A big dump

“It took 12 months, but the state finally has a vision which will genuinely have people gasping.”

So stated Adelaide’s Advertiser in February last year. The newspaper was referring to the South Australian government’s plan to spend $145 billion of taxpayers’ money building a dump to bury the rest of the world’s high-level nuclear waste.

According to the Advertiser, if the dump were to proceed, “SA could amass a state wealth fund of $445 billion … We’re talking Scrooge McDuck levels of cash which the state would be swimming in.” What an opportunity! The local ABC was slightly more restrained, reporting that “a nuclear waste facility could bring in $257 billion to the state” and, of course, some jobs.

The problem is that the claimed “benefits” of burying other countries’ radioactive waste are as fictitious as a Disney character....