Confusion about what types of nuclear waste are at Woomera, and planned for Kimba area
Steve Dale “The mixture of water and concentrated radioactive material inside some of the drums also had the potential to produce explosive hydrogen gas, inspectors found.” There is now great risk to workers having to deal with this stuff. The nuclear lobbyists and pronuclear politicians won’t be the ones putting their life span at risk cleaning this radioactive mess up.
Paul Waldon Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA It would be a grave risk to endure a banquet blindfolded, with a food allergy. Yet the promotion of a deadly radioactive waste dump which the DIIS has “failed” to defined the different qualities, grade, and product sources of radiation would be a fatuous advance. Thus, the risk is “Paramount.” https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
Despite local opposition, Australian government still planning for nuclear waste dump in rural South Australia
Planning is continuing for a nuclear waste disposal site in the South Australian outback, despite opposition from local residents. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-17/barndioota-nuclear-waste-site-planning-outrages-locals/9456052
ABC North and West By Gary-Jon Lysaght 17 Feb 18 The Federal Government has shortlisted two sitesat Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula and one at Barndioota, south of Lake Torrens, near Hawker. The site that is chosen will become a permanent facility for low-level nuclear waste, and will temporarily hold intermediate-level waste.The intermediate-level waste is currently being held at Lucas Heights, in Sydney’s south.
Barndioota is a gazetted area, and was a town between 1883 and 1929. Locals from Quorn and Hawker, the two communities closest to the Barndioota site, have been vocally opposing the site since planning began in 2015.
“We can see no reason why you’d bring stuff that’s temporarily stored somewhere else … to a completely new site that hasn’t even been built,” resident Greg Bannon said.
Mr Bannon is chairman of the Flinders Local Action Group, a community based organisation aimed at highlighting the problems with a nuclear waste storage facility in the Flinders Ranges.
He said the facility would have a significant impact on tourism, which was a chief economic driver for the Flinders Ranges.
“It’ll create a perception from tourists that they don’t want to go there,” Mr Bannon said.
“We think this facility is totally at odds with anything that’s promoted for the Flinders Ranges.”
Sacred women’s site in area The Adnyamathanha are the traditional owners of Barndioota, and have a sacred Aboriginal women’s site in the region. Enise March is the site’s custodian and said she had been astonished to hear the region was being considered for a nuclear waste disposal facility. “I received that message at 2 o’clock in the morning and I was shocked, extremely shocked,” she said.
“I felt as though I’d been hit in the back of the head with an axe.”
Region seismically active, ‘worst place’ for facility
The Barndioota site, and the entire Flinders Ranges, is considered seismically active.
Flinders University emeritus professor in geology Chris Vonderborch said because of this, it was the worst place to put a nuclear waste facility. “It seems to tick all the wrong boxes for a safe disposal site,” he said. “If you look at past earthquakes around Australia, they’ll line up and down the front of the Flinders Ranges. “It’s an area that can have earthquakes.”
Professor Vonderborch said if the facility was built, the nuclides from it could form a surface sediment on Lake Torrens. “Anything that goes in there comes to the surface, or gets washed in to the surface, and then it’s got a very good chance of blowing who knows where, towards Port Augusta or whatever,” he said.
What nuclear waste will be stored?
Low-level waste Emits radiation at levels that generally require minimal shielding during handling, transport and storage
Examples include paper, plastic, gloves, cloths and filters which contain small amounts of radioactivity
Could include items, such as test tubes, that have come into contact with nuclear medicine
Intermediate Waste Emits a higher level of radiation and requires additional shielding
Generated from radiopharmaceutical production and reactor operations
For example, steel rods that come from the reactors Source: ANSTO
So far, 4 pro nuclear Submissions to Senate Committee on nuclear waste dump selection.
M
y advice to those writing submissions is to take your time, and do it properly.
I have skimmed through the 4 submissions already published, and they are pretty crummy, repetitive pro nuclear stuff – all emphasising that the writer thinks that the Federal Nuclear Waste Dump is really a matter for the local, not the wider, community
The writers are: Denise Carpenter, Ian Carpenter, Chelsea Haywood and Janice Alex McInnis
Nuclear waste dump? A new abuse for Brewarrina’s Aboriginal people?
