a major facility were found to be “deteriorating rapidly” and possibly leaking.
An inspection found “significant rusting” on many of the 9,725 drums, which are understood to contain radioactive waste and other toxic chemicals.
CSIRO flagged a $29.7 million budget provision for “remediation works” at a remote location in its latest annual report. Fairfax Media can reveal the work will take place at a CSIRO facility located on Department of Defence land near Woomera, South Australia.
The Woomera facility is currently one of Australia’s largest storage sites for low and intermediate-level radioactive waste. A damning report of the Woomera facility was issued by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) after an inspection in April last year.
“Evidence was sighted that indicates the drums are now beginning to deteriorate rapidly,” read the report, seen by Fairfax Media. “Significant rust on a number of the drums, deterioration of the plastic drum-liners and crushing of some stacked drums was observed.” Tests confirmed the presence of radioactive isotopes at one location and inspectors said there was a possibility the drums were leaking.
“Although unlikely, there is the possibility that the presence of deceased animals such as rodents and birds may indicate that some of the drums, which contain industrial chemicals, may be leaking into the environment.”
The mixture of water and concentrated radioactive material inside some of the drums also had the potential to produce explosive hydrogen gas, inspectors found.
They also noted CSIRO had little knowledge of what was inside many of the barrels, some of which are believed to date back more than 50 years.
“Without full knowledge [of] the contents of the drums, risks cannot be fully identified and risk controls cannot be appropriately implements to protect people and the environment,” inspectors noted in the report.
Many of the drums are understood to contain contaminated soil generated by government research into radioactive ores at Melbourne’s Fishermans Bend throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
The toxic soil was discovered by the Department of Defence in 1989, who sent it to Sydney’s Lucas Heights facility before it was palmed off to Woomera in 1994.
An ARPANSA spokeswoman said the $29.7 million estimate would cover the characterisation, handling, re-packaging and storage of the toxic material.
“As a result of an ARPANSA inspection in 2016, it was recognised that additional work was required to scientifically characterise some of the contents of the legacy materials more accurately,” she said.
“The work that needs to be undertaken is significant.”
A spokesman for CSIRO said the first phase of the three-year clean up would begin next month.
“CSIRO currently has a radioactive waste store located on defence land at Woomera, South Australia. The store currently has 9,725 drums of long-lived waste,” he said…..
The country’s other major radioactive waste storage facility at Lucas Heights, Sydney, is rapidly approaching full capacity. Coupled with issues at the CSIRO site, the revelations highlighted the urgent need for a national radioactive waste storage solution, experts said.. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/rusted-barrels-of-radioactive-waste-cost-csiro-30-million-20170307-gusb6v.html
1.This month
For international news go to https://nuclear-news.net/
Honest Government Advert – Adani-Carmichael Coal Mine
The truth about Adani.
EVENTS
More information at Action Australia
31 May – Adelaide Ben Heard and the Breakthrough Insititute will be spruiking for the nuclear industry
6 – 7 June – Adelaide – Uranium Threat – No Means NO
8 June – Fremantle – Film ‘The Man Who Saved the World’ – with Federal MP Josh Wilson and Mayors for Peace
17 June National day of Action to support UN negotiations to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons
Actions are listed below, in alphabetical order. The details for all events in Australia are available here. To be clear; many of the events are led by women, but inclusive of all!
- BRISBANE – Global Women’s March to Ban the Bomb!
- CANBERRA –Rally to Ban the Bomb… finally!
- DARWIN Planning in progressTo be announced
- HOBART – Women Ban the Bomb Vigil
- MELBOURNE – Women’s March to Ban the Bomb
- PERTH – Tour of US bases Sydney – Women’s March to Ban the Bomb
New Generation IV nuclear power- PRODUCING EXPERTISE FOR THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS INDUSTRY – theme for May 2017
“Peaceful” nuclear power and nuclear weapons are intrinsically connected. The weapons industry itself recognises this.:
“There is no technical demarcation between the military and civilian reactor and there never was one. What has persisted over the decades is just the misconception that such a linkage does not exist.” – Los Alamos National Laboratory
The “new nukes” Lobby would have you believe that with their (so far non-existent) Generation IV nuclear reactors, there is now no connection with weapons.
Well, there IS – whether it be producing materials for bombs, especially “dirty bombs” and as an attraction for terrorists, or as a target for enemies in war-time.
The more subtle connection – PRODUCING EXPERTISE FOR THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS INDUSTRY.
While the “conventional” and the “new” nuclear industries both claim that they have no connection with weapons, the Generation IV spruikers actually claim to promote non proliferation of weapons.
In reality, much the same expertise is needed for both.
For Australia, the push for nuclear weapons (which has gone on since the 1950s) always involved nuclear power first. Today’s push continues, to the extent of the Federal Government providing $50 billion for a particlar type of submarine that could easily be converted to nuclear subs.
The Defence State hype in South Australia continues. In 2016 the federal government announced a $230 million national Centre for Defence Industry Capability in Adelaide. The South Australian nuclear enthusiasts, such as Business SA chief executive Nigel McBride jumped on this.
Generation IV nuclear reactors cannot get private investment (beyond a small group of billionaires). They depend on tax-payer funding. You would think that this situation would be pretty much fatal for their industry. However, with the conventional big nuclear reactors industry in a financial meltdown in America, and France, the nuclear industry as a whole desperately needs a boost.
The nuclear weapons industry needs to maintain a troop of experts, and to attract young men and women. The new gee-whiz “renaissance” for Generation IV forms just such an attraction. The support for new nukes includes generous funding for universities in USA and Britain, some in Australia, too.. Whether that support comes from government or from industry hardly matters. The nuclear weapons industry benefits from an assured supply of nuclear physicists and chemists whether their training is supposed to be for new nuclear power, nuclear medicine, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors..
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PETITIONS
Demand the Queensland Government Holds Adani to Account!
Stop the Mine Before it Starts!
Land Rights not Mining Rights. Tell the government to stop attacking land rights
http://www.seedmob.org.au/landrights
Donate to Justice for South Australian First People – Treaty Now
PETITION No Nuclear Waste Dump for South Australia http://sagreens.markparnell.org.au/no_waste_dump_for_sa
PETITION. Citizens of Australia demand action to enforce South Australian Nuclear Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act 2000 http://petition.dyndns.org/index.php
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