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email the perth indmedia mob...
Opposing a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory |
| by brother_X |
2005-10-29 2:29 AM +0800 |
Traditional owners maintain anti-dump stance:
The traditional owners of a proposed national nuclear waste dump site in the Arrernte Nation [Central Australia] say they will continue to protest against the facility.
The Federal Government want an operating licence for a new reactor in Sydney - to replace Lucas Heights. One of the key conditions for the operating licence of a new reactor is the establishment of a viable waste management plan.
The Medical Association for Prevention of War condemned as "scaremongering" the claims by Federal MPs that the health of Australians would be in jeopardy if a nuclear waste dump was not imposed on the Northern Territory by the Commonwealth Government... |
In July the Federal Government announced a shortlist of three sites in the Northern Territory as potential sites for a radioactive waste dump.
The Government wants a facility to store and manage low and intermediate level radioactive waste resulting from the medical, industrial and research use of radioactive materials by Commonwealth agencies.
The sites under review are:
* Fishers Ridge, a defence site 42km south-east of Katherine.
* Harts Range, a defence site 165km north-east of Alice Springs.
* Mount Everard a defence site 27km north-west of Alice Springs.
The announcement has broken an election promise, with Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, stating in the leadup to the election:
"The Commonwealth is not pursuing any options anywhere on the mainland ... Northern Territorians can take that as an absolute categorical assurance."
The NT Government cannot prevent the dump from proceeding as the three sites are all on Commonwealth land. The Territory Parliament has passed legislation banning the storage or transport of any nuclear waste from interstate. But the Federal Government will use its external affairs power to override the legislation.
The Australian government has abandoned locating the dump in South Australia and Western Australia following local opposition.
A final decision is expected to be made by the end of 2006, with the preferred site to be operational by 2011.
One of the proposed sites for the nuclear waste dump is on land belonging to the traditional owners of Athenge Alhere - an estate group of the Arrernte Nation in Central Australia, Northern Territory.
The traditional owners do not accept the Government’s plans despite the land being held by the Commonwealth.
Demonstrators have set up a protest point on the Stuart Highway about 20 kilometres north of Alice Springs - close to Mount Everard, which is one of the three proposed sites for the dump.
Traditional owner Benedict Stevens is committed to the fight:
"Because the land we take care of, because all our ancestors lived in this land and hunted on this land as well, so it's mainly because of the animals and the next generation of our kids and their children, so we still say no..."
Traditional owners reject the nuclear dump and say they don’t want poison from Sydney’s Lucas Heights nuclear reactor brought to their country.
ATHENGE LHERE SAY ‘NO’ TO NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP
One of the Commonwealth Government’s proposed sites for a national nuclear waste dump is on Arrernte land belonging to the traditional owners of Athenge Alhere, an estate group of the Arrernte Nation in Central Australia, Northern Territory. The traditional owners do not accept the Government’s plans despite the land being held by the Commonwealth.
Lucas Heights in Sydney is Australia’s nuclear reactor site and we don’t want their poison to be brought to our country, said Benedict Stevens, (Traditional Owner) today in Alice Springs.
The government says it is safe waste, but if it is so safe why are they thinking about bringing it half way across the country to our land. The government may think this place is remote, but this is our home.
The land is crucial to our way of life and we must protect the stories and dreamings that are significant to our law, our culture and our people. We are very worried and disappointed that the Commonwealth Government plans to dump nuclear waste onto our traditional lands. The government has already taken our land away from us, we have learned to live with that but now they want to destroy that land by putting a waste dump there.
The Government does not respect our way of life and they have not talked to us. The Government have their law, but we have ours which the Elders uphold. As Arrernte people it is our responsibility to protect the land for future generations of our people and all people in the community: to protect the environment of the plants, animals, birds and landscape, says Mr Stevens.
The government must first settle the urgent issue of waste management in Australia before they allow further mining of uranium in a country that has a history of nuclear contamination of the land and the environment.
