Pangea Resources Proposal For High-Level Nuclear Waste Dump

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Laurie Brereton - Shadow Minister For Foreign Affairs

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Media Statement - 6 March 2000

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The Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Laurie 
Brereton, today dismissed suggestions by Pangea Resources that its proposal 
to establish a high-level nuclear waste dump in Australia would enable 
Australia to dictate the pace of nuclear disarmament negotiations.

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"This laughable proposition has very little 
connection with reality", Mr Brereton said. "If this is the 
best argument Pangea can come up with, they should stop wasting everyone's 
time."

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Today's Australian newspaper reports that Pangea 
CEO Charles McCombie told a conference in Adelaide yesterday that establishment 
of a high-level nuclear waste repository in Australia would give the 
Australian Government huge negotiating leverage in international nuclear 
disarmament negotiations. Dr McCombie was also reported as saying the 
need to establish a nuclear waste repository in Australia was made more 
urgent by the collapse of Russia's economy and the potential acquisition 
of weapons-grade plutonium by terrorists.

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"As is so often the case with self-serving 
salesmen, Pangea has hit upon a superficially attractive argument in 
its efforts to promote its interests", Mr Brereton said. "No 
serious commentator questions the need for more rapid progress in nuclear 
disarmament and non-proliferation negotiations, but the current impasse 
has nothing to do with the absence of an international nuclear waste 
facility such as that proposed by Pangea. The real problem is the failure 
of the nuclear weapon states to renounce the indefinite possession of 
nuclear weapons and unequivocally commit to nuclear disarmament."

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"Nor is Pangea's proposal a credible response 
to the problem of securing nuclear materials from terrorist or other 
misuse. The danger of so-called 'loose nukes' is serious indeed. It 
is an immediate problem which is being tackled by the International 
Atomic Energy Agency and initiatives such as the US Cooperative Threat 
Reduction program designed to help the countries of the former Soviet 
Union destroy nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and establish 
verifiable safeguards against the proliferation of those weapons."

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"There is no indication of any real international 
support for Pangea's proposal for a nuclear materials repository in 
Australia. Pangea has failed to provide sufficient information about 
the transport of nuclear materials to such a site, about the long-term 
environmental impact, or how its scheme would operate under existing 
and projected non-proliferation treaties and agreements. A repository 
intended for fissile material taken from dismantled nuclear weapons 
would most likely become merely another dumping ground for high-level 
nuclear waste."

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"The Federal Government has stated that 
regardless of Pangea's views as to the suitability of Australia to host 
an international nuclear waste repository, the Government has no intention 
of considering Pangea's proposal for such a project."

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"Labor considers Pangea's proposal unacceptable. 
We oppose any proposal to store nuclear waste of overseas origin on 
Australian soil. Labor will closely monitor the actions of the Government 
to ensure that its public commitment not to consider Pangea's scheme 
is maintained."

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Authorised by Gary Gray, 19 National Circuit, 
Barton ACT 2600.

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