BHP plays down radioactive haulage risk
ABC News Online
Mining giant BHP Billiton says plans to increase the amount of radioactive material it sends to Darwin by rail will not be a risk to public health.
The company wants to freight about 1.6 million tonnes of radioactive copper concentrate to Darwin each year if its proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam in South Australia gets the green light.
BHP Billiton spokesman Richard Yeeles addressed a public meeting in Darwin last night.
He says copper concentrate is far less radioactive than the uranium oxide which is already shipped out of Darwin.
"We've been shipping uranium oxide out of Darwin since 2005 and of course the Ranger mine in the Northern Territory has been doing it a lot longer than that," he said.
"The uranium in the copper concentrate is about 2000 parts per million, that contrasts with about 990,000 parts per million for uranium oxide, so you can see that it's a much lower level of radiation."
Mr Yeeles says trains loaded with the radioactive product will not pose a risk to Territorians living along the rail corridor.
"The material is put in the rail wagons at Olympic Dam and then comes up through the Territory. It's a closed system, it gets to the port. The system remains closed while the product is handled at port as well so we believe we can do this very safely."
BHP Billiton will hold another meeting in Alice Springs tonight.
The company wants to freight about 1.6 million tonnes of radioactive copper concentrate to Darwin each year if its proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam in South Australia gets the green light.
BHP Billiton spokesman Richard Yeeles addressed a public meeting in Darwin last night.
He says copper concentrate is far less radioactive than the uranium oxide which is already shipped out of Darwin.
"We've been shipping uranium oxide out of Darwin since 2005 and of course the Ranger mine in the Northern Territory has been doing it a lot longer than that," he said.
"The uranium in the copper concentrate is about 2000 parts per million, that contrasts with about 990,000 parts per million for uranium oxide, so you can see that it's a much lower level of radiation."
Mr Yeeles says trains loaded with the radioactive product will not pose a risk to Territorians living along the rail corridor.
"The material is put in the rail wagons at Olympic Dam and then comes up through the Territory. It's a closed system, it gets to the port. The system remains closed while the product is handled at port as well so we believe we can do this very safely."
BHP Billiton will hold another meeting in Alice Springs tonight.