Responsibility overboard: the shocking record of the company shipping nuclear waste to Australia

Significant government resources are currently being thrown at advancing the assessment of three shortlisted sites in South Australia- one on Adnyamathanha country in the Flinders Ranges and two in the Kimba region of the Eyre Peninsula. The SA waste dump plan has caused great anxiety and stress for Traditional Owners and local community members near the sites.

Adnyamathanha Traditional Owner Regina McKenzie describes the Flinders Ranges as "arngurla yarta" (spiritual land). Upon receiving the 2016 Peter Rawlinson environment award, Regina said: "The proposed dumpsite contains thousands of Aboriginal artefacts. Our ancestors are buried there. We don't want a nuclear waste dump here on our country and worry that if the waste comes here it will harm our environment and muda (our lore, creation)."

Communities - including many of Regina's extended family - have campaigned for decades to stop uranium mining and nuclear waste dumps and to fight for compensation for people affected by nuclear bomb tests conducted in the 1950s and 1960s.

The nuclear chain is toxic from start to finish. As we move, albeit slowly, towards creation of long-term, sustainable and safer jobs in renewable industries there will be ongoing need ‒for many generations ‒to manage the radioactive materials already stockpiled around the world.

Instead of continuing with plans to greatly expand the production and export of radioactive medical isotopes from Lucas Heights, the federal government should start planning to replace the reactor with more benign technologies for scientific and medical applications. A recent conveyor beltbreakdown and two spills of radioactive material that affected workers in the past year highlight the risks and vulnerabilities inherent in this industry. Environment groups, trade union and health organisations have long called for an independent inquiry into the production, transport and management of radioactive waste in Australia that includes all key stakeholders. This is essential to take the discussion around intergenerational management out of the trenches and to the table.

Arthur Rorris from the South Coast Labour Council summarised it well in the lead up to the 2015 transport: "When a shipment of solarpanels comes through the port you don't see hundreds of cops blocking highways and a national security operation. Communities the world over want to see the back of the nuclear industry so we don't have to endure these unnecessary risks to public health, the environment and our national security."