Conservation SA, the state's peak environment body, along with national environment groups Friends of the Earth Australia and the Australian Conservation Foundation, have today lodged a submission with the federal Department of Industry, Innovation and Science calling on the federal government to abandon any plan for a national nuclear waste dump in Kimba.

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill made the announcement at a public forum at Victor Harbour this week, and pronounced the proposal to import 138,000 tonnes of high-level nuclear and 390,000 cubic metres of intermediate-level nuclear waste level waste from international nuclear states 'dead'.

This announcement has been welcomed by traditional owners, communities and environmental groups who have been opposed to the plans since the beginning of the South Australian Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle which began in early 2015. 

Friends of the Earth Australia is today releasing a detailed report on the National Radioactive Waste Management Act 2012 (NRWMA). The report ‒ written by Monash University fifth-year law student Amanda Ngo ‒ comes against the backdrop of the federal government's targeting of a site near Hawker in SA's Flinders Ranges for a national radioactive waste store and repository.

Documents released by Friends of the Earth today reveal that:

• Taiwan will not pay SA to accept high-level nuclear waste if that requires investing in waste storage and disposal infrastructure.
  
  
• Taiwan would not send nuclear waste to Australia unless and until a repository is built and operating.
  
  
• Taiwan would not send nuclear waste to Australia in the face of widespread public opposition.

SA Premier Jay Weatherill's announcement that he plans to continue pursuing his nuclear waste dump plan is a great disappointment to many South Australians and especially to Indigenous people from across the state who said a clear 'no' to the proposal at the recent Citizens' Jury.

The Community Views Report released on Sunday, reflecting a statewide consultation process, found that 53 percent of respondents opposed the plan to import high-level nuclear waste while just 31 percent supported the plan. Over three-quarters of Aboriginal respondents opposed the plan.

Friends of the Earth Brisbane applauds the federal government decision to drop 5 sites, including one in Queensland, from its list of sites nominated to house national nuclear waste.  We now call on the government to remove the final site, Barndioota station, in SA from consideration and to drop the flawed site selection process immediately.

After announcing a list of 6 proposed sites in November, 2015, the federal government will reportedly  announce that a site in South Australia is the only site short-listed to house a new national nuclear waste repository.  The proposed site in Queensland, at OmanAma, near Inglewoood on the Darling Downs, and 4 other nominates sites in NSW, SA and NT are reported to have been dropped from the list.

Royal Commission vs Community Permission

MEDIA RELEASE, 17 December 2015

National and state environment groups have today released an assessment of the state Royal Commission into the nuclear industry in SA. The report – commissioned by Conservation SA, the Australian Conservation Foundation and Friends of the Earth Australia – looks at the Commission’s progress since its surprise unveiling by Premier Jay Weatherill ten months ago.

The report raises serious concerns about the Royal Commission, from the unrepresentative and unbalanced composition of the Expert Advisory Committee, conflicts of interest, the Royal Commission's unwillingness to correct factual errors, to a repeated pattern of pro-nuclear claims being uncritically accepted and promoted.

The SA Government has launched A Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel is the hope of garnering support for an expansion of the nuclear industry. The reference and the makeup of the commission and its experts are clearly biased towards expanding the industry. We believe this is an attempt to soften the public for the creation of a nuclear waste dump for high-level waste from overseas.

The Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA) is appalled by the Senate vote (Thursday 19 March) not to repeal the Commonwealth radioactive Waste Management Act -2005 (CRWMA).  Labor Senators voted not to repeal this act, despite it being one of their firm election promises.  Only the Greens voted to repeal it, on a day in the senate where such things as Alcopops Tax and Workchoices were more prominent and nuke waste dumps almost slipped totally under the radar.