Holtec casks for wastes (as intended by Nuclear Royal Commission for South Australia) now found to have faults
Dry Cask Risks Not Known When Design Approved by NRC, 2 Nov 2017Former Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Administrative Judge Dr. Peter Lam discloses that the vulnerabilities of Diablo’s Holtec dry cask nuclear waste storage system to stress corrosion cracking – recently documented by Donna Gilmore – was not known to decision-makers 20 years ago, when the NRC approved the design.
Dr. Lam’s disclosure seems to throw into serious question the validity of the design basis of all planned and existing nuclear waste storage systems in California and elsewhere.
This is number four of four excerpts, posted as a public service by EON, from the Slo-Span.org video coverage of the Oct. 19, 2017 meeting of the Diablo Canyon Independent Safety Committee.
For more info: DCISC.org MothersForPeace.org SanOnofreSafety.org Slo-Span.org
Nuclear fuel waste: Extended Storage at Lucas Heights or target SA?
The proposed Intermediate Level Waste Store is predominantly for ANSTO reactor wastes
Briefer (Nov 2017) by David Noonan, Independent Environment Campaigner The Federal government has divided Australian community and is compromising safety in proposed import and indefinite above ground storage of ANSTO nuclear wastes in South Australia.
Since April 2016 the Federal government has solely targeted regional communities in SA for a proposed above ground Store to take irradiated Nuclear Fuel Waste (NFW) and long lived Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) from the ANSTO Lucas Heights reactor facility in NSW.
The ARPANSA CEO formally considered this proposed NRWMF Store and stated in May 2015:
“This plan will have the provision for ILW storage above ground for approximately 100 years.”
This nuclear waste storage plan compromises safety by importing long lived reactor waste to SA without any waste disposal capacity or even a program or plan for potential disposal of NFW and ILW. Safety requires these nuclear wastes are isolated from the environment for over 10,000 years.
The proposed 100 year Store in SA for 10,000 year nuclear wastes is a divisive, unsafe and unnecessary plan – given ANSTO’s capacity to retain these nuclear wastes at Lucas Heights.
Federal Contingency options to store Nuclear Fuel Wastes at Lucas Heights: Continue reading
ANSTO calls High Level Nuclear Waste – “Intermediate Level” – fooling the public
Steve Dale Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch South Australia https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052/ 21 Oct 17 Lest we forget. The ore we dig up from Roxby has a radioactivity of about 80 Becquerels per gram. 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 – but our political system has allowed this to be defined as “Intermediate” – incompetence? corrupt? I will let you decide. (image from http://inventaire.andra.fr/…/2006_summar…/files/docs/all.pdf)
Business South Australia – still a strident voice for the nuclear lobby
Nuclear fight isn’t over, vows Business SA, Business SA has vowed to continue the nuclear waste dump fight after the next election, with boss Nigel McBride slamming the state’s politicians for killing off the debate because of populist politics,In Daily, Tom Richardson, 19 October 17 .
The recommendation received majority support, with Labor, Liberal and Greens MPs backing it and the Australian Conservatives MLC dissenting.
Greens MLC Mark Parnell went further, pushing to reinstate laws that would prevent any Government consulting publicly on the merits of a nuclear waste storage.
But McBride today hit out at the political consensus, warning it set a dangerous precedent of shutting down mature debate on complex issues…….
He said the state had already spent at least $14 million of taxpayers’ money on the Royal Commission – let alone subsequent community consultations………
he reserved particular scorn for Weatherill’s bid to hasten the decision process through a series of citizens’ juries…….
McBride was among those who spoke at the jury sessions, and described the jurors as “intelligent, thoughtful, questioning, decent members of the public”……..
Despite being a long-time advocate for exploring nuclear waste storage in SA, McBride was among the first proponents to declare the plan “dead” after the state Liberals last year withdrew bipartisan support……..https://indaily.com.au/news/local/2017/10/19/nuclear-fight-isnt-vows-business-sa/
No more money for investigating nuclear waste importing – South Australian Parliamentary Committee report
No more cash for nuclear vision as parties conspire against waste dump. In Daily, Tom Richardson , 18 Oct 17 A parliamentary inquiry into Jay Weatherill’s doomed nuclear waste repository has told the State Government not to spend another cent of public money on the plan, with MPs from both major parties conspiring to drive the last nail into the project’s political coffin.The final report of a committee established to review the findings of former Governor Kevin Scarce’s Nuclear Royal Commission, tabled in parliament yesterday, makes only one recommendation: “That the South Australian Government should not commit any further public funds to pursuing the proposal to establish a repository for the storage of nuclear waste in SA.”
