AUSTRALIA: At 8:30 this morning, approximately 30 protestors gathered outside the Masonic Centre on Goulbourn St, prior to the commission meeting to deliberate over whether or not to approve a licence to the second reactor at Lucus Heights.

Local community groups, such as the Reactor Coalition and other concerned Sydney-siders turned out to voice their opposition to the approval of the reactor licence. The peaceful protest also included over a thousand signed hand prints from other residents opposing the second reactor.

The protest comes on top of breaking news that tonnes of Australian nuclear waste, currently stored in France, needs to be returned to Australia. A situation which neatly fits in with the Howard Governments current attempts to introduce laws that will allow it to dump waste in the Northern Territory, despite local and national opposition.

Some of the protesters expressed concern that the Howard government was not listening to the wishes of the Australian population as well as medical professionals who have warned against expanding the nuclear industry: Radioactive waste from nuclear power plants cannot be dealt with in a safe and effective way, a group of eminent doctors has warned.

As debate over the government's plans to force a nuclear waste dump on the Northern Territory continued in the Senate on Wednesday, the 18 doctors released a statement warning against the expansion of the nuclear industry. "Citing concerns that any expansion of nuclear power would increase the proliferation of nuclear weapons, increase the risk of nuclear terrorism and increase the risk of nuclear accidents, the doctors said the industry should not be encouraged."

Doctors warn against nuclear industry

Radioactive waste from nuclear power plants cannot be dealt with in a safe and effective way, a group of eminent doctors has warned.

As debate over the government's plans to force a nuclear waste dump on the Northern Territory continued in the Senate on Wednesday, the 18 doctors released a statement warning against the expansion of the nuclear industry.

Citing concerns that any expansion of nuclear power would increase the proliferation of nuclear weapons, increase the risk of nuclear terrorism and increase the risk of nuclear accidents, the doctors said the industry should not be encouraged.

"Calls for Australians to consider nuclear power for domestic use are unnecessary and counterproductive," they said.

"Jumping out of the climate change frying pan into the fire of increased nuclear risk would at best be swapping one set of serious problems for another, while setting back the work of implementing real, sustainable solutions to climate change."

Science Minister Brendan Nelson also has proposed a $1 million research study into a nuclear power industry for Australia.

The doctors said the issue of radioactive waste was insurmountable.

"The problem of nuclear waste is intractable, a burden irresponsibly imposed on countless future generations.

"No nation has in place a satisfactory plan to deal with the tens of tonnes of high-level radioactive waste produced by each nuclear power plant each year.

"No human institution has survived for the length of time necessary to safeguard this waste."

The Senate is debating two bills that will give the federal government power to override a range of laws, including any passed by the NT government, that might frustrate a nuclear waste dump there.

The move came after the government last year abandoned plans for a dump in South Australia following community protest.

The government will now canvass three sites on commonwealth land in the NT - Mount Everard and Harts Range near Alice Springs and Fishers Ridge, near Katherine.

The Australian Greens have suggested a number of amendments to the legislation, including preventing overseas nuclear waste making its way to Australia, reinstating the right of indigenous communities to veto a dump on sacred sites, and removing absolute ministerial power over where the dump will be.

The doctors, from a range of backgrounds at various universities across the country, released their statement through the Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW)