The Federal Government’s plan for a Radioactive Nuclear Waste Dump is blatantly negligent
The Federal Government’s plan for a Radioactive Nuclear Waste Dump is blatantly negligent in identifying and evaluating the best site in Australia. The Australian Government fail in their duty of care to select a site that constitutes the highest level of safety now and into the far future for the purpose of protecting people and the environment from harmful effects of radiation and display an irresponsible use of Australian tax payer’s money.
This calls for an independent enquiry to reassess the proposal in scientific manner, devoid of political agendas. In the meantime, ANSTO have the expertise and capacity (500 hectares) to continue storing Australia’s nuclear waste for another three decades. We should use this time to develop a cohesive, intelligent solution for the safest place in Australia for a national radioactive nuclear waste facility. https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/?multi_permalinks=837501786594633%2C837469919931153¬if_id=1538379410382955¬if_t=group_activity
‘Economic benefit’ from nuclear waste dump falsely pushed by Department of Industry, Innovation and Science
Paul Waldon Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, 1 Oct 18, ANSTO has a duty to deal with their waste, and as their name implies it should be done scientifically and not by shifting the waste to a backroom of the country. However this is an industry that has shortcomings worldwide in the R&D arena, with one claim that Consolidated Edison’s of New York only principle innovation after 25 years of operating was to paint their smoke stacks red white and blue.
Moreover the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science’s cogent manufactured factoids lead the minority of locals to espouse to radioactive wastes for purely false economical reasons. https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/?multi_permalinks=837324089945736%2C837259113285567%2C837129993298479%2C836953179982827%2C836913929986752¬if_
Jobs for South Australians at nuclear morgue? That is a shaky promise.
A nuclear waste jobs bonanza for regional South Australia? http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=19959, – Jim Green, 27 Sept 19
The federal government is trying to persuade regional communities in South Australia to host a national radioactive waste facility – an underground burial repository for lower-level radioactive wastes and an above-ground ‘interim’ store for long-lived intermediate-level waste. One site under consideration is near Hawker in the Flinders Ranges, and two other sites under consideration are on farming land near Kimba at the top of the Eyre Peninsula.
The government is promising 45 jobs, three times its earlier claim that there would be 15 jobs at the proposed facility. The compensation package on offer has also tripled and now stands at $31 million.
Forty-five jobs would be welcome in small regional communities. But is it plausible that 45 jobs would be created? When the Howard government was attempting to establish a radioactive waste repository in SA from 1998 – 2004, the government said there would be zero jobs – not even any security guards. The government-commissioned PR company Michels Warren said: “The National Repository could never be sold as “good news” to South Australians. There are few, if any, tangible benefits such as jobs, investment or improved infrastructure.”
From 2005 to 2014, Coalition and Labor governments targeted sites in the Northern Territory for a radioactive waste repository and said there would be just six jobs, all of them security guards.
Last year, with SA once again in the firing line, the government said: “At least 15 full-time equivalent jobs will be needed to operate the facility. These will be in site management, administration, security, environmental monitoring, site and building maintenance as well as receiving and packaging waste materials.”
Recently, the jobs estimate was upped to 45, with the government saying: “In addition to the 15 operational jobs already confirmed, the structure now includes roles for community liaison, management, tourism, environmental monitoring, security, health and safety: a total of 45 staff.”
This is the breakdownof the 45 jobs:
14 – security and safeguards
13 – waste operations and technicians
8 – site management and community outreach
5 – environmental protection and quality control
5 – safety and radiation protection
That estimate comes with caveats: “the final workforce design and structure will be based on a number of factors including advice from security agencies, the views of the independent regulator and the details of the final business case, with inputs from across government.”
Overseas comparisons
The Centre de Stockage de l’Aube (CSA) radioactive waste facility in France handles over 200 times more waste per yearcompared to the proposed facility in SA yet it employs only four times as many staff as the proposed facility in SA. CSA processes 73 cubic metres (m3) per employee per year (13,164 m3 / 180 staff).
