In response to your news item “Radioactive waste ship to set sail”, I certainly do have concerns about the nuclear waste being stored at Lucas Heights.
I expressed those concerns as a Sutherland Shire Councillor for 14 years and continued my representations as a concerned citizen. Mayor Genevieve Rankin continued that representation and Mayor Ken McDonell was a spokesman at the Australian Local Government Conference where he received wide support.
There were many others who shared this concern.
Senate Inquiries were held and Sutherland Shire Council had the benefit of an outstanding environmental officer, shire planner and legal advisor who along with residents’ representatives prepared submissions warning federal, state and adjoining local government authorities of the danger that nuclear waste transportation and storage would occur when the federal governments’ agreements with France allowed this highly dangerous waste to be returned. Maritime Workers also voiced strong objection.
The proposed siting of the National Radioactive Waste Management facility at Muckaty, on Aboriginal land, was a cynical exercise which was defeated in the Court and would have been a gesture of national shame only for the support of the Maritime and Electrical Trades Unions who supported the Australian Conservation Foundation.
ANSTO continues to expand its operations at Lucas Heights defiantly, despite the indisputable evidence that it should never have been built there.
The original requirements to be met by the British Atomic Energy Agency was that it not be in the vicinity of schools, hospitals and food producing areas and certainly NOT in a residential area of young families.
Expansion continued by default of proper government restrictions, but the transportation of waste from ports along major transport links and its eventual storage in a high risk areas must surely be challenged by the silent elected government representatives of the region.
Records will confirm the security risks, and the French government may need to be approached by our Foreign Affairs Minister to remind them that a French citizen has been a security risk not only for activities related to the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior Peace Vessel in New Zealand but also for his activities surrounding the reactor.
The next question to be asked is whether there can be any legal challenge by residents or transport workers regarding the risk factors associated with the transportation and storage of these extremely dangerous nuclear wastes.
Hazel Wilson OAM