Brewarrina, or “Bre” as it is known, is an historic and fascinating town on the Barwon-Darling River. New South Wales.With 68% of the local population identifying as indigenous it is essentially an Aboriginal town. ….
It is hard to underestimate the importance of the Aboriginal stone fish traps which, at 40,000 years old, may be the oldest man-made structures on the planet.
Brewarrina was the scene of a huge massacre of Aboriginals. “They rounded them up like cattle, old and young, on the Quantambone plain, and shot them. It is said that there were about 400 and that was how Hospital Creek got its name”
No Nuclear Bundabunda at Brewarrina – bad poison [SIGN THE PETITION] https://www.thepetitionsite.com/513/682/502/no-nuclear-bundabunda-at-brewarrina-bad-poison/?taf_id=51207201&cid=fb_na#bbfb=750086702
If Nuclear waste was so safe why is it taken over 35years to find a site, why are they seeking to build in isolated communities with the majority off the population being Aboriginal?
Brewarrina is known worldwide for the oldest man-made structure in the world with Baiame’s Ngunnhu Fish Traps and we want to keep it that way, not to be known as a nuclear waste facility.
The local Council approached the Federal Government for this proposal without consultation with the community and without negotiation with the Local Land Council or the Ngemba Community Working Party or other local councils.
We believe the health of the community will be at risk. We are being promised 15 jobs, what is 15 jobs compared to the health of the community and the land and water.
There are other options available to boost the economy of the town such as solar power, tourism and the abattoirs.
No Nuclear Bundabunda at Brewarrina – bad poison
(please note; 7 out of 9 Councillors have supported this proposal)
The Greens will table our petition in Federal Parliament.
National Radioactive Waste Management Project is deceiving local communities
EnuFF[SA https://www.facebook.com/sanuclearfree/, 14 Feb 18, Many people are aware of the approx 10 cubic metres reprocessed spent fuel classed as ILW & returned from France in 2015. Not more generally known is the fact that there is much much more ILW destined for ‘temporary storage’ above ground (contrary to IAEA best practice) in the proposed suppository.
Trying to get current figures is nigh on impossible. If anyone has access to such then please share that knowledge with us….
One abject failure of the National Radioactive Waste Management Project to fully inform local communities, the State Parliament, or even their own Federal Minister, are facts about the so-called Intermediate Level Waste (ILW). Even those who are following the issue may only be aware of the approx 10 cubic metres of reprocessed fuel returned from France in 2015. However, there is much much more ILW. Below is an extract table of Australia’s ILW inventory from 1999 (now 2018 & there could be more):
Waste forms to be accepted at a long-lived intermediate level waste store
ANSTO Radioisotope Production solid waste
ANSTO-HIFAR spent fuel reprocessing waste COGEMA glass matrix DOUNREY cemented Yet to be returned
ANSTO-HIFAR decommissioning waste Care & maintenance
ANSTO-OPAL Operational waste Prior to OPAL start Spent fuel reprocessing Yet to eventuate Eventual decommissioning Yet to eventuate
Over 600 cubic metres of ILW initially placed in a ‘temporary’ above ground store & each year another 7 added with an open-ended time frame – could be for decades to come. 1 Primary source: “National Radioactive Waste Repository Site Selection Study – A Report on Public Comment”, Department of Industry, Science and Resources, June 1999, page 48 https://industry.gov.au/resource/Documents/radioactive_waste/report_on_public_comment_phase_3.pdf viewed 13/02/18
UK’s Cumbria Trust point to serious concerns about nuclear dump plans and “Working with communities”
“Working with communities” – we have serious concerns https://cumbriatrust.wordpress.com/2018/02/14/working-with-communities-we-have-serious-concerns/ February 14, 2018
Kimba or Wallerberdina Station could be stuck with Stranded Radioactive Trash
Noel Wauchope, https://cooberpedytimes.com/news-paper/ , 8 Feb 18 I am feeling quite uneasy about the over-confident tone of the latest statement about the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility.The General Manager of the National Radioactive Waste Management Taskforce Bruce McCleary says:
“We have the right experts and the right staff in place to advance this project through various decision points this year.”