We are urging Aboriginal people to be strong and say no to the nuclear waste dump also not allow uranium mining on their lands. People in the community must realize that nuclear waste comes from uranium mining activities and that it is the final state of the cycle of nuclear power.
http://www.alec.org.au/site/index.cfm?display=28912&filter=i&leca=139&did=39864540
__________________
Need for a new reactor is a myth: Medical Association for Prevention of War
"We are appalled by the dishonest claims linking the nuclear waste dump to the health of Australians," said Dr Sue Wareham, immediate past president for MAPW. "While it is a health issue, this is more about endangering the health of Australians than protecting it."
The Federal Government has introduced new legislation which would force a nuclear dump on states or territories regardless of opposition from community or state parliaments and which would override countless other state and Commonwealth legal mechanisms, including indigenous concerns.
"It is clear that there is pressure on because the Federal Government want an operating licence for the new reactor in Sydney," continued Dr Wareham. "But the fact that the new reactor was granted a construction licence before the conditions of an operating licence were fulfilled makes a farce of the whole process."
One of the key conditions for the operating licence is the establishment of a viable waste management plan.
"If the government was serious about protecting the health of Australians they would be investing in the development of non-reactor technologies for the production of isotopes, so that we would not have this vast and growing nuclear waste problem."
MAPW released a comprehensive report on the issue of the new reactor which was released in August 2004. This report argues simply that the medical need for a new reactor is a myth. The report: A New Clear Direction - Securing Nuclear Medicine for the Next Generation examines the important role played by Australia's nuclear medicine sector but clearly outlines why the planned new reactor is not needed.
More here: http://www.mapw.org.au/mapw-commentary/press-releases/2005/131005MR_waste_Dump.html
Traditional owners in the Territory are working together to take a strong stand against the proposed nuclear waste dump on their countries.
Member for Lingiari, Warren Snowdon says traditional owners and communities living near the proposed sites has been left out of the loop and were now seeking real answers from Canberra.
"Locally we’ve seen the Traditional Owners of Athenge Alhere, north of Alice Springs, make a strong statement on their position with the support of Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation," he said.
The NT Government say it's crude politics: "there is no scientific or environmental logic to Canberra's decision to select the Northern Territory for sites for this waste dump. It comes down to one point, and one point only, and it is crude politics..."
All the potential nuclear waste dumps are on defence force land.
How much waste will be managed at the facility?
The Australian Government owns 3,600 cubic metres of low level radioactive waste and 400 cubic metres of intermediate level radioactive waste.
Each year, about 30 cubic metres of low level waste and about three cubic metres of intermediate level waste is generated each year on a routine basis by Australian Government agencies.
The decommissioning of the current HIFAR research reactor will generate up to 2,500 and 150 cubic metres of low and intermediate level radioactive waste, respectively. The exact amount generated will depend on the decommissioning option chosen.
...
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Traditional owners to maintain anti-dump stance - abc
NT to get nuclear waste dump
Nuclear 'poison' not welcome - news.com
GLW
Territory kicked in the guts– again: Lingiari, Warren Snowdon
Nuclear Waste Facility – Potential Sites
Condemnation of Commonwealth Government - Proposed Nuclear Waste Site - 16/08/2005
Radioactive waste dump to be in NT - envirobusiness
Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Facility Publications
scale pictures
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Closed Loop policy |
| by |
2005-10-29 5:43 AM +0800 |
Uranium is mined out of the Northern Territory with the stake holders sharing in the financial spoils.
The product is processed, used and subsequently creates waste.
That waste has to be managed and at this moment storage is the current favoured method of management.
IT HAS TO BE STORED SOMEWHERE.
The Northern Territory made the mess, let them clean it up.
Link here
|
Bollocks |
| by Sandy |
2005-10-29 10:45 AM +0800 |
Would you say the same if it were your backyard? I doubt it.
Should'nt those who profit from the industry keep the waste at their houses?
It is certainly NOT the responsibility for NT to "clean it up." It is the nuclear industry itself. Should WA store the waste of the iron ore industry?
Should all the world's scrap metal be stored in the Hammersly ranges? Should the petroleum industry take responsibility for CO2 emissions? Or the entire plastic waste?
This particular nuclear waste is created in Sydney. It should be stored there. And not transported 1000s of Ks away and lobbed into someone elses land. People have an attachment to country - its complete disrespect for the Arrernte Nation to dump it there. More neo-colonial terra nullius.
