I wonder if the Minister would be so blas� about the safety of the site if it was to be handed back to pastoralist mates or corporate benefactors? --- Trudy ================================================ ABC TV The 7:30 Report Transcript 1/05/00 Questions remain after Maralinga cleanup KERRY O'BRIEN: In March, this program examined the vexing issue of what to do with the legacy of Australia's nuclear past which has troubled governments for two decades. When the British left their atomic test site at Maralinga in South Australia in the late '60s, they declared the area clean. A royal commission in the '80s showed that was far from the case and it resulted in a $108 million cleanup paid jointly by Australia and Great Britain. That cleanup is now all but over but critics are still raising questions about the disposal of the deadly plutonium. Today, Industry Minister Senator Nick Minchin flanked by two senior scientists, hit back with a spirited defence of the project. Mike Sexton reports. JOHN LOY, AUSTRALIAN RADIATION & NUCLEAR SAFETY AGENCY: The three major sites on the Maralinga range have been cleared to the acceptable radiological criteria. MAN: Thank you very much, John. MIKE SEXTON: Two months ago, Industry and Science Minister Nick Minchin stood at ground zero at Maralinga and declared the $108 million cleanup of the former nuclear test site complete. In the weeks since, critics of the cleanup have emerged, questioning the way the project was handled. The Minister promised to look into the allegations and today came out fighting. NICK MINCHIN, INDUSTRY, SCIENCE & RESOURCES MINISTER: I do think the allegations, as false as they are, are a serious and adverse and gross reflection on the expertise and hard work of the team, both in my department and in the contractors who supervised this long and detailed rehabilitation. MIKE SEXTON: There were two parts of the cleanup. The first was the contaminated topsoil, which was bulldozed into holes the size of football fields and buried under clean earth. But the second and more contentious part was the treatment of old dumping grounds where the British left radioactive waste. JOHN LOY: There were pits where large amounts of debris from these minor trials, so-called minor trials, have been thrown into these deep pits. No-one was entirely sure what was in them. We knew some of the things that were in them, but no-one was completely sure. So the idea there was to sort of turn the whole thing into a huge piece of sort of glassy rock. MIKE SEXTON: This process is known as in situ vitrification and involves the pits being superheated to temperatures where the material melts into a block, thus containing the plutonium. At the time, it was touted as world's best practice. ALAN PARKINSON, NUCLEAR ENGINEER: With ISV you don't really need to bury it at all. What happens with ISV is that you immobilise the plutonium in hard rock and it's immobilised for what, a million years. You don't need to bury it at all. MIKE SEXTON: Alan Parkinson is a nuclear engineer with 40 years experience. In 1989, he was one of the original members of the committee that advised the Government on the cleanup. He believes ISV was the best option available. However, after three years of development and on the eve of the first ISV operations, a new company became involved at Maralinga. Gutteridge, Haskins and Davey had bought the privatised Australian Construction Services and assumed the role as project manager. Alan Parkinson questioned why a company with no experience in ISV would be given that job. His contract was terminated, although he has subsequently pursued action in the Industrial Relations Court. The ISV procedure continued without a problem until March of 1999, when, for no apparent reason, one of the pits exploded. NICK MINCHIN: Quite rightly, the contractor and their workforce were extremely concerned about continuing with that technique. There could well have been the risk of a death occurring as a result of continuing with the ISV technique. MIKE SEXTON: Instead of ISV, the material was exhumed from the pits and buried under five metres of soil. Once the ISV was abandoned and you went to the different system of exhuming the pit, you would have then known what was in the pit presumably if the material was exhumed. Does that rule out the possibility of another explosion? DR CAROLINE PERKINS, DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY, SCIENCE & RESOURCES: No, it wouldn't. The reason is that we don't know what the cause of the ISV explosion was. It's not conclusive that it was an explosive or a cylinder or anything. Our audit of the contractor's report showed that there was no clear cause for the explosion that had been identified. So with that sort of uncertainty, you couldn't be sure that, after sorting the material, putting it in purpose-built pods, you wouldn't have a similar explosion. MIKE SEXTON: The Minister says the burial of waste was done according to the Australian code of practice, albeit one designed for low-level waste, not for an old atomic test site. ALAN PARKINSON: Well, it's funny that the Minister and his advisers say "Yes, we could use the code," as they chose to and yet three of the five authors of that code say it was not intended to be used in this situation. NICK MINCHIN: Those guidelines were, nevertheless, followed, as I understand it, even though they set a standard that is probably superior and more rigorous. MIKE SEXTON: But not applicable, really? NICK MINCHIN: No, because they're meant to deal with -- we had the -- we could -- There was no reason for us to have to pay any attention to this other code because it deals with other situations, not the cleanup of a contaminated site. MIKE SEXTON: Alan Parkinson maintains that deep burial means 100 metres under the ground or in a concrete bunker beneath the earth. But Senator Minchin says the questions about Maralinga have now been answered and is moving towards returning the land to SA and eventually the original owners. ALAN PARKINSON: The little caption I had on the aerial photograph of Nevada test site said "Old test sites never die" and I'm quite convinced that eventually they will have to go back and do some more work at Maralinga. email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] � 2000 Australian Broadcasting Corporation -- _________________________________ Truth is a pathless land. --- Krishnamurti ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------ 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." 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