If the Chapman property is a pastoral lease then aboriginal groups have no legal basis to call it 'their' land. If they can garner enough political support however the facility might have to go to Woomera area on defence forces land.

Note this facility is for hospital gloves and the like stored above ground. I presume the canisters of vitrified material stored in a shed at Lucas Heights will go an underground facility if it is ever built. Note the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission whose report comes out May 6 has recommended a high level repository for SA. That high level site might have to be near Woomera which is the other side of Lake Torrens from the proposed intermediate level facility.

That's if high level waste ever eventuates. Australia is a coal addicted country and forces like indigenous opposition are helping keep it that way.

The writer is an anti-nuclear political campaigner. Can anyone take these objections seriously?

As a Geologist and Nuclear energy Advocate I have been trying to get a repository site established. What is proposed for this site (near the Torrens Hinge Zone) a major fracture zone is waste from Hospitals etc. - low level waste that currently is stored in 44 gallon (is that 200 litre) drums at the site of use. These are not gloves but radioactive isotopes with a short half life.

However what Australia needs for so many reasons is a high level waste dump to keep high level waste from being stored in politically unstable countries. Backed by the UN this would be a international repository.

Now my idea is that this should be established in the Kimba area, west of Port Augusta, but more importantly NW of Whyalla, a deep water port. Just north of Kimba is a series of very stable granites ideal for an underground repository. Remote as well. Relatively close to the intercontinental railway line for transport.

Regards,

GoM wouldn't it be easier just to move everything a bit bit further north to Woomera? No NIMBY problems. I recall a Kimba resident had a meltdown when interviewed on ABC TV which seems to have silenced locals in favour of a facility. A geologist whose name I forget suggested using Challenger mine inside the Woomera zone. That's for a high level facility with a hole already dug plus a restricted access road and surface buildings. Maybe high and intermediate level could be combined if the Chapman property doesn't work out.

Tasmania on the Torrens needs some industry.

Surely we can do better than arrive at a solution that at face value, just seems to line the pockets of a politician?

Why, there are uninhabited Islands to our west, that are still hot from atomic tests? Yet have some safe spots where this stuff could go, without doing any additional harm?

Geologically stable granite sounds ideal?
Alan B.