nuclear-news

Australia’s Northern Territory Opposes Rudd Govt on Nuclear Waste Dump Plan

NT not able to cope with nuke accident, says Government,  Northern Territory News BEN LANGFORD March 29th, 2010 MOST Territory hospitals and the Port of Darwin are not equipped to deal with a radioactive waste incident or interest from “sophisticated criminal groups”, the NT Government has said.
The Government has told a Senate inquiry into new laws for a nuclear waste dump there would be “negligible economic benefit from the facility” for the NT.

Its submission to the inquiry also says the proposed site has an “unacceptably high” risk of earthquakes.

The NT Government’s 25-page submission is one of more than 225 received by the Senate inquiry into new laws which could see the waste facility established at Muckaty Station, 120km north of Tennant Creek.

The submission is intensely critical of the choice of Muckaty and the overriding of Territory laws.

It says Royal Darwin Hospital could provide “major assistance” in the event of a serious incident at the facility or while nuclear waste is being transported through the Territory. But outside Darwin it is a different story.

“There is very limited capacity within the Northern Territory hospital network outside of Darwin to respond to any radioactive waste incident or accident,” it says.

And the submission raises questions about the safe transport of radioactive waste by road or sea.

“The Port of Darwin does not have the resource capacity (expertise or equipment) to respond to a radioactive incident,” it says.

The port does not have “sufficient security to manage heightened risk resulting from interest from protest or more sophisticated criminal groups”.

NT not able to cope with nuke accident, says Government | Northern Territory News

March 29, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, politics | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, nuclear, nuclear spin, radiation, radioactive, uranium