Coober Pedy says no to radioactive waste dump
BY KATE DECKLEMAN
COOBER PEDY — The Coober Pedy Against Radioactive Waste Repository Committee and the local Aboriginal women elders, the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, joined together to demonstrate at the annual Opal Festival Parade on April 22 against a national radioactive waste dump planned for South Australia.
The residents of Coober Pedy have been fighting the federal government's plan for more than two years; the local council has declared the town a nuclear-free zone.
The combined float featured two battered old rainwater tanks turned into works of art by local sign-writers Colin Abdollahi and Werner Deckelman. It is the third consecutive year that the groups have had an anti-dump float in the parade.
The tanks will be installed at the Mount Clarence Station, owned by local Aboriginal people, so they can be seen by drivers travelling the Stuart Highway.
The chairperson of the Coober Pedy Against Radioactive Waste Repository Committee, Sharon Drage, said, "We all hope the artwork will attract support [for the campaign] against the dump. The dump is only really needed for the waste from the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, but to transport radioactive waste over 2000 kilometres is ludicrous and very dangerous."
A Greenpeace survey has shown that 86% of South Australians oppose the dump.