Anti-nuclear movement in Australia
Encyclopedia
Nuclear testing
, uranium mining
and export, and nuclear energy have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia has a long history. Its origins date back to the 1972–73 debate over French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the 1976–77 debate about uranium mining in Australia
.
Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established in the mid-1970s, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
(CANE), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth
and the Australian Conservation Foundation
. A setback came in 1983 when the newly elected Labor Government failed to implement its stated policy of stopping uranium mining. But by the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, and the costs of nuclear power
had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case. CANE disbanded itself in 1988.
About 2003, proponents of nuclear power advocated it as a solution to global warming
and the Australian government began taking an interest. Anti-nuclear
campaigners and some scientists in Australia emphasised that nuclear power could not significantly substitute for other power sources, and that uranium mining
itself could become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.
As of 2010, Australia has no nuclear power stations and the current Gillard Labor government
is opposed to nuclear power for Australia
. Australia has three operating uranium mines at Olympic Dam
(Roxby) and Beverley
- both in South Australia
's north - and at Ranger
in the Northern Territory. As of April 2009, construction has begun on South Australia's third uranium mine—the Honeymoon Uranium Mine
. Australia has no nuclear weapons.
In 1952 the Australian Government established the Rum Jungle Uranium Mine
85 kilometres south of Darwin. Local aboriginal communities were not consulted and the mine site became an environmental disaster.
Also in 1952, the Robert Menzies
Liberal
Government passed legislation, the "Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952", which allowed the British Government access to isolated parts of Australia to undertake atmospheric nuclear tests. These tests were mainly conducted at Maralinga
in South Australia between 1955 and 1963, but the full legal and political implications of the testing program took decades to emerge. The secrecy which surrounded the British testing program and the remoteness of the test sites meant that public awareness of the risks involved grew very slowly.
But as the "Ban the Bomb" movement gathered momentum in Western societies throughout the 1950s, so too did opposition to the British tests in Australia. An opinion poll taken in 1957 showed 49 per cent of the Australian public were opposed to the tests and only 39 per cent in favour. In 1964, Peace Marches which featured "Ban the bomb" placards, were held in several Australian capital cities.
In 1969, a 500 MW nuclear power plant was proposed for the Jervis Bay Territory
, 200 km south of Sydney
. A local opposition campaign began, and the South Coast Trades and Labour Council (covering workers in the region) announced that it would refuse to build the reactor. Some environmental studies and site works were completed, and two rounds of tenders were called and evaluated, but in 1971 the Australian government decided not to proceed with the project, citing economic reasons.
The 1972–73 debate over French nuclear testing in the Pacific mobilised several groups, including some trade unions. In 1972 the International Court of Justice
in a case launched by Australia and New Zealand, ordered that the French cease atmospheric nuclear testing at Mururoa atoll. In 1974 and 1975 this concern came to focus on uranium mining in Australia and several Friends of the Earth
groups were formed. The Australian Conservation Foundation
also began voicing concern about uranium mining and supporting the activities of the grass-roots organisations. Concern about the environmental effects of uranium mining was a significant factor and poor management of waste at an early uranium mine, Rum Jungle
, led it to become a significant pollution problem in the 1970s. The Australian anti-nuclear movement also acquired initial impetus from various individuals who publicly voiced concern about the nuclear option, such as nuclear scientists Richard Temple and Rob Robotham, and poets Dorothy Green and Judith Wright
.
The years 1976 and 1977 saw uranium mining become a major political issue, with the Ranger Inquiry (Fox) report
opening up a public debate about uranium mining. Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining (founded in 1976) and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
(formed in South Australia in 1976), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth (which came to Australia in 1975) and the Australian Conservation Foundation (formed in 1975).
In November and December 1976, 7,000 people marched through the streets of Australian cities, protesting against uranium mining. The Uranium Moratorium group was formed and it called for a five-year moritorium on uranium mining. In April 1977 the first national demonstration co-ordinated by the Uranium Moratorium brought around 15,000 demonstrators into the streets of Melbourne, 5,000 in Sydney, and smaller numbers elsewhere. A National signature campaign attracted over 250,000 signatures calling for a five-year moratorium. In August, another demonstration brought 50,000 people out nationally and the opposition to uranium mining looked like a potential political force.
In 1977, the Australian Labor Party
(ALP) national conference passed a motion in favour of an indefinite moratorium on uranium mining, and the anti-nuclear movement acted to support the Labor Party and help it regain office. However, a setback for the movement occurred in 1982 when another ALP conference overturned its anti-uranium policy in favour of a "one mine policy". After the ALP won power in 1983, the 1984 ALP conference voted in favour of a "Three mine policy
". This referred to the then three existing uranium mines in Australia, Nabarlek
, Ranger
and Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam
, and articulated ALP support for pre-existing mines and contracts, but opposition to any new mining.
was created, surrounding but not including the Ranger uranium mine. Tension between mining and conservation values led to long running controversy around mining in the Park region.
The two themes for the 1980 Hiroshima Day march and rally in Sydney, sponsored by the Movement Against Uranium Mining (MAUM), were: "Keep uranium in the ground" and "No to nuclear war." Later that year, the Sydney city council officially proclaimed Sydney nuclear-free, in an action similar to that taken by many other local councils throughout Australia.
In the 1980s, academic critics (such as Jim Falk
) discussed the "deadly connection" between uranium mining, nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons, linking Australia's nuclear policy to nuclear proliferation
and the "plutonium economy".
On Palm Sunday 1982, an estimated 100,000 Australians participated in anti-nuclear rallies in the nation's biggest cities. Growing year by year, the rallies drew 350,000 participants in 1985. The movement focused on halting Australia's uranium mining and exports, abolishing nuclear weapons, removing foreign military bases from Australia's soil, and creating a nuclear-free Pacific. Public opinion surveys found that about half of Australians opposed uranium mining and export, as well as the visits of U.S. nuclear warships, that 72 percent thought the use of nuclear weapons could never be justified, and that 80 percent favoured building a nuclear-free world.
The Nuclear Disarmament Party
won a Senate seat in 1984, but soon faded from the political scene. The years of the Hawke-Keating ALP governments (1983–1996) were characterised by an "uneasy standoff in the uranium debate". The ALP acknowledged community feeling against uranium mining but was reluctant to move against the industry.
The 1986 Palm Sunday anti-nuclear rallies drew 250,000 people. In Melbourne, the seamen's union boycotted the arrival of foreign nuclear warships.
Australia's only nuclear energy education facility, the former School of Nuclear Engineering at the University of New South Wales
, closed in 1986.
By the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, and the costs of nuclear power had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case. The Campaign Against Nuclear Energy disbanded itself in 1988, two years after the Chernobyl Disaster
.
The government policy preventing new uranium mines continued into the 1990s, despite occasional reviews and debate. Following protest marches in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane during 1998, a proposed mine at Jabiluka
was blocked.
Also in 1998, there was a proposal from an international consortium, Pangea Resources
, to establish a nuclear waste dump in Western Australia. The plan, to store 20 per cent of the world's spent nuclear fuel and weapons material, was "publicly condemned and abandoned".
in the Northern Territory
and the Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam
mine in South Australia
continued to operate, but Narbarlek Uranium Mine had closed. A third uranium mine, Beverley Uranium Mine
in SA, was also operating. Several advanced projects, such as Honeymoon in SA, Jabiluka in the Northern Territory and Yeelirrie in WA were on hold because of political and indigenous opposition.
In May 2000 there was an anti-nuclear demonstration at the Beverley Uranium Mine
, which involved about 100 protesters. Ten of the protesters were mistreated by police and were later awarded more than $700,000 in damages from the South Australian government.
Following the McClelland Royal Commission
, a large clean-up was completed in outback South Australia in 2000, after nuclear testing at Maralinga
during the 1950s contaminated the region. The cleanup lasted three years, and cost over A$100 million, but there was controversy over the methods used and success of the operation.
As uranium prices began rising from about 2003, proponents of nuclear power advocated it as a solution to global warming and the Australian government began taking an interest. However, in June 2005, the Senate passed a motion opposing nuclear power for Australia. Then, in November 2006, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry and Resources released a pro-nuclear report into Australia's uranium. In late 2006 and early 2007, then Prime Minister John Howard
made widely reported statements in favour of nuclear power, on environmental grounds.
Faced with these proposals to examine nuclear power as a possible response to climate change, anti-nuclear campaigners and scientists in Australia emphasised claims that nuclear power could not significantly substitute for other power sources, and that uranium mining itself could become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Anti-nuclear campaigns were given added impetus by public concern about the sites for possible reactors: fears exploited by anti-nuclear power political parties in the lead-up to a national election in 2007.
The Rudd
Labor government was elected in November 2007 and is opposed to nuclear power for Australia. The anti-nuclear movement continues to be active in Australia, opposing expansion of existing uranium mines, lobbying against the development of nuclear power in Australia, and criticising proposals for nuclear waste disposal sites, the main candidate being Muckaty station
in the Northern Territory.
As of October 2009, the Australian government was continuing to plan for a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. However, there has been opposition from indigenous people, the NT government, and wider NT community. In November 2009, about 100 anti-nuclear protesters assembled outside the Alice Springs parliamentary sittings, urging the Northern Territory Government not to approve a nearby uranium mine site.
Western Australia has a significant share of the Australia's uranium reserves, but between 2002 and 2008, a state-wide ban on uranium mining was in force. The ban was lifted when the Liberal Party was voted into power in the state and, as of 2010, many companies are exploring for uranium in Western Australia. One of the industry's major players, the mining company BHP Billiton
, plans to develop the Yeelirrie uranium project
in 2011 in a 17 billion dollar project. Two other projects in Western Australia are further advanced then BHP's Yeelirrie, these being the Lake Way uranium project, which is pursued by Toro Energy and scheduled for production by 2013, and the Lake Maitland uranium project, pursued by Mega Uranium, which has a proposed start-of-production date of 2012.
As of late 2010, there are calls for Australians to debate whether the nation should adopt nuclear power as part of its energy mix. Nuclear power is seen to be "a divisive issue that can arouse deep passions among those for and against".
Following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear emergency in Japan, where three nuclear reactors were damaged by explosions, Ian Lowe
sees the nuclear power option as being risky and unworkable for Australia. Lowe says nuclear power is too expensive, with insurmountable problems associated with waste disposal and weapons proliferation. It is also not a fast enough response to address climate change. Lowe advocates renewable energy
which is "quicker, less expensive and less dangerous than nuclear".
and Tasmania
.
Currently, uranium mining is prohibited in New South Wales
under the Uranium Prohibition Act of 1986.
strategy. The most prominent adverse impact of nuclear power is seen to be its potential contribution towards proliferation of nuclear weapons. For example, the 1976 Ranger Inquiry report stated that "The nuclear power industry is unintentionally contributing to an increased risk of nuclear war. This is the most serious hazard associated with the industry".
The health risks associated with nuclear materials have also featured prominently in Australian anti-nuclear campaigns. This has been the case worldwide because of incidents like the Chernobyl disaster
, but Australian concerns have also involved specific local factors such as controversy over the health effects of nuclear testing in Australia and the South Pacific, and the emergence of prominent anti-nuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott
, who is a medical practitioner.
The economics of nuclear power has been a factor in anti-nuclear campaigns, with critics arguing that such power is uneconomical in Australia, particularly given the country's abundance of coal resources.
From the perspective of the anti-nuclear movement, most of the problems with nuclear power today are much the same as in the 1970s. The movement argues that nuclear reactor accidents remain a possibility and no convincing solution to the problem of long-lived radioactive waste has been proposed. Nuclear weapons proliferation continues to occur, notably in Pakistan and North Korea, building on facilities and expertise from civilian nuclear operations. The alternatives to nuclear power, efficient energy use
and renewable energy
(especially wind power
), have been further developed and commercialised
.
, experienced the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s, witnessed the 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island
reactor in the USA, and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster
. It was the generation which was also subject to cultural influences including feature films such as the "nuclear industry conspiracies" The China Syndrome
and Silkwood
and the apocalyptic Dr Strangelove. Younger people are "less resistant" to the idea of nuclear power for Australia.
Indigenous land owners have consistently opposed uranium mining and have spoken out about the adverse impact it has on their communities.
, uranium mining
and export, and nuclear energy have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia has a long history. Its origins date back to the 1972–73 debate over French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the 1976–77 debate about uranium mining in Australia
.
Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established in the mid-1970s, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
(CANE), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth
and the Australian Conservation Foundation
. A setback came in 1983 when the newly elected Labor Government failed to implement its stated policy of stopping uranium mining. But by the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, and the costs of nuclear power
had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case. CANE disbanded itself in 1988.
About 2003, proponents of nuclear power advocated it as a solution to global warming
and the Australian government began taking an interest. Anti-nuclear
campaigners and some scientists in Australia emphasised that nuclear power could not significantly substitute for other power sources, and that uranium mining
itself could become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.
As of 2010, Australia has no nuclear power stations and the current Gillard Labor government
is opposed to nuclear power for Australia
. Australia has three operating uranium mines at Olympic Dam
(Roxby) and Beverley
- both in South Australia
's north - and at Ranger
in the Northern Territory. As of April 2009, construction has begun on South Australia's third uranium mine—the Honeymoon Uranium Mine
. Australia has no nuclear weapons.
In 1952 the Australian Government established the Rum Jungle Uranium Mine
85 kilometres south of Darwin. Local aboriginal communities were not consulted and the mine site became an environmental disaster.
Also in 1952, the Robert Menzies
Liberal
Government passed legislation, the "Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952", which allowed the British Government access to isolated parts of Australia to undertake atmospheric nuclear tests. These tests were mainly conducted at Maralinga
in South Australia between 1955 and 1963, but the full legal and political implications of the testing program took decades to emerge. The secrecy which surrounded the British testing program and the remoteness of the test sites meant that public awareness of the risks involved grew very slowly.
But as the "Ban the Bomb" movement gathered momentum in Western societies throughout the 1950s, so too did opposition to the British tests in Australia. An opinion poll taken in 1957 showed 49 per cent of the Australian public were opposed to the tests and only 39 per cent in favour. In 1964, Peace Marches which featured "Ban the bomb" placards, were held in several Australian capital cities.
In 1969, a 500 MW nuclear power plant was proposed for the Jervis Bay Territory
, 200 km south of Sydney
. A local opposition campaign began, and the South Coast Trades and Labour Council (covering workers in the region) announced that it would refuse to build the reactor. Some environmental studies and site works were completed, and two rounds of tenders were called and evaluated, but in 1971 the Australian government decided not to proceed with the project, citing economic reasons.
