Saturday, 30 December, 2006

ABC NT Local News

Environment groups in Alice Springs say the Prime Minister's support for nuclear energy will be met with opposition from the Northern Territory.

Prime Minister John Howard says Australians will come to accept nuclear power as a source of clean, green energy.

But Arid Lands Environment centre spokeswoman Nat Wasley says there is currently no facility in the world to store high-level nuclear waste.

She says it may end up being stored at the lower-level nuclear waste dump planned for the Northern Territory.

"Already the Federal Government is imposing a low and long-lived intermediate level dump on the Territory," she said.

"I don't think it's a far stretch to think that similar methods which actively work against the wishes of the community here will be used to find a location for a high-level waste dump if Australia did develop a nuclear power industry."

She says the Northern Territory is likely to be targeted for more uranium mining.

"It's no secret that internationally Australia is being targeted for a high-level international waste dump," she said.

"I think we need to be really strong in our opposition to this Commonwealth dump so the Commonwealth won't use similar methods to impose a high level dump for Australia's waste and potentially international waste."