The Australian Conservation Foundation has described plans to store high level international nuclear waste in South Australia as desperate, dangerous and in direct conflict with Australia’s national interest.
The Australian Conservation Foundation has described plans to store high level international nuclear waste in South Australia as desperate, dangerous and in direct conflict with Australia’s national interest.
The plan was outlined in Adelaide today by former South Australian Governor Kevin Scarce as part of the interim findings of the South Australian Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle established by Premier Weatherill in March 2015.
National and South Australian environment and civil society groups have criticised the Royal Commission’s terms of reference and advisory panel as being pro-nuclear industry, and raised sustained concerns over the unnecessarily complex and confusing Commission process.
“The global trend away from the nuclear sector is reflected in the Commission’s tepid response to uranium mining and processing and nuclear power,” said ACF campaigner Dave Sweeney.
“Nuclear power is a dying industry but nuclear waste remains forever undead. Sadly the Royal Commission is proving to be a toxic Trojan Horse for a dangerous and divisive plan to turn remote South Australia into a permanent radioactive waste zone.
“The Commissions obsession with the perceived dollars signs seems to have blinded it to the proven danger signs.
“As the Commission notes, any plans to open the door to high level international radioactive waste storage or disposal in SA would require bi-partisan federal political support and broad national community consent. These are both currently lacking and this is unlikely to change.
“This move has profound and permanent implications for all Australians and requires more scrutiny than that of a state based industry promotional platform,” Mr Sweeney said.
“International radioactive waste is a growing long term environmental management challenge, not a short term business opportunity. South Australians deserve better than to be told their best hope is to host the world’s worst waste.”
