Tokyo’s massive nuclear power plant suffered about 50 problems after a recent earthquake. The company initially stated that the quake only resulted in the release of a small amount of radioactive water. However, the plant has now been shut down while the damage is assessed.
Despite these alarming events, the Howard Government is recklessly promoting the establishment of a nuclear power industry in Australia. This would include construction of a nuclear waste storage complex, which would almost certainly accept international nuclear waste.
The US, which has failed in a multi-billion dollar effort to construct a vast storage complex in California, has a particularly urgent interest in having such a facility built in the Australian outback. The Alice Springs to Darwin rail line, recently built by the infamous US corporation Halliburton, is now owned by a firm involved in construction of nuclear waste facilities.
Prime Minister Howard has denied that his government would accept waste from other countries. However, the Liberal Party’s Federal Council has actually voted in favour of this happening. The government itself has admitted that it has been approached to join US President Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), which has the aim of controlling which countries have access to nuclear waste, a potential fuel for nuclear weapons.
Membership of the GNEP would also be conditional on Australia accepting back nuclear waste derived from uranium it has exported. Democrats Senator Lynne Allison commented, “Australia is being trapped into becoming the world’s nuclear dump."
Not surprisingly, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has welcomed the suggestion of joining the GNEP. “Certainly not for a moment would I rule that out. It’s a real possibility", he commented enthusiastically.
Nuclear physicist Professor Leslie Kemeny was even more upbeat. He declared that joining the GNEP “could give us the possibility of constructing nuclear power stations with the right sort of joint venture partners… In turn we might be asked to go beyond mining uranium and exporting the yellowcake and letting other people make the fuel".
On a more sobre note, Alec Marr from the Wilderness Society commented, “If we get an international nuclear waste dump, many future generations are going to have to sit there and ponder how they are going to deal with the most toxic substance known…"
Greens Senator Bob Brown and others have warned of a regional arms race if Australia develops a full-blown nuclear industry, including uranium enrichment capability. He declared, “It’s a dangerous move, and it’s not been canvassed with the Australian people". David Noonan from the Australian Conservation Foundation stated: “We could be risking a nuclear arms race in our own region".
You don’t have to believe in conspiracy theories to suggest there might be a link between the government’s nuclear drive and its compulsory acquisition of Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory. Nuclear waste dumps are not going to improve the health or well-being of the children of Northern Territory.
