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Senator Lyn Allison Senator for Victoria Australian Democrats spokesperson for Uranium

Press Release Dated: 9 Oct 2000

Press Release Number: 00/627

Portfolio: Uranium

Take responsibility for your own waste, Democrats tell states The Australian Democrats today called on the Federal Government to stop trying to foist all of Australia’s low level waste on South Australia.

Democrats’ Nuclear spokesperson, Senator Lyn Allison, says a more sensible, fairer approach would be for each State to look after its own waste, ensuring nuclear waste was stored as close as possible to the site of production.

The Democrats were encouraged by Senator Minchin’s statement this week:

“That no final site has yet been selected for the national radioactive waste repository for Australia’s low level waste…

No decision has been made to site the national store for intermediate waste with the repository for low level waste. The final decision on the site for the store will be the result of a rigorous scientific assessment of all possible options, and no State or Territory can be excluded.”

Press release 26/09/00

Senator Allison said “All States and Territories should be specifically included in the question of sites for storing any nuclear waste.”

“We know that all nuclear waste is dangerous regardless of whether it is classified as low, medium or high level. Certainly we need to store hospital waste and waste produced by universities but a central remote national store for low level waste is not best practice.”

“South Australia has a sad history of forced involvement in the nuclear cycle, from mining of uranium to the atomic testing at Emu Plain and Maralinga, and there is no reason why that state should be responsible for the nuclear waste of other states,” Senator Allison said.

“The Australian Democrats favour state-based repositories to lower risks from the transportation, encourage state and territory governments to work at minimising their nuclear waste and to enable proper monitoring. A national repository in outback South Australia simply encourages an ‘out of sight out of mind’ mentality.”

Western Australia already has a state-based store, and Premier Court does not support a national low level repository in Western Australia. South Australian Human Services Minister, Dean Brown, has said that South Australia will build its own lo-level store if it can stop Minchin imposing a national store on South Australia.



Top | Email Authorised by: Jim Downey, 10 Brisbane Avenue, Barton ACT 2604. Copyright Â© 2000 Australian Democrats

http://www.democrats.org.au/media/display.htm Last modified: Thu, 18 May 2000 13:51:26 Today: Mon, 09 Oct 2000 09:12:26

