By Molly Wishart
SYDNEY — About 700 hundred people attended a rally at Menai, near the Lucas Heights reactor plant in southern Sydney, on March 26.
The main aim of the rally was to build support for the demand, initiated by the Sutherland Shire Council, for a royal commission to expose the lies and secrecy surrounding the federal government's plan to build a new reactor. Other groups involved in organising the rally were People Against a Nuclear Reactor, the Sutherland Environment Centre and Sydney People Against a New Nuclear Reactor.
Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja from the Australian Democrats told the rally about the Democrats' efforts to use parliament to push for a royal commission. However, these efforts depend on backing from the federal Labor Party, which refuses to do anything in support of its stated policy of opposing a new reactor in Lucas Heights or any other heavily populated region.
Jim Green from Green Left Weekly and a member of the Sutherland Shire Council's Nuclear Reactor Taskforce, also addressed the rally. Green gave the lie to the propaganda that a new reactor is essential to maintain jobs at the Lucas Heights plant operated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), pointing out that less than one-third of ANSTO's jobs at the plant depend on the reactor. Green argued that closure of the reactor and investment in alternative technologies such as cyclotrons would create a win-win situation for jobs and safety and dramatically reduce the generation of radioactive waste.
Green also discussed the issue of medical isotope supply, noting that the government has admitted beating up the argument that a new reactor is needed for isotope production. The government has backed away from its earlier rhetoric, he said, and now concedes that the debate over isotope supply options "has not been resolved satisfactorily".
The issue of isotope supply is of particular interest at the moment, Green said, because the Lucas Heights reactor is shut down for a routine four-month maintenance period. Contrary to ANSTO's claim that one-third of imported isotopes arrive late, Green presented research results to the rally which demonstrated that only 2% of international flights arrive more than two hours late to Sydney airport.
Other speakers were Genevieve Rankin, a Sutherland shire councillor who has been fighting to have the existing reactor closed for about 20 years; Sutherland mayor Ken McDonell; NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon; and paediatrician Dr Helen Caldicott.
Peter Garrett, president of the Australian Conservation Council, was unable to attend the rally but sent a message which read, in part, "The Government must address the real unanswered questions about this reactor before it continues with its push to construct. Questions like the design, the true cost, the safety impacts, the transport of materials, the future of the waste and — above all — the need for any new reactor. If the Government doesn't support the call for a Royal Commission into the reactor it can only be because they know that this project would not withstand genuine scrutiny."
A target of considerable comment and criticism at the rally was the Liberal MP Danna Vale, whose electorate covers the Lucas Heights plant. Vale has been a fanatical supporter of the reactor plant since the federal government's September 1997 decision to replace the existing reactor. This support sits uncomfortably with her earlier public statement that if the government planned a new reactor it should find "a suitable site in a safe and responsible location" rather than building it in the southern suburbs of Sydney.
Vale's capacity for back-flips has again been demonstrated with her timid and obedient withdrawal from the mandatory sentencing debate in recent weeks.
After the rally at Menai, a number of protesters embarked on a car cavalcade to a location near the ANSTO plant at Lucas Heights, where they established a tent city which they plan to maintain for a couple of days, perhaps longer.
Sutherland Council's case for a royal commission into the reactor plan can be found on the internet at <http://www.geocities.com/jimgreen3>.