<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/13/aukus-laws-will-mean-anywhere-in-australia-could-be-potential-nuclear-waste-dump-critics-say>
"Critics of Australia’s Aukus submarine deal say the government has given
itself the power to nominate any place in Australia as a potential nuclear
waste dump, without proper consultation with communities and Indigenous
landowners.
Australia has agreed to take sole responsibility for the management, security
and storage of all nuclear waste from its fleet of proposed nuclear-powered
submarines, including the spent fuel from the submarines’ reactors – high-level
nuclear waste that will be radioactive for millennia once the submarines are
decommissioned from the early 2050s.
The spent fuel is also a nonproliferation risk: Australia’s nuclear submarines
will run on highly enriched uranium which can be reprocessed to make nuclear
weapons.
The spent fuel will require military-grade security to safeguard it. Other
navies use low enriched uranium, which cannot be used in a warhead, to power
their submarines, but requires refuelling every few years.
A spokesperson for the Australian Submarine Agency said the government was
“committed to the highest levels of nuclear stewardship, including the safe and
secure disposal of waste”, and that the “selection of any designated zone for
high-level waste will be informed by extensive consultation with the community
and key stakeholders”.
But critics argue the Australian naval nuclear power safety bill 2024, passed
in October last year, is far more broadly drawn, allowing the government to
“pick any place on a map, then the next day make a nuclear waste dump there”.
The Greens defence spokesperson, senator David Shoebridge, said Aukus was a
“slow-motion disaster” that would leave Australia with a toxic legacy for
millennia.
He said the legislation, as passed, failed to protect the rights of
communities.
“This law allows the minister to pick any place on a map, then the next day
make a nuclear waste dump there. It sounds impossible, but the way the law is
written could make your neighbourhood, or the defence facility next door, a
nuclear waste dump almost overnight.
“The second this law passed, Perth and Adelaide became home to two nuclear
waste dumps. The local community was not informed, they were not consulted, and
they are not being told what is happening now.”
Shoebridge said the government, instead of learning the lessons of previous
failed attempts to build a national nuclear waste facility, had “decided the
best course of action was to make sure the public, First Nations people, and
environmental groups had no way to protect the land”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
