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Outback SA is a target for both international and national nuclear wastes

By David Noonan - posted Monday, 20 July 2015


We should respect the political leadership of Premiers from both sides of politics in our State to keep Nuclear wastes out of SA.

An onus of proof should clearly be on anyone trying to introduce Nuclear wastes to SA and to over-ride or over-turn the strong legislative protections that prohibit Nuclear wastes here.

Premier Jay Weatherill's Nuclear Royal Commission affects the rights and interests of all South Australians, proposes an array of Nuclear actions that are illegal actions under State or Federal laws, and fails a range of reality tests.

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International Nuclear wastes were made illegal in WA (1999), SA (2000), NT (2004) and Qld (2007).

The Parliament of Australia has prohibited nuclear power reactors, uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication, and Spent Nuclear Fuel reprocessing under multiple key legislative powers, in the:

  • Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998
  • Section 10 Prohibition on certain nuclear installations;
  • AND Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC)
  • Section 140ANo approval for certain nuclear installations.

Nuclear actions are "Matters of National Environmental Significance" under the EPBC Act. The ALP and Australian Greens are committed to retain these Decision powers at the Federal level.

Further, the ALP National Platform presents policy commitments for the 2016 Federal election:

Labor remains strongly opposed to the importation and storage of nuclear waste in Australia that is sourced from overseas.

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International Nuclear wastes would involve a range of Federal powers and decisions that are outside of SA's jurisdiction, including under the Customs Act, the EPBC Act, and Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act.

To date, the Nuclear Commission that is supposed to be investigating risks and opportunities has itself failed to credibly inform or engage the public on key legal and public policy issues.

Information Papers provide only passing reference to 'prohibitions' and meetings held at Universities and elsewhere fail to even mention the fact that our State laws prohibit an array of Nuclear wastes that the Nuclear Commission is considering.

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About the Author

David Noonan is a freelance environment campaigner with experience on nuclear, uranium, environment and outback rivers conservation issues with the NGO sector.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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