E&OE
Subject: transportation of radioactive waste
DAVID BEVAN: Well sometimes politics in South Australia glows white hot and usually it's got something to do with - well often it's got something to do with radioactivity.
Remember that Mike Rann, he had a big win in stopping a nuclear waste dump coming to South Australia. It went all the way to the High Court and he's been touting that ever since as one of his great victories.
Well it's back in the news again because there's a suggestion that the nuclear waste might end up in a place called Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory. Well how's it going to get there?
Well it might be trucked through South Australia and apparently there are councils in the Blue Ranges near Sydney, well they don't want it. They don't want it trucked through their area, that's going to be a nuclear free zone. So perhaps it will end up being trucked through the Riverland and some of this stuff is coming back to Australia from overseas.
Well is that going to come through the Port of Adelaide?
Martin Ferguson is the Federal Minister for Resources and Energy, we appreciate his time this morning. Good morning Minister Ferguson.
MARTIN FERGUSON: Good morning and thank you.
DAVID BEVAN: Can you tell our listeners, where are we in terms of this debate? Have you got a place to put it and will it come through South Australia?
MARTIN FERGUSON: We don't have a place to put it because the Greens are doing everything they can to frustrate the Senate, to undermine the capacity of the Australian nation to select a single national site to store our waste , which arises from our requirement to basically manufacture medical isotopes in Australia and half a million Australians per year in, terms of nuclear medicine, benefit from these isotopes.
DAVID BEVAN: And is that because a Labor Premier did everything he could to stop the previous government from having a nuclear waste dump in South Australia?
MARTIN FERGUSON: The truth is this process started in 1988. We will now get our waste back in 2014,/15. We as a nation want nuclear medicine. We manufacture it, therefore we have to store our waste.
There is no site. If I get the bill through the Senate and I have the support of the Coalition despite the endeavours by the Greens to frustrate our national requirements, there will then be a detailed process of consultation.
Firstly to determine whether or not a site volunteered - and so on a voluntary basis - meets the necessary scientific and regulatory requirements. If we then select an appropriate site, there are detailed processes to consult local communities in terms of the potential transportation of radioactive waste.
And I might also say it then requires a licence from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency to ensure that the transport arrangements fully comply with the existing code of practice.
DAVID BEVAN: Yeah. Is Muckaty Station the most likely place?
MARTIN FERGUSON: Time will tell.
DAVID BEVAN: [Laughs]
MARTIN FERGUSON: What happened in the previous government, the Howard Government, Muckaty was effectively ticked off. It was nominated by the Ngapa people.
The issue with that nomination accords with native title law is now being questioned in the Federal Court. I have indicated that as far as the current government is concerned, we will accept any determination of the Federal Court.
If the Muckaty nomination was to fall over then under the Act that I propose we'll then call for additional nominations of sites. Now let's be very clear; South Australia has a nuclear waste facility in Woomera.
So nuclear waste is regularly moved through South Australia to meet South Australian requirements in terms of state waste. I'd also say..
DAVID BEVAN: Are you saying Woomera could be back on the agenda?
MARTIN FERGUSON: No I said in terms of the movement of nuclear waste it already is moved through South Australia in terms of South Australian waste.
Can I also say that uranium yellow cake is regularly transported through South Australia, all the way up to the Port of Darwin right through the middle of Australia for export purposes.
DAVID BEVAN: But you would know that there's a vast difference between unprocessed yellow cake and spent fuel rods.
MARTIN FERGUSON: I totally accept that. We're talking about intermediate waste, Australia's waste and I might say South Australians get the benefit of the medical isotopes that arise from our nuclear facility at Lucas Heights.
DAVID BEVAN: As do the people of the Blue Mountains who don't want this to go through.
MARTIN FERGUSON: Correct. That's why I can assure you - firstly, I don't even have a site let alone consider a process to work out how I transport the waste.
You have to get a site, go through a detailed process to determine whether it is appropriate and then consider in consultation with local government and state and territory governments how we might transport our waste to that particular site.
DAVID BEVAN: Minister, do you think this is really much ado about nothing? It's - because as you say all sorts of radioactive waste is shipped around South Australia regularly.
Is there really nothing to worry about this stuff? It wouldn't even matter if it was put in South Australia as a final depository but the politics just gets in the way?
MARTIN FERGUSON: Look, it's about time we as a nation were mature enough to make hard decisions. We have radioactive waste because we want the benefit of nuclear medicine. We therefore manufacture it in Australia. We will store no other nation's waste but we do have a responsibility in accordance with international protocols to establish our own national waste repository.
I simply say to the Australian community we'll be very careful about this. Unlike the Greens, the Coalition and the Government accept we have to select this site and store our waste safely.
Today's newspaper article is built off the back of a misleading media release from the Greens who are consumed with building a membership base and donations out of running a scare campaign about medical isotopes and their manufacture in Australia.
DAVID BEVAN: Martin Ferguson, how can you keep talking about the Greens and ignore the question that we've put to you twice, and that is that Mike Rann, he went to the High Court and blocked this.
MARTIN FERGUSON: And so did a series of state and territory Coalition and Labor Governments in the past. I have now assumed this responsibility. It's now accepted nationally by the Coalition and the Labor Party, we must resolve this issue.
DAVID BEVAN: All right.
MARTIN FERGUSON: And we understand the need to select a single national site. When we do so we'll consult about how we move the waste to that site.
-ENDS