The 1972–73 debate over French nuclear testing in the Pacific mobilised several groups, including some trade unions. In 1972 the International Court of Justice
in a case launched by Australia and New Zealand, ordered that the French cease atmospheric nuclear testing at Mururoa atoll. In 1974 and 1975 this concern came to focus on uranium mining in Australia and several Friends of the Earth
groups were formed. The Australian Conservation Foundation
also began voicing concern about uranium mining and supporting the activities of the grass-roots organisations. Concern about the environmental effects of uranium mining was a significant factor and poor management of waste at an early uranium mine, Rum Jungle
, led it to become a significant pollution problem in the 1970s. The Australian anti-nuclear movement also acquired initial impetus from various individuals who publicly voiced concern about the nuclear option, such as nuclear scientists Richard Temple and Rob Robotham, and poets Dorothy Green and Judith Wright
.
The years 1976 and 1977 saw uranium mining become a major political issue, with the Ranger Inquiry (Fox) report
opening up a public debate about uranium mining. Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining (founded in 1976) and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
(formed in South Australia in 1976), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth (which came to Australia in 1975) and the Australian Conservation Foundation (formed in 1975).
In November and December 1976, 7,000 people marched through the streets of Australian cities, protesting against uranium mining. The Uranium Moratorium group was formed and it called for a five-year moritorium on uranium mining. In April 1977 the first national demonstration co-ordinated by the Uranium Moratorium brought around 15,000 demonstrators into the streets of Melbourne, 5,000 in Sydney, and smaller numbers elsewhere. A National signature campaign attracted over 250,000 signatures calling for a five-year moratorium. In August, another demonstration brought 50,000 people out nationally and the opposition to uranium mining looked like a potential political force.
In 1977, the Australian Labor Party
(ALP) national conference passed a motion in favour of an indefinite moratorium on uranium mining, and the anti-nuclear movement acted to support the Labor Party and help it regain office. However, a setback for the movement occurred in 1982 when another ALP conference overturned its anti-uranium policy in favour of a "one mine policy". After the ALP won power in 1983, the 1984 ALP conference voted in favour of a "Three mine policy
". This referred to the then three existing uranium mines in Australia, Nabarlek
, Ranger
and Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam
, and articulated ALP support for pre-existing mines and contracts, but opposition to any new mining.
was created, surrounding but not including the Ranger uranium mine. Tension between mining and conservation values led to long running controversy around mining in the Park region.
The two themes for the 1980 Hiroshima Day march and rally in Sydney, sponsored by the Movement Against Uranium Mining (MAUM), were: "Keep uranium in the ground" and "No to nuclear war." Later that year, the Sydney city council officially proclaimed Sydney nuclear-free, in an action similar to that taken by many other local councils throughout Australia.
In the 1980s, academic critics (such as Jim Falk
) discussed the "deadly connection" between uranium mining, nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons, linking Australia's nuclear policy to nuclear proliferation
and the "plutonium economy".
On Palm Sunday 1982, an estimated 100,000 Australians participated in anti-nuclear rallies in the nation's biggest cities. Growing year by year, the rallies drew 350,000 participants in 1985. The movement focused on halting Australia's uranium mining and exports, abolishing nuclear weapons, removing foreign military bases from Australia's soil, and creating a nuclear-free Pacific. Public opinion surveys found that about half of Australians opposed uranium mining and export, as well as the visits of U.S. nuclear warships, that 72 percent thought the use of nuclear weapons could never be justified, and that 80 percent favoured building a nuclear-free world.
The Nuclear Disarmament Party
won a Senate seat in 1984, but soon faded from the political scene. The years of the Hawke-Keating ALP governments (1983–1996) were characterised by an "uneasy standoff in the uranium debate". The ALP acknowledged community feeling against uranium mining but was reluctant to move against the industry.
The 1986 Palm Sunday anti-nuclear rallies drew 250,000 people. In Melbourne, the seamen's union boycotted the arrival of foreign nuclear warships.
Australia's only nuclear energy education facility, the former School of Nuclear Engineering at the University of New South Wales
, closed in 1986.
By the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, and the costs of nuclear power had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case. The Campaign Against Nuclear Energy disbanded itself in 1988, two years after the Chernobyl Disaster
.
The government policy preventing new uranium mines continued into the 1990s, despite occasional reviews and debate. Following protest marches in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane during 1998, a proposed mine at Jabiluka
was blocked.
Also in 1998, there was a proposal from an international consortium, Pangea Resources
, to establish a nuclear waste dump in Western Australia. The plan, to store 20 per cent of the world's spent nuclear fuel and weapons material, was "publicly condemned and abandoned".
in the Northern Territory
and the Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam
mine in South Australia
continued to operate, but Narbarlek Uranium Mine had closed. A third uranium mine, Beverley Uranium Mine
in SA, was also operating. Several advanced projects, such as Honeymoon in SA, Jabiluka in the Northern Territory and Yeelirrie in WA were on hold because of political and indigenous opposition.
In May 2000 there was an anti-nuclear demonstration at the Beverley Uranium Mine
, which involved about 100 protesters. Ten of the protesters were mistreated by police and were later awarded more than $700,000 in damages from the South Australian government.
Following the McClelland Royal Commission
, a large clean-up was completed in outback South Australia in 2000, after nuclear testing at Maralinga
during the 1950s contaminated the region. The cleanup lasted three years, and cost over A$100 million, but there was controversy over the methods used and success of the operation.
As uranium prices began rising from about 2003, proponents of nuclear power advocated it as a solution to global warming and the Australian government began taking an interest. However, in June 2005, the Senate passed a motion opposing nuclear power for Australia. Then, in November 2006, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry and Resources released a pro-nuclear report into Australia's uranium. In late 2006 and early 2007, then Prime Minister John Howard
made widely reported statements in favour of nuclear power, on environmental grounds.
Faced with these proposals to examine nuclear power as a possible response to climate change, anti-nuclear campaigners and scientists in Australia emphasised claims that nuclear power could not significantly substitute for other power sources, and that uranium mining itself could become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Anti-nuclear campaigns were given added impetus by public concern about the sites for possible reactors: fears exploited by anti-nuclear power political parties in the lead-up to a national election in 2007.
The Rudd
Labor government was elected in November 2007 and is opposed to nuclear power for Australia. The anti-nuclear movement continues to be active in Australia, opposing expansion of existing uranium mines, lobbying against the development of nuclear power in Australia, and criticising proposals for nuclear waste disposal sites, the main candidate being Muckaty station
in the Northern Territory.
As of October 2009, the Australian government was continuing to plan for a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. However, there has been opposition from indigenous people, the NT government, and wider NT community. In November 2009, about 100 anti-nuclear protesters assembled outside the Alice Springs parliamentary sittings, urging the Northern Territory Government not to approve a nearby uranium mine site.
Western Australia has a significant share of the Australia's uranium reserves, but between 2002 and 2008, a state-wide ban on uranium mining was in force. The ban was lifted when the Liberal Party was voted into power in the state and, as of 2010, many companies are exploring for uranium in Western Australia. One of the industry's major players, the mining company BHP Billiton
, plans to develop the Yeelirrie uranium project
in 2011 in a 17 billion dollar project. Two other projects in Western Australia are further advanced then BHP's Yeelirrie, these being the Lake Way uranium project, which is pursued by Toro Energy and scheduled for production by 2013, and the Lake Maitland uranium project, pursued by Mega Uranium, which has a proposed start-of-production date of 2012.
As of late 2010, there are calls for Australians to debate whether the nation should adopt nuclear power as part of its energy mix. Nuclear power is seen to be "a divisive issue that can arouse deep passions among those for and against".
Following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear emergency in Japan, where three nuclear reactors were damaged by explosions, Ian Lowe
sees the nuclear power option as being risky and unworkable for Australia. Lowe says nuclear power is too expensive, with insurmountable problems associated with waste disposal and weapons proliferation. It is also not a fast enough response to address climate change. Lowe advocates renewable energy
which is "quicker, less expensive and less dangerous than nuclear".
and Tasmania
.
Currently, uranium mining is prohibited in New South Wales
under the Uranium Prohibition Act of 1986.
strategy. The most prominent adverse impact of nuclear power is seen to be its potential contribution towards proliferation of nuclear weapons. For example, the 1976 Ranger Inquiry report stated that "The nuclear power industry is unintentionally contributing to an increased risk of nuclear war. This is the most serious hazard associated with the industry".
The health risks associated with nuclear materials have also featured prominently in Australian anti-nuclear campaigns. This has been the case worldwide because of incidents like the Chernobyl disaster
, but Australian concerns have also involved specific local factors such as controversy over the health effects of nuclear testing in Australia and the South Pacific, and the emergence of prominent anti-nuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott
, who is a medical practitioner.
The economics of nuclear power has been a factor in anti-nuclear campaigns, with critics arguing that such power is uneconomical in Australia, particularly given the country's abundance of coal resources.
From the perspective of the anti-nuclear movement, most of the problems with nuclear power today are much the same as in the 1970s. The movement argues that nuclear reactor accidents remain a possibility and no convincing solution to the problem of long-lived radioactive waste has been proposed. Nuclear weapons proliferation continues to occur, notably in Pakistan and North Korea, building on facilities and expertise from civilian nuclear operations. The alternatives to nuclear power, efficient energy use
and renewable energy
(especially wind power
), have been further developed and commercialised
.
, experienced the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s, witnessed the 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island
reactor in the USA, and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster
. It was the generation which was also subject to cultural influences including feature films such as the "nuclear industry conspiracies" The China Syndrome
and Silkwood
and the apocalyptic Dr Strangelove. Younger people are "less resistant" to the idea of nuclear power for Australia.
Indigenous land owners have consistently opposed uranium mining and have spoken out about the adverse impact it has on their communities.
, uranium mining
and export, and nuclear energy have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia has a long history. Its origins date back to the 1972–73 debate over French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the 1976–77 debate about uranium mining in Australia
.
Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established in the mid-1970s, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
(CANE), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth
and the Australian Conservation Foundation
. A setback came in 1983 when the newly elected Labor Government failed to implement its stated policy of stopping uranium mining. But by the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, and the costs of nuclear power
had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case. CANE disbanded itself in 1988.
About 2003, proponents of nuclear power advocated it as a solution to global warming
and the Australian government began taking an interest. Anti-nuclear
campaigners and some scientists in Australia emphasised that nuclear power could not significantly substitute for other power sources, and that uranium mining
itself could become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.
As of 2010, Australia has no nuclear power stations and the current Gillard Labor government
is opposed to nuclear power for Australia
. Australia has three operating uranium mines at Olympic Dam
(Roxby) and Beverley
- both in South Australia
's north - and at Ranger
in the Northern Territory. As of April 2009, construction has begun on South Australia's third uranium mine—the Honeymoon Uranium Mine
. Australia has no nuclear weapons.
In 1952 the Australian Government established the Rum Jungle Uranium Mine
85 kilometres south of Darwin. Local aboriginal communities were not consulted and the mine site became an environmental disaster.
Also in 1952, the Robert Menzies
Liberal
Government passed legislation, the "Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952", which allowed the British Government access to isolated parts of Australia to undertake atmospheric nuclear tests. These tests were mainly conducted at Maralinga
in South Australia between 1955 and 1963, but the full legal and political implications of the testing program took decades to emerge. The secrecy which surrounded the British testing program and the remoteness of the test sites meant that public awareness of the risks involved grew very slowly.
But as the "Ban the Bomb" movement gathered momentum in Western societies throughout the 1950s, so too did opposition to the British tests in Australia. An opinion poll taken in 1957 showed 49 per cent of the Australian public were opposed to the tests and only 39 per cent in favour. In 1964, Peace Marches which featured "Ban the bomb" placards, were held in several Australian capital cities.
In 1969, a 500 MW nuclear power plant was proposed for the Jervis Bay Territory
, 200 km south of Sydney
. A local opposition campaign began, and the South Coast Trades and Labour Council (covering workers in the region) announced that it would refuse to build the reactor. Some environmental studies and site works were completed, and two rounds of tenders were called and evaluated, but in 1971 the Australian government decided not to proceed with the project, citing economic reasons.
The 1972–73 debate over French nuclear testing in the Pacific mobilised several groups, including some trade unions. In 1972 the International Court of Justice
in a case launched by Australia and New Zealand, ordered that the French cease atmospheric nuclear testing at Mururoa atoll. In 1974 and 1975 this concern came to focus on uranium mining in Australia and several Friends of the Earth
groups were formed. The Australian Conservation Foundation
also began voicing concern about uranium mining and supporting the activities of the grass-roots organisations. Concern about the environmental effects of uranium mining was a significant factor and poor management of waste at an early uranium mine, Rum Jungle
, led it to become a significant pollution problem in the 1970s. The Australian anti-nuclear movement also acquired initial impetus from various individuals who publicly voiced concern about the nuclear option, such as nuclear scientists Richard Temple and Rob Robotham, and poets Dorothy Green and Judith Wright
.
The years 1976 and 1977 saw uranium mining become a major political issue, with the Ranger Inquiry (Fox) report
opening up a public debate about uranium mining. Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining (founded in 1976) and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
(formed in South Australia in 1976), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth (which came to Australia in 1975) and the Australian Conservation Foundation (formed in 1975).
In November and December 1976, 7,000 people marched through the streets of Australian cities, protesting against uranium mining. The Uranium Moratorium group was formed and it called for a five-year moritorium on uranium mining. In April 1977 the first national demonstration co-ordinated by the Uranium Moratorium brought around 15,000 demonstrators into the streets of Melbourne, 5,000 in Sydney, and smaller numbers elsewhere. A National signature campaign attracted over 250,000 signatures calling for a five-year moratorium. In August, another demonstration brought 50,000 people out nationally and the opposition to uranium mining looked like a potential political force.
In 1977, the Australian Labor Party
(ALP) national conference passed a motion in favour of an indefinite moratorium on uranium mining, and the anti-nuclear movement acted to support the Labor Party and help it regain office. However, a setback for the movement occurred in 1982 when another ALP conference overturned its anti-uranium policy in favour of a "one mine policy". After the ALP won power in 1983, the 1984 ALP conference voted in favour of a "Three mine policy
". This referred to the then three existing uranium mines in Australia, Nabarlek
, Ranger
and Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam
, and articulated ALP support for pre-existing mines and contracts, but opposition to any new mining.
was created, surrounding but not including the Ranger uranium mine. Tension between mining and conservation values led to long running controversy around mining in the Park region.
The two themes for the 1980 Hiroshima Day march and rally in Sydney, sponsored by the Movement Against Uranium Mining (MAUM), were: "Keep uranium in the ground" and "No to nuclear war." Later that year, the Sydney city council officially proclaimed Sydney nuclear-free, in an action similar to that taken by many other local councils throughout Australia.
