Australia to dump nuclear waste on tribal ground?

Not for sacred ground

If it's not the UK sending their hazardous waste to Brazil, then it's 'toxic ships' being sent to India for dismantlement. However, Australia seems to have topped all of that, by announcing plans to build Australia's first nuclear waste dump on Aboriginal land.

Unsurprisingly the controversial plans have been met with anger and dismay, as the government has identified a remote cattle station north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory as a likely site for the depot. However, ministers have said it will not be built if landowners oppose it, causing deep divisions in the area's indigenous communities.

The proposed site, Muckaty Station is an isolated property and is found 120km from Tenant Creek. While many groups in the area are worried about the health and environmental implications of dumping nuclear waste in the ground, other Aboriginal groups have offered to sell the land for a mere $11 million (GBP£7.3m) angering many.

It appears that the age-old clash of money and doing the right thing is coming to a head in Australia, and for the local communities the though of nuclear waste on the their sacred grounds is extremely insulting. As such, a public meeting is set to be held at Tennant Creek, which is an old gold-mining town south of Darwin.

Extremely divisive

Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has said that the controversial plans have been a major source of fractured relations in the region.

"It already risks setting families against families and the government has not bothered to try to and bring the whole community along. They have picked off a handful of people, got some signatures and now they are going to try and force it through," Mr Ludlum said.

"We have had a small 10 MW research reactor operating in Australia since the late fifties. The industry and the government never bothered to investigate waste storage scenarios.

"So, now in 2010 they are now desperately casting around for an Aboriginal community who will take that legacy waste from the last few decades," he said.

It's not just the nuclear material that is a concern; earthquakes are frequent in the region and many believe that the site could be potentially damaged in during a seismic episode. Many believe the waste should be stored at the country's nuclear facility outside Sydney.

That would make more sense...

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Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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