Residents oppose nuclear waste dump

Residents oppose nuclear waste dump

By Tony Iltis

HOBART — Residents of the suburb of New Town have reacted angrily to a state government proposal to store a cubic metre of radioactive waste under St Johns Park, adjacent to a child-care centre, a primary school and a nursing home.

The waste is from nuclear medicine, plus americium, a radioactive element used in smoke detectors. It is currently being held in a government building soon to be sold.

Health minister Peter McKay has said that living next to the waste would not worry him, prompting residents to suggest that his back yard would make a suitable alternative site.

Environment minister Peter Hodgman has conceded that the New Town site is not a safe option, and Hobart's deputy lord mayor, Pru Bonham, has been criticised by city councillors for her support for the proposed dump.

Iggy Kim from the Democratic Socialist Party and Everyone for a Nuclear Free Future said: "As we have been campaigning against uranium mining in Jabiluka, we have come across some people who ask why that is an important issue for Tasmania. This waste dump proposal answers that question. It shows that once uranium is dug up, it is a potential threat to everyone, everywhere."

From GLW issue 298