Queenslanders have already experienced the devastation of uranium mining at Mary Kathleen and the legacy of being down-winders from nuclear testing at Maralinga. The community only has just begun to realize the need to support our war veterans who have been exposed to depleted uranium in the Gulf. And now we are faced with an international campaign to promote nuclear energy as safe.

Nuclear energy is neither peaceful nor clean and we are greatly concerned about the federal government’s attempt to present it as
such. Calculations of the so-called environmental-friendliness of nuclear power totally ignore the cost and impacts of thousands of years of nuclear waste created by all stages of the nuclear cycle.

In fact, the destruction of indigenous lands, the massive use of water, the risk put to environment and community, and the availability of truly sustainable alternatives such as solar and wind power, make the mining of uranium in Australia a ridiculous proposition

This alliance is a great opportunity for us to stand together and send a clear message to our government and the international community that Queenslanders want to be nuclear free.

The nuclear cycle begins in Australia with uranium mining. Talk about digging more mines, building waste repositories, and accepting international waste as part of our responsibility to the global community doesn’t make sense. Uranium mining, in itself, is an environmentally disastrous process, fraught with risk to worker safety.

The nuclear industry is the most toxic industry on earth. The greatest act of global good citizenship and respect for future generations that Australia could possibly do would be stop fueling the nuclear cycle by banning uranium mining now.

There is no safe way to store nuclear waste and neither Australia nor the US have long-term storage facilities for their existing high-level nuclear waste.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) is also a major concern, as it is the IAEA’s mandate to promote what it claims are the “peaceful uses of nuclear energy” (nuclear power, food irradiation, etc) It is a well-acknowledged fact that the development of nuclear power facilitates the capacity to develop nuclear weapons and do weapons research. Furthermore, from the perspective of environment and the desecration of indigenous culture that often accompanies uranium mining, there are no peaceful ways to develop nuclear energy.

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