Former Northern Territory Chief Minister speaks out on nuclear waste dump plan
The Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act 2005 was a draconian piece of legislation that took overriding the territory to a new level. It gave the Commonwealth all the powers it needed to build a nuclear waste facility anywhere in the territory. Environment and heritage laws could be set aside, so could the Aboriginal Land Rights Act. This time Howard was determined to remove all possible resistance.
I argued that this was constitutional thuggery but my protests fell on deaf ears. My state colleagues developed temporary deafness as well. I could understand their logic; their state backyards were safe.
Trucking nuclear waste through Sydney a disaster waiting to happen October 11, 2013 Clare Martin (former chief minister of the Northern Territory.) http://www.smh.com.au/comment/trucking-nuclear-waste-through-sydney-a-disaster-waiting-to-happen-20131010-2vb0a.html
As I drove down Mona Vale Road this week on a visit to Sydney, I began to wonder what would have happened if the tanker involved in last week’s fatalities had been transporting nuclear waste. It is not a fanciful thought because that is the present federal proposal: trucking nuclear waste through Sydney streets to a new national storage facility thousands of kilometres away in central Australia.
The accident made me question yet again the sense of that proposal. Is one site for low- and medium-level nuclear waste preferable to many local? Does storing the waste in remote Australia make it safer, more secure? What are the known dangers inherent in nuclear waste storage? We need to discuss these issues. Continue reading
Australian government planning to commercialise planned Northern Territory nuclear waste dump?
The Greens say that treating a nuclear waste dump as a growth business is unwise and unwanted. ‘It seems that behind the scenes, (the Abbott government) are developing a business case for the dump with private operators,’ Senator Scott Ludlam said in a statement.
‘As soon as you commercialise a nuclear waste dump, it is in the operators’ interest to look at taking other waste, including other countries’.’
He supports calls for an independent public commission to determine how to safely and responsibly handle Australia’s nuclear waste. This ‘would enable a more sophisticated management regime than the current plan to dump the waste containers in a shed on a cattle station’, he said.
Nuclear tenders snub traditional owners http://www.skynews.com.au/national/article.aspx?id=913283 , Tuesday October 8, 2013 The federal government’s plan to manage Australia’s long-term nuclear waste has excluded the stakeholder voices of traditional Aboriginal land owners, an anti-nuclear activist says.
A Federal Court case is set for June to hear the objections of traditional owners at Muckaty Station, who do not want their lands to become a repository for nuclear waste.
But on September 23 the Abbott government called for applications for an initial business case to identify and analyse capability options for the long-term management of Australia’s radioactive waste to ensure it is safely and securely managed.
Applications close on Friday. Continue reading
Australian Council of trade Unions warns government against Muckaty nuclear waste dump plan
ACTU against nuke tip http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/actu-against-nuke-tip/story-fn59noo3-1226734351992#sthash.sbragkQn.dpuf JOE KELLY OCTOBER 08, 2013 THE ACTU has warned the Coalition against proceeding with a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory. The move comes as green groups expressed concern the development of a new business case for the facility could see Australia become a radioactive tip for the rest of the world.THE AUSTRALIAN’S story (with inaccuracies) on Muckaty nuclear waste dump plan
Nuclear dump back on NT table, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/nuclear-dump-back-on-nt-table/story-fn59niix-1226733887067#mm-premiumSEAN PARNELL The Australian. 7 Oct 13 CONTROVERSIAL plans for a nuclear waste dump are back on the agenda, with the Abbott government commissioning a business case that would allow federal cabinet to consider the project next year and potentially have a facility built by 2019.
Regarding the title; an NT dump has never been off the table- every Minister with the waste portfolio since Brendan Nelson announced the plan has continued pursuit of a remote NT site
Minister Ian MacFarlane has said on radio today that he hasn’t even read a briefing on Muckaty since being sworn in so I think its unlikely that the current tender process was actually initiated by him; it seems far more in line with the approach of former Minister Gary Gray.
The government expects to have an initial business case in April, after a period of consultation and fine-tuning by key agencies and stakeholders and ahead of the court hearings set down for June.
