Proposed NT Nuclear Waste Dump Media Release: May 01, 2006 At least 300 submissions opposing a nuclear waste dump were sent by Territorians last week to ARPANSA, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. The national nuclear regulatory body was accepting (until April 28th) public comment on its 'Regulatory Draft Guidance' for the assessment of proposed sites for the dump. In addition to submissions from town councils, aboriginal organisations, environment and community groups , hundreds of Territorians signed letters objecting to the lack of public consultation in the site selection process so far. The letter calls on the Commonwealth Government to reduce its production of waste - by not granting an operating licence for the replacement reactor at Lucas Heights - rather than force that waste on the Territory. The sites currently scheduled to be assessed are Department of Defense land at Fisher's Ridge, near Katherine, and Mt. Everard and Hart's Range near Alice Springs. The 'Regulatory Draft Guidance' will be given to Parsons Brinckerhoff, a private company which has been awarded the contract for assessment. Objections to the dump have come from across the Territory. "The idea of spending taxpayer's money on a convoluted assessment process of the Fisher's Ridge site is ridiculous" said Vina Hornsby from Katherine. "The proposed site was inundated by the floods this month and is obviously inappropriate. Unless the Commonwealth wants to turn our rivers into its nuclear waste dump, they should take Fisher's Ridge off the list." Meanwhile, Senator Nigel Scullion has offered to 'bet anyone a beer' that the proposed site at Hart's Range will not be used, due, he says, to community opposition. "We welcome the news from Senator Scullion that community opposition is now being taken into account," said Nat Wasley, from Arid Lands Environment Centre Beyond Nuclear Initiative, Alice Springs. "If this is the case, this also discounts the Mt Everard site , where surrounding communities have also strongly stated their opposition. There has been no adequate consultation with any of the communities which the Commonwealth has decided could host the dump." The possibility of a community in the Northern Land Council district nominating a fourth alternative site further complicates the assessment process. "We need to know more about what process has led to this fourth site proposal," said Peter Robertson from the Environment Centre of the Northern Territory. "Have the residents and their neighbours been fully informed of the nature of the dump? Is it a case of the Commonwealth manipulating a situation of social and economic disadvantage for political purposes? Is it true that the government cannot meet this community's basic infrastructure needs without it agreeing to store radioactive waste?" Site assessment is scheduled to begin after ARPANSA have compiled a report from the public submissions. Contact: Vina Hornsby, Katherine No Dump Action Group, 08) 8972 3797 Natalia Wasley, Alice Springs Beyond Nuclear Initiative, 08) 8952 2011/ 0429 900 774 Peter Robertson, Environment Centre of the Northern Territory, 08) 8981 1984/ 0409 089 020 No Nuke Dump NT Arid Lands Environment Centre (ALEC) 39 Hartley St / po box 2796, Alice Springs, NT Australia 0871 ph: 08 8952 2011 mobile : 0429 900 774 email: natwasley@alec.org.au Battle won after 24 years of struggle By Stephanie Peatling July 15, 2004 The Federal Government's decision not to build a low-level nuclear waste dump near Woomera is a victory for local communities who refused to allow their state to become a national dumping ground, the South Australian Government says. "This is recognition that South Australia has done its bit for the nation," the Premier of South Australia, Mike Rann, said. "We've been the site of the Maralinga atomic bomb tests, which took decades to get cleaned up. It is a great day for our winemakers, our food growers, our tourism industry and all of those people living in those communities who did not want this waste trucked along their roads and see our state descend into a national dumping ground for the entire country's radioactive waste. "The decision was the end of a long battle by the South Australian Government and environmental, community and indigenous groups that began in 1980 when the first committee to co-ordinate policies for the management of radioactive waste was set up.

Billa Kilina is a 67,000 square kilometer region in South Australia named after one of the pastoral leases in the region. The region extends over the traditional country of the Kokatha people to the south and the Arabunna people to the north.
After six years of campaigning against the n-dump proposed for their beautiful desert country, this is an amazing victory which we should all acknowledge and celebrate!!!
“It might look barren and very scarce out that way, but to us Anangu people it’s very much part of our life.”

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WISDOM FROM THE OLDEST CULTURE IN THE WORLD

Opposition to National Radioactive Waste Repository being located at Billa Kalina, in Lake Eyre basin.
This is an extract of a very powerful statement from Kevin Buzzacott and the Arabunna People

We Arabunna People are outraged, fuming, that the government wants to dump its radioactive waste on this area it calls the Billa Kalina Region. WE OPPOSE THIS PROJECT OUTRIGHT! We are putting you on notice , directing you, telling you, "Do not dump that radioactive waste on any of our land. Do not turn Lake Eyre into a sacrificial area for the nuclear industry's poisonous waste. Do not keep exposing our people to the harmful radiation. Do not destroy another sacred site."

"In the past we were forced to leave our lands by the killing mobs who massacred our countrymen, our mothers and our little children. The racist system forced our Old People to leave so a few of us would survive. You see our lands as remote just like your principle of law terra nullius. This is not an uninhabited wasteland for your waste. It is our home. We became refugees but always maintained contact with our country. That is only temporary and now we need to have our land back, so we can look after it the proper way and heal ourselves. We plan to go back there and take away the evil. We have to go back whether the land has been poisoned or not. We've got nowhere else to go. Our life exists with our land. It is our foundation. It is our past, present and future.

Our people and our ancient country, Lake Eyre, are about to retaliate against this evil force, to stop us and our lands from being sacrificed. We will unleash energy and power that cannot be imagined by the human mind to stop this evil force. We are saddened that the foreigners to this land are still ignoring our rightful authority. There is a breakdown in communication and understanding. They don't understand what this Old Country and the people are saying. If those who are causing the troubles will not listen to our warnings, then we are peacefully asking them to leave our country, our people, and to go back to where they belong.

The time has come for all Australian people, if we are going to move forward, to do it without the Government, and to make our own governing bodies. We need to get rid of the way these things are done. Destroy this evil government. Dissolve this Parliament, the Crown. Dissolve it completely, it doesn't fit in this land. Discard this artificial economy and legislation of cruel evil projects. Discard this culture of death and worship of war and greed. We have to maintain our old values that have been tried and tested over thousands of years.

We can guide you in creating a culture based on peace making, caring and sharing, and healing the land and the people. There is too much at stake and we hold the key to survival. Listen to us and respect what you hear. Commit to peace not war. We are letting you know that we are doing this submission with very little resources. We do not receive any finance for this from ATSIC or the Land Council. It is done under extreme duress, even having to talk about and respond to these issues brings on for us a very big grieving and sorry business process because of its importance and its grave seriousness.

We are the people who can properly talk about the Law for this place, for this country. We are the ones able to speak and negotiate a peaceful process to resolve this sorry business of invoking death you have started. You expect us to frame our response in a scientific analytical way, but his is not possible because our people are so connected to the land. If we have to we will organise a meeting, under duress, of central and surrounding Peoples, all our Old People and Elders who have the authority and can vouch the importance of this country and the need to leave it alone.

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