Monday, 4 June, 2007

The Wilderness Society

Nuclear waste that would remain lethal to humans for more than 200,000 years would be shipped to Australia from around the world if the Howard Government gets its way, The Wilderness Society said today after the Liberal Party Federal Council passed a motion in support of an international waste dump.

"The Liberal Party would recklessly expose Australians to highly toxic nuclear waste and create a new target for terrorists," said Wilderness Society nuclear spokesperson, Imogen Zethoven.

"The Federal Government and the Liberal Party have been steadily removing obstacles to an international nuclear waste dump being built in Australia for the past two years.

"Under the plan endorsed by the Liberal Party, Australia would become the dumping ground for the world’s most dangerous and toxic waste.

"An international nuclear waste dump would store the most toxic nuclear waste from power reactors around the world. It would be in addition to and located on a different site to the dump proposed in the Northern Territory.

"High level nuclear waste remains toxic for hundreds of thousands of years and after 50 years of the nuclear industry, there is still no proven method to safely dispose of long-lived nuclear waste anywhere in the world.

"Australians quite rightly don’t want our country to become the world’s nuclear waste dump. The Liberal Party’s decision would make Australia just that.

"Liberal Party members think that they are exploring new ideas by embracing nuclear power and nuclear waste. But nuclear power is an old and discredited approach. The last successful order of a nuclear power plant in the US occurred in 1973, took 23 years to build and cost US$7 billion."

"This decision shows the true intentions of the Prime Minister. Not only does he want 25 nuclear power stations in Australia, he also wants an enrichment plant and an international waste dump. "