In the 1980s, academic critics (such as Jim Falk
) discussed the "deadly connection" between uranium mining, nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons, linking Australia's nuclear policy to nuclear proliferation
and the "plutonium economy".
On Palm Sunday 1982, an estimated 100,000 Australians participated in anti-nuclear rallies in the nation's biggest cities. Growing year by year, the rallies drew 350,000 participants in 1985. The movement focused on halting Australia's uranium mining and exports, abolishing nuclear weapons, removing foreign military bases from Australia's soil, and creating a nuclear-free Pacific. Public opinion surveys found that about half of Australians opposed uranium mining and export, as well as the visits of U.S. nuclear warships, that 72 percent thought the use of nuclear weapons could never be justified, and that 80 percent favoured building a nuclear-free world.
The Nuclear Disarmament Party
won a Senate seat in 1984, but soon faded from the political scene. The years of the Hawke-Keating ALP governments (1983–1996) were characterised by an "uneasy standoff in the uranium debate". The ALP acknowledged community feeling against uranium mining but was reluctant to move against the industry.
The 1986 Palm Sunday anti-nuclear rallies drew 250,000 people. In Melbourne, the seamen's union boycotted the arrival of foreign nuclear warships.
Australia's only nuclear energy education facility, the former School of Nuclear Engineering at the University of New South Wales
, closed in 1986.
By the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, and the costs of nuclear power had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case. The Campaign Against Nuclear Energy disbanded itself in 1988, two years after the Chernobyl Disaster
.
The government policy preventing new uranium mines continued into the 1990s, despite occasional reviews and debate. Following protest marches in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane during 1998, a proposed mine at Jabiluka
was blocked.
Also in 1998, there was a proposal from an international consortium, Pangea Resources
, to establish a nuclear waste dump in Western Australia. The plan, to store 20 per cent of the world's spent nuclear fuel and weapons material, was "publicly condemned and abandoned".
in the Northern Territory
and the Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam
mine in South Australia
continued to operate, but Narbarlek Uranium Mine had closed. A third uranium mine, Beverley Uranium Mine
in SA, was also operating. Several advanced projects, such as Honeymoon in SA, Jabiluka in the Northern Territory and Yeelirrie in WA were on hold because of political and indigenous opposition.
In May 2000 there was an anti-nuclear demonstration at the Beverley Uranium Mine
, which involved about 100 protesters. Ten of the protesters were mistreated by police and were later awarded more than $700,000 in damages from the South Australian government.
Following the McClelland Royal Commission
, a large clean-up was completed in outback South Australia in 2000, after nuclear testing at Maralinga
during the 1950s contaminated the region. The cleanup lasted three years, and cost over A$100 million, but there was controversy over the methods used and success of the operation.
As uranium prices began rising from about 2003, proponents of nuclear power advocated it as a solution to global warming and the Australian government began taking an interest. However, in June 2005, the Senate passed a motion opposing nuclear power for Australia. Then, in November 2006, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry and Resources released a pro-nuclear report into Australia's uranium. In late 2006 and early 2007, then Prime Minister John Howard
made widely reported statements in favour of nuclear power, on environmental grounds.
Faced with these proposals to examine nuclear power as a possible response to climate change, anti-nuclear campaigners and scientists in Australia emphasised claims that nuclear power could not significantly substitute for other power sources, and that uranium mining itself could become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Anti-nuclear campaigns were given added impetus by public concern about the sites for possible reactors: fears exploited by anti-nuclear power political parties in the lead-up to a national election in 2007.
The Rudd
Labor government was elected in November 2007 and is opposed to nuclear power for Australia. The anti-nuclear movement continues to be active in Australia, opposing expansion of existing uranium mines, lobbying against the development of nuclear power in Australia, and criticising proposals for nuclear waste disposal sites, the main candidate being Muckaty station
in the Northern Territory.
As of October 2009, the Australian government was continuing to plan for a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. However, there has been opposition from indigenous people, the NT government, and wider NT community. In November 2009, about 100 anti-nuclear protesters assembled outside the Alice Springs parliamentary sittings, urging the Northern Territory Government not to approve a nearby uranium mine site.
Western Australia has a significant share of the Australia's uranium reserves, but between 2002 and 2008, a state-wide ban on uranium mining was in force. The ban was lifted when the Liberal Party was voted into power in the state and, as of 2010, many companies are exploring for uranium in Western Australia. One of the industry's major players, the mining company BHP Billiton
, plans to develop the Yeelirrie uranium project
in 2011 in a 17 billion dollar project. Two other projects in Western Australia are further advanced then BHP's Yeelirrie, these being the Lake Way uranium project, which is pursued by Toro Energy and scheduled for production by 2013, and the Lake Maitland uranium project, pursued by Mega Uranium, which has a proposed start-of-production date of 2012.
As of late 2010, there are calls for Australians to debate whether the nation should adopt nuclear power as part of its energy mix. Nuclear power is seen to be "a divisive issue that can arouse deep passions among those for and against".
Following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear emergency in Japan, where three nuclear reactors were damaged by explosions, Ian Lowe
sees the nuclear power option as being risky and unworkable for Australia. Lowe says nuclear power is too expensive, with insurmountable problems associated with waste disposal and weapons proliferation. It is also not a fast enough response to address climate change. Lowe advocates renewable energy
which is "quicker, less expensive and less dangerous than nuclear".
and Tasmania
.
Currently, uranium mining is prohibited in New South Wales
under the Uranium Prohibition Act of 1986.
strategy. The most prominent adverse impact of nuclear power is seen to be its potential contribution towards proliferation of nuclear weapons. For example, the 1976 Ranger Inquiry report stated that "The nuclear power industry is unintentionally contributing to an increased risk of nuclear war. This is the most serious hazard associated with the industry".
The health risks associated with nuclear materials have also featured prominently in Australian anti-nuclear campaigns. This has been the case worldwide because of incidents like the Chernobyl disaster
, but Australian concerns have also involved specific local factors such as controversy over the health effects of nuclear testing in Australia and the South Pacific, and the emergence of prominent anti-nuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott
, who is a medical practitioner.
The economics of nuclear power has been a factor in anti-nuclear campaigns, with critics arguing that such power is uneconomical in Australia, particularly given the country's abundance of coal resources.
From the perspective of the anti-nuclear movement, most of the problems with nuclear power today are much the same as in the 1970s. The movement argues that nuclear reactor accidents remain a possibility and no convincing solution to the problem of long-lived radioactive waste has been proposed. Nuclear weapons proliferation continues to occur, notably in Pakistan and North Korea, building on facilities and expertise from civilian nuclear operations. The alternatives to nuclear power, efficient energy use
and renewable energy
(especially wind power
), have been further developed and commercialised
.
, experienced the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s, witnessed the 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island
reactor in the USA, and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster
. It was the generation which was also subject to cultural influences including feature films such as the "nuclear industry conspiracies" The China Syndrome
and Silkwood
and the apocalyptic Dr Strangelove. Younger people are "less resistant" to the idea of nuclear power for Australia.
Indigenous land owners have consistently opposed uranium mining and have spoken out about the adverse impact it has on their communities.
Nuclear testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
, uranium mining
Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. The worldwide production of uranium in 2009 amounted to 50,572 tonnes, of which 27% was mined in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium...
and export, and nuclear energy have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia has a long history. Its origins date back to the 1972–73 debate over French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the 1976–77 debate about uranium mining in Australia
Uranium mining in Australia
Radioactive ores were first extracted at Radium Hill in 1906, and Mount Painter in South Australia in the 1930s, to recover radium for medical use. Several hundred kilograms of uranium were also produced....
.
Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established in the mid-1970s, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
The Campaign Against Nuclear Energy was established in Perth, Western Australia on 14 February 1976 by Friends of the Earth ; this included: Peter Brotherton, FOE coordinator WA and John Carlin, Mike Thomas and Barrie Machin after a meeting at University of WA...
(CANE), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth Australia
Friends of the Earth Australia is a federation of independent local groups working for a socially equitable and environmentally sustainable future. Friends of the Earth Australia believes that pursuing environmental protection is inseparable from broader social concerns, and as a result uses an...
and the Australian Conservation Foundation
Australian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation is an Australian non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.-History:...
. A setback came in 1983 when the newly elected Labor Government failed to implement its stated policy of stopping uranium mining. But by the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, and the costs of nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case. CANE disbanded itself in 1988.
About 2003, proponents of nuclear power advocated it as a solution to global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
and the Australian government began taking an interest. Anti-nuclear
Anti-nuclear
The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes the use of nuclear technologies. Many direct action groups, environmental groups, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, and international level...
campaigners and some scientists in Australia emphasised that nuclear power could not significantly substitute for other power sources, and that uranium mining
Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. The worldwide production of uranium in 2009 amounted to 50,572 tonnes, of which 27% was mined in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium...
itself could become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.
As of 2010, Australia has no nuclear power stations and the current Gillard Labor government
Gillard Government
The Gillard Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia, which is led by the Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard. Julia Gillard became Prime Minister on the 24th of June 2010 after challenging her predecessor, Kevin Rudd for the position of leader of the parliamentary...
is opposed to nuclear power for Australia
Nuclear power in Australia
Nuclear power in Australia is a heavily debated concept. Australia currently has no nuclear facilities generatingelectricity, however, Australia has 23% of the world's uranium deposits and is the world's second largest producer of uranium after Kazakhstan...
. Australia has three operating uranium mines at Olympic Dam
Olympic Dam, South Australia
Olympic Dam is a mining centre in South Australia located some 550 km NNW of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is the site of an extremely large iron oxide copper gold deposit producing copper, uranium, gold and silver. The site hosts an underground mine as well as an...
(Roxby) and Beverley
Beverley Uranium Mine
The Beverley Mine is Australia's third uranium mine and Australia's first operating in-situ recovery mine. It is located 35 km from Lake Frome at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and opened in 2001...
- both in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
's north - and at Ranger
Ranger Uranium Mine
The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981...
in the Northern Territory. As of April 2009, construction has begun on South Australia's third uranium mine—the Honeymoon Uranium Mine
Honeymoon Uranium Mine
The Honeymoon Mine will be Australia's fourth uranium mine and Australia's second operating in-situ recovery mine. The mine is owned by Uranium One. The uranium deposit belongs to the palaeochannel type.-See also:* Uranium mining in Australia...
. Australia has no nuclear weapons.
1950s and 1960s
Rum Jungle, Northern Territory
The Rum Jungle uranium deposit in the Northern Territory, Australia was found in 1949. It is 65 kilometres south of Darwin on the East Finniss River.-Original uranium mine:...
85 kilometres south of Darwin. Local aboriginal communities were not consulted and the mine site became an environmental disaster.
Also in 1952, the Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
Government passed legislation, the "Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952", which allowed the British Government access to isolated parts of Australia to undertake atmospheric nuclear tests. These tests were mainly conducted at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga occurred between 1955 and 1963 at the Maralinga site, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area, in South Australia. A total of seven major nuclear tests were performed, with approximate yields ranging from 1 to 27 kilotons of TNT equivalent...
in South Australia between 1955 and 1963, but the full legal and political implications of the testing program took decades to emerge. The secrecy which surrounded the British testing program and the remoteness of the test sites meant that public awareness of the risks involved grew very slowly.
But as the "Ban the Bomb" movement gathered momentum in Western societies throughout the 1950s, so too did opposition to the British tests in Australia. An opinion poll taken in 1957 showed 49 per cent of the Australian public were opposed to the tests and only 39 per cent in favour. In 1964, Peace Marches which featured "Ban the bomb" placards, were held in several Australian capital cities.
In 1969, a 500 MW nuclear power plant was proposed for the Jervis Bay Territory
Jervis Bay Nuclear Power Plant
Jervis Bay Nuclear Power Plant was a proposed nuclear power reactor in the Jervis Bay Territory on the south coast of New South Wales. It would have been Australia's first nuclear power plant, and was the only proposal to have received serious consideration...
, 200 km south of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. A local opposition campaign began, and the South Coast Trades and Labour Council (covering workers in the region) announced that it would refuse to build the reactor. Some environmental studies and site works were completed, and two rounds of tenders were called and evaluated, but in 1971 the Australian government decided not to proceed with the project, citing economic reasons.
1970s
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
in a case launched by Australia and New Zealand, ordered that the French cease atmospheric nuclear testing at Mururoa atoll. In 1974 and 1975 this concern came to focus on uranium mining in Australia and several Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International is an international network of environmental organizations in 76 countries.FOEI is assisted by a small secretariat which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns...
groups were formed. The Australian Conservation Foundation
Australian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation is an Australian non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.-History:...
also began voicing concern about uranium mining and supporting the activities of the grass-roots organisations. Concern about the environmental effects of uranium mining was a significant factor and poor management of waste at an early uranium mine, Rum Jungle
Rum Jungle, Northern Territory
The Rum Jungle uranium deposit in the Northern Territory, Australia was found in 1949. It is 65 kilometres south of Darwin on the East Finniss River.-Original uranium mine:...
, led it to become a significant pollution problem in the 1970s. The Australian anti-nuclear movement also acquired initial impetus from various individuals who publicly voiced concern about the nuclear option, such as nuclear scientists Richard Temple and Rob Robotham, and poets Dorothy Green and Judith Wright
Judith Wright
Judith Arundell Wright was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights.-Biography:...
.
The years 1976 and 1977 saw uranium mining become a major political issue, with the Ranger Inquiry (Fox) report
Russell Walter Fox
Russell Walter Fox AC QC LLB is an Australian author, educator, jurist and former chief judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. He is best known for his extensive report on uranium mining in Australia in the early 1980s....
opening up a public debate about uranium mining. Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining (founded in 1976) and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
The Campaign Against Nuclear Energy was established in Perth, Western Australia on 14 February 1976 by Friends of the Earth ; this included: Peter Brotherton, FOE coordinator WA and John Carlin, Mike Thomas and Barrie Machin after a meeting at University of WA...
(formed in South Australia in 1976), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth (which came to Australia in 1975) and the Australian Conservation Foundation (formed in 1975).
In November and December 1976, 7,000 people marched through the streets of Australian cities, protesting against uranium mining. The Uranium Moratorium group was formed and it called for a five-year moritorium on uranium mining. In April 1977 the first national demonstration co-ordinated by the Uranium Moratorium brought around 15,000 demonstrators into the streets of Melbourne, 5,000 in Sydney, and smaller numbers elsewhere. A National signature campaign attracted over 250,000 signatures calling for a five-year moratorium. In August, another demonstration brought 50,000 people out nationally and the opposition to uranium mining looked like a potential political force.
