Wednesday, 13 September, 2006

by Martin Ferguson
The Australian Financial Review

Last week federal parliament debated an amendment to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Act 1987.The purpose of the amendment is, among other things, to allow ANSTO to handle, manage or store radioactive materials from a broader range of sources and circumstances than it is currently allowed to do. The amendment would also place a future national repository in the Northern Territory in the safe hands of ANSTO, Australia's national nuclear research and development organisation and the centre of Australian nuclear expertise. While parliamentarians are duty bound to reflect in parliament on the views of thenmany constituents and portfolio stakeholders, I am concerned that the anti-nuclear campaign in the community has stooped to the low levels of pillorying one of Australia's iconresearch institutions, ANSTO.

It is one thing to run an anti-nuclear campaign underpinned by sound science, logic and belief. It is quite another to engage in ludicrous fear-mongering about ANSTO and the Lucas Heights nuclear facility which is so important to the Australian community for its contributions to nuclear medicine, to industry and to the future of high technology manufacturing in this country. To suggest that ANSTO is incompetent, unsafe and highly dangerous is not only misinformed and disingenuous, it is doing an enormous disservice to the future of nuclear medicine and the future of hightech industry in Australia. The anti-nuclear campaign is focused on spreading misinformation and using the most vulnerable in society for its own political purposes.

I was recently sent a notice about a forthcoming antinuclear campaign called the BeyondNuclear Initiative Symposium to be held in Melbourne later this month. Traditional owners from the NT are being encouraged to attend. Topics to be covered at the symposium include the proposed NT radioactive waste dump and one that particularly intrigues me, "radioactive racism". For too long anti-nuclear campaigners, various environmental NGOs, and other interest groups, have used indigenous communities to peddle their own ideology.

And what have indigenous communities got in return? Certainly not jobs, certainly not better education for indigenous kids, and certainly not economic and social empowerment. The simple fact is that indigenous empowerment is not in the interests of special interest groups. Paternalism - the real"radioactive racism" - is. Fortunately, indigenous communities are starting to make their own decisions about these issues.

They are working with trade unions and companies like Rio Tinto, Great Southern Plantations and Accor Asia Pacific. They are getting real jobs in their communities, better education and training, and sustainable business investment and opportunities for the future. They are seeking information from all sides of the debate on issues like this and they are doing what is in the best interests of their communities, not what is in the best interests of special interest groups. The problem we have is that while we in the federal parliament and those in state and territory governments engage in cheap politics over a national nuclearwaste repository, we are making it easier for anti-nuclear campaigners to undermine the national repository andto undermine Australia's nuclear science and technology industry.

I do not agree with the Howard government's decision of arbitrary imposition of a national repository in the NT. This decision not only has disregarded appropriate scientific considerations and community consultation but also threatens to derail the entire process. The waste we are talking about is not dangerous waste if it is properly managed and stored. It is the unavoidable consequence of nuclear medicine and nuclear technology in Australian industry - services of enormous benefit to the community.

It includes contaminated laboratory equipment, such as protective clothing, paper, rubber gloves, plastic and glassware, lightly contaminated soil arising from previous CSIRO research into mineral extraction that had been transported to Woomera in 1995, and low activity disused radioactive sources like smoke detectors and exit signs. It includes intermediate level waste like the residues from overseas reprocessing of Australian spent research reactor fuel, waste arising from the production of radio pharmaceuticals by ANSTO and higherlevel disused radioactive sources from industry, medicine and research. While we can only assume these wastes are already being safely stored hi over 100 locations around the country, clearly it would be desirable and in the national interest for all Australian governments to finally deliver a national repository for our nuclear waste.

Martin Ferguson is the federal shadow minister for primary industries.