By Tom Flanagan Environmental organisations held a national phone hook-up on March 5 to discuss action against the Howard government's plans for open slather uranium mining. The discussion included people from the Northern Territory Environment Centre, various state conservation councils, Friends of the Earth, the Wilderness Society, Greenpeace and the Australian Conservation Foundation. Possible uranium mines include Jabiluka and Koongarra in the Kakadu region of the Northern Territory, Beverley and Honeymoon and areas to the east of Lake Eyre in South Australia, and Rudall River and Yuliri in Western Australia. Concerns exist over both the environmental impact of the mines themselves and the danger posed by nuclear power and nuclear waste, and the production of nuclear weapons. A particular concern for northern Australia is the prospect of nuclear reactors being built in geologically unstable areas in nearby Indonesia. The hook-up decided to draft a media statement, to gather and centralise information on the possible new mines and to call a National Day of Action on April 26, the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine.
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