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Australia’s radioactive migraine – On Line Opinion – 26/9/2008

Australia’s radioactive migraine

ON LINE opinion By Scott Ludlam 26 September 2008 When the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act 2005 was forced through the Senate, Labor accurately described it as, “extreme, arrogant, heavy-handed, draconian, sorry, sordid, extraordinary and profoundly shameful”.

Why? Because it wiped out Northern Territory laws prohibiting transport and storage of nuclear waste. The legislation also squashed Aboriginal heritage laws and the Native Title Act, overriding procedural fairness.

Amendments passed in 2006 explicitly stated that site nominations from Land Councils are valid even in the absence of consultation with Traditional Owners. These amendments were also opposed by the Greens and Labor opposition………………………………..Most importantly, we must ask why we are producing this waste at all. Yesterday we saw public acknowledgement that the research reactor in Sydney is still leaking, despite having been shutdown for 11 of the 14 months since it first opened. The first step in dealing with our 60-year radioactive migraine is to stop producing this waste in the first place, and divert the substantial resources consumed by this substandard facility into the many alternative technologies for producing radioisotopes.

…………………………Repealing this legislation will pave the way for a new approach to the management of Australia’s radioactive waste. The Territory Government, the Traditional Owners and the broader community across the NT were never asked if they wanted to host a dump for Australia’s most intractable waste. The Prime Minister must now be called to account: this was a very clear election promise, and it is time it was honoured.

Australia’s radioactive migraine – On Line Opinion – 26/9/2008

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

September 26, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | wastes