In 1977, the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
(ALP) national conference passed a motion in favour of an indefinite moratorium on uranium mining, and the anti-nuclear movement acted to support the Labor Party and help it regain office. However, a setback for the movement occurred in 1982 when another ALP conference overturned its anti-uranium policy in favour of a "one mine policy". After the ALP won power in 1983, the 1984 ALP conference voted in favour of a "Three mine policy
Three mine policy
The three mine policy, introduced in 1984 and abandoned in 1996, was a policy of the government of Australia to limit the number of uranium mines in the country to three.-History:...
". This referred to the then three existing uranium mines in Australia, Nabarlek
Nabarlek Uranium Mine
The Nabarlek Mine is a past producing uranium mine in the Northern Territory of Australia. The deposit sits within the Alligator Rivers Uranium Field approximately northeast of Jabiru. It was discovered by Queensland Mines Limited in 1970 by following up an intense airborne radiometric...
, Ranger
Ranger Uranium Mine
The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981...
and Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam
Olympic Dam, South Australia
Olympic Dam is a mining centre in South Australia located some 550 km NNW of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is the site of an extremely large iron oxide copper gold deposit producing copper, uranium, gold and silver. The site hosts an underground mine as well as an...
, and articulated ALP support for pre-existing mines and contracts, but opposition to any new mining.
1980s and 1990s
Between 1979 and 1984, the majority of what is now Kakadu National ParkKakadu National Park
Kakadu National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km southeast of Darwin.Kakadu National Park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It covers an area of , extending nearly 200 kilometres from north to south and over 100 kilometres...
was created, surrounding but not including the Ranger uranium mine. Tension between mining and conservation values led to long running controversy around mining in the Park region.
The two themes for the 1980 Hiroshima Day march and rally in Sydney, sponsored by the Movement Against Uranium Mining (MAUM), were: "Keep uranium in the ground" and "No to nuclear war." Later that year, the Sydney city council officially proclaimed Sydney nuclear-free, in an action similar to that taken by many other local councils throughout Australia.
In the 1980s, academic critics (such as Jim Falk
Jim Falk
Jim Falk is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Melbourne School of Land and Environment at The University of Melbourne. He also holds the title of Emeritus Professor at the University of Wollongong, is a Visiting Professor in the Institute of Advanced Studies at the United Nations University...
) discussed the "deadly connection" between uranium mining, nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons, linking Australia's nuclear policy to nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the...
and the "plutonium economy".
On Palm Sunday 1982, an estimated 100,000 Australians participated in anti-nuclear rallies in the nation's biggest cities. Growing year by year, the rallies drew 350,000 participants in 1985. The movement focused on halting Australia's uranium mining and exports, abolishing nuclear weapons, removing foreign military bases from Australia's soil, and creating a nuclear-free Pacific. Public opinion surveys found that about half of Australians opposed uranium mining and export, as well as the visits of U.S. nuclear warships, that 72 percent thought the use of nuclear weapons could never be justified, and that 80 percent favoured building a nuclear-free world.
The Nuclear Disarmament Party
Nuclear Disarmament Party
The Nuclear Disarmament Party was a political party in Australia. The party was formed in 1984 and enjoyed considerable initial success.-Foundation, the 1984 election, and the split:...
won a Senate seat in 1984, but soon faded from the political scene. The years of the Hawke-Keating ALP governments (1983–1996) were characterised by an "uneasy standoff in the uranium debate". The ALP acknowledged community feeling against uranium mining but was reluctant to move against the industry.
The 1986 Palm Sunday anti-nuclear rallies drew 250,000 people. In Melbourne, the seamen's union boycotted the arrival of foreign nuclear warships.
Australia's only nuclear energy education facility, the former School of Nuclear Engineering at the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
, closed in 1986.
By the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, and the costs of nuclear power had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case. The Campaign Against Nuclear Energy disbanded itself in 1988, two years after the Chernobyl Disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
.
The government policy preventing new uranium mines continued into the 1990s, despite occasional reviews and debate. Following protest marches in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane during 1998, a proposed mine at Jabiluka
Jabiluka
Jabiluka is a uranium deposit and mine development in the Northern Territory of Australia that was to have been built on land belonging to the Mirarr Aboriginal people...
was blocked.
Also in 1998, there was a proposal from an international consortium, Pangea Resources
Pangea Resources
Pangea Resources Australia Pty Ltd was a company notable for a controversial proposal for an international high-level radioactive waste repository in Australia....
, to establish a nuclear waste dump in Western Australia. The plan, to store 20 per cent of the world's spent nuclear fuel and weapons material, was "publicly condemned and abandoned".
2000s
In 2000, the Ranger Uranium MineRanger Uranium Mine
The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981...
in the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
and the Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam
Olympic Dam, South Australia
Olympic Dam is a mining centre in South Australia located some 550 km NNW of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is the site of an extremely large iron oxide copper gold deposit producing copper, uranium, gold and silver. The site hosts an underground mine as well as an...
mine in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
continued to operate, but Narbarlek Uranium Mine had closed. A third uranium mine, Beverley Uranium Mine
Beverley Uranium Mine
The Beverley Mine is Australia's third uranium mine and Australia's first operating in-situ recovery mine. It is located 35 km from Lake Frome at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and opened in 2001...
in SA, was also operating. Several advanced projects, such as Honeymoon in SA, Jabiluka in the Northern Territory and Yeelirrie in WA were on hold because of political and indigenous opposition.
In May 2000 there was an anti-nuclear demonstration at the Beverley Uranium Mine
Beverley Uranium Mine
The Beverley Mine is Australia's third uranium mine and Australia's first operating in-situ recovery mine. It is located 35 km from Lake Frome at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and opened in 2001...
, which involved about 100 protesters. Ten of the protesters were mistreated by police and were later awarded more than $700,000 in damages from the South Australian government.
Following the McClelland Royal Commission
McClelland Royal Commission
The McClelland Royal Commission or Royal Commission into British nuclear tests in Australia was an inquiry by the Australian government in 1984-1985 to investigate the conduct of the British in its use, with the then Australian government's permission, of Australian territory and soldiers for...
, a large clean-up was completed in outback South Australia in 2000, after nuclear testing at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga occurred between 1955 and 1963 at the Maralinga site, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area, in South Australia. A total of seven major nuclear tests were performed, with approximate yields ranging from 1 to 27 kilotons of TNT equivalent...
during the 1950s contaminated the region. The cleanup lasted three years, and cost over A$100 million, but there was controversy over the methods used and success of the operation.
As uranium prices began rising from about 2003, proponents of nuclear power advocated it as a solution to global warming and the Australian government began taking an interest. However, in June 2005, the Senate passed a motion opposing nuclear power for Australia. Then, in November 2006, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry and Resources released a pro-nuclear report into Australia's uranium. In late 2006 and early 2007, then Prime Minister John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
made widely reported statements in favour of nuclear power, on environmental grounds.
Faced with these proposals to examine nuclear power as a possible response to climate change, anti-nuclear campaigners and scientists in Australia emphasised claims that nuclear power could not significantly substitute for other power sources, and that uranium mining itself could become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Anti-nuclear campaigns were given added impetus by public concern about the sites for possible reactors: fears exploited by anti-nuclear power political parties in the lead-up to a national election in 2007.
The Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
Labor government was elected in November 2007 and is opposed to nuclear power for Australia. The anti-nuclear movement continues to be active in Australia, opposing expansion of existing uranium mines, lobbying against the development of nuclear power in Australia, and criticising proposals for nuclear waste disposal sites, the main candidate being Muckaty station
Muckaty station
Muckaty Station, also known as Warlmanpa, was a pastoral lease, now Aboriginal freehold land in Australia's Northern Territory, near Tennant Creek. Originally under traditional Indigenous Australian ownership, the area became a pastoral lease in the late 19th century and for many years...
in the Northern Territory.
As of October 2009, the Australian government was continuing to plan for a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. However, there has been opposition from indigenous people, the NT government, and wider NT community. In November 2009, about 100 anti-nuclear protesters assembled outside the Alice Springs parliamentary sittings, urging the Northern Territory Government not to approve a nearby uranium mine site.
2010s
As of early April 2010, more than 200 environmentalists and indigenous people gathered in Tennant Creek to oppose a radioactive waste dump being built on Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory.Western Australia has a significant share of the Australia's uranium reserves, but between 2002 and 2008, a state-wide ban on uranium mining was in force. The ban was lifted when the Liberal Party was voted into power in the state and, as of 2010, many companies are exploring for uranium in Western Australia. One of the industry's major players, the mining company BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...
, plans to develop the Yeelirrie uranium project
Yeelirrie uranium project
The Yeelirrie uranium project is a proposed uranium mining project, located approximately 70 km south west of Wiluna, in the Mid West region of Western Australia....
in 2011 in a 17 billion dollar project. Two other projects in Western Australia are further advanced then BHP's Yeelirrie, these being the Lake Way uranium project, which is pursued by Toro Energy and scheduled for production by 2013, and the Lake Maitland uranium project, pursued by Mega Uranium, which has a proposed start-of-production date of 2012.
As of late 2010, there are calls for Australians to debate whether the nation should adopt nuclear power as part of its energy mix. Nuclear power is seen to be "a divisive issue that can arouse deep passions among those for and against".
Following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear emergency in Japan, where three nuclear reactors were damaged by explosions, Ian Lowe
Ian Lowe
Ian Lowe is President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Professor of Science, Technology and Society and former Head of the School of Science at Griffith University, as well as an adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University and Flinders University. In 1996 he was chair-person of the...
sees the nuclear power option as being risky and unworkable for Australia. Lowe says nuclear power is too expensive, with insurmountable problems associated with waste disposal and weapons proliferation. It is also not a fast enough response to address climate change. Lowe advocates renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
which is "quicker, less expensive and less dangerous than nuclear".
Ban on Nuclear Reactors
Nuclear reactors are banned in QueenslandQueensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
and Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
.
Currently, uranium mining is prohibited in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
under the Uranium Prohibition Act of 1986.
Issues
The case against nuclear power and uranium mining in Australia has been concerned with the environmental, political, economic, social and cultural impacts of nuclear energy; with the shortcomings of nuclear power as an energy source; and with presenting a sustainable energySustainable energy
Sustainable energy is the provision of energy that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable energy sources include all renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal...
strategy. The most prominent adverse impact of nuclear power is seen to be its potential contribution towards proliferation of nuclear weapons. For example, the 1976 Ranger Inquiry report stated that "The nuclear power industry is unintentionally contributing to an increased risk of nuclear war. This is the most serious hazard associated with the industry".
The health risks associated with nuclear materials have also featured prominently in Australian anti-nuclear campaigns. This has been the case worldwide because of incidents like the Chernobyl disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
, but Australian concerns have also involved specific local factors such as controversy over the health effects of nuclear testing in Australia and the South Pacific, and the emergence of prominent anti-nuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott
Helen Caldicott
Helen Mary Caldicott is an Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate who has founded several associations dedicated to opposing the use of nuclear power, depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation, war and military action in general. She hosts a...
, who is a medical practitioner.
The economics of nuclear power has been a factor in anti-nuclear campaigns, with critics arguing that such power is uneconomical in Australia, particularly given the country's abundance of coal resources.
From the perspective of the anti-nuclear movement, most of the problems with nuclear power today are much the same as in the 1970s. The movement argues that nuclear reactor accidents remain a possibility and no convincing solution to the problem of long-lived radioactive waste has been proposed. Nuclear weapons proliferation continues to occur, notably in Pakistan and North Korea, building on facilities and expertise from civilian nuclear operations. The alternatives to nuclear power, efficient energy use
Efficient energy use
Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal of efforts to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature...
and renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
(especially wind power
Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
), have been further developed and commercialised
Renewable energy commercialization
Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include biomass, hydroelectricity, geothermal power and heat...
.
Public opinion
A 2009 poll conducted by the Uranium Information Centre found that Australians in the 40 to 55 years age group are the "most trenchantly opposed to nuclear power". This generation was raised during the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, experienced the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s, witnessed the 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island
Three Mile Island accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979....
reactor in the USA, and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
. It was the generation which was also subject to cultural influences including feature films such as the "nuclear industry conspiracies" The China Syndrome
The China Syndrome
The China Syndrome is a 1979 American thriller film that tells the story of a reporter and cameraman who discover safety coverups at a nuclear power plant. It stars Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady, James Hampton, Peter Donat, Richard Herd, and Wilford Brimley.The film was...
and Silkwood
Silkwood
Silkwood is a 1983 American drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen was inspired by the true-life story of Karen Silkwood, who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she...
and the apocalyptic Dr Strangelove. Younger people are "less resistant" to the idea of nuclear power for Australia.
Indigenous land owners have consistently opposed uranium mining and have spoken out about the adverse impact it has on their communities.
Active groups
- Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia
- Australian Conservation FoundationAustralian Conservation FoundationThe Australian Conservation Foundation is an Australian non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.-History:...
- Australian Nuclear Free Alliance
- Cycle Against the Nuclear Cycle
- EnergyScience
- Friends of the Earth AustraliaFriends of the Earth AustraliaFriends of the Earth Australia is a federation of independent local groups working for a socially equitable and environmentally sustainable future. Friends of the Earth Australia believes that pursuing environmental protection is inseparable from broader social concerns, and as a result uses an...
- Greenpeace Australia PacificGreenpeace Australia PacificGreenpeace Australia Pacific is the regional office of the global environmental organization Greenpeace. Greenpeace Australia Pacific one of Australia's largest environmental organisations.-Origins and Formation:...
- Kupa Piti Kungka TjutaKupa Piti Kungka TjutaThe Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta is a council of Senior Aboriginal Women from Coober Pedy, South Australia. They protest against Government plans to dump radioactive waste dump in their land, and for protection of their land and culture....
- Mineral Policy InstituteMineral Policy InstituteThe Mineral Policy Institute is an Australian-based non-governmental organisation that specialises in preventing environmentally and socially destructive mining, minerals and energy projects in Australia, Asia and the Pacific. The institute as formed in 1995 in response to the internationalisation...
- Peace Organisation of AustraliaPeace Organisation of AustraliaThe Peace Organisation of Australia was a non-profit and non-religious organisation based in Melbourne, Australia which was active from 2005 to 2009. Its stated objective was the promotion of world peace through education. The organisation was established in May 2005 by a group of students from the...
- The Australia InstituteThe Australia InstituteThe Australia Institute is a left wing Australian think tank conducting public policy research, funded by grants from philanthropic trusts, memberships and commissioned research....
- The Sustainable Energy and Anti-Uranium Service Inc.
