Greedy grab for profits drives nuclear waste dump

Greedy grab for profits drives nuclear waste dump push: Greens

A greedy grab for cash is driving the push to turn Australia into the world's nuclear waste dump, Australian Greens energy spokesperson
Senator Christine Milne said today.

"The latest advocate of this ill-conceived proposal, Reserve Bank board member and former WMC chief executive Hugh Morgan, claims that
Australia can improve its international standing by taking the world's high-level nuclear waste," Senator Milne said.

"This is nonsense. Hugh Morgan and the other cheerleaders for a nuclear waste storage industry in Australia are trying to dress up a greedy grab for cash with the respectable clothing of international reputation. In truth, they simply want to dump on Australia.

"Far from improving Australia's international standing, a global nuclear waste dump in Australia would simply show that the nation is prepared to condemn Indigenous communities and future generations of Australians to exposure to waste so toxic that it has to be managed for a quarter of a million years.

"Perhaps Hugh Morgan and fellow cheerleader former Prime Minister Bob
Hawke don't appreciate that Australia's global standing is already besmirched by its treatment of refugees, failure to defend David Hicks' legal rights, and its war on Iraq.

"Pulling the rug from under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty through nuclear fuel leasing and a high-level waste dump would just be the latest case in a long history of the Australian government thumbing its nose at international law and standards.

"Mr Morgan's arrogance is evident in his reported comment that 'there's no better use to which I can think you can put the country' in South Australia than a nuclear waste dump.

"Nuclear waste is an unacceptable legacy to future generations. There are alternative forms of energy that are safe and ecologically sustainable.

"The federal government must rule out the development of a uranium enrichment and nuclear fuel leasing industry to ensure that Australia does not become a global nuclear waste dump. Australia needs a smart industry development strategy; storing nuclear waste doesn't measure up."

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