Publication Laka-library:
Australian Uranium and Nuclear Issues (1998)
| Author | Anti Uranium Coalition |
| Date | 1998 |
| Classification | 4.22.0.00/10 (AUSTRALIA - GENERAL) |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
Australia's Uranium -A Brief Historical Overview Australia has had an active involvement in the nuclear industry since its inception in the late 40s, it was primarily through government owned but privately operated uranium mines (eg - Rum Jungle among others) and also with British nuclear weapons tests at the Monte Bello Islands, Emu Fields and at Maralinga on traditional Aboriginal lands. Despite the confident assertions of nuclear advocates, long-term growth of the nuclear industry failed to occur as predicted. The Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons in the U.S. looked benign alongside nuclear power advertisements claiming that nuclear energy would be ''too cheap to meter." Nuclear weapons development could not have occurred without the plutonium produced from spent fuel rods in nuclear power plants. With the ban on the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere imposed under the 1963 partial test-ban treaty, the demand for uranium fell sharply. As a result, by 1971, the three Australian mines ceased operations having exported only 7,000 tonnes of uranium. However, the devastating environmental impacts of operations at El Sharana, Moline, and Rum Jungle were only just coming to public attention. By the late 60s to early 70s, major uranium deposits were discovered at Ranger, Jabiluka, Koongarra and Narbalek, all in the Northern Territory. With the discovery of the huge uranium deposit at Olympic Dam (Roxby Downs) in South Australia in 1975, as well as a number of deposits in remote areas of Western Australia, our country had become a major player in the global uranium market. The battle had well and truly begun to dig up and export our uranium. These new discoveries came at a time when the prospects for the world's nuclear power industry were made to look bright, and so uranium mining had been hailed as a great boost to Australia balance of payments. Headlines boasted of enormous and completely unrealistic employment opportunities and wealth. To allay serious community opposition to new uranium mines and deep concerns over nuclear weapons, a wide ranging federal inquiry into all aspects of the nuclear industry was undertaken in the mid-70s, later to become known as the Fox Inquiry or Ranger Uranium Inquiry. After it had completed nearly 4 years of public hearings, submissions, investigation, the Fox Report recommended conditional approval for the Ranger, Jabiluka and Narbalek uranium mines to proceed, despite Ranger and Jabiluka being within world heritage Kakadu National Park and Narbalek being within the Amhem Land Aboriginal Reserve. It strongly advised against a third mine in Kakadu at Koongarra. The 1979 creation of Kakadu National Park came with an environmentally expensive trade-off .... uranium leases were excluded from the park, despite being right in it. Subsequent proclamation of Kakadu as World Heritage listed came later, in three stages.
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