Monday 28 November 2005
ABC NT Local News

The Northern Territory's Environment Centre says the Federal Science Minister has shot himself in the foot by calling for a scientific investigation into a nuclear power industry.

Brendan Nelson has proposed the $1 million study to the Prime Minister.

Yesterday Dr Nelson told Channel Nine that waste generated by any future nuclear power station would not be stored at a proposed low to intermediate level waste facility.

"Under no circumstances are we proposing to put that into the nuclear waste repository in the Northern Territory," he said.

He says storage of high level waste would be a decision for future governments.

But the Environment Centre's Peter Robertson says Dr Nelson cannot be trusted.

"We've already seen him and his colleagues quite openly misleading Territorians about the siting a waste dump in the Northern Territory," he said.

Mr Robertson says the Minister is on a crusade to get nuclear power on the agenda at any cost.