Thursday, 17 August, 2006

No Waste Alliance / ECNT

Local environmentalists today responded to the Howard government's nuclear review, dismissing proposals for a domestic nuclear power industry as a 'smokescreen'.

Justin Tutty says the No Waste Alliance has assisted more than 60 people to contribute to the taskforce assessing proposals for Australia's future role in the nuclear industry.

"Some of these threats we take quite seriously : such as the prospect of Australia becoming a dumping ground for international nuclear waste" said Mr Tutty.

"But other questions seem spurious : for example, the proposal to extract uranium from seawater is ludicrous - the numbers just don't add up."

"And we're certainly more worried about plans for a new uranium mine in Batchelor than Dave Tollner's proposal to enrich uranium in Darwin."

"This review is not about responding to the pending climate meltdown, so much as providing a smokescreen for plans to massively expand existing uranium mines, such as Ranger, in Kakadu" said Emma King, uranium campaigner with the Environment Centre.

"When the ERA bosses fly out of town with their cases full of cash, they'll leave behind the huge volumes of tailings" said Ms King.

"If this waste was produced anywhere else, it would be packed into drums and treated with due care. But radioactive mining waste is a permanent source of contamination."

The first round of submissions to the inquiry close this Friday 18th August.