Australia releases shortlist of sites for its first nuclear waste facility

Australia on Friday announced six sites, including a few in Outback areas, on a shortlist for the nation’s first nuclear waste dump, risking fresh controversy after an earlier plan was scuttled by opposition from Aboriginal landowners.

Others are in the Northern Territory, Sallys Flat in New South Wales and Oman Ama in Queensland.

“When we’re talking about low-level waste, we’re talking about two Olympic size swimming pools worth of waste and much less than that when we’re talking about intermediate waste”, Frydenberg told reporters in Melbourne.

The American government has been trying to establish a waste facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada since 1987, with the result that high-level waste is sitting in temporary facilities (usually sites attached to nuclear plants) waiting for a long-term home after decades of storage.

The owner of the selected land would be paid up to four times its value, with the surrounding community set to receive at least $10 million.

Low level nuclear waste is now being stored at 100 different sites across the country.

Six sites across the country were originally chosen for the shortlist before a unanimous decision to store all waste in the senate. The government wants to finalise a single location by the end of next year.

Does it worry you that nuclear waste will be buried in your “backyard”?

Bathurst Climate Action Network head Tracy Carpenter said Bathurst, which is an hour away from Sallys Flat, had been a sister city with Okuma in Japan, one of the towns affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

“The outcomes and feedback of the consultation process will help inform the government’s consideration of the next phase of detailed assessment, which will involve a further shortlist of two to three sites with an expectation of a final site being identified before the end of next year”, he said.

“Obviously this is one of the early potential opportunities that may exist for South Australia should we take that decision, but there’s a long way to go”.

A royal commission has been examining a theoretical expansion of the nuclear industry in the state, but the prospect of an actual nuclear waste dump is suddenly a reality.

South Australian lawmaker Rowan Ramsey, a leading supporter of the project whose electorate includes three of the sites, said he was hopeful a “scare campaign” would not derail what he said be a boon for the local economy.

“Nuclear power is a big part of the world’s energy solution”. “To be honest I always leave the senate with a headache anyway, so I don’t think this will change anything”.

“There are no compelling public health or technical reasons to rush any of this waste to another location, “ACF campaigner Dave Sweeney said”.

There are 28 canisters of reprocessed nuclear waste sitting in a warehouse at the Lucas Heights facility in Sydney.

The government is under pressure to come up with a national nuclear waste dump, with 25 tonnes of uranium on its way back from France after being processed.