Call-Out for International Solidarity: National Day of Action Against Nuclear Waste Dumps in South Australia

from Earth First! Newswire

DON’T DUMP ON SA (AUSTRALIA)

OCTOBER 15, 2016 marks 63 years since the first atomic bomb test at Emu Junction in South Australia.

South Australia faces the threat of becoming a nuclear waste dumping ground, again.

On October 15 we invite everyone, everywhere to take a stand and take part in this National Day of Action for South Australia. The Federal Government is pursuing plans to build a national waste dump in the Flinders Ranges, while a proposal for South Australia to take the world’s international high level nuclear waste continues to be progressed by the SA state government. Aboriginal custodians have said ‘NO’ and communities across the state are saying ‘we can do better than to take the world’s worst waste’.

October 15 will see actions across Australia opposing these proposals for South Australia to host nuclear waste dumps. We are calling on international movements, groups and individuals to show solidarity with South Australia on October 15 by organising an action in your hometown.

An international nuclear waste dump is an international issue, and the plight of Adnyamathanha custodians in the Flinders Ranges is one that is faced by many indigenous nations around the world struggling against the extractive industries and the imposition of toxic waste dumps on their lands.

Contact: blackwallaby@gmail.com

Website: http://dontdumponsaoct15.org/

Please visit http://www.anfa.org.au/sign-the-declaration to endorse.

Background:

The Federal waste dump

The Federal government recently shortlisted only Wallerberdina Station in the Flinders Ranges for further consideration for a national nuclear waste dump. As with past attempts to impose waste dumps on Aboriginal communities, once again Adnyamathanha traditional owners were not consulted, not even the community living at Yappala Station next door. The proposed site is adjacent to the Yappala Indigenous Protected Area which has thousands of Aboriginal artefacts, and is prone to heavy flooding and regular earthquakes. The site is strongly opposed by the Adnyamathanha community. A 70km Aboriginal storyline runs right through the nominated site. The dump would not just house low level medical waste such as hospital gloves, but intermediate level waste from the Lucas Heights reactor.

The international waste dump

Despite the difficulties Australia continues to face in finding a solution for its own nuclear waste, a Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle, initiated by the South Australian government, recently recommended that South Australia host an international high level nuclear waste dump because it could be profitable for the state. The recommendation by the Royal Commission is based on one hypothetical business model by consultancy firms Jacobs Group and MCM. Various assumptions are employed to make the proposal profitable, notably the price countries are projected to pay South Australia to take their waste, which can only be guesswork given that there is no international market in nuclear waste. This is not to suggest that the risks involved in this proposal can be offset by any amount of money.

Nuclear industry links have discredited the entire process, from some members of the Royal Commission who also held positions in nuclear companies, to Jacobs Group and MCM. Jacobs have also been employed by BHP Billiton as a consultant for their expansion of the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia, and connections between MCM and Pangea Resources, the corporation driving an earlier proposal in the late 1990’s to build an international nuclear waste dump in Australia, have recently been revealed.

The proposal is for Australia to import 138 000 tonnes of high level nuclear waste which requires isolation for several hundred thousand years, and requires South Australia to first stockpile thousands of tonnes of this waste, in order to make the money to begin construction of a long term facility. There is currently no operating waste dump for high level waste anywhere in the world. If South Australia cannot do what no other country has yet managed to do, it will be left with a high level waste problem it does not currently have. A site is yet to be proposed.