Radioactive Coast

Caboolture, come for the scenery...

Stay for the uranium enrichment plant

Company's nuclear plans 'shock' Garrett

The Federal Opposition says the Government should rule out uranium enrichment facilities for Australia.

The ABC's investigative unit has uncovered a private company's plan to present a development proposal for an enrichment plant to the Government.

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane says he has not been approached, but would not rule out discussing such a proposal.

Labor's environment spokesman Peter Garrett told ABC Radio's AM program that any talks between the Government and the company should be made public.

"This is genuinely shocking and alarming news," he said.

"[It] raises such a high number of very serious questions about what the Howard Government's plans are for the nuclear industry in Australia."

Meanwhile, Wilderness Society nuclear campaign coordinator Imogen Zethoven says nuclear power is not a path to go down and the Federal Government needs to be more open about any potential plans.

"Uranium enrichment is a very, very bad idea," she said.

"It's not something that Australia should be embracing - it's very polluting and it produces large volumes of waste.

"The Australian Government should be coming out saying what it's planning to do and then the people can respond in an informed way."

Two sites have been mooted as possible locations for the facility - one at Caboolture north of Brisbane in Queensland and the other at Port Pirie north of Adelaide in South Australia.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie says building a plant in a fast-growing region like Caboolture is a dangerous and crazy idea.

"Queenslanders would vote overwhelmingly against it," he said.

ABC

Vote for Howard again Australia, and you get nuclear. Simple as that. That's because it's being pushed by the same mineral magnates Howard's been giving a long blowjob to. You're going to get nuclear energy from a government with a one eyed commitment to ensuring former Liberal party members with interests in the nuke industry are allowed to conduct business in an environment of minimal regulation.

In the case of a uranium enrichment facility, there are two real show stoppers.

1) Uranium Hexafluoride storage and transportation. This is a radioactive and chemically hazardous gas that is a byproduct of enrichment. It will have to be stored/transported through Brisbane and the Sunny coast. Someone has an accident trucking it through Brisbane or at the site and we evacuate everyone downwind who isn't lucky enough to be dead. Let's hope they pick a site that is safe from brush fires.


That's a picture of the Hex storage yard at one site in the US. Something similar will be coming to a town near you maybe.

2) Depleted Uranium, another byproduct. This has to be stored in vast quantities and/or transported. DU is associated with birth defects and various nasty things in the reproductive cycle. You'll forgive me for not trusting an industry that can't even manage exporting lead without contaminating an entire town with that. DU burns quite nicely as well, a valuable property for armor-piercing ammo, which it's also used for. Again, lets hope there aren't any brush fires.

3) Probably what most voter would care about if they had the brains to figure it out. Land values in any shires even remotely connected to the nuke industry will collapse overnight.

4) Enriching uranium is a highly energy intensive process. Presumably we'll just burn more coal to get that energy.

So there it is. Howard refuses to consider any alternatives to the coal that is currently enriching his cronies that don't also enrich his cronies. It's nuclear or nothing with him. Go ahead and vote for him again.