Is the estimate of 45 jobs credible? Not if overseas radioactive waste facilities are any guide.
The El Cabril radioactive waste facility in Spain has a staff of 137 people and processed an average of 1,395 m3 per year from 1993 to 2016. That equates to 10.2 m3 per employee per year.
Yet the Australian government estimates a workforce of 45 people to process 45 m3 per year: 1 m3 per employee per year compared to 10.2 in Spain and 73 in France. The government evidently has a dim view of the productivity of Australian workers, or, more likely, its jobs estimate is grossly inflated.
Will the government pay staff to do nothing?
Measuring jobs-per-employee doesn’t account for some jobs required whether a facility processes 1 m3 or 1 million m3 per year: administration, security and so on. As a government official stated: “There are a base number of jobs related to the management of the waste which are not linear with volume and a number of jobs that would scale with larger volumes.”
Nevertheless, productivity at the proposed Australian facility would be dramatically lower than comparable facilities overseas.
If we assume that Australia matched the lowest of the figures given above – 10.2 m3 per employee per year at El Cabril in Spain – then the staff at an Australian facility would be processing waste for just one month each year and they’d have 11 months to play ping-pong.
The current government might be willing to pay 45 staff to play ping-pong for 11 months each year, but it’s not a sustainable situation. The Department of Finance wouldn’t tolerate it. If staff at the waste facility are paid by the federal government to do nothing for most of the time, what sort of a precedent does that set, and why shouldn’t the rest of us be paid to do nothing for 11 months out of 12 at a cost to taxpayers of several million dollars each year?
Almost certainly, staffing would be dramatically culled. Almost certainly, a future government would revert to the plan pursued by previous governments: keeping the waste facility closed most of the time, and opening it occasionally for waste disposal and storage. In the jargon, this is called a campaign-based approach with occasional waste disposal ‘campaigns’.
Previous governments said that waste would be sent to the facility just once every 3 – 5 years. For example, the government said in 2003 that waste would be transferred to the facility just once every five years: “It is considered for planning purposes that an average period of 5 years between campaigns will be appropriate” (Volume III of DEST application to ARPANSA, Ch.9, ‘Waste – Transfer and Documentation’, p.5).
In a recent attack on me for questioning its estimate of 45 jobs, the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science said it was unable to locate any previous government documents regarding periodic, campaign-based plans. The federal government can’t find federal government documents? Seriously?
The government says that it wants continuous operation of the repository (for reasons unexplained) rather than a periodic, campaign-based approach. But even so, the government only plans to shift waste to the facility once or twice each yearaccording to a 2016 document. A July 2018 government document states: “This facility will be an operational facility and not as some have suggested, a minimally crewed warehouse to be opened once or twice a year.” But it is the government itself which says that waste will only be transported to the facility once or twice each year!
Broader economic impacts Continue reading
Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation to continue legal fight over proposed nuclear waste dump
Kimba District Council, 28 Sept 18 : The Australian Human Rights Commission has today formally terminated conciliation between the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation and the District Council of Kimba. The matter is now likely to proceed through a judicial process. In the meantime, the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility site selection ballot will not be undertaken until the matter is resolved.
A spokesperson for Council said that during the conciliation, alternative options for resolution were put to BDAC by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, but were not accepted. For this reason, the outcome is disappointing, but Council remains committed to facilitating a forum on behalf of the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia that ensures the Kimba community has an opportunity to be heard on the issue.
Given the matter is still before the court, Council will be making no further comment, but will keep the community informed as the situation develops.
American transnational corporation AECOM would be the biggest beneficiary from a South Australian radioactive suppository
Tim Bickmore shared a link No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia,
Q. Who would mostly benefit financially from a South Australian radioactive suppository?
A. American transnational corporation AECOM. They already have Oz Gov brass in pocket from the NRWMF, from ADANI, from the NBN. In the UK AECOM services both the Sellafield & Cumbria radioactive waste facilities. AECOM is the 18th largest service provider to the US Govt; runs Los Alamos plutonium factory; Kennedy Space Center & NY World Trade Center.
