What were the Howard Government’s Plans?

The Howard Federal Government planned to build a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. It even enacted special legislation, the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act (CRWMA) in late 2005 in the hope of foisting a nuclear waste dump on the Northern Territory. The Howard’s government’s plans were for an above-ground storage facility. The government said this would be for low level waste and both short-lived and long-lived intermediate level waste. In doing so the Howard government refused to acknowledge that the waste planned for dumping at Northern Territory sites is high-level waste, including plutonium - the most dangerous substance ever created by man. Plutonium is also the fuel for nuclear weapons.

In the lead-up to the 2007 election, the Labor Party committed to overturn the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act (CRWMA).

In April of 2008 energy and resources minster Martin Ferguson appeared to be non-committal on the timeline for overturning this legislation. By May of 2008 Kevin Rudd had still not kept his election promise, and had not outlined a plan for responsibly dealing with the waste from Australia’s Lucas Heights reactor. This leaves Nothern Territorians in the unenviable position of not knowing whether, or when, their communities might be subjected to inappropriately dumped nuclear waste.

The Rudd Federal Government needs to follow through on commitments to thorough community consultation and to rigorous scientific assessment with regards to radioactive waste management in this country.

What’s happened overseas?

There is only one permanent disposal facility for long-lived intermediate level waste operational in the world. It’s called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. This facility is for nuclear waste from US military programs.

After 50 years of the global nuclear power industry, there is still no permanent disposal facility for high-level waste anywhere in the world. The Yucca Mountain project is still in the research stage, and is decades away from opening, if it ever will.

What were the Howard Government’s long-term plans?

During 2006 and 2007 The Wilderness Society understood the Howard Federal Government’s long-term plans to include:

1.    Forcing an above-ground storage facility on the Northern Territory, whilst downplaying the significance of the dangers of the waste.

2.    Storing low level and both short- and long-lived intermediate waste there.

3.    Then – and only then – they would promote the fact that such a site would be unsuitable for the permanent disposal of long-lived waste. We anticipated that they would then claim that a permanent deep geological waste dump would be needed, and further that Australians would then have no choice.

4.    Forcing a ‘deep geological repository’ on South Australia or West Australia. We anticipated that they would use this deep underground waste dump to dispose of high level waste (HLW) from Australia’s research reactor and from nuclear power plants as well. This HLW could have been from the 25 nuclear power plants the Howard Federal Government wanted to build by 2050. It could also have been from waste generated in nuclear power plants overseas from Australian uranium exports.

If you think this seems far-fetched, read the following:

“Australia will soon build a management facility for Commonwealth LLW [Low Level Waste] and ILW [Intermediate Level Waste] and will ultimately require a deep repository.” Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy Review – Opportunities for Australia, December 2006 (a report to the then Prime Minister, John Howard).

And on April 5, 2007, top Australian businessman Hugh Morgan came out publicly in The Age and on ABC Radio 774 AM in support of an international high level waste dump in Australia, for long-lived radioactive wastes.

Australia’s future nuclear waste - if Howard’s 25 nuclear power plants had gone ahead

The Howard Federal Government wanted 25 nuclear power plants to be operating in Australia by 2050. Over their lifetimes, these plants would have produced 45,000 tonnes of deadly radioactive waste. This monstrous waste legacy would have become Australia’s worst waste problem.

And it would last a long time: hundreds of thousands of years.

Every nuclear power plants produces 30 tonnes of deadly radioactive waste each year. That includes 300 kgs of plutonium.

One gram of plutonium is enough to kill 20,000 people. One kilo is therefore enough to kill 20 million people. Three hundred kgs is enough to kill 6 billion people – about the number of people alive today.

If even some of Howard’s 25 nuclear power plants had been built, the trucking of 45,000 tonnes of deadly waste - containing the fuel used in weapons of mass destruction - across Australia from the eastern seaboard to SA or WA, for disposal, would have become a regular occurrence. Such convoys would have to be subject to massive security operations.

So The Wilderness Society asked: Is this the kind of Australia we want? It would change our democracy forever.

The Northern Territory Waste dump – a dump on democracy as well

The process used by the Howard Government to select a nuclear dump site was highly non-transparent, unaccountable and undemocratic. The Howard Federal Government removed all legal mechanisms to challenge any decision it’s Ministers made about the location. It extinguished all legal rights and interests in the land other than its own. The Wilderness Society belived this was just a taste of things to come if the nuclear industry expanded in Australia.

We must continue to say no to the NT waste dump. The waste returning from France should be stored on site at the new Lucas Heights research reactor.