No nuclear reactor!

Opposition to the Federal Government's proposed new nuclear reactor at 
Lucas Heights, in Sydney's southern suburbs, is growing in the lead up to a 
rally on March 26.

The Mayor of Sutherland Shire Council, Councillor Ken McDonell, said last 
week, "The momentum behind our call for an open and public inquiry to lift 
the cloak of secrecy that has shrouded this entire decision is now nation-
wide and the Federal Government will ignore it at its peril".

The President of the NSW Local Government Association, Clr Peter Woods, has 
also warned the Federal Government that councils across Sydney would 
support blockades of the site if construction went ahead in 2002.

Since the Government's decision to build a new nuclear reactor was 
announced in 1997, opposition has been building and no convincing arguments 
have been put in favour of the proposal.

The Government has argued that the reactor will provide much-needed medical 
isotopes for medical research as well as neutron scattering for the purpose 
of studying the structure of matter.

Greenpeace responded by saying that new discoveries in ways to produce 
medical isotopes (used in the treatment of cancer and other illnesses) mean 
funding a new nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights is uneconomic and 
unnecessary.

Research in the US has shown that particle accelerators known as cyclotrons 
can produce the isotopes using electricity instead of uranium at a fraction 
of the cost of a new reactor.

To produce the isotopes, only two or three cyclotrons would be needed at a 
cost of $16 million each, compared to the $300-$500 million to be spent on 
a new reactor.

The main concern about the reactor is the high-level radioactive waste that 
it produces. Lucas Heights already has a large store of nuclear waste — a 
nuclear waste dump right in the middle of Sydney's southern suburbs.

There have also been moves recently to establish a nuclear waste dump in 
outback Australia that would also be a dumping ground for other countries' 
nuclear waste.

Greens Senator Bob Brown said, "I am amazed that the Federal Government is 
daring to proceed with this proposal when it has absolutely no idea where 
the waste will eventually be dumped.

"It looks like suburban Sydney is set to be Australia's de facto nuclear 
waste dump for the next 50 years — an appalling state of affairs. Higher-
level nuclear waste must never be stored in urban areas", said Senator 
Brown.

Financial estimates for the new reactor are $286 million, however 
Sutherland Shire Council believes the construction cost will be well over 
$500 million, plus over $1 billion in on-going costs.

Added to this could be the cost of establishing a long-term nuclear waste 
repository in Australia.

The chair of Sutherland Shire Council's Nuclear Reactor Taskforce, Clr 
Genevieve Rankin, said "a public inquiry such as a Royal Commission is the 
only way we will get some honest answers about the approval process".

The ALP, the Greens, Sutherland Shire Council, the Australian Local 
Government Association, the NSW Local Government Association and the 
community have supported the call for a Royal Commission.