The South Australian government is not moving ahead with a potential plan under which the state could take in about 13 percent of the world’s nuclear waste.
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill, of the Labor Party, issued an official response Tuesday to a Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission report supporting the proposed facility. In its glowing recommendation in April, the commission projected that the site would generate $100 billion (AUS) in profit to the state over 120 years.
A statewide consultation process, which included feedback from 50,000 people and two citizens’ juries, showed that many residents oppose the plan. The second citizens’ jury of 350 South Australian residents objected to the potential storage facility, with 70 percent unwilling to support it under any circumstances, according to The Guardian.
Weatherill’s response on Tuesday said the government supports continued consideration of the proposal, but it does not support lifting a nuclear waste storage ban for the region. That measure, implemented in 2000, bars “an orderly, detailed and thorough analysis and discussion of the opportunity to establish such facilities in South Australia.”
“On recommendations relating to a nuclear waste storage facility, the Government will not pursue policy or legislative change, however the Government will continue to encourage discussion and remain open to pursuing this opportunity for South Australia,” according to the report delivered to the state Parliament. Weatherill reaffirmed his support for a statewide referendum on the matter, which seems unlikely in the face of opposition from other political parties.
The Labor Party politician separately acknowledged there was no political consensus that would allow a referendum to proceed, the Adelaide Advertiser reported. “Obviously we’d have no chance of success at the moment,” Weatherill said. Opposition party leaders confirmed the absence of such agreement, according to news reports. In the event that a referendum supported the nuclear waste site, Aboriginal people in South Australia would still have final say on the project if it would affect their lands, the premier said.
In all, the state government backed nine of 12 recommendations from the Royal Commission, particularly relating to the recommendations for broadening uranium exploration and mining in South Australia.
