Reacting to the government’s shortlist of six proposed permanent nuclear sites spread in New South Wales, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland, the Head of Campaigns for Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Dominique Rowe, said:
“This is an outrageous project that should never have gotten off the ground in the first place. Creating a permanent dump will only invite the generation of more nuclear waste that many generations of people will have to deal with.
“It is entirely disingenuous for the government to argue that this dump is for the people of Australia when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last month mooted the idea that our country could store nuclear waste from other countries.
“This project is a clear invitation to other countries to use Australia as a nuclear dumping ground. Australians will never allow it because they have learned the tragic lessons from nuclear accidents in other nations - which the government clearly hasn’t.
“The government is saying the dump will only store low and intermediate level nuclear waste, but let’s be clear about what this is: Intermediate level waste includes melted-down fuel rods from reactors, which will remain dangerous for thousands of years.
“No one can guarantee safe storage for what will literally be millenia. No country has yet discovered a way to safely store nuclear waste for the long periods required.
“While Greenpeace agrees that Australia should take responsibility for storing and managing its own nuclear waste, creating a dump that invites more radioactive waste is not the solution.”