The Australian has learned the department last week briefed the private sector on its request for the development of a business case — which neither favours nor precludes the use of Muckaty Station — and the prospect the nuclear waste dump could be constructed and managed under a public-private partnership.
The private sector was told the concept plans delivered by the Spanish agency ENRESA involved a $150m, co-located low-level waste disposal and intermediate-level waste storage facility, which could be up and running by 2019.
While there had been rising support for the use of nuclear power before the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Mr Macfarlane said earlier this year it had dissipated and a Coalition government would not be proposing a nuclear power plant in its first term.
St George and Sutherland Shire still want ANSTO’s nuclear facilities – just not the wastes!
‘The people of Sutherland Shire call on the government to address the long-term future of nuclear waste associated with the continued operation of the ANSTO reactor and increased waste production associated with the new nuclear medicine centre.’
‘‘The continued transportation of intermediate level radioactive waste to Lucas Heights in the form of reprocessed fuel represents an unnecessary risk to the surrounding residents and communities.’’.
Mayor reacts to ANSTO licence for new nuclear medicine facility at Lucas Heights St George and Sutherland Shire Leader Oct. 4, 2013, .The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) has issued a licence to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation to prepare a site for the ANSTO Nuclear Medicine Molybdenum-99 Facility at Lucas Heights.
The move prompted Sutherland Shire mayor Steve Simpson to renew the council’s calls for the federal government to address the problem of long-term management of radioactive waste from the Lucas Heights centre and establish a national nuclear waste repository as priority.
Yeah – let’s Australia become the world’s radioactive trash toilet!
Call to store nuclear waste to sustain uranium industry http://www.afr.com/p/business/sunday/call_to_store_nuclear_waste_to_sustain_bQJnppe7viMuI9dlCLPbmJ CLAIRE STEWART, 22 Sept 13 Australia will need to start enriching uranium and storing the nuclear waste if it is going to sustain a competitive uranium industry in the future, says senior finance and resources figure Mark Johnson.
Mr Johnson, a former deputy chair of Macquarie Bank and former chairman of AGL, said Australia had a “great opportunity” to become a participant in a “free world nuclear fuel cycle”, if it produces uranium. “But the consequence of that is we would also have to store spent uranium,” he told Financial Review Sunday.
Federal government laws explicitly prohibit the building of nuclear fabrication, enrichment or power plants and the return of nuclear waste to Australia for storage. “Nobody wants spent nuclear fuel in their backyard, even if it would be right in the centre of the outback of Australia, [with] very stable geological conditions,” Mr Johnson said.
The price of uranium has halved since governments around the world promised to cut their reliance on nuclear power following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Energy Resources Australia chief executive Rob Atkinson said the market will turn, particularly given expected demand from China.
For other democracies, nuclear power is “off the table for generations”, Mr Johnson said, prompting suggestions that enrichment and storage of waste will be a key part of expanding the industry. Australia currently processes uranium to the “yellow cake” stage, which is then exported for further processing and concentration, and in some cases turned into fuel rods.
Uranium as a fuel source can only be used for about three years before it becomes too unstable, said Australian Conservation Foundation nuclear campaigner Dave Sweeny. He said making Australia part of the global fuel cycle was about opening the country up for return of that spent material. “Industry returns are meagre and the risks are significant and continuing,” he said. “Storage is the Achilles heel . . . it highlights the political, social and technical difficulty of doing this.”
Traditional owners’ court case against plan for Muckaty radioactive trash dump
Spurious excuses The rationale for the dump is spurious. There is no compelling scientific or public safety necessity for one to be built.It has been repeatedly claimed that a specialised waste dump is required to safely store low level waste (LLW) and long lived intermediate level waste (LLIW).
Most of the LLW is derived from medical isotopes used in hospitals and clinics, while the LLIW comes almost exclusively from the nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in Sydney. It is this latter type of waste that is of most concern because it is highly toxic and radioactive for a lengthy period
No Northern Territory nuclear waste dump!, En Passant Posted by John, September 19th, 2013 Despite clear opposition 
from the Aboriginal traditional owners, the push for a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, continues, write Jon Lamb and Cathy Lawless in Red Flag.