- The Wilderness SocietyThe Wilderness Society (Australia)The Wilderness Society is an Australian, community-based, not-for-profit non-governmental environmental advocacy organisation. Its purpose is to protect, promote and restore wilderness and natural processes across Australia for the survival and ongoing evolution of life on Earth.It is a...
Individuals
There are several prominent Australians who have publicly expressed anti-nuclear views:
|
Ian Lowe Ian Lowe is President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Professor of Science, Technology and Society and former Head of the School of Science at Griffith University, as well as an adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University and Flinders University. In 1996 he was chair-person of the... Scott Ludlam Scott Ludlam is an Australian politician and Greens member of the Australian Senate since July 2008, representing the state of Western Australia.... Yvonne Margarula Yvonne Margarula won the 1998 Friends of the Earth International Environment Award and the 1998 Nuclear-Free Future Award. She also won the 1999 U.S... Dee Margetts Diane Elizabeth Margetts was an Australian politician. She was a member of the Australian Senate from 1993 to 1999 and a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 2001 to 2005, representing the Greens Western Australia.... Jillian Marsh Jillian Marsh was raised in the coal-mining town of Leigh Creek, in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges, and she has had a long interest in mining issues and indigenous communities. In 1998 Marsh received the prestigious Jill Hudson Environmental Award for her work in educating people living near the... Brian Martin (professor) Brian Martin teaches in the interdisciplinary area of Science, technology, and society at the University of Wollongong in Australia, where he became a professor in 2007. He was president of Whistleblowers Australia from 1996 to 1999 and remains their International Director.Martin received his PhD ... Kerry Nettle Kerry Michelle Nettle is a former Australian Senator and member of the Australian Greens in New South Wales. Elected at the 2001 federal election on a primary vote of 4.36 percent with One Nation and micro-party preferences, she failed to gain re-election at the 2007 federal election, despite an... Nancy Shelley Nancy Jean Shelley OAM was a Quaker peace activist who represented the Australian peace movement at the United Nations in 1982.She was a prominent speaker at many Australian and international conferences in the 1980s and 1990s.... Jo Vallentine Josephine Vallentine is a peace activist and a former Australian Senator for Western Australia. Vallentine entered the Senate on 1 July 1985 after she had been elected as a member of the Nuclear Disarmament Party but she sat as an independent and then as a member of the Greens Western Australia... Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative... Stuart White Stuart White is an Australian educator and sustainability advocate. He is a professor and the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney. White has researched sustainability for more than twenty years, specialising in least cost planning for utilities... Eileen Wani Wingfield Eileen Wani Wingfield is an Aboriginal elder from Australia. She was jointly awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2003 with Eileen Kampakuta Brown, for efforts to stop the plans for nuclear waste dump in Australia's wild desert land, and for protection of their land and culture.Wingfield ... |
See also
- Anti-nuclear protestsAnti-nuclear protestsAnti-nuclear protests first emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the United Kingdom, the first Aldermaston March, organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, took place in 1958. In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, about 50,000 women brought together by Women Strike for Peace...
- Australian Uranium AssociationAustralian Uranium AssociationThe Australian Uranium Association is an Australian industry trade group representing companies involved in uranium exploration, mining and export....
- Clean Energy Future GroupClean Energy Future GroupThe Clean Energy Future Group is an Australian collaboration of environmental groups aiming to promote renewable energy use in Australia.-Environmental Organisations:*Australasian Energy Performance Contracting Association ,...
- History of the anti-nuclear movementHistory of the anti-nuclear movementThe application of nuclear technology, both as a source of energy and as an instrument of war, has been controversial.Scientists and diplomats have debated nuclear weapons policy since before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. The public became concerned about nuclear weapons testing from...
- International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and DisarmamentInternational Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and DisarmamentThe International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament is a joint initiative of the Australian and Japanese governments. It was proposed by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 9 June 2008, and on 9 July 2008 Rudd and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda agreed to establish...
- List of anti-nuclear groups
- List of Australian inquiries into uranium mining
- Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents
- Renewable energy commercializationRenewable energy commercializationRenewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include biomass, hydroelectricity, geothermal power and heat...
- Renewable energy in AustraliaRenewable energy in AustraliaRenewable energy in Australia represents 5.2% of total energy consumption, but only 1.7% of total production, the difference being the result of significant non-renewable energy exports. In the five years to 2009 renewable energy consumption grew by 3.5%, faster than other energy sources. Of all...
- Say Yes demonstrationsSay Yes demonstrationsThe "Say Yes" demonstrations were a series of simultaneous political demonstrations held in major cities across Australia on 5 June 2011 to coincide with World Environment Day...
External links
Nuclear testingNuclear testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
, uranium mining
Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. The worldwide production of uranium in 2009 amounted to 50,572 tonnes, of which 27% was mined in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium...
and export, and nuclear energy have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia has a long history. Its origins date back to the 1972–73 debate over French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the 1976–77 debate about uranium mining in Australia
Uranium mining in Australia
Radioactive ores were first extracted at Radium Hill in 1906, and Mount Painter in South Australia in the 1930s, to recover radium for medical use. Several hundred kilograms of uranium were also produced....
.
Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established in the mid-1970s, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
The Campaign Against Nuclear Energy was established in Perth, Western Australia on 14 February 1976 by Friends of the Earth ; this included: Peter Brotherton, FOE coordinator WA and John Carlin, Mike Thomas and Barrie Machin after a meeting at University of WA...
(CANE), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth Australia
Friends of the Earth Australia is a federation of independent local groups working for a socially equitable and environmentally sustainable future. Friends of the Earth Australia believes that pursuing environmental protection is inseparable from broader social concerns, and as a result uses an...
and the Australian Conservation Foundation
Australian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation is an Australian non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.-History:...
. A setback came in 1983 when the newly elected Labor Government failed to implement its stated policy of stopping uranium mining. But by the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, and the costs of nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case. CANE disbanded itself in 1988.
About 2003, proponents of nuclear power advocated it as a solution to global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
and the Australian government began taking an interest. Anti-nuclear
Anti-nuclear
The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes the use of nuclear technologies. Many direct action groups, environmental groups, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, and international level...
campaigners and some scientists in Australia emphasised that nuclear power could not significantly substitute for other power sources, and that uranium mining
Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. The worldwide production of uranium in 2009 amounted to 50,572 tonnes, of which 27% was mined in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium...
itself could become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.
As of 2010, Australia has no nuclear power stations and the current Gillard Labor government
Gillard Government
The Gillard Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia, which is led by the Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard. Julia Gillard became Prime Minister on the 24th of June 2010 after challenging her predecessor, Kevin Rudd for the position of leader of the parliamentary...
is opposed to nuclear power for Australia
Nuclear power in Australia
Nuclear power in Australia is a heavily debated concept. Australia currently has no nuclear facilities generatingelectricity, however, Australia has 23% of the world's uranium deposits and is the world's second largest producer of uranium after Kazakhstan...
. Australia has three operating uranium mines at Olympic Dam
Olympic Dam, South Australia
Olympic Dam is a mining centre in South Australia located some 550 km NNW of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is the site of an extremely large iron oxide copper gold deposit producing copper, uranium, gold and silver. The site hosts an underground mine as well as an...
(Roxby) and Beverley
Beverley Uranium Mine
The Beverley Mine is Australia's third uranium mine and Australia's first operating in-situ recovery mine. It is located 35 km from Lake Frome at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and opened in 2001...
- both in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
's north - and at Ranger
Ranger Uranium Mine
The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981...
in the Northern Territory. As of April 2009, construction has begun on South Australia's third uranium mine—the Honeymoon Uranium Mine
Honeymoon Uranium Mine
The Honeymoon Mine will be Australia's fourth uranium mine and Australia's second operating in-situ recovery mine. The mine is owned by Uranium One. The uranium deposit belongs to the palaeochannel type.-See also:* Uranium mining in Australia...
. Australia has no nuclear weapons.
1950s and 1960s
Rum Jungle, Northern Territory
The Rum Jungle uranium deposit in the Northern Territory, Australia was found in 1949. It is 65 kilometres south of Darwin on the East Finniss River.-Original uranium mine:...
85 kilometres south of Darwin. Local aboriginal communities were not consulted and the mine site became an environmental disaster.
Also in 1952, the Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
Government passed legislation, the "Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952", which allowed the British Government access to isolated parts of Australia to undertake atmospheric nuclear tests. These tests were mainly conducted at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga occurred between 1955 and 1963 at the Maralinga site, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area, in South Australia. A total of seven major nuclear tests were performed, with approximate yields ranging from 1 to 27 kilotons of TNT equivalent...
in South Australia between 1955 and 1963, but the full legal and political implications of the testing program took decades to emerge. The secrecy which surrounded the British testing program and the remoteness of the test sites meant that public awareness of the risks involved grew very slowly.
But as the "Ban the Bomb" movement gathered momentum in Western societies throughout the 1950s, so too did opposition to the British tests in Australia. An opinion poll taken in 1957 showed 49 per cent of the Australian public were opposed to the tests and only 39 per cent in favour. In 1964, Peace Marches which featured "Ban the bomb" placards, were held in several Australian capital cities.
In 1969, a 500 MW nuclear power plant was proposed for the Jervis Bay Territory
Jervis Bay Nuclear Power Plant
Jervis Bay Nuclear Power Plant was a proposed nuclear power reactor in the Jervis Bay Territory on the south coast of New South Wales. It would have been Australia's first nuclear power plant, and was the only proposal to have received serious consideration...
, 200 km south of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. A local opposition campaign began, and the South Coast Trades and Labour Council (covering workers in the region) announced that it would refuse to build the reactor. Some environmental studies and site works were completed, and two rounds of tenders were called and evaluated, but in 1971 the Australian government decided not to proceed with the project, citing economic reasons.
1970s
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
in a case launched by Australia and New Zealand, ordered that the French cease atmospheric nuclear testing at Mururoa atoll. In 1974 and 1975 this concern came to focus on uranium mining in Australia and several Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International is an international network of environmental organizations in 76 countries.FOEI is assisted by a small secretariat which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns...
groups were formed. The Australian Conservation Foundation
Australian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation is an Australian non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.-History:...
also began voicing concern about uranium mining and supporting the activities of the grass-roots organisations. Concern about the environmental effects of uranium mining was a significant factor and poor management of waste at an early uranium mine, Rum Jungle
Rum Jungle, Northern Territory
The Rum Jungle uranium deposit in the Northern Territory, Australia was found in 1949. It is 65 kilometres south of Darwin on the East Finniss River.-Original uranium mine:...
, led it to become a significant pollution problem in the 1970s. The Australian anti-nuclear movement also acquired initial impetus from various individuals who publicly voiced concern about the nuclear option, such as nuclear scientists Richard Temple and Rob Robotham, and poets Dorothy Green and Judith Wright
Judith Wright
Judith Arundell Wright was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights.-Biography:...
.
The years 1976 and 1977 saw uranium mining become a major political issue, with the Ranger Inquiry (Fox) report
Russell Walter Fox
Russell Walter Fox AC QC LLB is an Australian author, educator, jurist and former chief judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. He is best known for his extensive report on uranium mining in Australia in the early 1980s....
opening up a public debate about uranium mining. Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining (founded in 1976) and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
The Campaign Against Nuclear Energy was established in Perth, Western Australia on 14 February 1976 by Friends of the Earth ; this included: Peter Brotherton, FOE coordinator WA and John Carlin, Mike Thomas and Barrie Machin after a meeting at University of WA...
(formed in South Australia in 1976), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth (which came to Australia in 1975) and the Australian Conservation Foundation (formed in 1975).
In November and December 1976, 7,000 people marched through the streets of Australian cities, protesting against uranium mining. The Uranium Moratorium group was formed and it called for a five-year moritorium on uranium mining. In April 1977 the first national demonstration co-ordinated by the Uranium Moratorium brought around 15,000 demonstrators into the streets of Melbourne, 5,000 in Sydney, and smaller numbers elsewhere. A National signature campaign attracted over 250,000 signatures calling for a five-year moratorium. In August, another demonstration brought 50,000 people out nationally and the opposition to uranium mining looked like a potential political force.
In 1977, the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
(ALP) national conference passed a motion in favour of an indefinite moratorium on uranium mining, and the anti-nuclear movement acted to support the Labor Party and help it regain office. However, a setback for the movement occurred in 1982 when another ALP conference overturned its anti-uranium policy in favour of a "one mine policy". After the ALP won power in 1983, the 1984 ALP conference voted in favour of a "Three mine policy
Three mine policy
The three mine policy, introduced in 1984 and abandoned in 1996, was a policy of the government of Australia to limit the number of uranium mines in the country to three.-History:...
". This referred to the then three existing uranium mines in Australia, Nabarlek
Nabarlek Uranium Mine
The Nabarlek Mine is a past producing uranium mine in the Northern Territory of Australia. The deposit sits within the Alligator Rivers Uranium Field approximately northeast of Jabiru. It was discovered by Queensland Mines Limited in 1970 by following up an intense airborne radiometric...
, Ranger
Ranger Uranium Mine
The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981...
and Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam
Olympic Dam, South Australia
Olympic Dam is a mining centre in South Australia located some 550 km NNW of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is the site of an extremely large iron oxide copper gold deposit producing copper, uranium, gold and silver. The site hosts an underground mine as well as an...
, and articulated ALP support for pre-existing mines and contracts, but opposition to any new mining.
1980s and 1990s
Between 1979 and 1984, the majority of what is now Kakadu National ParkKakadu National Park
Kakadu National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km southeast of Darwin.Kakadu National Park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It covers an area of , extending nearly 200 kilometres from north to south and over 100 kilometres...
was created, surrounding but not including the Ranger uranium mine. Tension between mining and conservation values led to long running controversy around mining in the Park region.
The two themes for the 1980 Hiroshima Day march and rally in Sydney, sponsored by the Movement Against Uranium Mining (MAUM), were: "Keep uranium in the ground" and "No to nuclear war." Later that year, the Sydney city council officially proclaimed Sydney nuclear-free, in an action similar to that taken by many other local councils throughout Australia.
In the 1980s, academic critics (such as Jim Falk
Jim Falk
Jim Falk is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Melbourne School of Land and Environment at The University of Melbourne. He also holds the title of Emeritus Professor at the University of Wollongong, is a Visiting Professor in the Institute of Advanced Studies at the United Nations University...
) discussed the "deadly connection" between uranium mining, nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons, linking Australia's nuclear policy to nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the...
and the "plutonium economy".