Just who are these “right experts”, and what is their agenda?
We, the public, have been given to understand that this radioactive waste facility is all about promoting medicine, by storing “medical” wastes. Medical radioactive wastes are almost entirely are classified as “low level” – especially as, for the vast majority, their radioactive half-lives are so short – a matter of hours or a few days. It stands to reason that these wastes don’t need to be transported about 3200 Km across the continent.
Now we learn that the South Australian dump site will “temporarily store our intermediate level radioactive waste”. This sounds awfully like the reprocessed nuclear wastes that are returning to the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor site from France, and England. The vitrified waste we received back from France has a radioactivity over one Billion Becquerels per gram (one GigaBq/gr). France considers this High Level Waste http://inventaire.andra.fr/…/2006_summar…/files/docs/all.pdf
The fact that this facility, planned for Kimba or other sites in the region is to be stored “temporarily”, means that the plan is to send it to Kimba or Wallaerberdina Station BEFORE there is any plan for its permanent disposal.
Kimba or Wallerberdin a Station, or whoever is the “successful” applicant is likely to be stuck with that problem already hitting American communities – having “stranded n clear wastes”. This would be a very bad outcome for an area that has previously been known as agricultural, clean and green
April 3rd submissions close for Senate Inquiry into Selection for Nuclear Waste Dump Site
Selection process for a national radioactive waste management facility in South Australia
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Economics/Wastemanagementfacility
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.
Closing date for submissions is 3rd April 2018
Committee Secretariat contact:
Senate Standing Committees on Economics
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Phone: +61 2 6277 3540
Fax: +61 2 6277 5719
economics.sen@aph.gov.au
Terms of Reference
On 6 February 2018 the following matter was referred to the Economics References Committee for inquiry and report by 14 August 2018:
The appropriateness and thoroughness of the site selection process for a national radioactive waste management facility at Kimba and Hawker in South Australia, noting the Government has stated that it will not impose such a facility on an unwilling community, with particular reference to:
- the financial compensation offered to applicants for the acquisition of land under the Nominations of Land Guidelines;
- how the need for ‘broad community support’ has played and will continue to play a part in the process, including:
- the definition of ‘broad community support’, and
- how ‘broad community support’ has been or will be determined for each process advancement stage;
- how any need for Indigenous support has played and will continue to play a part in the process, including how Indigenous support has been or will be determined for each process advancement stage;
- whether and/or how the Government’s ‘community benefit program’ payments affect broad community and Indigenous community sentiment;
- whether wider (Eyre Peninsular or state-wide) community views should be taken into consideration and, if so, how this is occurring or should be occurring; and
- any other related matters.
From tears to cheers: three years since South Australia’s nuclear Royal Commission was announced.
8 Feb 18 Three years ago today SA Premier Jay Weatherill announced a Royal Commission into the nuclear industry and a major community campaign against plans for an international high level radioactive waste dump began.
The No Dump Alliance (NDA) has today released a book about this campaign. To view the book, click here. ‘Standing Strong’ covers the key issues championed by Aboriginal and civil society groups opposed to the plan including the lack of Traditional Owner consent, dubious economics, the risks to people and the environment and the impact on future generations.
The book shows how South Australians hit the streets, organised community meetings, got involved online, signed postcards, attended information sessions, door-knocked MP’s and breathed a sigh of relief in June 2017 when the Premier conceded that the plan was “dead” and that his government would not pursue the plan.
“This book documents how our community said no to the threat of radioactive waste,” said Yankunytjatjara woman and NDA spokesperson Karina Lester. We know nuclear is not the answer for our lands and people, we have always said no. It is important that all politicians get the clear message that nuclear waste and nuclear risk is not wanted in SA.”
