Critical Times

An international anti-nuclear campaigner visiting Canberra this week has warned Australia about the impact of the waste produced by uranium mining.

The advice comes ahead of next month’s national Labor Party conference, where the ALP will consider lifting its ban on new mines.

Kevin Kamps, from the United States-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service, says the waste produced by uranium mines in the US has had a great impact on the community.

“It’s having some of the greatest public health and environmental impacts because of the carelessness with which it’s disposed of,” he said.

“So it’s just dumped on the surface and it blows with the wind and it flows with the water and that is unfortunately the state of practice with uranium mining.”

Mr Kamps also says the search for storage sites for nuclear waste often targets the living areas of traditional inhabitants.

Last year the Federal Government passed legislation that could mean a nuclear waste facility will go ahead at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory, even though only some of the traditional owners agreed.

Mr Kamps says a similar situation occurred in the US state of Nevada.

“One of the parallels that is very apparent is that often times it’s politically vulnerable locations and even Indigenous people’s lands that are targeted for these waste dumps,” he said.

“So that same environmental injustice seems to be at play here in Australia with the proposed Commonwealth dump in the Northern Territory, again on the land of traditional owners.”