The recommendation was endorsed by Liberal, Greens and Labor members of the committee – surprisingly, including even outspoken nuclear advocate and Labor whip Tom Kenyon………
Earlier this year, InDaily revealed Weatherill’s declaration that the project would not be revisited by his Government.
But the work of the committee has continued, with the inquiry hearing “concerns from witnesses that if market conditions changed, for example through competition or changes in technology, the state may be left with a facility which, from an economic and financial perspective, is a break-even proposition at best”.
“Further, while no direct losses would be incurred, there could be significant costs attached to losing other, potentially higher value, investment opportunities,” the report stated.
“Further still, the minimum pre-commitment, or baseline viability, does not mitigate risk of writing-off pre-commitment expenditure estimated at roundly $600 million if the facility did not proceed.”
The committee noted “the possibility of a customer country unilaterally deciding not to send waste to SA despite contractual agreements to do so which, depending on the timing of the risk impact, could leave the facility significantly under-funded”.
Greens committee member Mark Parnell, a consistent opponent of the repository plan, said today “the project was ill-conceived from the outset”.
“The whole exercise has been a colossal waste of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, but it’s now good the process has finished and we can move on to talking about more realistic projects that will create employment and opportunity for South Australians,” he said.
Calling the inquiry’s recommendation the “second-last nail in the coffin”, Parnell insisted the Government must now reinstate Section 13 of the Nuclear Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act of 2000, which was repealed last year.
The law prevented the Government from consulting on the merits of a nuclear waste storage facility, holding that “no public money may be appropriated, expended or advanced to any person for the purpose of encouraging or financing any activity associated with the construction or operation of a nuclear waste storage facility” in SA.
Parnell has his own legislation before parliament to re-establish the original act, saying “we need to fix the legislation to make sure no future government comes back with a project like this, without coming to parliament first”……..https://indaily.com.au/news/politics/2017/10/18/no-cash-nuclear-vision-parties-conspire-waste-dump/
South Australian Labor commends Weatherill govt on acknowledging Citizens Jury outcome – no nuclear waste importing
In addition to the parliamentary committee report released today …
Motion / resolution passed unanimously by the Australian Labor Party SA Branch, State Convention 2017
13 October 2017
Motion 22. MUA
Federal Nuclear Waste Dump
Andrew Allison, Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch South Australia-18 Oct 17 -South Australian Labor congratulates the Weatherill government for acknowledging the Citizens Jury outcome to reject the establishment of the nuclear dump, which reflected a majority of the state’s residents, some two thirds of Jury participants. The Weatherill Government is to be commended for acknowledging the community, social and environmental concerns.
Recommendation
SA Labor continues to acknowledge, respects and endorse the ALP National Platform on Nuclear Waste.
Australian govt changing electoral boundaries, in effort to get support for radioactive waste dump in South Australia?
Hypocrisy of Gareth Evans – supposedly promotes nuclear disarmament, but now plugging for nuclear waste importing
Nuclear power and nuclear weapons are intrinsically connected. The shonky 2016 South Australian plan to import nuclear wastes was intended to promote the global nuclear industry, as Gareth Evans well knows
Paul Waldon Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, 7 Oct 17 Thursdays Advertiser story: Gareth Evans calling to resuscitate the dead program of South Australia being the worlds nuclear waste dump with desire to debate on something that should remain buried, or is he a “Mass Debater” trying to satisfy himself. However he has condemned the “NIMBY’s”, who he has claimed employed arguments by activists for their roll in the death of a program he supports.https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
Aborigines fight to block nuclear wastes from Scotland ending up dumped in rural South Australia
Australian Aborigines move to block shipments of Scottish nuclear waste http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15554758.Australian_Aborigines_move_to_block_shipments_of_Scottish_nuclear_waste/?ref=fbshr 26 Sept 17, ABORIGINES in South Australia are fighting a plan to ship nuclear waste from Scotland amid fears it will be dumped on land regarded as culturally and spiritually sacred.
Wallerberdina, around 280 miles north of Adelaide, has been earmarked as a possible location for Australia’s first nuclear waste dump despite claims that it is a priceless heritage site rich in archaeological treasures including burial mounds, fossilised bones and stone tools.
Some have claimed the impact would be similar to “building a waste dump at the heart of the Vatican”.
Now campaigners have appealed to the Scottish Government to halt controversial plans to ship nuclear waste processed at Dounreay in Caithness to Australia, amid concerns that it will eventually end up on the culturally sensitive land.
