Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Protest Against Approval of Second Reactor for Sydney

Tongmaster | 08.12.2005 03:11 | Analysis | Health | World

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

No!
No!


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)

Tongmaster

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech