Update to yesterday's posting:
Tuesday, December 8, 1998 Published at 18:03 GMT - BBC
Australia should consider a plan to become the world's nuclear
dumping ground, a top adviser to US President Bill Clinton has
said.
Special envoy Robert Gallucci says Australia's geography and
political stability make it one of the few places on the globe suited
for such a sensitive gatekeeping job.
But a spokeswoman for Australia's Industry and Resources
Minister said Australia had no plans to become an international
nuclear waste dump.
"Government policy is not to accept waste from other countries and
there is no intention to change that," the spokeswoman said,
speaking on the condition of anonymity.
"Enormous benefits for the world"
In an interview with The Australian newspaper, Mr Galluci, an
adviser on weapons of mass destruction, said the country was
ideally placed to help the world solve the problem of where to store
nuclear waste from bombs dismantled at the end of the Cold War.
"If Australia could appreciate the concept and decide it was in the
national interest there would be enormous benefits for the world,"
Mr Gallucci told.
His comments are being tied to an American company called
Pangea, which has been quietly promoting the idea of a nuclear
waste dump in Australia for the past two years.
Pangea's plans became public last week when a promotional film
about Australia's qualities as a dump was leaked to environmental
groups.
White House briefed
The video describes how billions of dollars could be spent building
ports, railways and roads for the nuclear burial ground.
Pangea says only Australia and Argentina have the stable
geography and democratic politics to accommodate such a site.
Mr Gallucci said the White House had been briefed on the
proposal.
"I don't think the US government is officially aware, but there have
been informal discussions about an approach to the Australian
Government at various levels," he added.
Mr Gallucci said the plan would be a ''tremendous contribution to
international security".
"I can't help but think that the economics would be very favorable
for a commercial arrangement that involved addressing the needs of
so many countries who do not have the geology for the long term
storage of spent nuclear fuel or radioactive waste," he added.
'It's not our problem'
The opposition Labour Party leader, Kim Beazley, said it was up to
countries which develop nuclear power to deal with the waste
themselves.
The scheme also drew immediate protests from environmentalists.
Larry O'Loughin of the Australian Conservation Foundation said:
"The government of Australia has only been around for 99 years.
"It is a very optimistic outlook to say Australia's going to have a
stable political outlook for 200,000 years. That's just farcical."
Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205
"The object of opening the mind, as of opening
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
- G. K. Chesterton -
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html