The campaign led by traditional owners to stop the waste dump is gearing up for the next stage in the fight.
On 26 August, the Federal Court set June 2014 for a case to be heard on whether the nomination of the site for the waste dump followed due process. The nuclear free campaigner for the Australian Conservation Foundation, Dave Sweeney, told Red Flag: Continue reading
The motivation behind the push for a radioactive trash dump in the Northern Territory
No Northern Territory nuclear waste dump!, En Passant Posted by John, September 19th, 2013 “………Dave Sweeney explains further: “In the 1990s there was a departmental decision made that the best way to manage Australia’s radioactive waste was through developing a centralised remote dump or store. This decision was made by unelected bureaucrats and has since been uncritically adopted and advanced by successive federal governments. A remote dump is one way to manage waste; it is not the only way and has never been proven to be the best way.”
The push for a nuclear waste facility also ties in with a desire by the Australian ruling class to maintain a stake in the global nuclear industry. Aboriginal rights, the safety of workers and environmental concerns are being quashed or ignored in order to pursue profit.
The justification for storage of medical waste is also a complete furphy. Sweeney told Red Flag, “The medical myth is a deeply disturbing aspect of the Muckaty story. Both major parties have consistently misrepresented the situation by claiming that the Muckaty dump is needed to ensure Australians have access to nuclear medicine for therapeutic and diagnostic reasons.
“This is not the case – and medical waste is not the driver for the planned dump. Medical and public health bodies including the Medical Association for the Prevention of War and the Public Health Association of Australia have repeatedly condemned the conflation of these issues”, he said.
The promotion of the waste dump on an economic basis, including for local Aboriginal communities, also deeply concerns Shaw. “It is disgusting to talk about a nuclear waste dump as being part of economic development because there is no economic development in nuclear waste dumping”, she said……http://enpassant.com.au/2013/09/19/no-northern-territory-nuclear-waste-dump/
National pressure growing in Australia against Muckaty radioactive waste plan
Dump under the pump: Pressure grows against Muckaty radioactive waste plan. Territory trade unions, medicos and environmentalists have been joined by their national counterparts in a call to end a planned radioactive waste dump in the NT.
The groups have placed an advertisement (attached) in the Tennant and District Times today to highlight their concerns over federal plans to dump radioactive waste on Aboriginal land at Muckaty, north of Tennant Creek and their commitment to continuing campaigning on the dump plan after this Saturday’s federal election.In Northern Territory electorate, Greens, Labor and Coalition candidates all oppose nuclear waste dump
Solomon candidates against nuclear dump Bigpond News, August 30, 2013 Labor, the coalition and the Australian Greens rarely agree on anything, but the three candidates for Solomon are united in their opposition of a proposed nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory.
At a community forum hosted by the ABC in Darwin on Friday, the candidates also debated marriage equality, voluntary euthanasia, housing affordability, hospitals, and schools funding.
Country Liberal Party incumbent Natasha Griggs, who holds the seat by a thin 1.7 per cent margin, said she crossed the floor on the nuclear issue to stand up for Territorians.
Greens candidate Todd Williams said: ‘The NT is viewed as easy and open and that can be foisted upon to store nuclear waste … against the wishes of traditional owners.’…….. http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Election-2013/2013/08/30/Solomon_candidates_against_nuclear_dump_901529.html
Time for Australia to manage its own radioactive wastes, not import others’
In October 2011 the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed that not only was Australian uranium sold to the inept electric utility TEPCO, but it was Australian yellowcake that was inside the reactor complex when it failed.
The two major parties have ignored repeated calls – including from the UN Secretary General – for a post-Fukushima review of Australia’s high-risk, low-return uranium industry.
