Killing of US nuclear waste dump a major blow for Australian nuke industry

The Wilderness Society Inc
Media Release 
26 November 2006

Plans for a high-level nuclear waste dump in the United States have been described as "dead right now" by US Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid, signalling a major blow for Prime Minister John Howard's plans for nuclear power plants in Australia. The announcement in the US comes as the head of the Prime Minister's nuclear inquiry Ziggy Switkowski is proposing nuclear reactors in Australia within ten years.

Wilderness Society campaigns director Alec Marr said the announcement showed that even the world's largest nuclear power still had no solution for its nuclear waste problem, potentially placing further pressure on Australia to take US nuclear waste.

Soon to be Senate Majority Leader after recent US elections, Senator Reid has been a vocal critic of the proposed Yucca Mountain national waste dump to store waste from America's 103 nuclear power plants. For the first time, the Senator and the new Democrat majority will have the power to stop plans to make Nevada and Yucca Mountain a national dumping ground for nuclear waste. In the US on Friday, Senator Reid promised that no legislation to progress Yucca Mountain would reach the Senate floor under his leadership and funding for the project "will be cut back significantly, that will be for sure". 

"The slow death of the proposed high-level waste dump in the US demonstrates beyond doubt that globally there is no solution to nuclear waste. In over 50 years, the nuclear industry has been unable to find a safe and secure way to store nuclear waste that remains toxic for hundreds of thousands of years."

"The Prime Minister shouldn't turn a blind eye to the clear implications of the impending US decision to stop Yucca Mountain. The US public have sent a message that they won't cop a high-level radioactive waste dump in their country, and neither will Australians."

"The Prime Minister should immediately drop plans for waste-generating nuclear power in Australia that will only make the global problem worse and bring the high-level waste into our own backyard."

"The imminent demise of Yucca Mountain is bad news for US nuclear power utilities, as their plans for growth depend on Yucca opening its doors. Many US nuclear power utilities are suing the US Department of Energy because the Department signed contracts to remove nuclear waste from their reactors by 1998."

"Nuclear waste is still sitting in 76 reactor sites around the country. The cost to the taxpayer from these lawsuits could be up to US$50 billion according to industry analysts, and the danger to the public of high-level waste — most of it stored above the ground where it is vulnerable to terrorists — is inestimable."

"Over the last 20 years since planning started, US$9 billion of the public's money has been spent trying to make the Yucca Mountain site work. Four years ago, the US Department of Energy estimated that the total cost would be US$58 billion to build and operate for the first 100 years. New cost projections are expected to total more than US$70 billion."

"When Australian taxpayers think of nuclear power plants in this country, they can be forgiven for hearing a giant sucking sound as massive government spending removes more money from their wallets."

"As the Americans retreat to the drawing boards, the Prime Minister and his government are about to launch us into dangerous and uncharted waters.  We should not rush in where others fear to tread, especially when the public's health and safety are at stake."