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Sutherland Greens say No to Nuclear
27 November 2006
Sutherland Shire residents are the only people in Australia who know
what it’s like to live with a nuclear reactor! But if the
recommendations of the draft report of the Uranium Mining, Processing
and National Energy Review are adopted by the Federal government, many
more soon will.
“I joined the Greens when I moved to the Shire,” says Julie Simpson, who will contest the seat of Miranda in the March election. “I wanted to settle down and become part of the community, and this seemed the way to do it. It was only then that I really found out about the reactor at Lucas Heights and how it affects people. And now, with this push towards nuclear power, the Shire experience has become relevant for the whole of Australia.”
The Lucas Heights facility is not a nuclear power plant as proposed in the draft report. OPAL, their new reactor, will generate 20 megawatts of thermal power when operating at full capacity, requiring around 5 kilograms of low enriched uranium (source: the ANSTO website and media centre). It will produce low and intermediate grade radioactive waste.
A nuclear power plant of the kind currently operating in Britain will generate 1000 megawatts and require around 25 tonnes of low enriched uranium. The volume of waste produced will increase proportionately and include high grade radioactive waste. (source: The Role of Nuclear Power in a Low Carbon Economy: Paper 1, Sustainable Development Commission, United Kingdom, March 2006).
Then there is the question of contaminated air and water.
The draft report presents a scenario where twenty-five such plants will be operating and their waste stored in an underground facility that is likely to be built in the Northern Territory. The public has a right to know where the plants are going to be built and how and when their waste will be transported to the storage facility.
The Sutherland Greens unequivocally oppose the introduction of commercial nuclear power in Australia. The danger of climate change can only be met by research and investment in clean, renewable technologies, and by taking responsibility, as individuals and as a nation, for our full environmental impact.
Norm Dixon has lived in Woronora since 1936, before the original reactor was built at Lucas Heights. Norm remembers that “we were told in ’56 that there’d be no pollution outside the establishment – well, that wasn’t true! There were restrictions on goat and dairy milk production and the commercial growing of vegetables within 4.2 km of the reactor. There were all sorts of restrictions that have come to be ignored.”
“We don’t like it, we wish it wasn’t there,” says his wife Betty, who joined the burgeoning Greens party in the 1990s and is still an active member. “It’s something you’re always concerned about.”
“I joined the Greens when I moved to the Shire,” says Julie Simpson, who will contest the seat of Miranda in the March election. “I wanted to settle down and become part of the community, and this seemed the way to do it. It was only then that I really found out about the reactor at Lucas Heights and how it affects people. And now, with this push towards nuclear power, the Shire experience has become relevant for the whole of Australia.”
The Lucas Heights facility is not a nuclear power plant as proposed in the draft report. OPAL, their new reactor, will generate 20 megawatts of thermal power when operating at full capacity, requiring around 5 kilograms of low enriched uranium (source: the ANSTO website and media centre). It will produce low and intermediate grade radioactive waste.
A nuclear power plant of the kind currently operating in Britain will generate 1000 megawatts and require around 25 tonnes of low enriched uranium. The volume of waste produced will increase proportionately and include high grade radioactive waste. (source: The Role of Nuclear Power in a Low Carbon Economy: Paper 1, Sustainable Development Commission, United Kingdom, March 2006).
Then there is the question of contaminated air and water.
The draft report presents a scenario where twenty-five such plants will be operating and their waste stored in an underground facility that is likely to be built in the Northern Territory. The public has a right to know where the plants are going to be built and how and when their waste will be transported to the storage facility.
The Sutherland Greens unequivocally oppose the introduction of commercial nuclear power in Australia. The danger of climate change can only be met by research and investment in clean, renewable technologies, and by taking responsibility, as individuals and as a nation, for our full environmental impact.
Norm Dixon has lived in Woronora since 1936, before the original reactor was built at Lucas Heights. Norm remembers that “we were told in ’56 that there’d be no pollution outside the establishment – well, that wasn’t true! There were restrictions on goat and dairy milk production and the commercial growing of vegetables within 4.2 km of the reactor. There were all sorts of restrictions that have come to be ignored.”
“We don’t like it, we wish it wasn’t there,” says his wife Betty, who joined the burgeoning Greens party in the 1990s and is still an active member. “It’s something you’re always concerned about.”