Residents oppose new reactor
By Hillary Kent
SYDNEY — Environmental and residents' groups have condemned a federal government proposal to build a new nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in Sydney's rapidly growing southern suburbs. The new reactor would replace the existing 32-year-old HIFAR at a cost of around $200 million. Some reports suggest the new reactor might be three times the size of the present one.
Greenpeace has written to science and technology minister Ross Free demanding that an inquiry into the new reactor should first consider whether one is necessary at all. The existing facility produces nuclear materials mainly for medical and research purposes, but Greenpeace researcher Jean McSorley says there are non-nuclear alternatives for at least some of these applications.
The new reactor is also opposed by the Movement Against Uranium Mining, Friends of the Earth, the Australian Nuclear Free Zones Secretariat and the Environmental Youth Alliance. The proposal is madness, says federal MP Robert Tickner, whose seat of Hughes includes the Lucas Heights site.
With all the necessary infrastructure already in place, Lucas Heights is an inevitable choice for any new reactor, yet 50,000 people now live within five kilometres of the facility, with the number expected to reach 75,000 by the end of the century.
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), which administers Lucas Heights, dismisses safety concerns as ignorant hysteria. Yet ANSTO's claims for HIFAR's safety over the past 30 years are not true.
In 1978 alone, there were 544 reported accidents and incidents. Official figures for most other years are not available, but a 1986 report of the Lucas Heights Study Group showed that HIFAR has been plagued with problems since beginning operations in 1960.
ANSTO's distortion of HIFAR's safety record is symptomatic of its attitude to the public's "right to know", and is a further cause for concern. Heather Rice of the study group points out that the organisation has consistently neglected to inform residents and local councils about problems at Lucas Heights. Until 1986, anyone who released details of an accident at Lucas Heights was liable to 20 years' jail.
While this law has gone, ANSTO's secretive attitude remains. In 1990 a former medical officer alleged that sections of management at Lucas Heights had suppressed information about illnesses due to uranium dust. As recently as last April, an accident involving HIFAR was not reported to local councils despite ANSTO's promise that they would be kept informed. The priorities of the federal government must also be questioned. Aside from the cost of a two-year inquiry, the reactor itself would cost around $200 million. Meanwhile the government can find only $1 million for a scheme to educate and inform people about the importance of bio-diversity.