tennant creek hotting up, page-5

Even hotter if the proposed nuclear waste dump near Tennant Creek goes ahead!

"Nuclear waste likely to be dumped in NT

By Jano Gibson and Kirsty Nancarrow

Australia's first nuclear waste dump is likely to be sited in the Northern Territory.

Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson has revealed Muckaty Station, about 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, as the location the Federal Government will pursue for a national radioactive waste repository.

"We will proceed firstly with the only voluntary site that we have, and that goes to the Ngapa land with respect to the Muckaty Station," he told 105.7 ABC Darwin.

Mr Ferguson said several sites preferred by the Howard government would no longer be pursued.

"We have knocked out the three sites which were not volunteered by the community but were determined by politicians in Canberra," he said.

This is "despite the fact that scientifically they actually stack up".

Should environmental and scientific assessments fail at the Muckaty site, Mr Ferguson said the nuclear waste dump could be located elsewhere in Australia.

"I also have the capacity, if I assess that that is not a proper site, to then open up to a national voluntary site nomination process."

Mr Ferguson said the Government would this week repeal Howard government legislation that would have enabled it to force the waste dump on the Northern Territory.

He said radioactive waste stored at the site would not be linked to Australia's uranium exports, but to isotopes used in medical treatments.

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/23/2827837.htm