Nuclear Waste

If a week is a long time in politics then 106 of them must be close to an eternity.

Maybe they could dump it under this gigantic red rock, it couldn't possibly have much significance

That’s how long it has taken Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson to steer his controversial nuclear waste legislation though both Houses of Parliament.

Introduced as an urgent matter with Coalition support in February 2010, the law passed the Senate this week. While the delay might cause frustration to an impatient Minister, in the timeframe over which radioactive waste remains a serious human and environmental risk it is but a blip.

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  • Gordon says:

    03:04pm | 30/03/12

    This issue has less to do w/ the rights of locals and more to do with the green movement’s terror that safely storing radioactive waste might actually be no big deal. Read more »

  • Candy27BLAIR says:

    10:01am | 22/03/12

    Have no enough cash to buy some real estate? You should not worry, because that’s real to get the mortgage loans to solve such problems. Hence get a bank loan to buy all you want. Read more »

 

Few would dispute that Australia is in urgent need of a radioactive waste management facility. Over 50 years, some 4000 cubic metres of accumulated radioactive waste from hospitals and medical research facilities has stored up in hundreds lock-up sheds around the country. It is clearly an inadequate situation.

One man's waste is another man's opportunity

To make matters more pressing, Australia has an obligation to take back nuclear fuel from Sydney’s Lucas Heights research reactor, which was sent to Scotland and France for reprocessing and is due to return to Australia in 2015-16.

It makes sense to secure radioactive waste in one central, safe location. But because no one wants the thing in their backyard, the Northern Territory – which lacks the powers states have to fight off the federal government – is going to get it.

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  • acker says:

    02:33pm | 27/02/10

    @eye4aneye..re dumping waste and fish from the following article http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-you-are-being-lied-to-about-pirates-1225817.html Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: “Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury – you name it.” Much of it can be traced back to European… Read more »

  • Carl Palmer says:

    01:00pm | 26/02/10

    @AustraliaVotes says:03:09am | 26/02/10 The new generation of reactors don’t use water to cool the core. The new generation use gas i.e. Helium to cool the core or molten salt or liquid metal-cooled reactors.They are far more efficient and can generate more power from the same amount of uranium than… Read more »

 

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