Subject: Dump on Australia, Clinton adviser pushes N-dump in Oz (fwd)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 061641 -0600 (CST)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To: emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1998 21:30:54 +1100
From: Kerrie Christian
To: Illawarra-L
Subject: Clinton adviser pushes N-dump in Oz
Interesting and obviously controversial developments - can anyone
comment on Pangea and Robert Gallucci?
Councillor Kerrie Christian
Wollongong City Council
Australia
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/index_national.htm
Clinton adviser pushes N-dump
By RICHARD McGREGOR
8dec98
A TOP Clinton administration adviser on disarmament has urged Canberra
to consider an international plan to establish a disposal site in
Australia for the world's nuclear waste.
Robert Gallucci said Australia was in a "unique" position to help
solve one of the world's biggest problems: safe storage of nuclear waste
and plutonium from bombs dismantled at the end of the Cold War.
"If Australia could appreciate the concept, and decide it was in the
national interest, there would be enormous benefits for the world," he
told The Australian.
Mr Gallucci is President Bill Clinton's Special Envoy on Weapons of
Mass Destruction, and is intimately involved in international efforts to
find a secure home for nuclear waste.
A diplomat for two decades, he is now also the Dean of the School of
Foreign Service at Washington's prestigious Georgetown University.
His comments add weight to a plan for the disposal site that has been
quietly promoted for two years in Australia by a Seattle-based company,
Pangea.
But so far, the Federal Government has offered no public support for
the plan, and denied "any ministerial" discussions about it last week.
Any formal consideration of the plan would attract intense opposition
from green groups and also large sections of the Labor Party.
The company was forced to go public with its plans last week after
green groups were leaked a promotional video extolling Australia's
qualities as a site.
Company officials say only two countries meet the requirements for
such a site – Australia and Argentina – because of their stable geography
and democratic politics.
The company envisages a massive $10 billion investment for the site in
outback Western or South Australia, involving the construction of ports,
railways and roads, as well as the burial ground itself.
The project's main selling point, besides its economic benefits, is
one of good international citizenship.
Australia would win international plaudits by disposing of one of the
most dangerous by-products of the Cold War, the tonnes of fissile material
from dismantled Russian bombs.
The disintegration of the Soviet nuclear energy State and the security
of the fissile material from disassembled bombs is a major concern for
Western powers.
Mr Gallucci met John Howard in Melbourne earlier this year, but said
he did not think the issue of nuclear waste storage had been discussed.
He said he had not canvassed the Pangea proposal with Mr Clinton,
although he understood the White House had been briefed on it.
"I don't think the US Government is officially aware but there have
been informal discussions about an approach to the Australian Government
at various levels," he said.
Mr Gallucci said he was backing the plan because of his "strong
professional and emotional concern" about nuclear waste, and was not
working for Pangea in any capacity.
He said Australia's "incredible history" in supporting disarmament
causes was another reason for the country to take the project on.
"Australia could play a pretty unique role if Australia was willing to
do it," he said.
"The politics of any spent nuclear fuel storage is difficult, but I am
hopeful the Australians will give it a very hard look."
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html