My australian friends. I've thought this could be of some use for you.
Hugs from France. Bernard Blanc.
Subject:
[DOEWatch] Nuclear Lies Spilled in Australian Parliament
Date:
Wed, 31 Mar 1999 22:50:48 EST
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Source:
<A HREF="http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar99/1999L-03-31-04.html">
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/mar99/1999L-03-31-04.html</A>
========================================================
Nuclear Lies Spilled in Australian Parliament
By Andrew Darby
CANBERRA, Australia, March 31 1999 (ENS) - A United States company
trying to
build a bridgehead for a proposed $US3.8 billion outback nuclear waste
dump
has been embarrassed by revelations of lying over contact with the
Australian
government.
Both the company, Pangea Resources, and the government have been forced
to
make apologies over the contact, which each had declared never took
place.
The apologies have undermined both support for the project, and trust in
the
federal government's position that it is totally opposed to the dump.
Pangea Resources is proposing to build a private, internationally
available
nuclear waste dump underground at an undetermined location in the
outback
deserts of central or Western Australia.
The proposal has raised spirited debate, gaining backing of some
distinguished
Australians, including scientist Sir Gustav Nossal, and respected
centre-right
public affairs commentator Gerard Henderson. Supporters argue that it
would be
a chance for Australia to gain the obligation of other countries now
facing
waste disposal problems.
Opponents of the plan, including the federal Environment Minister,
Senator
Robert Hill, argue that the responsibility for dealing with nuclear
waste
rests with countries where it is created. "We have said clearly and
unambiguously we are not interested in becoming a global waste dump,"
Hill
said.
Discussions were evidently taking place before the Pangea proposal was
released to the Australian public. But a video outlining the Pangea
concept
was "prematurely released" by a representative of Friends of the Earth
in
Sydney Australia in December 1998, David Pentz, chair of Pangea
Resources
Australia Pty Ltd. told the Waste Management '99 conference in Tucson,
Arizona
on March 1.
In December, the federal Resources Minister, Senator Nick Minchin,
denied in
parliament that any government minister had ever met with Pangea. Its
president, Jim Voss, made a similar denial.
However, it was disclosed in parliament that Voss had a meeting with the
federal Forests and Conservation Minister, Wilson Tuckey, whose vast
West
Australian electorate includes areas Pangea may be interested in.
As a result, Minchin was forced to admit inadvertently misleading
parliament -
in Australia an embarrassing but not often politically fatal offence.
Pangea's head of science and technology, Charles McCombie, was also
reported
to have expressed company regret that Voss had lied about the meeting.
"We think there has to be an open, transparent dialogue and we very much
regret getting off on the wrong foot," McCombie told the national
Australian
Broadcasting Corporation.
The deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister, Tim Fischer, said he did
not
rule out having met a Pangea representative, though he could not recall
it.
And the former Industry Minister, John Moore, said he declined to meet
Pangea
when its representative tried to arrange a meeting.
Senator Minchin disclosed that representatives of Pangea have had
discussions
with government officials "over the years" on the general issue of
radioactive
waste management.
"The Australian" newspaper reported that U.S. President Bill Clinton's
Special
Envoy on Weapons of Mass Destruction, Robert Galluci, believed Australia
was
in a unique position to help solve the international safe storage
problem. But
it also said Washington had assured Australia the U.S. Administration
did not
support Pangea's proposal.
Pentz, the Pangea Resources chairman, told colleagues at the Tucson
Waste
Management conference, "I would not be honest with you if I told you
that we
knew precisely how we will proceed so that the concept can be translated
into
a functional international waste management organization."
Pentz acknowledged that, "no government has yet endorsed Pangea. Indeed
at
this time we do not seek such endorsement or approval," Pentz said.
"Rather,
we seek the opportunity to engage both state and federal governments in
Australia in a reasoned, objective and calm dialogue to examine a path
forward
of mutual benefit. We also seek to stimulate and engage in an open
discussion
with the public and those groups who take a direct interest in our
proposal."
Basically, Pangea aims to site a radioactive waste disposal facility in
a
stable democratic country where the geology and biosphere conditions
guarantee
performance that will "meet the highest international standards and
international safeguard requirements."
Pentz said Pangea wants to create a corporation for geological disposal
capable of accepting spent fuel, vitrified high level waste, long-lived
intermediate level waste, and "appropriately conditioned long lived
nuclear
materials such as immobilized plutonium." The corporation would provide
transportation service from locations around the world where the nuclear
materials exist to the repository location.
He sees the proposal as an opportunity for the host country "to play an
unprecedented role in enhancing nonproliferation, encouraging nuclear
weapons
states to disarm."
Meanwhile, the Australian Conservation Foundation has pointed to
Australia's
own increasing radioactive waste problems. Research authorities
yesterday won
approval to build a new $US200 million nuclear power reactor in suburban
Sydney to replace an existing 40-year-old reactor.
Senator Hill has demanded that the Australian Nuclear Science and
Technology
Organisation first reach an agreement with the surrounding community,
disturbed by a series of potentially dangerous incidents in recent
months.
Details of the Pangea proposal are online at:
http://www.uic.com.au/Pangea.htm
-------------------------------------------------------
RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at
http://www.mail-archive.com/
To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body
of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce
This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission
from the
copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under
the "fair
use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further
without
permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/