AECOM is in the box seat to manage & run any OZ radioactive waste facility……https://www.facebook.com/groups/1314655315214929/
Weapons-making corporation, Raytheon hoping for nuclear industry in SouthAustralia?
MAKE A SUBMISSION BY 24 SEPTEMBER : SENATE INQUIRY INTO RADIOACTIVE WASTE
K-A Garlick , Nuclear Free WA, 21 Sept 18
To have your voice heard about Flinders Ranges nuclear waste dump plan, make a submission to Federal Minister for Resources Senator Matt Canavan via email at radioactivewaste@industry.gov.au by 24 September.
On 6 February 2018, the Senate referred an inquiry into the selection process for a national radioactive waste management facility in South Australia to the Senate Economics References Committee for inquiry and report by 14 August 2018. Read our submission here. Read all submissions on the government website here. The report acknowledged and validated many of the concerns about the process but unfortunately did not call for an end to the process and for a better way to manage the process of selecting a site for Australia’s most hazardous waste. You can read the Senate report here. Read the Conservation SA media release here.
Points to mention for WA are;
- CCWA calls for an independent inquiry to explore the full range of options to deal with radioactive waste. This should include consideration of the option of keeping waste at ANSTO’s Lucas Heights site, keeping in mind that much of the waste is already securely stored at Lucas Heights (over 90% measured by radioactivity).
- Leonora should not be Plan B, as stated by Minister Canavan in The Australian June 18, 2018. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/race-to-lock-in-nuclear-dump-before-federal-election/news-story/b2ea0780ec1e6971cbce51abddb8ee6e
Feasability Study found Radioactive Waste Dump UNSUITABLE for Flinders Ranges and Kimba regions
https://www.epa.sa.gov.au/fi…/4771324_radioactive_stage1.pdf
https://www.epa.sa.gov.au/fi…/4771325_radioactive_stage2.pdf
Brave New World – I mean Bright New World pushing for a South Australian nuclear Morgue
The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science is calling for submissions on the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility. The two volunteered sites, Kimba and Hawker, are progressing through the second consultation stage of this process. Submissions along with community feedback and voting will inform the Minister of their decision to progress to the next stage.
Submissions are due 24th September 2018
Bright New World has provided an easy to use letter below to email the Department supporting the process to the next stage. Continue reading
Radon gas leaked from Woomera’s radioactive waste drums
Tim Bickmore No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia, 21 Sept 18Both Thorium & Radium produce the toxic invisible odourless radioactive gas Radon – however ARPANSA consistently refuses to confirm or deny whether Radon gas will flow out of their proposed facility.
2016 ARPANSA Inspection Report link here:
https://www.arpansa.gov.au/…/regulatory/…/2016/R16-05292.rtf https://www.facebook.com/groups/1314655315214929/?multi_permalinks=2563961080284340%2C2563869900293458¬if_id=1537398758031391¬if_t=group_activity
Greenpeace takes legal action against Australian nuclear waste transport to Cherbourg, France.
Actu.fr 13th Sept 2018 Australian nuclear waste in Cherbourg: court hearing between Greenpeace and Orano postponed Greenpeace requested from the judge the summary of the Cherbourg contract between ANSTO and Orano [formerly Areva] . The case was postponed until 25 September.
Greenpeace was authorized, this Thursday, September 13, to file an interim complaint against Orano, to obtain a summary of the contract between Orano and the Australian Agency for Nuclear Science and Technology (ANSTO).
