Ziggy's view of Australia with 'bathrooms' of nuclear waste all over

The Wilderness Society Inc
Media Release          
22 November 2006

The head of the Prime Minister's nuclear energy inquiry has today misled the public about the amount of waste created by a nuclear reactor and contradicted the draft nuclear energy and uranium mining inquiry report released yesterday, The Wilderness Society said.

TWS Campaigns Director Alec Marr said Ziggy Switkowski's claim today on the Nine Network that a nuclear reactor would produce only enough nuclear waste to fill 'a bathroom in a small house' was irresponsible and misleading as the draft nuclear energy inquiry report he released yesterday stated Australia would have to manage 37,000 to 45,000 tonnes of nuclear waste in the future.

"Mr Switkowski's  radioactive bathroom would be so large and dangerous it would clear out the neighbourhood," Mr Marr said.

"Just one nuclear reactor, the report Mr Switkowski released yesterday states, would produce more than 110 m3 of radioactive waste each year, which would fill more than 3 average shipping containers. That's much bigger than any bathroom in any house.

"The inquiry report also stated that 25 nuclear reactors in Australia by 2050 would produce as much as 45,000 tonnes of nuclear waste. Bathrooms that size simply don't exist.

Mr Marr said the higher level radioactive waste created when the old reactor at Lucas Heights is decommissioned and has to be removed will fill more than 160 semi trailers and have to be transported through suburbs in Sydney and then on to a waste dump.

"Communities across Sydney and across Australia are totally opposed to radioactive waste being driven past their houses.

"The Australia public is not being given accurate information by Mr Switkowski or Mr Howard.

"The public deserves to be told the truth about the toxic waste that will begin to pile up if the Federal Government's vision of a nuclear Australia happens.

 "It is more than 60 years since the first atom bomb was made but there is still no safe, long term solution to the nuclear waste anywhere in the world."