The waste transfer is part of a deal with saw spent fuel from nuclear reactors in Australia, Belgium, Germany and Italy processed at Dounreay – the nuclear facility in Caithness currently being decommissioned – to enable it to be safely stored after being returned to its country of origin.
The UK government has previously confirmed that “a very small quantity of Australian-owned radioactive waste” is currently stored in the country.
Scottish Government policy allows for the substitution of nuclear waste with a “radiologically equivalent” amount of materials from Sellafield in Cumbria.
The Herald understands that a shipment of such material is due to take place by 2020.
While the waste will be initially stored at a facility near Sydney, concern is growing that it could end up at Wallerberdina, one of two areas under consideration as a nuclear waste dump site.
As well as sparking anger over the site’s cultural and sacred connections, the proposed location has angered local people who still recall British atomic bomb tests in the area in the 1950s without permission from the affected Aboriginal groups.
Thousands were adversely affected with many Aboriginal people left suffering from radiological poisoning
Gary Cushway, a dual Australian/British citizen living in Glasgow, has now written to the First Minister asking that the Scottish Government review the agreement to transfer the material “until a satisfactory final destination for the waste is finalised by the Australian Government.”
He argues that doing so would allow the government to “take the lead in mitigating mistakes of the past that the UK government has made in regards to indigenous Australians.”
The proposed dump site is next to an Indigenous Protected Area where Aborigines are still allowed to hunt, and is part of the traditional home of the Adnyamathanha people, one of several hundred indigenous groups in Australia.
Rural South Australia could end up with the curse of stranded nuclear wastes
Robyn Wood, Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, 19 Sept 17
On the charge
HEAD of Resources Division, Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (DIIS), Bruce Wilson’s statement that “the federal Government is not pushing for a … National Radioactive Waste Management Facility to be hosted in SA” is not supported by the facts (“Nuke healing”, The Advertiser, 6/9/17).
Since the call for potential sites across Australia in March 2015, the process narrowed to focus on three, all in SA, two near Kimba and one near Hawker.
For over a year, DIIS staff have visited Hawker and Quorn almost weekly promoting the facility and answering questions.
A consultative committee meets monthly, a community liaison officer has been appointed and an economic working group has been formed. Newsletters appear regularly.
A delegation from Champagne in France, where there is a similar facility, has been presented praising the benefits of the facility to their region. Individuals and groups, including school students, have been funded to tour Lucas Heights.
In 2016, the federal Government allocated a $2 million community benefit package to Hawker. Another $2 million is promised this financial year with a similar allocation for Kimba, which will also have its own consultative committee and community liaison officer.
Mr Wilson’s letter emphasises the disposal of waste from the production and use of radioactive medical isotopes. He does not mention that the problematic intermediate level component of this waste can only be stored there on a temporary basis with no plan for its disposal.
Current state legislation, the Nuclear Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act 2000, prohibits the storage in SA of the type of material proposed for this site.
GREG BANNON, Chair, Flinders Local Action Group, Quorn. more https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
ANSTO bosses support the global nuclear industry, not the well-being of Australians
Is the Federal Nuclear Waste Dump plan a TROJAN HORSE FOR AN INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP?
NATIONAL NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP IN SA: TROJAN HORSE FOR AN INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP?http://www.adelaide.foe.org.au/national-nuclear-waste-dump-in-sa-trojan-horse-for-an-international-nuclear-waste-dump/ 13 Nov 2015
The Federal Government has released the shortlist of six sites for the location of a national radioactive waste dump. Three of these sites are in South Australia.
Friends of the Earth Adelaide is cautious about the Federal Governments genuine commitment to a voluntary site nomination and selection process.
“The test will be how the government handles community opposition, how inclusive and transparent the site selection process will be, and how it will handle the issue of existing South Australian legislation banning the establishment of a nuclear waste dump,” said Nectaria Calan of Friends of the Earth Adelaide.
The National Radioactive Waste Management Act 2012, the Act governing the site selection process, over-rides existing state legislation prohibiting the establishment of a nuclear waste dump.
“Will the Federal Government impose a nuclear waste dump on states that have legislated against it, or communities that do not want it?” asked Ms Calan.
“The location of a waste dump cannot simply be decided through individual nominations,” said Ms Calan. “It affects the wider community, particularly those in close proximity to the site. Radioactive contamination knows no property boundaries. The principle of voluntarism extends beyond the individual where an action has wider ramifications,” continued Ms Calan.
“There is yet to be an independent inquiry into all our radioactive waste management options, so the nominations process is premature,” said Ms Calan.
Additionally, here in South Australia the Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle is considering the feasibility of an international nuclear waste dump.
