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Lucas Heights must keep waste on site, not transport to NT
Tuesday 27 July 2010
Greens Federal Senator Scott Ludlam and lead NSW Senate Candidate Lee Rhiannon today called on the Gillard government to abandon plans for the Muckaty national radioactive waste dump in the Northern Territory and commit to storing nuclear waste generated at the Lucas Heights facility on site. They say transporting waste through NSW communities to the Northern Territory creates unacceptable safety risks.
Tonight Scott Ludlam will speak at a Sydney Forum with Muckaty Traditional Owners who are taking legal action against the Federal government.
“Residents in NSW should not be burdened with the safety risks that come with trucking waste from Lucas Heights through their communities to the Northern Territory,” Senator Ludlam said.
“International best practice is to keep intermediate and high level nuclear waste at its source, in secure containers that can be routinely inspected. It is much safer at Lucas Heights than on route to this proposed new dump.
“Lucas Heights generates 90 percent of the nuclear waste, measured by radioactivity, which will go to Muckaty. This spent nuclear fuel reprocessing waste is highly radioactive.
“A 2009 report commissioned by the government on possible transport routes from Lucas Heights to Muckaty Station proposed sending it by road through Western or Northern NSW, or trucking it to Cronulla and then putting it on a train to the site.
“The Greens propose a Commission to determine how Australia should best manage its radioactive waste, looking to the science and the community for guidance, Senator Ludlam said.
Greens Lead Senate Candidate for NSW Lee Rhiannon said, “A 2004 NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the Transport and Storage of Nuclear Waste found that the transport of radioactive waste increases the risk of accident, including terrorist intervention.
“Moving waste by road through Western or Northern NSW involves trucking it through accident black spots where the risk of truck accidents is high.
“Communities and local councils along the waste transport route will fight this move, as they successfully did when Howard planned a nuclear waste dump in South Australia.
“No doubt the government will again attempt to assure the public that the transport of dangerous waste will be strictly governed by stringent national and international standards.
“The reality is that the transportation of nuclear waste has always been problematic. Billions have been spent investigating options to deal with the waste but no safe solution has been found.
“Keeping spent fuel at Lucas Heights is the best way to tackle transportation risks,” Ms Rhiannon said.
Contact: Lee Rhiannon 0427 861 568. Fernando de Freitas for Scott Ludlam 0417 174 302
