Rambuchan
The Funky President
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It seems not everyone down under is in support. But there is BIG support elsewhere.Herald Sun said:HAWKE'S CASH FOR-FOR-WASTE IDEA
Gerard McManus
28sep05
AUSTRALIA could earn hundreds of millions of dollars a year if it followed Bob Hawke's suggestion that it become the world's nuclear waste dump, according to experts.
But political and environment groups moved quickly to block any prospect of an Australian nuclear waste repository.......
Read on: http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,16744916%5E662,00.html
As an interesting side note:BBC News said:AUSTRALIA REBUFFS NUCLEAR DUMP IDEA
World: Asia-Pacific
Tuesday, December 8, 1998 Published at 18:03 GMT
Australia should consider a plan to become the world's nuclear dumping ground, a top adviser to US President Bill Clinton has said.
Special envoy Robert Gallucci says Australia's geography and political stability make it one of the few places on the globe suited for such a sensitive gatekeeping job.
But a spokeswoman for Australia's Industry and Resources Minister said Australia had no plans to become an international nuclear waste dump.
"Government policy is not to accept waste from other countries and there is no intention to change that," the spokeswoman said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
"Enormous benefits for the world"
In an interview with The Australian newspaper, Mr Galluci, an adviser on weapons of mass destruction, said the country was ideally placed to help the world solve the problem of where to store nuclear waste from bombs dismantled at the end of the Cold War.
"If Australia could appreciate the concept and decide it was in the national interest there would be enormous benefits for the world," Mr Gallucci told.
His comments are being tied to an American company called Pangea, which has been quietly promoting the idea of a nuclear waste dump in Australia for the past two years. Pangea's plans became public last week when a promotional film about Australia's qualities as a dump was leaked to environmental groups.
White House briefed
The video describes how billions of dollars could be spent building ports, railways and roads for the nuclear burial ground. Pangea says only Australia and Argentina have the stable geography and democratic politics to accommodate such a site. Mr Gallucci said the White House had been briefed on the proposal.
"I don't think the US government is officially aware, but there have been informal discussions about an approach to the Australian Government at various levels," he added.
Mr Gallucci said the plan would be a ''tremendous contribution to international security".
"I can't help but think that the economics would be very favorable for a commercial arrangement that involved addressing the needs of so many countries who do not have the geology for the long term storage of spent nuclear fuel or radioactive waste," he added.
'It's not our problem'
The opposition Labour Party leader, Kim Beazley, said it was up to countries which develop nuclear power to deal with the waste themselves.
The scheme also drew immediate protests from environmentalists.
Larry O'Loughin of the Australian Conservation Foundation said: "The government of Australia has only been around for 99 years.
"It is a very optimistic outlook to say Australia's going to have a stable political outlook for 200,000 years. That's just farcical."
Read on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/230221.stm
BBC News said:ANGER AT AUSTRALIAN NUCLEAR CARGO
Tuesday, 28 October, 2003, 12:03 GMT
Australia has dispatched its first shipment of used nuclear fuel to Europe in two years despite furious protests.
Five lorries crossed suburban Sydney in the dead of night to deliver 344 spent nuclear fuel rods to a French container ship, the Fret Moselle.
Once loaded, the ship then quickly left port before dawn, bound for France where the rods will be reprocessed.
Activists from the environmental group Greenpeace circled the ship in dinghies to condemn the shipment, saying it was fraught with danger.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3219631.stm