Gilligan's Island nuclear waste solution

This is a follow up to a previous post titled "What To Do With Nuclear Waste"

Offshore dump safest nuclear waste option: Senator

Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell has defended the Coalition's decision to store nuclear waste from the Lucas Heights reactor on an off-shore island.

I find this a most extraordinarily stupid concept. Mainly because it goes against the main logical criteria for placement of a storage facility, as outlined in my original posting, which were:

• stable democratic government [no problem here]


• geologically stable [a small island is surely significantly less stable than the mainland, not to mention that the surrounding waters are full of life!]


• desolate and remote land that is relatively easy to secure [desolate and remote may be simple, but how to secure it 24/7? the middle of Australia is far more secure than the middle of the ocean]


• resources and ability to receive international support [not particularly relevant for domestic purposes]

The article goes onto quote the Minister as saying:

It's a decision that reflects the view that there's not a single state or territory in Australia that wants to have waste in their backyard.

While that is certainly true, I'm not sure how this proposition overcomes this problem ... after all, isn't every part of Australia our "backyard"? Aaahhh, but then the Government has set a precedent ... if the government can excise an island from our 'immigration zone' then why not excise it for any purpose it sees fit?

Oh well, at least they aren't planning to do a deal with Nauru to take our nuclear waste in return for dollars to bail them out of economic catastrophe (we've done it once after their lucrative phosphate mining ceased, and did it agin as part of the 'Pacific solution')!

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