Pangea Resources
Encyclopedia
Pangea Resources Australia Pty Ltd was a company notable for a controversial proposal for an international high-level
radioactive waste
repository in Australia.
Pangea Resources was a joint venture
of British Nuclear Fuels Limited
, Golder Associates and Swiss radioactive waste management entity Nagra.
In 1998-1999 it put forward a proposal for a high level radioactive waste repository to be built in remote central Australia. The proposal was highly controversial, and elicited opposition from Australian state and federal parliaments. This included actions by two parliaments to prevent the progress of such a proposal. These were the Western Australian Parliament's passage of the Nuclear Waste Storage (Prohibition) Act 1999, and the South Australian Parliament's implementation of the Nuclear Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act 2000.
The anti-nuclear movement in Australia
lobbied against the idea of such a facility. When the federal minister responsible for the issue, Minister for Industry Science and Resources
Senator Nick Minchin
, indicated that ‘the Pangea proposal will go nowhere’, Pangea ultimately abandoned its advocacy.
High-level radioactive waste management
High-level radioactive waste management concerns management and disposal of highly radioactive materials created during production of nuclear power and nuclear warheads. The technical issues in accomplishing this are daunting, due to the extremely long periods radioactive wastes remain deadly to...
radioactive waste
Radioactive waste
Radioactive wastes are wastes that contain radioactive material. Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear fission or nuclear technology, such as research and medicine...
repository in Australia.
Pangea Resources was a joint venture
Joint venture
A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...
of British Nuclear Fuels Limited
BNFL
British Nuclear Fuels Limited was a nuclear energy and fuels company owned by the UK Government. It was a former manufacturer and transporter of nuclear fuel , ran reactors, generated and sold electricity, reprocessed and managed spent fuel , and decommissioned nuclear plants and other similar...
, Golder Associates and Swiss radioactive waste management entity Nagra.
In 1998-1999 it put forward a proposal for a high level radioactive waste repository to be built in remote central Australia. The proposal was highly controversial, and elicited opposition from Australian state and federal parliaments. This included actions by two parliaments to prevent the progress of such a proposal. These were the Western Australian Parliament's passage of the Nuclear Waste Storage (Prohibition) Act 1999, and the South Australian Parliament's implementation of the Nuclear Waste Storage Facility (Prohibition) Act 2000.
The anti-nuclear movement in Australia
Anti-nuclear movement in Australia
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...
lobbied against the idea of such a facility. When the federal minister responsible for the issue, Minister for Industry Science and Resources
Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (Australia)
The current Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research is Kim Carr, appointed on 3 December 2007. He administers his portfolio through the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.-List of Ministers for Industry :...
Senator Nick Minchin
Nick Minchin
Nicholas Hugh "Nick" Minchin is a former Australian politician, serving as a Liberal member of the Australian Senate representing South Australia from July 1993 to June 2011, and a former cabinet minister in the Howard Government....
, indicated that ‘the Pangea proposal will go nowhere’, Pangea ultimately abandoned its advocacy.