Time to stop the (uranium) boats, SMH, Dave Sweeney, 28 Aug 13, SMH, August 27, 2013 Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke gained some airtime in the crowded pre-election public arena with his well-worn call for Australia to host the world’s radioactive waste. In the shadow of Fukushima it would be appropriate for the mantra of “stop the boats” to apply to those departing Darwin and Adelaide carrying uranium oxide, risk and radiation.
At the very least we need all our politicians to commit to a comprehensive and public review of the costs and consequences of Australia’s controversial uranium trade.
While it’s unlikely that many politicians will be enthused by the idea ahead of an election, it is timely to raise serious questions about the issue of radioactive waste in Australia. Not to open the door to more from overseas but rather to talk about how we might responsibly manage our own. Continue reading
Why is old Has-Been Hawke pushing the (illegal) nuclear waste importing plan?
Greens condemn plan to turn Australia into the world’s nuclear waste dump Australian Greens spokesperson on nuclear policy, Senator Scott Ludlam. 24 August 2013. The Greens have strongly rejected the proposal by former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke to turn Australia into a dump for the world’s nuclear waste.
Greens spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam said the plan was “the worst imaginable way to raise revenue”.
“What Mr. Hawke is proposing is criminal activity. The Parliament passed Greens amendments last year to prohibit the importation of nuclear waste.
“Mr Hawke seems to think the way to fill the Budget hole is to fill a hole in Australia with the world’s nuclear waste. The Labor Party and the Coalition must rule out this dangerous proposal immediately.
“Having seen both the Howard and Rudd-Gillard Governments make an absolute mess of trying to force a dump for Australian nuclear waste on Tenant Creek in the Northern Territory, heaven help us if they were trying to deal with nuclear waste from around the world as well.
“The question is – is Mr Hawke expressing this view as a hobby or as an earner on the side? If he has any commercial interests in a waste management company he should make that clear now
Bob Hawke sees $$$$s in nuclear waste importing for Australia
Hawke drops a nuclear-tinged poll bombshell SMH, August 24, 2013 Susan Wyndham If anyone is looking for a policy to liven up the election campaign, Bob Hawke has an idea: make Australia the repository of the world’s nuclear waste.”It’s a no-brainer,” he says. ”If you’ve got the safest geological sites in the world, why haven’t you got the moral responsibility to make them available?”
Mr Hawke has made the argument before, and it’s the one issue he raises when asked if he has achieved all he hoped for in the 22 years since he was prime minister.
”It could change the whole economic future of this country,” he says ”We have the world’s safest geological sites in the Northern Territory and north-west Western Australia. We could make the world a safer place and totally change our fiscal position by creating an enormous continuing source of income, then you’d apply some of that income to environmental and Aboriginal causes. But no one’s got the guts.”……….http://www.smh.com.au/national/hawke-drops-a-nucleartinged-poll-bombshell-20130823-2sh7p.html#ixzz2cujX6dn5
Minister Gary Gray is disingenuous about radioactive wastes
Christina Macpherson, 15 Aug 13, Australia’s new Energy Minister Gary Gray appears to be an improvement on the previous Minister, in that Gray at least met with some Traditional owners of land in Northern Territory – designated for a nuclear waste dump.
Australian govt’s nuclear waste plan contravenes UN Declaration
Northern Territory nuclear waste dump ‘contravenes UN declaration’ http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/14/test-nuclear-waste-nova-peris Oliver Milman theguardian.com, Wednesday 14 August 2013
Conservationists say plan falls foul of agreement on Indigenous people’s rights, with senator-in-waiting Nova Peris also opposed Nova Peris is strongly opposed to the proposed plan for a nuclear waste dump.
The government risks breaching an international agreement if it goes ahead with a controversial nuclear waste dump in a remote part of the Northern Territory, conservationists say, with Labor Senate candidate Nova Peris calling for the plan to be dropped.
Conservationists claim that the Muckaty dump, near Tennant Creek, would be in contravention of the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, which states that nations must “ensure that no storage or disposal of hazardous materials shall take place in the lands or territories of indigenous peoples without their free, prior and informed consent”.
The basis of this consent is currently being challenged in the federal court, with a directions hearing set to take place in Melbourne on 26 August. Continue reading
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