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Campaigns
 The
Pangea waste dump proposal
In 1999, Pangea
Resources proposed to establish an international, commercial high level
nuclear waste dump in the outback of Western Australia. The Pangea proposal was defeated over the next two years, but it remains an important case study for proposed models of nuclear waste storage.
 The South Australian waste dump proposal
The Lucas Heights nuclear
research reactor in Sydney has been generating radioactive waste since 1958. A broad-based community campaign defeated proposals for this waste to be dumped in South Australia.
 The Northern Territory waste dump proposal
With South-Australia in the too-hard basket, the former Howard Government turned to the Northern Territory and began an aggressive campaign to dump the waste there. These plans foundered in the face of a hard-fought campaign led by Aboriginal Traditional Owners in the targeted areas, but fears remain that the NT is still in the Government's sights...
Introduction
Nuclear power
stations and research reactors, in the course of their normal operation, produce the most
dangerous industrial wastes known to humankind.
There are many different
kinds of nuclear waste, but attention tends to focus on what is known
as 'High Level Waste': the spent, or 'burned' fuel rods after they have
been taken out of a nuclear reactor.
 The
nuclear industry began sixty years ago in a desperate race for nuclear
weapons. The nuclear power industry developed as a by-product of this endeavour, and today there are hundreds of research and military reactors
and around 430 commercial power reactors on earth.
Each one of them
generates high level waste from the spent fuel. Unfortunately this construction was
undertaken without any clear idea of what to do with the waste products. Sixty
years down the track, the industry still isn't sure what to do with
it. The safe isolation of nuclear waste is one of the most important
challenges to be undertaken by this generation, and for all subsequent
generations.
Backgrounders
High
Level Nuclear Waste (HLW)
The spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors. There are around 160,000
tonnes worth scattered around the world, and industry plans for their
eventual 'disposal' are in disarray. Pangea Resources estimated that
by 2015 there will be roughly 250,000 tonnes to deal with if the industry
is not stopped.
Intermediate
Level Waste
SLILW, LLILW, ILW, and many other acronyms to puzzle the general public.
The waste products of the nuclear industry come in many deadly flavours.
Uranium
Mine Tailings
 Mine
tailings are not even listed on Australia's inventory of radioactive
wastes, nonetheless we are saddledwith millions of tonnes of tailings.
Find out what it is and why we need to stop producing it.
 Reprocessing
Dissolving nuclear waste in nitric acid to retrieve the plutonium, creating
huge volumes of liquid waste may seem like a crazy idea, but it's going
on right now. The reason? That's how nuclear weapons are made.
Interim
Storage
 Most
of the waste that hasn't been turned into nuclear weapons is sitting
in 'Interim Storage' in pools or sheds next to the reactor sites. 50
years is getting to be a long interim.
 The
Transportation Hazards
The only thing more dangerous than producing this waste is shifting
it around. Whether by road, rail or ship, nothing arouses mass protests
like the transport of nuclear waste.
Waste
Isolation - options for Australia
What we need to start creating: an end to the production of nuclear
waste and strategies for the immediate cessation of artificial radiation
exposure to people and the biosphere.
Spent Nuclear Fuel - Reprocessing and Repositories.
A report by Jim Green, National Nulcear Campaigner, Friends of the Earth, Australia, October 2006.
To download the report click here (123kb)
Key findings of the 2004 NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Transportation and Storage of Nuclear Waste.
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