On Palm Sunday 1982, an estimated 100,000 Australians participated in anti-nuclear rallies in the nation's biggest cities. Growing year by year, the rallies drew 350,000 participants in 1985. The movement focused on halting Australia's uranium mining and exports, abolishing nuclear weapons, removing foreign military bases from Australia's soil, and creating a nuclear-free Pacific. Public opinion surveys found that about half of Australians opposed uranium mining and export, as well as the visits of U.S. nuclear warships, that 72 percent thought the use of nuclear weapons could never be justified, and that 80 percent favoured building a nuclear-free world.
The Nuclear Disarmament Party
Nuclear Disarmament Party
The Nuclear Disarmament Party was a political party in Australia. The party was formed in 1984 and enjoyed considerable initial success.-Foundation, the 1984 election, and the split:...
won a Senate seat in 1984, but soon faded from the political scene. The years of the Hawke-Keating ALP governments (1983–1996) were characterised by an "uneasy standoff in the uranium debate". The ALP acknowledged community feeling against uranium mining but was reluctant to move against the industry.
The 1986 Palm Sunday anti-nuclear rallies drew 250,000 people. In Melbourne, the seamen's union boycotted the arrival of foreign nuclear warships.
Australia's only nuclear energy education facility, the former School of Nuclear Engineering at the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
, closed in 1986.
By the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, and the costs of nuclear power had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case. The Campaign Against Nuclear Energy disbanded itself in 1988, two years after the Chernobyl Disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
.
The government policy preventing new uranium mines continued into the 1990s, despite occasional reviews and debate. Following protest marches in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane during 1998, a proposed mine at Jabiluka
Jabiluka
Jabiluka is a uranium deposit and mine development in the Northern Territory of Australia that was to have been built on land belonging to the Mirarr Aboriginal people...
was blocked.
Also in 1998, there was a proposal from an international consortium, Pangea Resources
Pangea Resources
Pangea Resources Australia Pty Ltd was a company notable for a controversial proposal for an international high-level radioactive waste repository in Australia....
, to establish a nuclear waste dump in Western Australia. The plan, to store 20 per cent of the world's spent nuclear fuel and weapons material, was "publicly condemned and abandoned".
2000s
In 2000, the Ranger Uranium MineRanger Uranium Mine
The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981...
in the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
and the Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam
Olympic Dam, South Australia
Olympic Dam is a mining centre in South Australia located some 550 km NNW of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is the site of an extremely large iron oxide copper gold deposit producing copper, uranium, gold and silver. The site hosts an underground mine as well as an...
mine in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
continued to operate, but Narbarlek Uranium Mine had closed. A third uranium mine, Beverley Uranium Mine
Beverley Uranium Mine
The Beverley Mine is Australia's third uranium mine and Australia's first operating in-situ recovery mine. It is located 35 km from Lake Frome at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and opened in 2001...
in SA, was also operating. Several advanced projects, such as Honeymoon in SA, Jabiluka in the Northern Territory and Yeelirrie in WA were on hold because of political and indigenous opposition.
In May 2000 there was an anti-nuclear demonstration at the Beverley Uranium Mine
Beverley Uranium Mine
The Beverley Mine is Australia's third uranium mine and Australia's first operating in-situ recovery mine. It is located 35 km from Lake Frome at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and opened in 2001...
, which involved about 100 protesters. Ten of the protesters were mistreated by police and were later awarded more than $700,000 in damages from the South Australian government.
Following the McClelland Royal Commission
McClelland Royal Commission
The McClelland Royal Commission or Royal Commission into British nuclear tests in Australia was an inquiry by the Australian government in 1984-1985 to investigate the conduct of the British in its use, with the then Australian government's permission, of Australian territory and soldiers for...
, a large clean-up was completed in outback South Australia in 2000, after nuclear testing at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga occurred between 1955 and 1963 at the Maralinga site, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area, in South Australia. A total of seven major nuclear tests were performed, with approximate yields ranging from 1 to 27 kilotons of TNT equivalent...
during the 1950s contaminated the region. The cleanup lasted three years, and cost over A$100 million, but there was controversy over the methods used and success of the operation.
As uranium prices began rising from about 2003, proponents of nuclear power advocated it as a solution to global warming and the Australian government began taking an interest. However, in June 2005, the Senate passed a motion opposing nuclear power for Australia. Then, in November 2006, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry and Resources released a pro-nuclear report into Australia's uranium. In late 2006 and early 2007, then Prime Minister John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
made widely reported statements in favour of nuclear power, on environmental grounds.
Faced with these proposals to examine nuclear power as a possible response to climate change, anti-nuclear campaigners and scientists in Australia emphasised claims that nuclear power could not significantly substitute for other power sources, and that uranium mining itself could become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Anti-nuclear campaigns were given added impetus by public concern about the sites for possible reactors: fears exploited by anti-nuclear power political parties in the lead-up to a national election in 2007.
The Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
Labor government was elected in November 2007 and is opposed to nuclear power for Australia. The anti-nuclear movement continues to be active in Australia, opposing expansion of existing uranium mines, lobbying against the development of nuclear power in Australia, and criticising proposals for nuclear waste disposal sites, the main candidate being Muckaty station
Muckaty station
Muckaty Station, also known as Warlmanpa, was a pastoral lease, now Aboriginal freehold land in Australia's Northern Territory, near Tennant Creek. Originally under traditional Indigenous Australian ownership, the area became a pastoral lease in the late 19th century and for many years...
in the Northern Territory.
As of October 2009, the Australian government was continuing to plan for a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. However, there has been opposition from indigenous people, the NT government, and wider NT community. In November 2009, about 100 anti-nuclear protesters assembled outside the Alice Springs parliamentary sittings, urging the Northern Territory Government not to approve a nearby uranium mine site.
2010s
As of early April 2010, more than 200 environmentalists and indigenous people gathered in Tennant Creek to oppose a radioactive waste dump being built on Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory.Western Australia has a significant share of the Australia's uranium reserves, but between 2002 and 2008, a state-wide ban on uranium mining was in force. The ban was lifted when the Liberal Party was voted into power in the state and, as of 2010, many companies are exploring for uranium in Western Australia. One of the industry's major players, the mining company BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...
, plans to develop the Yeelirrie uranium project
Yeelirrie uranium project
The Yeelirrie uranium project is a proposed uranium mining project, located approximately 70 km south west of Wiluna, in the Mid West region of Western Australia....
in 2011 in a 17 billion dollar project. Two other projects in Western Australia are further advanced then BHP's Yeelirrie, these being the Lake Way uranium project, which is pursued by Toro Energy and scheduled for production by 2013, and the Lake Maitland uranium project, pursued by Mega Uranium, which has a proposed start-of-production date of 2012.
As of late 2010, there are calls for Australians to debate whether the nation should adopt nuclear power as part of its energy mix. Nuclear power is seen to be "a divisive issue that can arouse deep passions among those for and against".
Following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear emergency in Japan, where three nuclear reactors were damaged by explosions, Ian Lowe
Ian Lowe
Ian Lowe is President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Professor of Science, Technology and Society and former Head of the School of Science at Griffith University, as well as an adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University and Flinders University. In 1996 he was chair-person of the...
sees the nuclear power option as being risky and unworkable for Australia. Lowe says nuclear power is too expensive, with insurmountable problems associated with waste disposal and weapons proliferation. It is also not a fast enough response to address climate change. Lowe advocates renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
which is "quicker, less expensive and less dangerous than nuclear".
Ban on Nuclear Reactors
Nuclear reactors are banned in QueenslandQueensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
and Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
.
Currently, uranium mining is prohibited in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
under the Uranium Prohibition Act of 1986.
Issues
The case against nuclear power and uranium mining in Australia has been concerned with the environmental, political, economic, social and cultural impacts of nuclear energy; with the shortcomings of nuclear power as an energy source; and with presenting a sustainable energySustainable energy
Sustainable energy is the provision of energy that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable energy sources include all renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal...
strategy. The most prominent adverse impact of nuclear power is seen to be its potential contribution towards proliferation of nuclear weapons. For example, the 1976 Ranger Inquiry report stated that "The nuclear power industry is unintentionally contributing to an increased risk of nuclear war. This is the most serious hazard associated with the industry".
The health risks associated with nuclear materials have also featured prominently in Australian anti-nuclear campaigns. This has been the case worldwide because of incidents like the Chernobyl disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
, but Australian concerns have also involved specific local factors such as controversy over the health effects of nuclear testing in Australia and the South Pacific, and the emergence of prominent anti-nuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott
Helen Caldicott
Helen Mary Caldicott is an Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate who has founded several associations dedicated to opposing the use of nuclear power, depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation, war and military action in general. She hosts a...
, who is a medical practitioner.
The economics of nuclear power has been a factor in anti-nuclear campaigns, with critics arguing that such power is uneconomical in Australia, particularly given the country's abundance of coal resources.
From the perspective of the anti-nuclear movement, most of the problems with nuclear power today are much the same as in the 1970s. The movement argues that nuclear reactor accidents remain a possibility and no convincing solution to the problem of long-lived radioactive waste has been proposed. Nuclear weapons proliferation continues to occur, notably in Pakistan and North Korea, building on facilities and expertise from civilian nuclear operations. The alternatives to nuclear power, efficient energy use
Efficient energy use
Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal of efforts to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature...
and renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
(especially wind power
Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
), have been further developed and commercialised
Renewable energy commercialization
Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include biomass, hydroelectricity, geothermal power and heat...
.
Public opinion
A 2009 poll conducted by the Uranium Information Centre found that Australians in the 40 to 55 years age group are the "most trenchantly opposed to nuclear power". This generation was raised during the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, experienced the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s, witnessed the 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island
Three Mile Island accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979....
reactor in the USA, and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
. It was the generation which was also subject to cultural influences including feature films such as the "nuclear industry conspiracies" The China Syndrome
The China Syndrome
The China Syndrome is a 1979 American thriller film that tells the story of a reporter and cameraman who discover safety coverups at a nuclear power plant. It stars Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady, James Hampton, Peter Donat, Richard Herd, and Wilford Brimley.The film was...
and Silkwood
Silkwood
Silkwood is a 1983 American drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen was inspired by the true-life story of Karen Silkwood, who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she...
and the apocalyptic Dr Strangelove. Younger people are "less resistant" to the idea of nuclear power for Australia.
Indigenous land owners have consistently opposed uranium mining and have spoken out about the adverse impact it has on their communities.
Active groups
- Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia
- Australian Conservation FoundationAustralian Conservation FoundationThe Australian Conservation Foundation is an Australian non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.-History:...
- Australian Nuclear Free Alliance
- Cycle Against the Nuclear Cycle
- EnergyScience
- Friends of the Earth AustraliaFriends of the Earth AustraliaFriends of the Earth Australia is a federation of independent local groups working for a socially equitable and environmentally sustainable future. Friends of the Earth Australia believes that pursuing environmental protection is inseparable from broader social concerns, and as a result uses an...
- Greenpeace Australia PacificGreenpeace Australia PacificGreenpeace Australia Pacific is the regional office of the global environmental organization Greenpeace. Greenpeace Australia Pacific one of Australia's largest environmental organisations.-Origins and Formation:...
- Kupa Piti Kungka TjutaKupa Piti Kungka TjutaThe Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta is a council of Senior Aboriginal Women from Coober Pedy, South Australia. They protest against Government plans to dump radioactive waste dump in their land, and for protection of their land and culture....
- Mineral Policy InstituteMineral Policy InstituteThe Mineral Policy Institute is an Australian-based non-governmental organisation that specialises in preventing environmentally and socially destructive mining, minerals and energy projects in Australia, Asia and the Pacific. The institute as formed in 1995 in response to the internationalisation...
- Peace Organisation of AustraliaPeace Organisation of AustraliaThe Peace Organisation of Australia was a non-profit and non-religious organisation based in Melbourne, Australia which was active from 2005 to 2009. Its stated objective was the promotion of world peace through education. The organisation was established in May 2005 by a group of students from the...
- The Australia InstituteThe Australia InstituteThe Australia Institute is a left wing Australian think tank conducting public policy research, funded by grants from philanthropic trusts, memberships and commissioned research....
- The Sustainable Energy and Anti-Uranium Service Inc.
- The Wilderness SocietyThe Wilderness Society (Australia)The Wilderness Society is an Australian, community-based, not-for-profit non-governmental environmental advocacy organisation. Its purpose is to protect, promote and restore wilderness and natural processes across Australia for the survival and ongoing evolution of life on Earth.It is a...
Individuals
There are several prominent Australians who have publicly expressed anti-nuclear views:
|
Ian Lowe Ian Lowe is President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Professor of Science, Technology and Society and former Head of the School of Science at Griffith University, as well as an adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University and Flinders University. In 1996 he was chair-person of the... Scott Ludlam Scott Ludlam is an Australian politician and Greens member of the Australian Senate since July 2008, representing the state of Western Australia.... Yvonne Margarula Yvonne Margarula won the 1998 Friends of the Earth International Environment Award and the 1998 Nuclear-Free Future Award. She also won the 1999 U.S... Dee Margetts Diane Elizabeth Margetts was an Australian politician. She was a member of the Australian Senate from 1993 to 1999 and a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 2001 to 2005, representing the Greens Western Australia.... Jillian Marsh Jillian Marsh was raised in the coal-mining town of Leigh Creek, in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges, and she has had a long interest in mining issues and indigenous communities. In 1998 Marsh received the prestigious Jill Hudson Environmental Award for her work in educating people living near the... Brian Martin (professor) Brian Martin teaches in the interdisciplinary area of Science, technology, and society at the University of Wollongong in Australia, where he became a professor in 2007. He was president of Whistleblowers Australia from 1996 to 1999 and remains their International Director.Martin received his PhD ... Kerry Nettle Kerry Michelle Nettle is a former Australian Senator and member of the Australian Greens in New South Wales. Elected at the 2001 federal election on a primary vote of 4.36 percent with One Nation and micro-party preferences, she failed to gain re-election at the 2007 federal election, despite an... Nancy Shelley Nancy Jean Shelley OAM was a Quaker peace activist who represented the Australian peace movement at the United Nations in 1982.She was a prominent speaker at many Australian and international conferences in the 1980s and 1990s.... Jo Vallentine Josephine Vallentine is a peace activist and a former Australian Senator for Western Australia. Vallentine entered the Senate on 1 July 1985 after she had been elected as a member of the Nuclear Disarmament Party but she sat as an independent and then as a member of the Greens Western Australia... Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative... Stuart White Stuart White is an Australian educator and sustainability advocate. He is a professor and the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney. White has researched sustainability for more than twenty years, specialising in least cost planning for utilities... Eileen Wani Wingfield Eileen Wani Wingfield is an Aboriginal elder from Australia. She was jointly awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2003 with Eileen Kampakuta Brown, for efforts to stop the plans for nuclear waste dump in Australia's wild desert land, and for protection of their land and culture.Wingfield ... |
See also
- Anti-nuclear protestsAnti-nuclear protestsAnti-nuclear protests first emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the United Kingdom, the first Aldermaston March, organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, took place in 1958. In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, about 50,000 women brought together by Women Strike for Peace...
