media release * Thursday 4th March 1999
Pangea announcement confirms waste dump fears
On tuesday the London-based Uranium Institute announced that Pangea
Resources Ltd has lodged its application to transport radioactive waste
to Australia with the Australian government. This announcement confirms
the long-held fears of environmentalists about Australia becoming an
international nuclear dumping ground.
�The timing of the announcement seems quite remarkable given recent
statements by Sir
Gustav Nossel and a range of other high profile commentators about the
suitability of
Australia as an international nuclear dumping ground.� said Daniel
Voronoff of the national environment group Friends of the Earth. �This
seems to indicate a sophisticated and orchestrated public opinion
campaign undertaken by Pangea.�
The Coalition Government had the opportunity as recently as last
December to ban the
importation of nuclear waste. Green groups pressed the government to
include this
provision in the ARPANSA (Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear
Safety Act)
legislation, but they refused.
�Given the recent track record of the Coalition on this matter, we have
to ask if
Government promises not to import nuclear waste are �core� or �non
core�. We call for
immediate legislation banning the importation of nuclear waste.�
There are too many dangers inherent in any proposal to transport highly
radioactive waste
to Australia - from the threat of an accident at sea or road accident
within the country, to
the fact that shipment will help prop up a declining nuclear industry in
Britain. Friends of the Earth has always maintained that countries need
to deal responsibly with their own waste rather than shipping it
elsewhere in the world, where it will remain a threat to humanity and
the environment for up to 200,000 years�.
�The Howard government has embraced an agenda of aggressively supporting
the nuclear industry, with a new reactor at Lucus Heights, a national
radioactive waste dump and new uranium mines all on the cards. It is
disturbing that announcements about such plans are more available on
company websites than through genuine public debate.�
Further comment: Daniel Voronoff 0418 178053, 03 9687 3113
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