Friday, 5 October, 2007

by Georgina Robinson
Brisbane Times

A Liberal MP has rejected claims a 40-year-old plan to put a nuclear waste dump south-west of Brisbane will be resurrected after the federal election.

Federal Labor MP Bernie Ripoll says parliamentary documents show a high level radioactive waste dump at Redbank is still on the cards.

Mr Ripoll said the library map, dating as far back as the late 1960s, had been meaningless but was once again a live issue.

"It was insignificant while the government wasn't considering (nuclear energy) but the Prime Minister has made it very clear he'll be chasing a nuclear future and now we've got a serious issue right in front of us," he said.

Liberal member for Blair Cameron Thompson said there was "no prospect whatsoever" of the facility being built.

"We already have a waste dump up at Esk that stores low level nuclear waste from hospitals," Mr Thompson said.

"The only place there are proposals for higher level dumps that I know of is in the Northern Territory."

The parliamentary library map shows possible sites for nuclear reactors, power stations and waste facilities around the country.

Brisbane, the Sunshine and Gold Coasts and Toowoomba are marked as possible sites for reactors but Redbank is the only place earmarked for a dump in South-East Queensland.

Mr Thompson said he had not seen the map but doubted a new facility would be built when there was already a low-level dump at Esk, north-west of Brisbane.

The Federal Government has delayed until after the election legislation that would pave the way for the establishment of a nuclear industry in Australia.

Some of the most immediate changes would be to environmental laws that currently prohibit "nuclear activity" so as to allow nuclear power, uranium enrichment and reprocessing.

Mr Ripoll said local communities needed clarity, especially since the south-west corridor would be a site of considerable population growth over the next 20 years.