“Will a national nuclear waste repository in SA be the trojan horse for an international high level nuclear waste dump down the track?” asked Ms Calan.
“Rather than considering existing nuclear waste in Australia as an intractable problem, the SA government and some proponents of the nuclear industry seem to consider radioactive waste a business opportunity and want to import it, astounding given that so far globally there has been no success in establishing even one facility for the long term storage of high level waste.”
“ The one deep underground repository for intermediate level waste that does exist, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, saw an incident in February last year where a waste barrel exploded, leading to an aboveground release of airborne radiation, after only 15 years in operation,” said Ms Calan. “According to the US Department of Energy, twenty-two workers tested positive to low-level radiation exposure.”
Friends of the Earth Adelaide has serious concerns regarding the regulatory framework that may be applied to a nuclear waste dump in South Australia, whether national or international.
“BHP Billiton, operator of the Olympic dam mine, is exempt from key regulating legislation in SA, including the Freedom of Information Act, and parts of the Radiation Protection and Control Act and the Environmental Protection Act. With such a precedent here in SA for the regulation of the nuclear industry, where is the guarantee that other nuclear projects such as a nuclear waste dump would not also be exempt from laws regulating radiation, environmental protection, and transparency?” asked Ms. Calan.
South Australian responses to Federal Nuclear Waste Dump plan – Facebook
Paul Waldon Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/Regina McKenzie I say No to nuclear waste dump in the Flinders Ranges or anywhere , the government says if there is a strong community movement against it , they will walk away . So why are they still hanging around Barndioota, Like blow flies on a shitty arse sheep? Honest they say one thing and do another , just a form of bullying from the Federal government, SA dont want No Nuclear Waste dump! Get over it and move on ….. We Say No!
Paul Waldon, How does your community make a small fortune gambling on nuclear waste? You start with a big fortune! The monkeys in the community happy to accept peanuts to risk contamination and death of their environment, maybe satisfied till things go wrong. But remember the culturally significant, seismically unstable, flood prone, non reducing, aquifer vulnerable, tourism missed, and peoples welfare are all issues that ANSTO, ARPANZA, and the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science have all overlooked or have NO regard for, in their wrongful pursuit to ensure their own job security.
Steve Dale They do it because they are drowning in a sea of nuclear muck of their own creation, and they want to keep creating nuclear muck for profit. They are drowning and they are desperate – and if we are not careful they will drag down everything good about South Australia with them.
NOW..
IF A CONTAINMENT FIELD THAT IS MADE `SAFE` CANNOT BE SITUATED NEAR LUCAS HEIGHTS.??..
.
WHY DOES IT NEED TO BE `OUTBACK` IF ITS SOOO SAFE..??..
WE DONT TRUST U MOB TO LEAVE IT LOW..
CMON.. U THINK WE ARE STUPID..!!..
ONCE YOU HAVE LOW-THEN U GO MEDIUM… THEN U GO HIGH AND STUFF FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD(SPENT RODS ect)
Gets sent here for REHAB.. 200,000YRS .
NOOO.. THAT MEANS NNNOOO…
Fragile ecosystem of the Flinders Ranges – threatened by nuclear waste dumping
Paul Waldon Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA Yesterday,Thursday the 7th of September was Threatened Species Day. The promotion of nuclear waste abandonment in the Flinders Ranges by The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (DIIS), and ANSTO can only be seen as a irresponsible act pushing life to extinction with a radioactive assault on a incompatible and fragile environment, while threatening the taxon and the biotas of the Flinders Ranges.
Time for Australia to have an inquiry into nuclear waste production and storage.
Advertiser, (Dr) MARGARET BEAVIS, 1 Sept 17, THE federal Government is still pushing hard for South Australia to take Australia’s nuclear waste. They make a big song and dance about nuclear medicine, but leave out facts that don’t suit them.
Firstly, most waste is not from nuclear medicine, but from CSIRO and industrial uses.
Secondly, most countries, including the UK and the US, import nuclear medicine. We sometimes do, too, with ANSTO reactor breakdowns or maintenance. Less than 1 per cent of waste comes from actually using nuclear medicine, as it loses radioactivity so quickly almost all goes in the normal rubbish.
Thirdly, the proposed facility for the most toxic waste (which lasts over 10,000 years) is 
substandard – way below world’s best practice.
Finally, they don’t mention that taxpayer-subsidised ANSTO is massively ramping up production of waste. There is no shortage of nuclear medicine – this is about grabbing market share, leaving us with lots more future waste. And no community consultation.
What we need right now is an inquiry into nuclear waste production and storage. Dodgy claims and a shonky dump should not be used to pressure SA communities.
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 