Today’s launch and anniversary comes amid escalating efforts to oppose Canberra’s plan to store and dump federal radioactive waste in regional SA.
The NDA has joined with communities in both the Flinders Ranges and Eyre Peninsula in welcoming recent comments from Premier Weatherill against future nuclear waste plans. The Premier has said that the government will consider legal action against the federal government to stop the attempt to impose a national nuclear waste dump in SA. The NDA also welcomes the successful move by NXT Senator Rex Patrick, with Labor and Greens support, to establish a Senate Inquiry into the planned national nuclear waste dump.
“Over the past three years a risky plan to import global radioactive waste was clearly defeated”, said nuclear campaigner and NDA spokesperson Dave Sweeney. “This was an important and comprehensive community victory.”
“Today the challenge is to convince Canberra to start treating radioactive waste responsibly and the SA community respectfully because SA is simply too good to waste.”
‘Standing Strong’ is dedicated to the life and work of Yami Lester – Yankunytjatjara Elder and Land Rights activist who sadly passed away in July 2017.
The No Dump Alliance will continue its work on nuclear issues in South Australia.
Senate Committee investigating nuclear waste project may already be compromised
Paul Waldon, Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, 8 Feb 18,
We have ANSTO, ARPANSA, and DIIS which have failed to display there impartiality, they are incapable of listening, they are environmentally blind, impotent of nuclear safeguards, responsibly inadequate, and obstinate, so what makes people think we will be better off saying yes to a investigation when we have already delivered a resolute “NO.”
Submissions by 3 April: Senate Committee of Inquiry into Selection Process for a National radioactive waste dump site in South Australia
Senate in push for state nuke dump vote, The Advertiser, Peter Jean , Political Reporter 7 Feb 18 All South Australians would vote on whether a radioactive waste dump should be built in the state, under options to be considered by a federal parliamentary committee.
South Australia’s peak environment body welcomes Senate nuclear waste dump inquiry
South Australia’s peak environment body has strongly welcomed the establishment of a Senate Inquiry, proposed by NXT Senator Rex Patrick, into the controversial site selection process for the national nuclear waste dump.
The Federal Government’s plan to establish a Radioactive Waste Management Facility has deeply divided and caused undue stress to the affected communities of Kimba in the Eyre Peninsula and Hawker in the Flinders Ranges.
“The Turnbull Government’s flawed process to impose a nuclear waste dump on South Australia has been deeply distressing to the communities of Kimba and Hawker,” said Conservation SA Chief Executive Craig Wilkins.
“Of course we need an appropriate long term solution to the nuclear waste created at the Lucas Heights reactor in Sydney, but the process currently underway is clearly not the right one.
“We are very pleased that Senator Rex Patrick from the Nick Xenophon Team is standing up for South Australia and the affected communities, and this inquiry has received support from the federal senate” he continued.
The Full TOR for the Inquiry can be found here:
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Economics/Wastemanagementfacility
South Australia has repeatedly said no to nuclear waste – from legislation banning dumps introduced by the state Liberal Government in 2000 to the recent defeat of plans to establish an international nuclear waste dump in SA to now, where communities are voicing loud and clear opposition to the Federal site selection process.
Mr Wilkins said “It’s clear that political and community opposition to the current federal nuclear waste dump process is valid and growing.
“We welcome the recent announcement by Premier Weatherill that his government would consider legal action to stop any attempt to impose a national nuclear waste dump on our state.
“South Australians have a right to know where all parties stand on the national nuclear waste dump issue ahead of the state election on March 17,” he concluded..
The nuclear industry lobbyists rule the Australian radiation regulator
Steve Dale Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/ So many words – just a lot of management speak. Not one mention of the words inhalation or ingestion (of radioactive particles). The nuclear industry/lobbyists rule the regulator. From their page – “Since the promulgation of the 1992 Code of Practice, there have been significant international advances in radioactive waste safety. For example, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has revised its radiation protection limits and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has published a range of revised waste safety standards. These changes have been progressively reflected in other Australian standards and codes.” – I think this is code for – international standards have been watered down, and it will be easier to get a nuclear industry going here if we wait
I will say NO to the waste dump
Regina McKenzie Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, Back home on the Range, seeing it made a lump come into my throat, how can any one even think of putting a waste dump in such a beautiful ancient land?
