Stichting Laka

Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry. First Report (1976)

Auteur	Min. of State for Environment
Datum	oktober 1976
Classificatie	4.22.5.13/01 (AUSTRALIË - MIJNEN - RANGER)
Voorkant

PREFACE

Uranium is a very special metal: it contains fissile atoms. It is used in nuclear 
reactors to produce heat which converts water to steam. The steam drives turbines 
to generate electricity. There are substantial deposits of uranium ore at the Ranger 
site in the Northern Territory. The Australian Atomic Energy Commission and 
Ranger Uranium Mines Pty Ltd have a proposal to mine and mill the uranium. 
This Commission was established to inquire into the environmental aspects of that 
proposal. The uranium oxide which comes from the mill is not to be used in 
Australia, but is to be exported to countries which produce electricity from 
nuclear reactors. It was submitted to the Commission that there are serious risks 
and disadvantages associated with the various operations of the nuclear power 
industry, from mining and milling the uranium to disposal of the radioactive 
wastes from the nuclear reactors. The matters mainly relied on were releases of 
radioactivity, particularly accidental releases, the possibility of accidental nuclear 
explosion, the high-level radioactivity of wastes and the possibility of terrorist use 
of the plutonium produced in reactors. It was submitted also that extension of the 
nuclear power industry involved increased risks of nuclear war, flowing from the 
availability of plutonium, or enriched uranium, for atom bombs. It was submitted 
that because of all those considerations, and others as well, Australia should not sell 
its uranium, or mine it. Those objections are examined in this First Report. The more 
local environmental aspects which relate particularly to the Ranger proposal will be 
dealt with in the Second Report. The wider matters mentioned are here considered 
in the context of the world energy situation, the need and demand for uranium, the 
amount likely to be earned by its sale, and other economic considerations. This 
Report also looks at the question of alternative sources of energy and the possibility 
of conserving energy resources.
After this Report was written, the Sixth Report of the British Royal Commission 
on Environmental Pollution was published in the U.K. Its subject is Nuclear Power 
and the Environment, and it canvasses many, but not all, of the issues which we 
have considered. We comment on it in a Postscript at the end of this Report.

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