Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I think the direction of some of Senator Rhiannon's questions, and probably one of the really vital links that the government and this particular minister missed when he put together his policy by simply cutting and pasting what the Howard government was up to on waste, is that the nuclear industry in Australia and around the world has a history of telling its host communities that it is safe. 'It's safe. It's safe. It's safe. Oh, no. Evacuate. Get out—because suddenly it's not safe.' We saw that most spectacularly in Japan 10 months ago but we have also seen it in Australia.

I am interested to note Senator Scullion advertising transport of radioactive concent­rates through Central Australia on the rail line. Senator Scullion is obviously very aware—because this is right in the middle of his electorate—of the copper concentrate spill that occurred north of Katherine last December when the rail line washed out. If there had been yellowcake in that transport, which is what BHP is proposing, they would still be working out how to clean it all up. We do not have the emergency services personnel or expertise to clean up if a two-kilometre-long set of rail cars with radioactive concentrate in them were washed out. The point that Senator Scullion raised about the material in question—the material which, it is proposed, will be going to this dump at Muckaty or wherever else—is, however, quite correct in that it is not particulate matter. It is not 44-gallon drums full of powder as is exported from uranium mines.

But I would like to pull the minister up on a couple of things he raised in his earlier remarks about the hundreds of sites around the country that currently exist in hospitals and universities. We hear anecdotes about filing cabinets and so on. The minister in the other place has frequently riffed on this theme as well. The minister added the caveat that it is not suggested, heaven forbid, that any of those particular sites are unsafe—otherwise they should not be operated—but I would like to know, firstly, how many of these sites there are. How many places are there around the country for storing radioactive waste of various categories that would notionally be carted across to a central waste dump?