We the people of this land comes from a group of nations, that were hunted in the past, the Government of them days actually supported the activity of early settlers, a five pound bounty, which was a lot of money in those days, was paid per scalp of Aboriginals, blankets that was exposed to small pox given out to unsuspecting yura’s, who then shared these gifts to the wider Aboriginal people, hence spreading the disease to people who had no immunity to it and can’t forget the water hole being poisoned, what I am getting at is back then, when we were hunted, this land was our sanctuary all the decimated nations fled into the hills, thus forming the Adnyamathanha people, adnya meaning rock and mathanaha meaning groups, it was the hills of this beautiful land that saved us,
I hear many say oh thank goodness for the missionaries they helped us ….. NO they only contained us on missions, taking control of our lives, banning the people to practice culture and making public enemies of the ones who stood strong, it was the land that gave us places to hide and why we are still here, so why do Yura’s take it for granted? why do they turn their back? why do they so cowardly bend their knee?
I will stand for the land, I will fight with every ounce of my strength, I live and breath this land, it is my solace, my love, the place where I am whole, I will say NO to the waste dump, I stand proud and I will protect my Mudah, my past, present and future https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
AUSTRALIA’S HISTORY OF MISMANAGING RADIOACTIVE WASTE
| Friends of the Earth, Australia, www.nuclear.foe.org.au, January 2018 “The disposal of radioactive waste in Australia is ill-considered and irresponsible. Whether it is short-lived waste from Commonwealth facilities, long-lived plutonium waste from an atomic bomb test site on Aboriginal land, or reactor waste from Lucas Heights. The government applies double standards to suit its own agenda; there is no consistency, and little evidence of logic.” ‒ Nuclear engineer Alan Parkinson11 Alan Parkinson, 2002, ‘Double standards with radioactive waste’, Australasian Science, https://nuclear.foe.org.au/flawed-clean-up-of-maralinga/ 2 https://nuclear.foe.org.au/flawed-clean-up-of-maralinga/ RADIUM HILL: A radioactive waste repository at Radium Hill “is not engineered to a standard consistent with current internationally accepted practice” according to a 2003 SA government audit. PORT PIRIE: The Port Pirie uranium treatment plant is still contaminated over 50 years after its closure. It took a six-year community campaign just to get the site fenced off and to carry out a partial rehabilitation. As of July 2015, the SA government’s website states that “a long-term management strategy for the former site” is being developed. ARKAROOLA WILDERNESS SANCTUARY: SA regulators failed to detect Marathon Resource’s illegal dumping of low level radioactive waste in the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. If not for the detective work of the managers of the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, the illegal activities would likely be continuing to this day. The incident represents a serious failure of SA government regulation. The Royal Commission report dealt with this scandal in two sentences and failed to note that the SA government regulator did not detect the illegal dumping of radioactive waste. MARALINGA: The ‘clean-up’ of nuclear waste at the Maralinga nuclear test site in the late 1990s was a fiasco:2 • • Scientist Dale Timmons said the government’s technical report was littered with “gross misinformation”. • • Dr Geoff Williams, an officer with the Commonwealth nuclear regulator ARPANSA, said that the ‘clean-up’ was beset by a “host of indiscretions, short-cuts and cover-ups”. • • Nuclear physicist Prof. Peter Johnston (now with ARPANSA) noted that there were “very large expenditures and significant hazards resulting from the deficient management of the project”. If there was some honesty about the mismanagement of radioactive waste in Australia, coupled with remediation of contaminated sites, we might have some confidence that lessons have been learned and that radioactive waste will be managed more responsibly in future. But there is no such honesty from the government, and there are no plans to clean up contaminated sites. More information: Pages 11-15 in Submission to SA Joint Select Committee, https://tinyurl.com/jsc-sub |
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 