By Jim Green
ADELAIDE — Senator Nick Minchin, federal minister for industry, science and resources, used the platform of the People's Conference on uranium-related issues here on March 4-5 to add nothing to previous government statements about the plan to dump most of Australia's radioactive waste in SA. Nor did he say anything to clarify or justify his government's scheming, contradictions and back-flips.
Deputy premier Rob Kerin told the 350 conference attendees that the state Liberal government had not yet approved the federal government's plan for a low-level underground dump and that it is opposed to higher-level wastes from the Lucas Heights reactor in Sydney being dumped in SA.
However, the SA government has given in-principle support for a low-level waste dump. Kerin repeatedly asked what better way there is to manage radioactive wastes other than to establish a national dump — a fair question except that, as the responsible minister, he ought to understand the options.
Dr Charles McCombie, from Pangea Australia, spoke of his company's plan to dump 75,000 tonnes of high-level waste in Australia. He attempted to avoid questions as to whether, once rid of existing stockpiles of waste, nuclear power utilities around the world would simply produce more waste.
Jean McSorley, a consultant to Greenpeace, told the conference of the track record of British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL), which has provided 70% of Pangea's funding. McSorley, herself from the UK and author of the book Sellafield: Living in the Shadows, highlighted the massive radiation discharges from BNFL's Sellafield plant and the scandal sparked by BNFL's falsification of safety records. Pangea representatives did not attempt to defend BNFL's record.
The SA Labor Party's environment spokesperson, John Hill, said that the ALP's state branch opposes plans for a nuclear dump in SA, but that the federal Labor Party had no such position.
When asked if the SA Labor Party would henceforth refuse to accept funding from uranium mining companies, Hill argued that if the party was to pick and choose who it accepts money from, the impression would be created that funding was linked to political favours. Another conference has been proposed to try to make sense of Hill's quaint argument.
Kevin Buzzacott, an Arabunna elder, and Rebecca Bear-Wingfield from the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta women's group, spoke about the oppression of their people by the nuclear industry and by governments.
Ken McDonnel, mayor of Sutherland shire, which covers the Lucas Heights reactor plant in southern Sydney, argued for a public inquiry into the nuclear industry.
"Adding a toilet onto the back of your house is open to the scrutiny of the local community through the local council", he said. "But to build a new reactor and produce nuclear waste in our backyard is the subject of a secret locational study with no public inquiry".
According to Greg Were, one of the conference organisers, some projects which may flow from the conference are a film or documentary, an education pack for schools, printing the conference proceedings for wider distribution, putting conference speeches on the web site, and getting one or more radio stations to use the tapes of conference talks.
The conference web site is at .