Good morning ladies and gentlemen and thank you for the opportunity to be here today.
As recent reports have shown, there is enormous future potential for growth in nuclear power worldwide, both in response to escalating climate change and energy security concerns.
And with almost one-third of the world's uranium reserves located in Australia, our uranium industry has substantial potential to expand to meet a large proportion of this demand.
The Australian Government's policy is not to use nuclear power here in Australia but we can adopt a leadership position to ensure our uranium reserves are used to support those countries which wish to advance the use of uranium for peaceful purposes.
However, we have made it clear that we will not support development at any cost.
We will only allow exports of uranium from mines that have been approved by the respective state or territory government.
As such, I welcome the decision of the new Western Australian Government to allow uranium mining in that state, it opens up new opportunities for the industry.
We will also ensure there are stringent environmental controls on uranium mines, based on world's best practice.
We will only export uranium to countries which observe the Treaty on the Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and which are committed to non-proliferation and safeguards.
The Australian Government is also committed to strengthening occupational health and safety requirements for employees working at uranium mines.
It is this last element of our election commitments which I would like to deliver on today.
We have now achieved a very important milestone in implementing the Government's commitment to the safety and long-term wellbeing of uranium workers.
I am pleased to announce today that the Australian Government has committed more that $2 million towards a National Radiation Dose Register.
It is most fitting that I launch this key initiative focused on radiation dose collection at this conference of the prestigious Australasian Radiation Protection Society whose very objective is to promote radiation protection.
I sincerely thank the Society and the conference organisers for allowing me this opportunity.
The National Radiation Dose Register is an initiative of the Uranium Industry Framework.
It reflects a partnership between my Department, the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, industry, the South Australian and Northern Territory Governments, and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency.
The Dose Register will involve the collection, storage and auditing of radiological dose histories for uranium industry workers across the nation.
Initially the Dose Register will focus on uranium mining and exploration workers, but it could be extended to cover all workers exposed to radioactive substances.
By ensuring dose records are collected and stored on a national basis rather than the current jurisdictional-based system they can be comprehensively tracked when workers move from one site to another.
As such, we will be in a much better position to ensure workers are in compliance with radiological dose limits, and in so doing, ensure their long-term safety.
The Dose Register will:
- Ensure radiation dose records can be made available to individual workers at any time;
- Provide an assurance that records are maintained, and retrievable into the long term, including when companies cease to operate and when workers move between operations;
- Minimise the possibility of workers receiving a radiation dose above the annual limit by moving from one operation to another;
- Optimise and improve methodologies for the assessment of doses to workers; and
- Allow for the production of annual statistics showing industry sector trends and comparisons.
Anyone that knows anything of my background as a union official will know that I have a strong commitment to worker safety.
Nothing is more important in my mind.
That is why I am so pleased to be in a position to launch this project here today.
Let me also say that I am confident that radiation doses received by workers at Australian uranium mines are well within the established radiation dose limits and that our mining companies are operating on a world's best practice basis in this regard.
However, to provide greater assurance to uranium industry workers and the public at large, and also to definitively answer claims made by some opponents of the uranium industry that current radiation exposures are harming workers, the Government is now moving to establish this National Radiation Dose Register.
Construction of the Dose Register will be managed, tested and evaluated by ARPANSA, who I am sure you are all familiar with, and will involve a Steering Committee to oversee the project.
ARPANSA will seek stakeholder input and feedback to ensure the Dose Register accurately captures required data and produces useful information outputs.
Construction is due to be completed in late 2009.
The Dose Register is a National initiative and I would like to welcome participation by all states.
In closing, I am very pleased that this project is now underway and I thank you again for the opportunity to make this important announcement here with you today. I wish you well with your deliberations at the ARPS conference.