The Olympic Dam Uranium Mine (located at Roxby Downs) is one of the largest uranium mines in the world. Western Mining Corporation is licensed to extract 42,000,000 litres of water per day front the Great Artesian Basin. That?s 42,000kL per day. An average family household would use 250kL every six months. The State Government and Western Mining Corporation have entered into an agreement by which tile water extracted for use at the Olympic Dam mine is free of charge. Extracting such vast amounts of water has had its consequences. The Mound Springs of Lake Eyre South are fed by the Great Artesian Basin. Some have completely dried out, whilst others are drying slowly.

Greater research is required to ascertain the extent of the damage the expansion of this mine has caused. The Arabunna "Going Home" camp was opened in March 1999 in a ceremony by elder Kevin Buzzacott. The camp was an assertion of' Arabunna rights to access and live on their land, to protect their country and culture. Western Mining Corporation have destroyed this camp on two separate occasions, claiming trespass and continuing to displace the indigenous people of the region.

NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP South Australia says STOP Nuclear Dumps!

The precedent of Maralinga.....
In the post WWII arms race, South Australia facilitated British atmospheric nuclear tests at Maralinga between 1956-7. The testing of weapons created an uninhabitable land mass due to the uncontrolled dispersal of plutonium, Forty-three years later, in March 2000, Senator Minchin declared the site ?clean.? In fact, the plutonium (high-level radioactive waste) was dumped in shallow unlined trenches, creating a 120 km2 radioactive wasteland.

The agenda...
The Federal Government claim there is a need for a centralised low level radioactive waste "repository" for small quantities of industrial and medical wastes. The truth behind this issue is that tile Government must establish a waste management strategy for radioactive waste produced at the Lucas Heights reactor in Sydney. This waste is classified as "Long Lived Intermediate Level Waste" (or LLILW) and is internationally considered as high level radioactive waste. Tile current management plan is to establish a ]oiv level dump in northern SA and then co-locate all above ground "store" for high level wastes.

Despite the South Australian State Government legislating against the acceptance of medium - high level waste, Senator Minchin has made it very clear that he myth use Federal Government powers to override State opposition to any dump. In fact, on Thursday 1st February, 2001, Senator Minchin announced the "Site 52A" (within the Woomera Prohibited area in South Australia) as the preferred location.

This month, the Federal Government intends to finalise contracts to place the national waste repository construction and operation in private hands. This is before the end of the public consultation period and without environmental assessment. Essentially, this action is fast tracking the project so its operation coincides with the closure of the old reactor in Sydney (which will occur in 2005). The repository would then house the waste generated by the old and proposed replacement reactor.

The waste...
There is no safe method of disposing nuclear waste! The dangers that radioactive waste pose to the environment are great, medium- to high-level waste remains radioactive for 250,000 years. How can it be guaranteed that a facility will be safe for 250,000 years, without incidents of soil, water and environmental contamination?

The opposition...
The country is traditionally owned by the Kokatha people, who unequivocally oppose a dump on their land. The Senior Aboriginal women of Kupa Piti continue to defend their ancestral lands, and have been doing so since the first nuclear tests ravaged their land and peoples, They are living witnesses to the destruction the nuclear industry causes. The Coober Pedy, Whyalla, Broken Hill, Pt. Augusta and Andamooka Councils have all declared that they will have no role in facilitating the Federal Government's waste repository scheme. In a recent poll, it was found that 87% of South Australians are opposed to a dump in the north of the state and that 95% oppose an intermediate- to high-level dump in the same area.