- Australian Uranium AssociationAustralian Uranium AssociationThe Australian Uranium Association is an Australian industry trade group representing companies involved in uranium exploration, mining and export....
- Clean Energy Future GroupClean Energy Future GroupThe Clean Energy Future Group is an Australian collaboration of environmental groups aiming to promote renewable energy use in Australia.-Environmental Organisations:*Australasian Energy Performance Contracting Association ,...
- History of the anti-nuclear movementHistory of the anti-nuclear movementThe application of nuclear technology, both as a source of energy and as an instrument of war, has been controversial.Scientists and diplomats have debated nuclear weapons policy since before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. The public became concerned about nuclear weapons testing from...
- International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and DisarmamentInternational Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and DisarmamentThe International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament is a joint initiative of the Australian and Japanese governments. It was proposed by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 9 June 2008, and on 9 July 2008 Rudd and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda agreed to establish...
- List of anti-nuclear groups
- List of Australian inquiries into uranium mining
- Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents
- Renewable energy commercializationRenewable energy commercializationRenewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include biomass, hydroelectricity, geothermal power and heat...
- Renewable energy in AustraliaRenewable energy in AustraliaRenewable energy in Australia represents 5.2% of total energy consumption, but only 1.7% of total production, the difference being the result of significant non-renewable energy exports. In the five years to 2009 renewable energy consumption grew by 3.5%, faster than other energy sources. Of all...
- Say Yes demonstrationsSay Yes demonstrationsThe "Say Yes" demonstrations were a series of simultaneous political demonstrations held in major cities across Australia on 5 June 2011 to coincide with World Environment Day...
External links
Nuclear testingNuclear testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
, uranium mining
Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. The worldwide production of uranium in 2009 amounted to 50,572 tonnes, of which 27% was mined in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium...
and export, and nuclear energy have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia has a long history. Its origins date back to the 1972–73 debate over French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the 1976–77 debate about uranium mining in Australia
Uranium mining in Australia
Radioactive ores were first extracted at Radium Hill in 1906, and Mount Painter in South Australia in the 1930s, to recover radium for medical use. Several hundred kilograms of uranium were also produced....
.
Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established in the mid-1970s, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
The Campaign Against Nuclear Energy was established in Perth, Western Australia on 14 February 1976 by Friends of the Earth ; this included: Peter Brotherton, FOE coordinator WA and John Carlin, Mike Thomas and Barrie Machin after a meeting at University of WA...
(CANE), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth Australia
Friends of the Earth Australia is a federation of independent local groups working for a socially equitable and environmentally sustainable future. Friends of the Earth Australia believes that pursuing environmental protection is inseparable from broader social concerns, and as a result uses an...
and the Australian Conservation Foundation
Australian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation is an Australian non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.-History:...
. A setback came in 1983 when the newly elected Labor Government failed to implement its stated policy of stopping uranium mining. But by the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, and the costs of nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case. CANE disbanded itself in 1988.
About 2003, proponents of nuclear power advocated it as a solution to global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
and the Australian government began taking an interest. Anti-nuclear
Anti-nuclear
The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes the use of nuclear technologies. Many direct action groups, environmental groups, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, and international level...
campaigners and some scientists in Australia emphasised that nuclear power could not significantly substitute for other power sources, and that uranium mining
Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. The worldwide production of uranium in 2009 amounted to 50,572 tonnes, of which 27% was mined in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium...
itself could become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.
As of 2010, Australia has no nuclear power stations and the current Gillard Labor government
Gillard Government
The Gillard Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia, which is led by the Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard. Julia Gillard became Prime Minister on the 24th of June 2010 after challenging her predecessor, Kevin Rudd for the position of leader of the parliamentary...
is opposed to nuclear power for Australia
Nuclear power in Australia
Nuclear power in Australia is a heavily debated concept. Australia currently has no nuclear facilities generatingelectricity, however, Australia has 23% of the world's uranium deposits and is the world's second largest producer of uranium after Kazakhstan...
. Australia has three operating uranium mines at Olympic Dam
Olympic Dam, South Australia
Olympic Dam is a mining centre in South Australia located some 550 km NNW of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is the site of an extremely large iron oxide copper gold deposit producing copper, uranium, gold and silver. The site hosts an underground mine as well as an...
(Roxby) and Beverley
Beverley Uranium Mine
The Beverley Mine is Australia's third uranium mine and Australia's first operating in-situ recovery mine. It is located 35 km from Lake Frome at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and opened in 2001...
- both in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
's north - and at Ranger
Ranger Uranium Mine
The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981...
in the Northern Territory. As of April 2009, construction has begun on South Australia's third uranium mine—the Honeymoon Uranium Mine
Honeymoon Uranium Mine
The Honeymoon Mine will be Australia's fourth uranium mine and Australia's second operating in-situ recovery mine. The mine is owned by Uranium One. The uranium deposit belongs to the palaeochannel type.-See also:* Uranium mining in Australia...
. Australia has no nuclear weapons.
1950s and 1960s
Rum Jungle, Northern Territory
The Rum Jungle uranium deposit in the Northern Territory, Australia was found in 1949. It is 65 kilometres south of Darwin on the East Finniss River.-Original uranium mine:...
85 kilometres south of Darwin. Local aboriginal communities were not consulted and the mine site became an environmental disaster.
Also in 1952, the Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
Government passed legislation, the "Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952", which allowed the British Government access to isolated parts of Australia to undertake atmospheric nuclear tests. These tests were mainly conducted at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga occurred between 1955 and 1963 at the Maralinga site, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area, in South Australia. A total of seven major nuclear tests were performed, with approximate yields ranging from 1 to 27 kilotons of TNT equivalent...
in South Australia between 1955 and 1963, but the full legal and political implications of the testing program took decades to emerge. The secrecy which surrounded the British testing program and the remoteness of the test sites meant that public awareness of the risks involved grew very slowly.
But as the "Ban the Bomb" movement gathered momentum in Western societies throughout the 1950s, so too did opposition to the British tests in Australia. An opinion poll taken in 1957 showed 49 per cent of the Australian public were opposed to the tests and only 39 per cent in favour. In 1964, Peace Marches which featured "Ban the bomb" placards, were held in several Australian capital cities.
In 1969, a 500 MW nuclear power plant was proposed for the Jervis Bay Territory
Jervis Bay Nuclear Power Plant
Jervis Bay Nuclear Power Plant was a proposed nuclear power reactor in the Jervis Bay Territory on the south coast of New South Wales. It would have been Australia's first nuclear power plant, and was the only proposal to have received serious consideration...
, 200 km south of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. A local opposition campaign began, and the South Coast Trades and Labour Council (covering workers in the region) announced that it would refuse to build the reactor. Some environmental studies and site works were completed, and two rounds of tenders were called and evaluated, but in 1971 the Australian government decided not to proceed with the project, citing economic reasons.
1970s
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
in a case launched by Australia and New Zealand, ordered that the French cease atmospheric nuclear testing at Mururoa atoll. In 1974 and 1975 this concern came to focus on uranium mining in Australia and several Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International is an international network of environmental organizations in 76 countries.FOEI is assisted by a small secretariat which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns...
groups were formed. The Australian Conservation Foundation
Australian Conservation Foundation
The Australian Conservation Foundation is an Australian non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.-History:...
also began voicing concern about uranium mining and supporting the activities of the grass-roots organisations. Concern about the environmental effects of uranium mining was a significant factor and poor management of waste at an early uranium mine, Rum Jungle
Rum Jungle, Northern Territory
The Rum Jungle uranium deposit in the Northern Territory, Australia was found in 1949. It is 65 kilometres south of Darwin on the East Finniss River.-Original uranium mine:...
, led it to become a significant pollution problem in the 1970s. The Australian anti-nuclear movement also acquired initial impetus from various individuals who publicly voiced concern about the nuclear option, such as nuclear scientists Richard Temple and Rob Robotham, and poets Dorothy Green and Judith Wright
Judith Wright
Judith Arundell Wright was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights.-Biography:...
.
The years 1976 and 1977 saw uranium mining become a major political issue, with the Ranger Inquiry (Fox) report
Russell Walter Fox
Russell Walter Fox AC QC LLB is an Australian author, educator, jurist and former chief judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. He is best known for his extensive report on uranium mining in Australia in the early 1980s....
opening up a public debate about uranium mining. Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining (founded in 1976) and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
The Campaign Against Nuclear Energy was established in Perth, Western Australia on 14 February 1976 by Friends of the Earth ; this included: Peter Brotherton, FOE coordinator WA and John Carlin, Mike Thomas and Barrie Machin after a meeting at University of WA...
(formed in South Australia in 1976), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth (which came to Australia in 1975) and the Australian Conservation Foundation (formed in 1975).
In November and December 1976, 7,000 people marched through the streets of Australian cities, protesting against uranium mining. The Uranium Moratorium group was formed and it called for a five-year moritorium on uranium mining. In April 1977 the first national demonstration co-ordinated by the Uranium Moratorium brought around 15,000 demonstrators into the streets of Melbourne, 5,000 in Sydney, and smaller numbers elsewhere. A National signature campaign attracted over 250,000 signatures calling for a five-year moratorium. In August, another demonstration brought 50,000 people out nationally and the opposition to uranium mining looked like a potential political force.
In 1977, the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
(ALP) national conference passed a motion in favour of an indefinite moratorium on uranium mining, and the anti-nuclear movement acted to support the Labor Party and help it regain office. However, a setback for the movement occurred in 1982 when another ALP conference overturned its anti-uranium policy in favour of a "one mine policy". After the ALP won power in 1983, the 1984 ALP conference voted in favour of a "Three mine policy
Three mine policy
The three mine policy, introduced in 1984 and abandoned in 1996, was a policy of the government of Australia to limit the number of uranium mines in the country to three.-History:...
". This referred to the then three existing uranium mines in Australia, Nabarlek
Nabarlek Uranium Mine
The Nabarlek Mine is a past producing uranium mine in the Northern Territory of Australia. The deposit sits within the Alligator Rivers Uranium Field approximately northeast of Jabiru. It was discovered by Queensland Mines Limited in 1970 by following up an intense airborne radiometric...
, Ranger
Ranger Uranium Mine
The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981...
and Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam
Olympic Dam, South Australia
Olympic Dam is a mining centre in South Australia located some 550 km NNW of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is the site of an extremely large iron oxide copper gold deposit producing copper, uranium, gold and silver. The site hosts an underground mine as well as an...
, and articulated ALP support for pre-existing mines and contracts, but opposition to any new mining.
1980s and 1990s
Between 1979 and 1984, the majority of what is now Kakadu National ParkKakadu National Park
Kakadu National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km southeast of Darwin.Kakadu National Park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It covers an area of , extending nearly 200 kilometres from north to south and over 100 kilometres...
was created, surrounding but not including the Ranger uranium mine. Tension between mining and conservation values led to long running controversy around mining in the Park region.
The two themes for the 1980 Hiroshima Day march and rally in Sydney, sponsored by the Movement Against Uranium Mining (MAUM), were: "Keep uranium in the ground" and "No to nuclear war." Later that year, the Sydney city council officially proclaimed Sydney nuclear-free, in an action similar to that taken by many other local councils throughout Australia.
In the 1980s, academic critics (such as Jim Falk
Jim Falk
Jim Falk is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Melbourne School of Land and Environment at The University of Melbourne. He also holds the title of Emeritus Professor at the University of Wollongong, is a Visiting Professor in the Institute of Advanced Studies at the United Nations University...
) discussed the "deadly connection" between uranium mining, nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons, linking Australia's nuclear policy to nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the...
and the "plutonium economy".
On Palm Sunday 1982, an estimated 100,000 Australians participated in anti-nuclear rallies in the nation's biggest cities. Growing year by year, the rallies drew 350,000 participants in 1985. The movement focused on halting Australia's uranium mining and exports, abolishing nuclear weapons, removing foreign military bases from Australia's soil, and creating a nuclear-free Pacific. Public opinion surveys found that about half of Australians opposed uranium mining and export, as well as the visits of U.S. nuclear warships, that 72 percent thought the use of nuclear weapons could never be justified, and that 80 percent favoured building a nuclear-free world.
The Nuclear Disarmament Party
Nuclear Disarmament Party
The Nuclear Disarmament Party was a political party in Australia. The party was formed in 1984 and enjoyed considerable initial success.-Foundation, the 1984 election, and the split:...
won a Senate seat in 1984, but soon faded from the political scene. The years of the Hawke-Keating ALP governments (1983–1996) were characterised by an "uneasy standoff in the uranium debate". The ALP acknowledged community feeling against uranium mining but was reluctant to move against the industry.
The 1986 Palm Sunday anti-nuclear rallies drew 250,000 people. In Melbourne, the seamen's union boycotted the arrival of foreign nuclear warships.
Australia's only nuclear energy education facility, the former School of Nuclear Engineering at the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
, closed in 1986.
By the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, and the costs of nuclear power had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case. The Campaign Against Nuclear Energy disbanded itself in 1988, two years after the Chernobyl Disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
.
The government policy preventing new uranium mines continued into the 1990s, despite occasional reviews and debate. Following protest marches in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane during 1998, a proposed mine at Jabiluka
Jabiluka
Jabiluka is a uranium deposit and mine development in the Northern Territory of Australia that was to have been built on land belonging to the Mirarr Aboriginal people...
was blocked.
Also in 1998, there was a proposal from an international consortium, Pangea Resources
Pangea Resources
Pangea Resources Australia Pty Ltd was a company notable for a controversial proposal for an international high-level radioactive waste repository in Australia....
, to establish a nuclear waste dump in Western Australia. The plan, to store 20 per cent of the world's spent nuclear fuel and weapons material, was "publicly condemned and abandoned".
2000s
In 2000, the Ranger Uranium MineRanger Uranium Mine
The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981...
in the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
and the Roxby Downs/Olympic Dam
Olympic Dam, South Australia
Olympic Dam is a mining centre in South Australia located some 550 km NNW of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is the site of an extremely large iron oxide copper gold deposit producing copper, uranium, gold and silver. The site hosts an underground mine as well as an...
mine in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
continued to operate, but Narbarlek Uranium Mine had closed. A third uranium mine, Beverley Uranium Mine
Beverley Uranium Mine
The Beverley Mine is Australia's third uranium mine and Australia's first operating in-situ recovery mine. It is located 35 km from Lake Frome at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and opened in 2001...
in SA, was also operating. Several advanced projects, such as Honeymoon in SA, Jabiluka in the Northern Territory and Yeelirrie in WA were on hold because of political and indigenous opposition.
