Hi Jim

As you would know - waste dumps are no longer the money spinner they were assumed to be by the pro-nuclear engineers lobby here in Australia. The US no longer has real plans to give Australia $Billions to store the world's (or just US?) nuclear waste.

Regards

Pete

I commend Pete on reminding us that that importing radioactive trash is in fact not likely to be a money-spinner for greedy Australians. It's a damn shame that it is only money considerations, and not moral ones, that will put the lid on that dangerous plan.
However, greed is not the only motivator to worry about. though that still exists in the minds of Australia's nuclear lobby.

The other big motivator is fear. That one will be used by that same nuclear lobby, to brainwash Australians into accepting ever more military installations into this country. South Australians may well be persuaded to accept the entire toxic nuclear chain under the guise of "defense"
And we can bet, as Dr Jim Green has shown, that the foulest part of that chain (though they're all foul) would be set up on Aboriginal land.

There's patently no nuclear war aimed at Aboriginal people, just huge misrepresentation of the facts, by the usual antinuclear activists?
The facts are, Aboriginal people would likely be subjected to more radiation, flying at high altitude, eating bananas, [which are mildly radioactive,] or chewing Brazil nuts, which contain minute levels of pure radium!
And they need to be advised to never ever to travel to Scotland, where stone buildings, mostly built from granite, have higher background radiation, [given the thorium content,] than normal background radiation; or indeed, any which would emanate from any dump! Even were you sat directly on top of it!
Aboriginal people remain free to refuse any or all use of their lands, or the billions that could flow from a, completely safe, deep underground, permanently dry, dump!
Dumps which possibly could be re-mined decades from now, for a resource that could be further reused, which in turn, would dramatically lower the half life and or the remnant toxicity, all while earning additional royalties?
What does the most harm, is patent misinformation and fear mongering, by the usual suspects, or antinuclear brigade; that might deprive Aboriginal people of millions, and all that depends on that!
Better housing, improved education and economic self sufficiency or virtually endless advantage/future prospects!
Rhrosty.

Hi Rhosty

Regarding your "...the billions that could flow from a, completely safe, deep underground, permanently dry, dump!"

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-level_radioactive_waste_management#Challenges_with_radioactive_waste_management:

"Hannes Alfvén, Nobel laureate in physics, described the as yet unsolved dilemma of high-level radioactive waste management: "The problem is how to keep radioactive waste in storage until it decays after hundreds of thousands of years. The geologic deposit must be absolutely reliable as the quantities of poison are tremendous. It is very difficult to satisfy these requirements for the simple reason that we have had no practical experience with such a long term project. Moreover permanently guarded storage requires a society with unprecedented stability."

Build it and they will come? Are you sure Australia taxpayers and South Australia are ready for your sure thing money spinner?

By what means will the money roll in?

Is Australia going to be the new technology loss leader?

Who can forget the money made from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository

"In 2008, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works found that failure to perform to contractual requirements could cost taxpayers up to $11 billion by 2020. In 2013 this estimate of taxpayer liability was raised to $21 billion...."

Looks like the real world - Political Reality - defeated engineers' hopes to spend public money.

Reprocessing high level nuclear waste is the only proven solution - but that also involves vast cost and proliferation (Plutonium in our Region) concerns for Australia.

Cheers

Pete

Even if such a waste dump could be kept safe for hundreds of years, the people there would have to tolerate the imposition of a village of maintenance workers, people coming and going, and its being a long-term security risk, with likely expansion of the dump as more waste needs to be stored, and possible threats from terrorists infiltrating the area.

And all for a measly "$12 million compensation package comprising roads, houses and scholarships." $12 million, forever ? That's it ?

As Muckaty Traditional Owner Kylie Sambo says, "I think that is a very, very stupid idea for us to sell our land to get better education and scholarships. As an Australian we should be already entitled to that."

Of course the people there are as entitled as any other Aboriginal people anywhere to government services, proper access roads, health and education facilities, and access to scholarships, in return for giving up so much of their land - presumably it won't be just a few acres.

Surely there's more to this story ?

Joe

In reply to Rhrosty
Where to start in dissecting his pro nuclear argument? Well - I doubt that Aborigines living on traditional land fly very often, particularly to Scotland, so I doubt that they are getting so much more radiation in that way.

Then there's the BANANA argument. In fact the low level radioactive potassium 40 found in bananas is managed by the body, is excreted, and the net result of accumulated radioactive potassium 40 is zero.

On the other hand, radioactive Strontium, Iodine, Cesium from nuclear reactor sources accumulate in the body and increase cancer risk. http://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com/2013/09/14/busting-the-nuclear-lobbys-lie-about-bananas-and-radiation/

The rest of Rhrosty's argument goes to the fantasy of $billions to be gained from hosting radioactive trash. (Why then, should it not be placed in areas populated by whiteys?)

Then on to the new fantasy pushed by the nuclear industry - the fantasy that this radioactive trash is really a valuable resource.