The ship is expected this Friday. In the framework of an agreement between France and Australia signed in November 2017, the nuclear waste was loaded on board a cargo ship, BBC Austria, – 236 spent fuel assemblies, reprocessed in four TN-MTR containers. It left Sydney on July 29, the ship is expected Friday, September 14 in Cherbourg. Disguised storage? Greenpeace questions the legality of this contract. It could actually be a disguised storage in France France. https://actu.fr/normandie/cherbourg-en-cotentin_50129/dechets-nucleaires-australiens-cherbourg-laudience-entre-greenpeace-orano-reportee_18591884.html
Flooding Dangers to proposal for Nuclear Morgue in South Australia
Susan Craig Susan and 4 others are consistently creating meaningful discussions with their posts. .Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, 12 Sept 18 There is also some other interesting news regarding Lake Torrens National Park and it’s proximity to the proposed site being outside the site characteristic criteria. There are so many evidence based flaws in this proposal that are now percolating to the surface. The AECOM report under Hydrology and Flood Risks Assessment Finding referred ONLY to the floods of 1955 and 2005. The report DID NOT take into account the floods of 1989.
Dan van Holst Pellekaan MP on plan to store radioactive trash in rural South Australia
Heather Mckenzie Stuart shared a post.Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, Conversation Starter 11 Sept 18,
Dan van Holst Pellekaan MP Proposed storage of domestic radioactive waste:I’ve always said that I will strongly support a community which does not want to host a waste site (and similarly if it is wanted), and that has never changed.
The Kimba and Hawker districts are the ones being proposed by the federal government and its is vital to get a reliable assessment of those local communities’ opinions. The efforts of the Barngarla people to have the opinions of traditional owners who do not live in the district included are understandable, and this also gives everyone a bit of time while the court considers that request. The federal government has said that it will still undertake a vote, but after the court confirms who should be allowed to vote.
And once that has been done, we’ll all know the results and we can halt or progress the process together.https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
Nuclear waste returning to Australia is really High Level Waste
Dan Monceaux shared a link http://www.radioactivity.eu.com/site/pages/Vitrified_HA_Waste.htm.Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch South Australia 10 Sept 18, Some people in South Australia have been given the impression that spent nuclear fuel, reprocessed and vitrified in France, is returned to Australia or other countries as intermediate or even low-level nuclear waste. I’m yet to find any examples of other countries classifying this material as anything other than high level nuclear waste.https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052/
“The high-level waste is the smallest in volume (1.4% of all waste) but represents 98% of radioactivity in all the stored waste. High-level waste consists mostly of vitrified waste transported back to Belgium following reprocessing in France of used fuel elements from the Belgian nuclear power plants. The majority of the used fuel elements are temporarily stored at the nuclear power plant sites.” https://www.belgoprocess.be/eng/TempStorage.htm
Steve Dale Contrast this with the bizarre things Canavan said about the vitrified reprocessed waste we received back from France (in his interview with David Bevan on 891 ABC Wed 1st August 2018)
“when it comes back here the radioactivity of that material is not
materially higher than the low level waste…”
“the intermediate level waste, which does not have high radioactivity levels…” .https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052/
Injunction to halt Kimba nuclear waste ballot remains, Wallerberdina needs similar injunction
Jim Green shared a link. Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges South Australia, Sept 7 18 – The District Council of Kimba today attended conciliation in the Australian Human Rights Commission with representatives of Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation and the Department of Innovation, Industry and Science, with parties agreeing to continue ongoing discussions in the hope a resolution satisfactory to all can be reached.
The interlocutory injunction restricting Council from conducting the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility site selection ballot remains in place.
As conciliation is a confidential process, Council will be making no further comment, but remains committed to keeping members of the Kimba community informed as new information becomes available. https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/?multi_permalinks=822945051383640%2C822909001387245%2C822613141416831%2C822573228087489¬if_id=1536234627130021¬if_t=group_activity
The Federal Government no longer pushing exclusively for a vote to determine support for a nuclear waste facility at Kimba and opal licence fees set to increase – News for the 7th of September 2018, read by Tom Rohde.
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 