There are other metods of isotope medicines that do not require the amount of nuclear waste. The reason the Fed government want a dump in the NT - or anywhere - is to get the new reactor built.
Would you mind if all the nuclear waste were stored in your shed? Or under your front lawn?
Link here
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Simple |
| by chronic jim |
2005-10-29 11:04 AM +0800 |
Stop mining the stuff. Leave the poison in the ground.
Who is behind the dump? Who is behind the dump proposal?
The Department of Industry, Science and Resources [DISR] along with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation [ANSTO] are the main Commonwealth departments promoting the radioactive waste dump.
Aboriginal folks have known for millenia that yellowcake is gonna make you sick, or kill you. The stories from Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, the Senior Aboriginal Women from Coober Pedy, suggest uranium is "rancid yellow emu vomit", and when the easterly wind picks up you should lay low. And stay away from the area in general or you get sick:
"The Adnyamathanha people of the rocky country in the northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia (SA) tell a story of rancid yellow Emu vomit in particular pockets across the eastern side of their country.
People were advised to avoid these areas whenever possible, and to 'lay low' when the east wind was blowing. It is believed by many Adnyamathanha that extraction of this yellow-green poison is highly risky to the people and land of this region and to humankind in general. Cautionary messages for the need to respect this part of the land have been passed on for generations and continue to influence the ways that Adnyamathanha pay homage to their homeland and their ancestors."
"It’s from our grandmothers and our grandfathers that we’ve learned about the land. This learning isn’t written on paper as whitefellas knowledge is. We carry it instead in our heads and we’re talking from our hearts, for the land. You fellas, whitefellas, put us in the back all the time, like we’ve got no language for the land. But we’ve got the story for the land..."
http://www.iratiwanti.org/iratiwanti.php3?page=declaration
Leave it. Close the mines. Respect your country.
Link here
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ERA has paid more than $207 million in royalties to traditional owners and governments for Aboriginal projects in Ranger's 25-year history. |
| by David Klingner |
2005-10-29 11:35 AM +0800 |
Stop taking the money.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/Aborigines-win-veto-on-Kakadu-uranium-mining/2005/02/25/1109180079111.html
Leave the stuff in the ground.
Link here
|
Indigenous central Australians reject dump plan |
| by abc story |
2005-10-30 1:41 AM +0800 |
Saturday, October 29, 2005. 10:00am (AEST)
Indigenous central Australians reject dump plan
The Central Land Council (CLC) says traditional owners do not want a nuclear waste dump on the two central Australian sites earmarked by the Federal Government.
Their position comes after the Northern Land Council's (NLC) call for amendments to federal legislation relating to the dump that would allow land councils to nominate an alternative site, possibly on their own land.
CLC director David Ross says traditional owners in the Territory have only just got their land back over the past 30 years.
He told the ABC's Stateline program they have grave concerns over the future of their land, particularly at Alcoota.
"They've run that place as a very successful pastoral lease, they have concerns that their cattle wouldn't be sold if there was a site there and there's all the perceptions about these sorts of things," he said.
Mr Ross says if the NLC chooses to do things differently that is 'up to them'.
"It's a decision they have to live with into the future, it's not something people in central Australia are a party to," he said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1493501.htm
Link here
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The answer is pay the Aboriginals to store it on there land |
| by Solution 8 |
2005-10-30 3:25 PM +0800 |
Business has paid two hundred odd million dollars when the stuff comes out of there ground, if we paid that much or more to put it back I don't think the objections would be to loud.
Say $500,000 to every man woman and child of the Arrernte Nation.
Would you give up your spiritual lands for half a million? I would.
Link here
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Already chosen by Howard's mob |
| by X |
2005-10-30 10:31 PM +0800 |
Did you read the article mate? Its actually earmarked for DEFENCE departmnet sites. The Commonwealth can override the NT Government and the Traditional owners.
And no, no amount of money would convince me to put spent uranium in my spiritual lands.
Link here
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So if the decision is already made what's your problem |
| by Solution 8 |
2005-11-01 8:27 AM +0800 |
I am actually proposing that we give the victims of this decision some compensation.
Did you actually read my comments.
If the decision is a fait accompli as you say why not give the people some money so they can establish themselves in different locations if they are concerned and want to move on.
Why would you be against compensating them?
Link here
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