In May 2000 there was an anti-nuclear demonstration at the Beverley Uranium Mine
Beverley Uranium Mine
The Beverley Mine is Australia's third uranium mine and Australia's first operating in-situ recovery mine. It is located 35 km from Lake Frome at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and opened in 2001...
, which involved about 100 protesters. Ten of the protesters were mistreated by police and were later awarded more than $700,000 in damages from the South Australian government.
Following the McClelland Royal Commission
McClelland Royal Commission
The McClelland Royal Commission or Royal Commission into British nuclear tests in Australia was an inquiry by the Australian government in 1984-1985 to investigate the conduct of the British in its use, with the then Australian government's permission, of Australian territory and soldiers for...
, a large clean-up was completed in outback South Australia in 2000, after nuclear testing at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga occurred between 1955 and 1963 at the Maralinga site, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area, in South Australia. A total of seven major nuclear tests were performed, with approximate yields ranging from 1 to 27 kilotons of TNT equivalent...
during the 1950s contaminated the region. The cleanup lasted three years, and cost over A$100 million, but there was controversy over the methods used and success of the operation.
As uranium prices began rising from about 2003, proponents of nuclear power advocated it as a solution to global warming and the Australian government began taking an interest. However, in June 2005, the Senate passed a motion opposing nuclear power for Australia. Then, in November 2006, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry and Resources released a pro-nuclear report into Australia's uranium. In late 2006 and early 2007, then Prime Minister John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
made widely reported statements in favour of nuclear power, on environmental grounds.
Faced with these proposals to examine nuclear power as a possible response to climate change, anti-nuclear campaigners and scientists in Australia emphasised claims that nuclear power could not significantly substitute for other power sources, and that uranium mining itself could become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Anti-nuclear campaigns were given added impetus by public concern about the sites for possible reactors: fears exploited by anti-nuclear power political parties in the lead-up to a national election in 2007.
The Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
Labor government was elected in November 2007 and is opposed to nuclear power for Australia. The anti-nuclear movement continues to be active in Australia, opposing expansion of existing uranium mines, lobbying against the development of nuclear power in Australia, and criticising proposals for nuclear waste disposal sites, the main candidate being Muckaty station
Muckaty station
Muckaty Station, also known as Warlmanpa, was a pastoral lease, now Aboriginal freehold land in Australia's Northern Territory, near Tennant Creek. Originally under traditional Indigenous Australian ownership, the area became a pastoral lease in the late 19th century and for many years...
in the Northern Territory.
As of October 2009, the Australian government was continuing to plan for a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. However, there has been opposition from indigenous people, the NT government, and wider NT community. In November 2009, about 100 anti-nuclear protesters assembled outside the Alice Springs parliamentary sittings, urging the Northern Territory Government not to approve a nearby uranium mine site.
2010s
As of early April 2010, more than 200 environmentalists and indigenous people gathered in Tennant Creek to oppose a radioactive waste dump being built on Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory.Western Australia has a significant share of the Australia's uranium reserves, but between 2002 and 2008, a state-wide ban on uranium mining was in force. The ban was lifted when the Liberal Party was voted into power in the state and, as of 2010, many companies are exploring for uranium in Western Australia. One of the industry's major players, the mining company BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton
BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...
, plans to develop the Yeelirrie uranium project
Yeelirrie uranium project
The Yeelirrie uranium project is a proposed uranium mining project, located approximately 70 km south west of Wiluna, in the Mid West region of Western Australia....
in 2011 in a 17 billion dollar project. Two other projects in Western Australia are further advanced then BHP's Yeelirrie, these being the Lake Way uranium project, which is pursued by Toro Energy and scheduled for production by 2013, and the Lake Maitland uranium project, pursued by Mega Uranium, which has a proposed start-of-production date of 2012.
As of late 2010, there are calls for Australians to debate whether the nation should adopt nuclear power as part of its energy mix. Nuclear power is seen to be "a divisive issue that can arouse deep passions among those for and against".
Following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear emergency in Japan, where three nuclear reactors were damaged by explosions, Ian Lowe
Ian Lowe
Ian Lowe is President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Professor of Science, Technology and Society and former Head of the School of Science at Griffith University, as well as an adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University and Flinders University. In 1996 he was chair-person of the...
sees the nuclear power option as being risky and unworkable for Australia. Lowe says nuclear power is too expensive, with insurmountable problems associated with waste disposal and weapons proliferation. It is also not a fast enough response to address climate change. Lowe advocates renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
which is "quicker, less expensive and less dangerous than nuclear".
Ban on Nuclear Reactors
Nuclear reactors are banned in QueenslandQueensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
and Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
.
Currently, uranium mining is prohibited in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
under the Uranium Prohibition Act of 1986.
Issues
The case against nuclear power and uranium mining in Australia has been concerned with the environmental, political, economic, social and cultural impacts of nuclear energy; with the shortcomings of nuclear power as an energy source; and with presenting a sustainable energySustainable energy
Sustainable energy is the provision of energy that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable energy sources include all renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal...
strategy. The most prominent adverse impact of nuclear power is seen to be its potential contribution towards proliferation of nuclear weapons. For example, the 1976 Ranger Inquiry report stated that "The nuclear power industry is unintentionally contributing to an increased risk of nuclear war. This is the most serious hazard associated with the industry".
The health risks associated with nuclear materials have also featured prominently in Australian anti-nuclear campaigns. This has been the case worldwide because of incidents like the Chernobyl disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
, but Australian concerns have also involved specific local factors such as controversy over the health effects of nuclear testing in Australia and the South Pacific, and the emergence of prominent anti-nuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott
Helen Caldicott
Helen Mary Caldicott is an Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate who has founded several associations dedicated to opposing the use of nuclear power, depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation, war and military action in general. She hosts a...
, who is a medical practitioner.
The economics of nuclear power has been a factor in anti-nuclear campaigns, with critics arguing that such power is uneconomical in Australia, particularly given the country's abundance of coal resources.
From the perspective of the anti-nuclear movement, most of the problems with nuclear power today are much the same as in the 1970s. The movement argues that nuclear reactor accidents remain a possibility and no convincing solution to the problem of long-lived radioactive waste has been proposed. Nuclear weapons proliferation continues to occur, notably in Pakistan and North Korea, building on facilities and expertise from civilian nuclear operations. The alternatives to nuclear power, efficient energy use
Efficient energy use
Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal of efforts to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature...
and renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
(especially wind power
Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
), have been further developed and commercialised
Renewable energy commercialization
Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include biomass, hydroelectricity, geothermal power and heat...
.
Public opinion
A 2009 poll conducted by the Uranium Information Centre found that Australians in the 40 to 55 years age group are the "most trenchantly opposed to nuclear power". This generation was raised during the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, experienced the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s, witnessed the 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island
Three Mile Island accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979....
reactor in the USA, and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
. It was the generation which was also subject to cultural influences including feature films such as the "nuclear industry conspiracies" The China Syndrome
The China Syndrome
The China Syndrome is a 1979 American thriller film that tells the story of a reporter and cameraman who discover safety coverups at a nuclear power plant. It stars Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady, James Hampton, Peter Donat, Richard Herd, and Wilford Brimley.The film was...
and Silkwood
Silkwood
Silkwood is a 1983 American drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen was inspired by the true-life story of Karen Silkwood, who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she...
and the apocalyptic Dr Strangelove. Younger people are "less resistant" to the idea of nuclear power for Australia.
Indigenous land owners have consistently opposed uranium mining and have spoken out about the adverse impact it has on their communities.
Active groups
- Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia
- Australian Conservation FoundationAustralian Conservation FoundationThe Australian Conservation Foundation is an Australian non-profit, community-based environmental organisation focused on advocacy, policy research and community outreach.-History:...
- Australian Nuclear Free Alliance
- Cycle Against the Nuclear Cycle
- EnergyScience
- Friends of the Earth AustraliaFriends of the Earth AustraliaFriends of the Earth Australia is a federation of independent local groups working for a socially equitable and environmentally sustainable future. Friends of the Earth Australia believes that pursuing environmental protection is inseparable from broader social concerns, and as a result uses an...
- Greenpeace Australia PacificGreenpeace Australia PacificGreenpeace Australia Pacific is the regional office of the global environmental organization Greenpeace. Greenpeace Australia Pacific one of Australia's largest environmental organisations.-Origins and Formation:...
- Kupa Piti Kungka TjutaKupa Piti Kungka TjutaThe Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta is a council of Senior Aboriginal Women from Coober Pedy, South Australia. They protest against Government plans to dump radioactive waste dump in their land, and for protection of their land and culture....
- Mineral Policy InstituteMineral Policy InstituteThe Mineral Policy Institute is an Australian-based non-governmental organisation that specialises in preventing environmentally and socially destructive mining, minerals and energy projects in Australia, Asia and the Pacific. The institute as formed in 1995 in response to the internationalisation...
- Peace Organisation of AustraliaPeace Organisation of AustraliaThe Peace Organisation of Australia was a non-profit and non-religious organisation based in Melbourne, Australia which was active from 2005 to 2009. Its stated objective was the promotion of world peace through education. The organisation was established in May 2005 by a group of students from the...
- The Australia InstituteThe Australia InstituteThe Australia Institute is a left wing Australian think tank conducting public policy research, funded by grants from philanthropic trusts, memberships and commissioned research....
- The Sustainable Energy and Anti-Uranium Service Inc.
- The Wilderness SocietyThe Wilderness Society (Australia)The Wilderness Society is an Australian, community-based, not-for-profit non-governmental environmental advocacy organisation. Its purpose is to protect, promote and restore wilderness and natural processes across Australia for the survival and ongoing evolution of life on Earth.It is a...
Individuals
There are several prominent Australians who have publicly expressed anti-nuclear views:
|
Ian Lowe Ian Lowe is President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Professor of Science, Technology and Society and former Head of the School of Science at Griffith University, as well as an adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University and Flinders University. In 1996 he was chair-person of the... Scott Ludlam Scott Ludlam is an Australian politician and Greens member of the Australian Senate since July 2008, representing the state of Western Australia.... Yvonne Margarula Yvonne Margarula won the 1998 Friends of the Earth International Environment Award and the 1998 Nuclear-Free Future Award. She also won the 1999 U.S... Dee Margetts Diane Elizabeth Margetts was an Australian politician. She was a member of the Australian Senate from 1993 to 1999 and a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 2001 to 2005, representing the Greens Western Australia.... Jillian Marsh Jillian Marsh was raised in the coal-mining town of Leigh Creek, in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges, and she has had a long interest in mining issues and indigenous communities. In 1998 Marsh received the prestigious Jill Hudson Environmental Award for her work in educating people living near the... Brian Martin (professor) Brian Martin teaches in the interdisciplinary area of Science, technology, and society at the University of Wollongong in Australia, where he became a professor in 2007. He was president of Whistleblowers Australia from 1996 to 1999 and remains their International Director.Martin received his PhD ... Kerry Nettle Kerry Michelle Nettle is a former Australian Senator and member of the Australian Greens in New South Wales. Elected at the 2001 federal election on a primary vote of 4.36 percent with One Nation and micro-party preferences, she failed to gain re-election at the 2007 federal election, despite an... Nancy Shelley Nancy Jean Shelley OAM was a Quaker peace activist who represented the Australian peace movement at the United Nations in 1982.She was a prominent speaker at many Australian and international conferences in the 1980s and 1990s.... Jo Vallentine Josephine Vallentine is a peace activist and a former Australian Senator for Western Australia. Vallentine entered the Senate on 1 July 1985 after she had been elected as a member of the Nuclear Disarmament Party but she sat as an independent and then as a member of the Greens Western Australia... Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative... Stuart White Stuart White is an Australian educator and sustainability advocate. He is a professor and the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney. White has researched sustainability for more than twenty years, specialising in least cost planning for utilities... Eileen Wani Wingfield Eileen Wani Wingfield is an Aboriginal elder from Australia. She was jointly awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2003 with Eileen Kampakuta Brown, for efforts to stop the plans for nuclear waste dump in Australia's wild desert land, and for protection of their land and culture.Wingfield ... |
See also
- Anti-nuclear protestsAnti-nuclear protestsAnti-nuclear protests first emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the United Kingdom, the first Aldermaston March, organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, took place in 1958. In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, about 50,000 women brought together by Women Strike for Peace...
- Australian Uranium AssociationAustralian Uranium AssociationThe Australian Uranium Association is an Australian industry trade group representing companies involved in uranium exploration, mining and export....
- Clean Energy Future GroupClean Energy Future GroupThe Clean Energy Future Group is an Australian collaboration of environmental groups aiming to promote renewable energy use in Australia.-Environmental Organisations:*Australasian Energy Performance Contracting Association ,...
- History of the anti-nuclear movementHistory of the anti-nuclear movementThe application of nuclear technology, both as a source of energy and as an instrument of war, has been controversial.Scientists and diplomats have debated nuclear weapons policy since before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. The public became concerned about nuclear weapons testing from...
- International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and DisarmamentInternational Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and DisarmamentThe International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament is a joint initiative of the Australian and Japanese governments. It was proposed by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 9 June 2008, and on 9 July 2008 Rudd and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda agreed to establish...
- List of anti-nuclear groups
- List of Australian inquiries into uranium mining
- Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents
- Renewable energy commercializationRenewable energy commercializationRenewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include biomass, hydroelectricity, geothermal power and heat...
- Renewable energy in AustraliaRenewable energy in AustraliaRenewable energy in Australia represents 5.2% of total energy consumption, but only 1.7% of total production, the difference being the result of significant non-renewable energy exports. In the five years to 2009 renewable energy consumption grew by 3.5%, faster than other energy sources. Of all...
- Say Yes demonstrationsSay Yes demonstrationsThe "Say Yes" demonstrations were a series of simultaneous political demonstrations held in major cities across Australia on 5 June 2011 to coincide with World Environment Day...
External links
- Contemporary critiques of nuclear power by Australian scientists
- Australian Map Of Nuclear Sites
- Nuclear Knights, a book by anti-nuclear campaigner Brian Martin.
- Strategy against nuclear power, an anti-nuclear campaign strategy produced by Friends of the Earth.
- Backs to the Blast, an Australian Nuclear Story, a documentary about nuclear testing in Australia.
- Stop Uranium Mining! Australia's Decade of Protest 1975-1985, a history of anti-nuclear protest in the 1970s and 1980s.
