End of the line for reactor but where will the nuclear waste go?

The Wilderness Society Inc
Media Alert
30 January 2007

The Wilderness Society today called on the Federal Government to outline where radioactive waste from the decommissioning of the Sydney nuclear reactor will be dumped.

Nuclear spokesperson Imogen Zethoven said the nuclear waste problem the Federal Government had failed to solve would only get worse if nuclear power plants were built in Australia.

"The Sydney nuclear reactor has been operating for fifty years and the Government still hasn't got a safe way to deal with nuclear waste," said Ms Zethoven.

"The Federal Government must make clear to local communities where they plan on storing this nuclear waste that remains toxic for millions of years."

"Local communities along transport routes will also be concerned about the tonnes dangerous nuclear waste that will be trucked past their homes."

"The situation of waste generated from the Sydney reactor will be just the first step if we go on to realise Prime Minister Howard's plan for 25 nuclear reactors up and down the Eastern Seaboard and massively expand uranium mining."

"Last year the Federal Government passed a raft of legislation to make it legal to import waste into Australia."

"The Prime Minister has said he wants a nuclear industry in Australia but what he isn't saying is that Australia is being lined up to become the world's nuclear waste dump."