Plantagenet come on mate, no straw men please.

We have so much totally useless land area, political stability, & the necessary infrastructure to be able to transport & store waste more effectively than anywhere else. It makes real sense to dump the residue, now depleted, back in the holes it came out of. What is more obvious.

That defense force guarding the place is another red herring. I'm sure you know our defense force are not allowed to do anything nasty to anyone in Oz ever. It was not such in my day, but our pongos might as well be totally disarmed while in Oz today.

One very sore point with my son was weekend duty onboard ship, when their instructions were to make no contact with any intruder, but to call the civilian police.

As for anyone sending extremely valuable Plutonium to be dumped, that is really covered in straw. Anyone with the stuff legitimately, will be using it to drive power houses, or bombs, not dumping it in Oz or anywhere else.

Dr Caldicott is delusional. She thinks she is the smartest kid in the room which is common with many types of mental illness. I do feel sorry for her but really you people using her for this nonsense should be ashamed of yourselves.

Caldicott will soon stand before a judge, and find if impossible to lie to Her.

Pete; FBR, can use and reuse this material?
Meaning, the half life can be reduced to just 300 years, and not the hundreds of thousands as some like to claim!
Surely we are smart enough to store this material for 300 years?
Even so, my preference for us, would be cheaper than coal thorium power, which just doesn't produce said toxic waste, but something far less toxic, and eminently suitable as long-life space batteries!
In inverse proportion, thorium reactors consume as much as 95% of their fuel, meaning, even such waste as is produced, is far less than in the oxide reaction.
And a very economical, reasonably safe option, until we perfect fusion power!
Power that will likely allow us to migrate to the stars.
Notice how adroitly the antinuclear brigade avoid discussing thorium power!
Arguably, because their par for the course, anti development propaganda, just can't be applied to cheaper than coal, thorium power.
And a reasonably safe option until we develop Ajay's viable fusion power, which could be the cheapest ever!?
And this is just the sort of almost endless ultra cheap energy, we need to allow us to migrate to the stars/depopulate the planet!
Already we know there are about a million or more earth type planets, orbiting similar suns, in our own galaxy!
It's only a matter of time before we develop the warp engine, we need to cover such vast distances.
And cover said distances, in just weeks rather than centuries?
Yes, nuclear weapons are indeed the worst and most powerful mas murdering weapons ever invented; and the sooner we convert this material solely to peaceful purpose, the better!
Yes, there could be some dangerous unintended consequences, safely disposing of the waste!
But whatever those consequences, they pale into complete insignificance, with the harm that could be done to us and the planet, if this material is instead, used as weapons of war.
Time to join in with the more sensible advocates, and just get all these weapons dismantled, and the material, used up in peaceful purpose, nuclear reactors!
Rhrosty.

Have to agree with rhosty, I too would love to see fusion power developed more. Renewables are great and I'm a big supporter of it but I do realise we can't power the country solely on renewable and we need something reliable during unfavourable conditions.

My ideal solution would be solar panels to every house in Australia with small self contained nuke power plants for state wide power and for remote communities.

Yes Rhrosty and nowhereman

Australia should be the test site for all nuclear technologies that have not been trialled on a VIABLE BUSINESS basis anywhere. Who can argue the economics of barely tested inventions?

After all - these are $multi-billion dollar experiments serving a thin market in a country with a very low nuclear knowledge base.

Taxpayers will love to fund it, engineers will love the money, and property owners will love to host these experiments.

Ho bout throwing in CARBON CAPTURE while we're being ridiculous?

And warp-speed intergalactic travel is an equally challenging, and may I say viable, business proposition. Lets dream the dream.

Don't get me wrong about nuclear weapons - see my latest blog post which I updated yesterday http://gentleseas.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/why-would-india-want-to-develop-10000.html

Pete