Duly chastened by Crackcup's accusation of racism, I had a fourth look through his opening post.

>>I seem to sense a slightly brown odour wafting from your statement and I must remind you that a lot of non-Indigenous people work and reside in the Northern Territory,...these same people may ultimately be at risk as well as the Indigenous landowners and residents... none of us have any choice in determining what race or colour we are born to!<<

Nope. I will certainly plead no contest to dubious judgement in the sense-of-humour department, but frankly I still don't get it.

For one thing, it is a mystery to me how race features in the issues described, at all. Crackcup, are you suggesting that the reason this particular area was selected was because it is occupied by Aboriginal people?

Or is it - as I had originally perceived it to be - simply a standard-issue nimby rant?

It's in everyones backyards now, but deserves to live in Canberra, within the parliamentary cicrle. That way our politicians could demonstrate just how safe it is, and we could start to import our waste from overseas too, there being no safety issues involved at all.

I listened to the NT Minister expressing his concern
on the news. What he said made a lot of sense. There are
other places for storing nuclear waste - places that are
remote, have no infrastructure, roads, indigenous occupation,
air-strips, farms, and underground aquivers that supply
water to the local needs. The area suggested was in the
location of the South Australia and Western Australia border
region. The current area proposed is in native land areas,
cattle ranches, criss-crossed by roads and scattered with
multiple air-fields as well as being prolific in underground
water supplies. To locate nuclear waste storage in these
areas runs the risk of destroying the productive and
inhabited environment not to mention contaminating the
water supplies which extend for extreme distances underground.
Not a good move all round.

cont'd ...

One major contribution that the current government
can make to this nation is to legislate the NT
becoming an independent state with its own rights
of government equal to all the other states of Australia.
And free of federal control.

DreamOn:

If the site at Muckaty was chosen for its " Geological Stability" then I would suggest that that the Government has a very short memory as Tennant Creek (just down the road) was racked by a 7.5 Richter Scale Earthquake in 1988, I was living there at the time.....Geologically stable?

WmTrevor:

I do not dispute your statement regarding the half lives of Strontium 90 and Caesium 137 being in the vicinity of 28.8 and 30.07 years respectively, but I do wish to point out that once this waste repository is active, it will recieve "fresh" deposits on a very regular basis which will add a continuum to the half life theory, through to infinity ( or for how long the repository remains in business).

Pericles:

Yes, I certainly WAS suggesting that the particular area was selected
because it is predominantly inhabited by Indigenous persons!
The cunning representatives of the Government know only too well
how easy it is to wave dollar bills in front of them to get their attention and their vote....next best thing to filling them full of grog!

Lexi:

I suggested (if all else failed) then the Waste Facility be located at Maralinga simply because the area is already the most contaminated area in Australia and a still dangerous area...(and already has claimed many lives, but the Defence Department is unlikely to admit that!)

I would prefer that NO Nuclear WASTE FACILTY be established in Australia, but moral principles tell us that if we are mining Uranium and supplying it to foreign interests( purely for monetary gain) we have a responsibility to the world to ensure that the waste is disposed of safely, which unfortunately for us all, is in itself a misnomer, because to date there is NO SAFE way to store or dispose of Nuclear Waste,.....so why do we all use it?

When Cando wins the election, he could offer to store it at 10 Downing Street, the building his wife's family seems to own that has so upset Anna 'digemupandsellem' Bligh.

Maybe Cando could use his last tunnel failure, the Clem Jones Tunnel, to store the waste in?

After all, no one goes in there, so there is no risk, and it's underground, so must be totally safe, and there is a road system to the gates he could install at each end.

Best of all, no pesky Indigenous people trying to hunt food in there, so they won't be able to complain.

But if Bligh gets back, with her great regard for the environment, maybe she could plan to tip it all on the Great Barrier Reef, along with all the toxins from Gladstone Harbour?

I see the Commonwealth will benefit too, with their $5 a tonne surcharge, so, the more tonnes the merrier, I say.

Good for tourism too, with a rush of 'see the reef before Anna kills it' tours, which might help to save Paddy's airline from banruptcy as well.

It's wins all round, with all this waste.