Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence. Can the minister confirm how Australia will safely dispose of nuclear waste from the new AUKUS submarines?

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question, and it is a very important question. As we have made clear, in the announcement of the optimal pathway by which Australia will acquire a nuclear-powered submarine capability that we made in March, part of that pathway is: to be accountable for the full nuclear cycle, including the disposal of the reactor at the end of its life. And the safe disposal of that has been an important commitment that we've made to the International Atomic Energy Agency, as part of making clear that Australia will meet its obligations under the non-proliferation treaty.

Now, we have made clear in our announcement that we will embark on a process by which we will determine how the place and means of disposal will be chosen. We have time to do that because, obviously, the first reactor that we would face needing to dispose of is not needing to be done for decades. But it is important that we get this process in place, and we will do so in the time frame that we've already articulated.