Friday, 25 May, 2007

by Richard Bowden
The World Today

The traditional owners of a station 75 miles (120km) north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory have nominated their land to be used as the site for Australia's first nuclear waste dump.

The Ngapa people, owners of the Muckaty Station, have agreed to provide land to the federal Government for a low-level nuclear waste storage facility in exchange for a fee of $9.81 million USD ($12 million AUD).

Federal Science Minister Julie Bishop said the Commonwealth will need to make a number of assessments before the offer can go ahead.

"In the first instance I will assess the nomination to ensure that the Northern Land Council (NLC) has complied with the very stringent requirements in the Commonwealth Waste Management Act," she told ABC Radio. "If I'm satisfied that the rules have been complied with, then I can move to approve the nominated land at the potential site."

Ms Bishop said if the proposal was approved, the waste facility could be operational within "four to five years."

However conservationists have criticized the Government saying proper scientific procedures had not been met.

Speaking to the P.M. program, the Australian Conservation Foundation's (ACF) Dave Sweeney said, "the Muckaty site has not been realized through scientific process or a process that has integrity and credibility. It's come at the end of a political process so we're deeply concerned that the radioactive waste management has been driven by political expediency rather than good science."

The Northern Territory Government had previously attempted to oppose siting a nuclear waste dump in the Territory but had been overruled by federal Government legislation introduced last year which allowed private landowners to lease land to the federal Government.