{"id":1682,"date":"2011-07-22T10:07:46","date_gmt":"2011-07-22T00:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/?p=1682"},"modified":"2015-02-23T16:05:40","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T06:05:40","slug":"nuclear-waste-dump-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-tennant-creek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/nuclear-waste-dump-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-tennant-creek\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear waste dump in ‘the middle of nowhere’ – Tennant Creek"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the vitriolic anti-bush comments in relation to the live export ban\u00a0didn’t convince rural Australians that there is a sizeable slab of urban Australia who despise them (though urban residents\u00a0rely on rural residents for food & export income), then the recent\u00a0online forum comments<\/a>\u00a0regarding the planned nuclear waste dump near Tennant Creek, surely will.\u00a0 Discussions on the merits of the Muckaty station nuclear waste dump has also given voice to the racists who imply aboriginal people aren’t smart enough to figure out for themselves\u00a0that nuclear waste isn’t something they want in their backyard, at any price.<\/p>\n

Reading from the top down, nearly every second\u00a0forum comment reads like a list of anti-bush sentiment by inner city residents.\u00a0 Since the forum has closed,\u00a0\u00a0here’s a selection, with comments added:<\/p>\n

From someone who disparages the idea that an outback nuclear dump isn’t a good idea:\u00a0 “Currently this waste is being stored in suburbia. If it isn’t safe to store in the outback in isolation in a specially built facility, how come it has been stored in Australia’s larges city for decades?”<\/strong>\u00a0 If it has been ‘safely stored’ in suburbia for decades and it poses no threat, then the blindingly obvious question is:\u00a0 why bother moving it all the way to Tennant Creek, why not leave it exactly where it is, close to the source of creation?<\/p>\n

“In the middle of nowhere is the only place for nuclear dumps, plus geological factors I presume.”<\/strong>\u00a0 Thank you so much for describing inland Australia as ‘nowhere’, that’s just delightful.\u00a0 Descriptions such as ‘in the middle of nowhere’ are only ever made by\u00a0city-born Australians who think their throats are cut if they’re more than 30 minutes drive from the nearest patisserie selling baguettes instead of bread rolls and that ‘out west’ means Parramatta or Ipswich.\u00a0 To those who were born in the bush, cities are the most polluted places on earth and places of least significance.\u00a0 Remote Australia is the most pristine environment on the continent so it beggars belief that it is deemed a great idea to turn it into a dumping ground for the world’s most deadly, long-term dangerous,\u00a0waste.\u00a0 If you wanted to store nuclear waste in the part of Australia that is already the most polluted and of the least environmental significance, you’d leave it in the heart of Sydney.<\/p>\n

“Dude. Your cause is not trendy any more. There\u2019s too much scientific argument now for cleaner nuclear power production….\u00a0 It is also irresponsible to use simplistic emotive bullshit terms like “dump”.”<\/strong>\u00a0 Dude?\u00a0 Trendy?\u00a0 Yet ‘dump’ is not an acceptable term to use because it is ’emotive’?\u00a0 And there’s plenty of scientific argument against nuclear power.\u00a0 Germany is decommissioning nuclear power plants, and Japan will obviously be having a re-think.\u00a0\u00a0 Like polyester shirts, nuclear power\u00a0was developed in relatively recent times and is on the way out already.\u00a0 For good reasons.\u00a0 Nuclear power will only be 100% safe when mother nature is 100% predictable and human beings are 100% perfect.\u00a0 Doesn’t look like either of things will happen any time soon.<\/p>\n

And:\u00a0 “This is largely a case of NIMBY.”\u00a0 <\/strong>But the writer didn’t volunteer to have it stored in their own backyard.\u00a0 How\u00a0utterly predictable (NITBYE –\u00a0i.e. ‘not in their backyard either’).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The most suitable land is isolated and not actively used, and just about all land of that type is claimed by some Aboriginal group. And what happens when for each and every proposed site a bunch of Greenies go and scaremonger the traditional owners into opposing the plan? And what do you think would happen to the traditional owners who did support it if their identity was revealed?<\/strong>\u00a0It could be argued that the safest place, with regard to security, is in an area of high population where it is not a case of ‘out of sight and out of mind’ – rather there are thousands of local residents keeping a constant eye on the safe and secure management of the nuclear waste dump.\u00a0 Rather than in an isolated area where mismanagement cover-up would be all too easy. Scrutiny by the general public is far more secure than relying on honest management in the hands of a few.\u00a0 Regarding\u00a0‘not actively used’ and ‘just about all land of that type is claimed by some aboriginal group’ – by ‘unused’ I gather the writer means there’s no houses, roads, shops or vineyards.\u00a0 I presume this writer\u00a0would not approve of any kind of park (from riverside fringes to botanic gardens up to national parks and wilderness areas measuring thousands of square kilometres), and clearly they don’t recognise extensive cattle grazing as a ‘use’ either, let alone recognise that pristine, remote regions\u00a0are of significant environmental value, the native plants and animals are worth preserving and that traditional owner residence is actually a ‘use’ as well.\u00a0 As for:\u00a0\u00a0“what do you think would happen to the traditional owners who did support it if their identity was revealed?” – of course\u00a0the aboriginal community concerned\u00a0know exactly who is for and who is against the Muckaty Station nuclear waste dump.\u00a0 To suggest people have been able to keep their views secret merely indicates the writer’s ignorance of remote aboriginal communities.<\/p>\n

All-in-all a most depressing topic – to me the continuing suggestion that remote Australia is a great place for nuclear waste, sums up what Australians who believe it is a good idea, think of rural Australians, both white and black.<\/p>\n

The fact that the Muckaty station nuclear waste dump is being promoted by the Australian Labor Party, sums up how little they care for the minority groups who are the least well off in our society.\u00a0 So much for being a party for ‘workers’ and ‘battlers’.\u00a0 More like a city-based old boy’s club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the vitriolic anti-bush comments in relation to the live export ban\u00a0didn’t convince rural Australians that there is a sizeable slab of urban Australia who despise them (though urban residents\u00a0rely on rural residents for food & export income), then the recent\u00a0online forum comments\u00a0regarding the planned nuclear waste dump near Tennant Creek, surely will.\u00a0 Discussions on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,7,8,11],"tags":[176,179],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1682"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4502,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1682\/revisions\/4502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}