Tuesday 28 February 2006
ABC NT Country Hour

Report by Adrienne Francis

"Uranium 238 has a half life of 4.6 billion years, will you be around that long to keep it safely stored? If uranium was the answer then it must have been a pretty silly question. If it's so safe, then why not bury it (nuclear waste) at Kirribilli?"

Those questions and comments were employed as eye-catching slogans against further development of uranium mining in the Northern Territory and the nuclear energy cycle today. Members of the NT Environment Centre mounted a peaceful protest outside today's Uranium Information Seminar, underway at Darwin's Crown Skycity Casino.

It was also where the Country Hour broadcast outside today for a special edition on this controversial, powerfully divisive, and just plain powerful mineral. Online at www.abc.net.au/rural/nt, we've had lots of comments over the past week about radioactive tailings being dumped, fears about nuclear weapon proliferation and inadequate rehabilitation of mine sites. Today we examined all those issues and began with Dr Gary Scott of the NT Environment Centre who co-ordinated today's protest over environmental concerns with mining.

"We are down here today protesting to highlight an alternative point of view on the nuclear future and the development of more uranium mining. There shouldn't be and the industry has created alot of problems in the past, including contamination of the Finniss River near Rum Jungle. The uranium industry should focussing on cleaning up its mess and not looking to expand in the NT.

"The uranium industry is looking to say that it's the solution to global warming but it takes alot of energy to build nuclear power stations. We already have political and community traction. The NT Government's policy is 'no new uranium mines', and this is not the current Commonwealth policy; but we are trying to make headway with this issue."