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Why New Zealand ports should not allow uranium shipments

……the risks are there, and the risks are genuine. Accidents do happen, especially at sea. Fires can rage for days, and cargo can move around on board, splitting open containers. Our ports and our port workers are not equipped to deal with radioactive spills.

Feature Columnist: Gareth Hughes | Craccum, 19 July 2010, Recently, the Paranagua Express, carrying tonnes of radioactive uranium ore, was berthed at the Port of Auckland..

…Radioactive uranium ore is more than Australian dirt, as Nick Smith alleges. This is a radioactive material that puts our people at risk, harms Australians, damages the environment, and is possibly involved in the most egregious industry of all—the nuclear weapons industry. We need an urgent moratorium on these shipments..

……the risks are there, and the risks are genuine. Accidents do happen, especially at sea. Fires can rage for days, and cargo can move around on board, splitting open containers. Our ports and our port workers are not equipped to deal with radioactive spills.

Regardless of the local risks, New Zealand should not be part of, and support, the nuclear chain and allow the raw materials needed for nuclear generation, because of the huge impact uranium mining has on the Australian environment, its communities, and its workers. Doctors say that 30 to 50 percent of men who have worked in the uranium mines in Australia have developed lung cancer and have died. If they wear respirators it makes no difference because the radon gas still gets through, even if the powder does not. Much of the darker side of uranium mining in Australia is left unsaid, as employees in the larger businesses are forced to sign non-disclosure clauses before they start work. There are many stories of spills that employees are too intimidated to put on the record.

Uranium mining is environmentally destructive. For every tonne of uranium produced, hundreds of tonnes of radioactive and toxic wastes or tailings are left behind. South Australia’s Olympic Dam, for example, consumes 33 million litres of water every day and is one of the largest users in that dry country. The Queensland branch of the Electrical Trades Union has recently banned its members from working in the uranium mines or in the nuclear industry. Feature Columnist: Gareth Hughes | Craccum

July 20, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | New Zealand, safety, Uranium | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, uranium