Media release: Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam, Robin Chapple MLC
The state government's review of uranium mining regulation in WA has vindicated calls for a public inquiry into the industry.
The Australian Greens spokesperson on nuclear policy, Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam, said an independent report commissioned by the Department of Mines and Petroleum revealed serious flaws in the WA’s uranium mining regulations.
“The review identified regulatory holes in terms of openness and transparency, risk-based assessment – particularly in environmental health, mine worker safety, relevant training, and community consultation. These are serious problems - this is a wakeup to the WA Government on the overwhelming down-sides of uranium mining.”
“The Report recommends more staff for the Department as current staff levels and skills are inadequate for interagency meetings, media and community engagement. This indicates that the Department has been stretched to the limit when reviewing uranium mining matters, and that is profoundly troubling. This is not an industry where near enough is safe enough.”
Greens MLC for the Mining and Pastoral region Robin Chapple said the flaws identified in the report are only part of the problem with uranium mining.
“The report is based on the assumption that it is economical to mine and extract uranium at this time. With the current uranium price so low, and with significant markets phasing out nuclear power or reactors in shut down mode, the global market has taken a huge hit. That is why BHP is going slow on Yeelirrie and Cameco/Mitsubishi on Kintyre, leaving Toro's troubled and uneconomic project as the front runner. This is a company with no proven experience of operating a mine, sitting on a small low-grade deposit hosted in difficult calcrete geology.”
"Premier Barnett still has time to subject this industry to a thorough commission of inquiry," Mr Chapple concluded.
Media Release, Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam, Robin Chapple MLC.
Toro Energy’s bid to mine uranium at Wiluna has raised a series of unanswered questions, the Australian Greens warned today.
In his submission to the Environmental Protection Authority, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam identified a several alarming holes in company’s impact assessment of the proposed mine.
“Only the first iteration of this project is being assessed. This project should not proceed until there is a full public inquiry as provided for under the Act into the wider environmental and public health consequences of commercial uranium mining in WA, and full disclosure by the company as to the real scope of the project. This company has multiple targets on dozens of tenements across the north-east goldfields.”
Senator Ludlam said Toro’s application was startlingly incomplete.
“The company does not yet know from where it plans to source 35 million tonnes of groundwater over the proposed 14 year life of the mine. It does not yet have a coherent proposal for transporting the radioactive concentrate thousands of kilometres to the port of Darwin. Toro has not yet undertaken a formal assessment of security risks, despite acknowledging potentially high risks in the transport phase, and there has been no high volume air sampling for much of the 2010 sampling period.
“A formal agreement with Aboriginal Traditional Owners has not been signed and the mandatory heritage mapping survey has not yet been completed.
“Toro has not revealed estimates of future mine closure liability and has not submitted a final rehabilitation plan. This is remarkable given the company intends for post-closure liability to pass to Australian taxpayers only 10 years after mining ceases, though the consequences of the mine will endure for many centuries.”
Greens WA member for the mining and pastoral region Robin Chapple MLC said the “original EIS in March 1981 of the failed Lake Way project identified the need to build a new bore field for the Town of Wiluna as the water draw done would have posed a risk to the community. There is no such commitment or acknowledgment in the current referral relating to water drawdown or contamination”.
Senator Ludlam said it is ridiculous that the EPA is still precluded from considering the wider consequences of uranium exports - and restricted to assessing only the domestic impacts of the project.
“Australia’s general approach involves approving exports of this material while refusing any liability for the risks inherent in fissioning the product in reactors, let alone contemplating the fact our uranium exports facilitate diversion of other sources into nuclear weapons production.
“If the events following the triple-meltdown in Japan have taught us anything, it is that the calculated ignorance of Australian policy makers as to the consequences of this trade is no longer supported by the majority of Australians, and should be brought within the remit of the EPA.”
