Amended second comment.

By: Ideflitch (Registered ) on 25-10-2007 00:37

I'm afraid I left out some of the article in my second comment. Here is the amended version. 
Sorry about that. 
 
"The railway passes near 
 
several bases, the biggest uranium deposits in 
 
the world and the mines at Olympic Dam 
 
(Roxby Downs), Beverley, Ranger and Honeymoon. 
 
Freightlink's main business now is 
 
transporting iron ore, manganese and uranium 
 
to Darwin for export. 
 
In June, 2006, just before Prime Minster John 
 
Howard set up a nuclear power inquiry, 
 
businessmen Hugh Morgan, Robert Champion 
 
de Crespigny and Ron Walker registered Australian 
 
Nuclear Energy. 
 
It later emerged they had discussed with Mr 
 
Howard a plan to build a nuclear plant near 
 
Port Augusta. The railway would take uranium 
 
ore to Darwin for export, enrichment and 
 
fabrication, and bring it back to Port Augusta 
 
as nuclear fuel for the reactor. The spent fuel 
 
would then go back by rail to Darwin for export, 
 
or return to the NT for disposal at a waste site. 
 
The only "suitable" sites for disposal of 
 
nuclear waste under federal government control 
 
are in the NT. If the Commonwealth takes 
 
control of as many as 80 Aboriginal communities 
 
through five-year leases in the name of 
 
protecting children, it will put vast land areas 
 
at the Federal Government's discretion. 
 
The Government has begun to repeal parts 
 
of its 1999 legislation prohibiting nuclear activities. 
 
But it is unlikely before the 2007 
 
election to say where or how Australian nuclear 
 
waste will be stored. 
 
The U.S., meanwhile, has more than 47,000 
 
tonnes of high-level nuclear waste to get rid 
 
of, because its new site at Yucca Mountain, 
 
Nevada, does not meet safety requirements. 
 
The controlling American interest in the railway 
 
indicates Australia will store American 
 
waste too. 
 
It takes more than the Ghan railway to 
 
connect the dots in an election year. A lot more 
 
is happening than Australians are being told." 
 
Dr Alison Broinowski is a former Australian diplomat 
 
and is now a visiting fellow at the Australian National 
 
University's Faculty of Asian Studies. Her latest book 
 
is Allied and Addicted.

» Report this comment to administrator