There is love for nuke dumps

By NICK CALACOURAS /320 words/8 November 2009/Northern Territory News/Sunday Territorian/NORTHT/1English/Copyright 2009 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved

RESIDENTS in Sweden actually fought to have a nuclear waste dump in their town, according to an environmental scientist.
Darwin-based environmental scientist Pamela Jones recently returned from a tour of the two nuclear waste dumps in the Swedish towns of Forsmark and Osterhamn -- similar to the facility expected to be built in the Territory.
She said the people in these municipalities voted on the issue before it was built -- and 80 per cent were in favour of the facility.
``The closer to the facility, the higher the vote was in favour of it,'' she said. ``They wanted to be close to this facility.''

Ms Jones said there was a strong anti-nuclear sentiment in Sweden in the 1980s, but that changed over time.
``I think it was probably because they have lived with nuclear power and waste facilities for so long. Over time, their attitudes changed,'' she said.
``(But in Australia) we know nothing. We are told nothing and what we don't know, we fear. I would like to see the discussion.''
Ms Jones said the town's people also appreciated the boost to the economy provided by these facilities.
``It was a great job to have. It was good for the town to have these jobs,'' she said.
Australia needs to build a waste facility by 2015, when spent nuclear fuel rods are returned from France.
The Federal Government said it would chose a site for the facility but has been sitting on a report since February that looked into the viability of four sites in the NT.
Labor went to the last election opposing the construction of a nuclear waste dump in the NT.
But it is yet to fulfil the pledge to repeal the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act, that allows the Government to force on a nuclear dump.

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