Wednesday, 12 September, 2007

Sydney Morning Herald

An independent MP has called for a state parliamentary inquiry into the storage of tailings from South Australia's booming uranium mining.

Kris Hanna said just the planned expansion of the Olympic Dam mine, which was expected to double in size, would mean about 10 million tonnes of toxic waste would need to be disposed of each year.

Other uranium deposits are set to be mined in coming years.

"We need to ensure that our current practices of storing and moving that waste are world's best practice," Mr Hanna said.

"That's why I'm proposing parliament establish a select committee to investigate our current waste management and disposal practices."

Mr Hanna said he was also concerned that the Environmental Protection Agency was currently excluded from regulating the disposal of waste from uranium mining.

"I want this committee to be able to investigate whether uranium mining should be subject to the Environment Protection Act," he said.

"We're talking about a huge volume of nuclear waste that remains toxic for millions of years.

"We owe it to future generations to make sure that the best arrangements are in place to cope with the increase of uranium waste."