Friday 9 December 2005
The Australian
by Amanda Hodge

THE nation's nuclear agency wants assurances from France that it will not return spent fuel rods to Australia until the federal Government has built its nuclear waste dump.

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, which operates the Lucas Heights research reactor in southern Sydney, is concerned that a French court ruling this week means the country will be able to send 1500 spent fuel rods to Australia.

The decision yesterday by France's highest court, the Cour de Cassation, came just hours before the federal Senate passed two bills overriding Northern Territory law to force a nuclear waste dump within its borders.

The commonwealth hopes to have the dump for low-level and intermediate waste - including spent fuel rods and parts from Lucas Heights - operational by 2011. That is the date the Government expects to get the first shipment of Lucas Heights fuel rods back from the Dounreay reprocessing facility in Scotland.

A separate batch of fuel rods, currently being reprocessed at French company Cogema's La Hague facility in France, is not due to be returned until 2015.

But ANSTO conceded yesterday it would have to seek clarification that the court ruling did not mean the waste would be sent back before then.

"We have no reason to believe it will affect the material that's been reprocessed, but we can't rule anything out," ANSTO's chief of operations Ron Cameron said.

The French court's judgment ends a four-year legal battle between Greenpeace France and Cogema. It found Cogema had acted illegally by accepting and holding Australia's nuclear waste without obtaining permission to reprocess it.

However, Cogema was granted a permit in May.