Australia rejects U.S. nuclear storage facility

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Friday March 5, 10:50 am Eastern Time

Australia rejects U.S. nuclear storage facility

CANBERRA, March 5 (Reuters) - Australia on Friday rejected a 
plan by a U.S. company to build a nuclear waste storage facility in 
its remote outback.  

The Australian government last week received a letter from U.S.-
based company Pangea outlining the proposal, a spokeswoman for 
Australian Industry, Science and Resources Minister Nick Minchin 
said.  

``We said, regardless of Pangea's view as to the suitability of 
Australia to host an international nuclear waste repository, the 
government has no intention of considering Pangea's proposal for 
such a project,'' the spokeswoman told Australian Associated 
Press.  

Australian Democrats and anti-nuclear campaigners have been 
urging the government to reject Pangea's proposal.

Pangea had cited Australia's geological stability and stable political 
environment when it proposed sending 75,000 tonnes of spent fuel 
or waste to be stored in the vast Australian outback.  

The Age newspaper in Melbourne reported on Friday that the U.S. 
company had submitted the written proposal seeking high-level 
government intervention.  

It was the latest development in the two-year effort by Pangea to 
convince Australia it had the world's best site for a nuclear waste 
dump, the newspaper said.  

Pangea wants to send 75,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel or waste 
from reprocessing to the proposed repository, which would cost $6 
billion to set up, $450 million a year to operate, it said. It would 
also add about one percent to Australian GNP, the newspaper 
quoted the company as saying. 

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 -
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