Monday, 2 July, 2007

by Todd Cardy
The Herald Sun

THE Federal Government's intervention in the Northern Territory is a ploy to allow the dumping of nuclear waste in the outback, anti-nuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott says.

Dr Caldicott, an anti-nuclear activist of more than 20 years, said she feared Prime Minister John Howard would turn Australia into the dumping ground for the world's nuclear waste.

She said the takeover of Aboriginal land titles, part of the Government's crackdown of child sexual abuse in indigenous communities, was a ruse to clear the way for the dumping of waste in remote areas.

"The land grab from the Aborigines is actually about uranium and nuclear waste," Dr Caldicott said before speaking at the Australian Medical Students' Association conference in Adelaide today.

"It is obvious - you don't take land away from people just because their children are being sexually abused."

Dr Caldicott said Australia should reject nuclear power, ban uranium mining and concentrate on developing renewable energies such as wind, solar and hot rocks.

She said the health consequences of uranium mining, nuclear power and nuclear power plants were serious and would induce epidemics of disease, malignancy and deformity that would be experienced for generations.

"Australia is in great danger of becoming a major nuclear nation now," she said.

"I think it is very, very, very dangerous medically.

"I am worried that people making decisions do not understand medicine or genetics.
They (the Government) are being pushed by the economy and wealthy corporations, like Western Mining and BHP Billiton, who seem to have no regard for the health and well-being of this generation and all future generations.

"We as doctors now have to teach the politicians the implications of the ramifications of what they are currently considering."

Dr Caldicott said nuclear power plants were beacons for terrorist strikes because each site attacked could kill many more than any conventional bomb could.

She said the western world's lead in building and maintaining massive nuclear arsenals and the war on terror had led to the current climate of insecurity.

"To go into Iraq and Afghanistan and kill people the way we are doing is enabling America's addiction to power, control and war," she said.

"Rather, we should be trying to teach America how to live in peace with everyone in the world."