Australia’s Greens political party wants to cancel resources minister Josh Frydenberg’s plan that has identified farmland in South Australia as the location for the country’s first permanent storage site for low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste, and instead maintain storage operations just outside of Sydney, allowing for an independent investigation into storage options.
The Greens’ nuclear waste strategy, released on Friday in anticipation of the July federal election, would extend interim storage of intermediate-level waste at the Lucas Heights research reactor site. The independent investigation would prohibit evidence from groups that might profit from Frydenberg’s proposed nuclear waste storage plan, which has identified Barndioota as the leading site from a list of six locations.
“For more than 20 years the Australian Government has been asking the wrong question on nuclear waste,” South Australia Sen. Robert Simms of the Greens party said in a statement Friday. “We should be asking what is the most appropriate way of managing and isolating various categories of nuclear waste and how can we minimise the production of nuclear waste?”
Australia holds about 4,250 cubic meters of low-level waste and 656 cubic meters of intermediate-level waste originating from the production and use of nuclear medicine, research reactor operations, and other activities. The vast majority of that material is stored at Lucas Heights, along with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization research facility at Woomera, South Australia. The Lucas Heights facility is operated by the government’s Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization.
The Greens also want to cancel plans for increasing production of Australian medical isotopes for export, opting instead for non-reactor-based production. The party requested that the government maintain a federal prohibition on importation, storage, and disposal of international nuclear waste. The prohibition applies to all nuclear waste proposals.
“The government’s plan is about creating more waste, targeting remote communities and paying compensation – a process purely focused on securing a site,” Simms said. “The Greens policy delivers a way forward by redirecting existing funding of (AUS) $30 million from the current process to a new deliberative public inquiry – focused on transparency and evidence to come up with the best possible solutions.”
Frydenberg’s office is currently assessing the impact on indigenous heritage for the Barndioota proposal.
South Australia is pursuing a separate plan under which the state would take on about 13 percent of the world’s nuclear waste from countries such as Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, and reportedly turn it into billions of dollars in economic benefit. Australia’s Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission estimated the plan would generate AUS $100 billion of state profit over a 120-year period. South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill is currently leading a community engagement process on the plan that includes the formation of an expert-led consultation and response agency.