Dr. Caldicott’s 2010 interview with Australian Natalie Wasley, coordinator of the Beyond Nuclear Initiative based at the Arid Lands Environment Center in the Northern Territory of Australia. Wasley has travelled extensively over the last 10 years, meeting with communities in Australia and overseas who have been impacted by every stage of the nuclear chain, from uranium exploration and mining through to nuclear weapons.
The current focus of the Beyond Nuclear Initiative project is working with Aboriginal Traditional Owners who are opposed to the Australian federal government plan to force a radioactive waste dump on their traditional country.
Wasley gives an overview of uranium mines in Australia and their effects on Aboriginal societies throughout the country. She discusses the three operating uranium mines, including the Olympic Dam Mine, which wants to become the largest uranium mine in the world. Read about the risks of expanding the mine here:
http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/?q=node/506
Wasley points out how the Dam would require inordinate amounts of water for its operation, reducing the available water supply in the “driest state of the driest continent in the world.”
Wasley then describes the Ranger Uranium Mine in the Kakadu National Park. Read about some of the pressing concerns about this mine here :
http://www.wise-uranium.org/umopaura.html
check out the article Uranium mining radioactively pollutes Kakadu National Park.
http://antinuclear.net/2010/05/24/uranium-mining-radioactively-pollutes-kakadu-national-park/
between what she was told by mine representatives about radiation levels and what she actually discovered. As she and Wasley discuss mine worker safety,
Dr. Caldicott refers to the new film, When the Dust Settles, which explains why the Electrical Trade Union in Australia opposes expansion of uranium mining out of concern for worker health. Watch the film in five segments on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSScncD3Ark
Wasley mentions the film Poison Wind, about the effects of radiation contamination on Native Americans.
http://poisonwindmovie.blogspot.com/
Wasley then talks about the Beverly Mine, before moving on to the problem of radioactive waste in Australia.
She describes the proposal for a long-lived waste dump, and how Aborigine women successfully defeated the government’s plans.
Later, Wasley explains the railway line that was recently built to traverse Australia from north to south to transport uranium to Darwin, and the spills that have already polluted the harbor.
She also illuminates how many countries are eager to send their radioactive waste to the Australian desert.
Aborigines have taken an active role, she says, in opposing a new Australian waste dump which could become a repository for all of the world’s nuclear waste.
At the conclusion of the conversation, Dr. Caldicott praises Wasley for her work with Aborigines and in uniting Australian antinuclear groups in Australia.
For more information, visit the Web sites of the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance, the Australian chapter of Friends of the Earth, the Beyond Nuclear Initiative, Australian Conservation Foundation, and Nuclear Free Australia.
Read and review all the above, please click here:
http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/?p=5732#more-5732
