Alex Somlyay (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I will be as relevant to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Amendment Bill 2006 as I can. The purpose of this bill is to amend the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Act 1987 to allow Australia’s pre-eminent nuclear science and research agency, ANSTO, to have a fully effective and practical role in managing all radioactive materials in Australia. The member for Banks spoke passionately about the future of Lucas Heights, and I remind the member for Banks that the reactor at Lucas Heights has been there for a very long time. As Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing, I led a delegation to visit the Lucas Heights facility earlier this year. We had a first-hand look at their work and contribution to medical science and practice in Australia. As you walk into Lucas Heights there is a plaque saying ‘Opened by Sir Robert Menzies in 1962’. The previous time that I had visited Lucas Heights was in 1962 as a senior science student in my final school year at Richmond High School. Lucas Heights has been there for many years, under many governments. It started under the Menzies government, then we had the Whitlam government, the Fraser government, the Hawke government, the Keating government and now the Howard government. The expertise that they have accumulated in nuclear technology and medicine is probably second to none in the world.

Under the existing act, ANSTO is only authorised to prepare, manage or store those radioactive materials associated with the organisation’s own activities. It cannot prepare, manage, handle or store any other radioactive materials unless specified by regulation. However, there is already radioactive waste stored at around 30 Commonwealth sites and there is no sense in making separate regulations for each shipment to Lucas Heights for conditioning and repackaging for storage. This bill gives ANSTO, the expert in the field over many years, the authority to condition, manage and store radioactive waste produced by other Commonwealth agencies and also to participate in the establishment of the radioactive waste storage facilities in the Northern Territory.

Not only does the act currently restrict ANSTO from making its expertise and facilities available to assist other government agencies—Commonwealth, state or territory—in the management of their radioactive wastes, it also prevents it from assisting in potential emergency terrorism situations. Under the existing act, ANSTO cannot assist any law enforcement agency that may have to deal with radioactive materials in the course of an investigation. I am sure that every member of this House hopes that Australia never has to face such a terrorist threat; but if we do—if the unthinkable should happen—then we want to have the expert available immediately to deal with any radioactive material, and the expert is ANSTO.

ANSTO has the experience, the established infrastructure and, more importantly, the qualified personnel to assist in such situations, but current legislation prevents it from using them. Even if it is only precautionary to consider such a terrorist situation, the Commonwealth has an obligation to be prepared. Australians have the right to believe that this parliament will ensure that the expertise of Commonwealth agencies can be drawn on immediately in an emergency. It would be appalling if such a terrorism situation should arise; but even more appalling if we fail to deal with it appropriately because our parliament was too short-sighted or complacent to trust ANSTO with the authority to deal with the threatening material immediately.

Nothing in this bill extends the production of nuclear material in Australia. There is nothing in it to alarm even the most nervous of those concerned about nuclear power. This bill is about ensuring that the expertise and experience we have accrued at ANSTO is available to safeguard our management of all radioactive material in Australia, whether that material is produced by another arm of government or presents through criminal activity.

ANSTO operates Australia’s only research reactor at Lucas Heights, and radioactive waste arises from this and associated facilities. The entire Australian community benefits from the radioisotopes produced by ANSTO, as other speakers have said. Unfortunately, the word ‘nuclear’ is linked in many people’s minds in a negative way to the words ‘bomb’, ‘power’ and ‘waste’. While I agree that people are right to be aware of and concerned about these matters, I also believe that nuclear science is much like the motor vehicle. If it is not well designed and maintained and if it is negligently driven then a vehicle can be a lethal weapon. On the other hand, a well-designed vehicle, properly maintained and carefully driven, is a wonderfully useful tool.

I know from speaking to people in my electorate that many do not understand the benefits of radioisotopes and the positive work being done through our nuclear research and production in Australia. Each year over 400,000 doses of these radioisotopes are used in nuclear medicine in our hospitals to diagnose medical conditions and to treat patients. Doctors use them to picture and ascertain what is happening within bones, organs and soft tissue, and then sometimes to treat the problem.

In industry the radioisotopes are used in a variety of ways to improve productivity and gain information that cannot be obtained in any other way. Just as X-rays show a break in a bone, gamma rays show flaws in metal castings or welded joints. The technique allows critical components to be inspected for internal defects without damaging the component. An example of this use would be in aviation safety. Unlike X-ray equipment, radioactive sources are small and do not require power. This means they can be transported to remote areas where there is no power.

There are many and varied uses for radioisotopes, including in simple things like smoke alarms or estimating the age of water from underground bores. I notice that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, who is responsible for water, is at the table. I think he is nodding in agreement with me. Radioisotopes are also used to measure and trace the movement of soil, water, gases or even insects; to track sewage dispersion; to trace small leaks in complex systems such as power station heat exchangers; and to accurately measure the flow rates of large rivers and of liquids and gases in pipelines. They are further used to measure the extent of termite infestation in a building and for mineral analysis, such as determining element concentrations in slurry streams.

The reason I mention all these examples is to demonstrate that, when we talk about ANSTO, we are not talking about a nuclear power plant or about a bunch of scientists just sitting around conducting physics experiments. We are talking about the production and management of radioisotopes essential to medicine and industry in Australia. They are essential for our health and our economy. We are not talking about the misuse of power or expertise. We are talking about making existing expertise available when necessary and about safe and effective management of the radioactive waste resulting from medical and industrial processes such as those I have mentioned. We have to accept that radioisotopes have important uses in our society, that they do produce radioactive waste and that, no matter how low-level that waste is—and some only remains radioactive for hours—we need to ensure that it is managed expertly, securely and responsibly.

This bill was referred to the Senate Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Legislation Committee, which reported on it in May this year. The majority report recommended that the bill be passed. The committee listed the three main elements of the bill as being the management of Commonwealth radioactive waste, the management of radioactive waste at the request of law enforcement and emergency services authorities and the management of waste following the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. The majority report said that the committee regarded the bill as important and essential legislation. It said that passage of the bill would ‘significantly improve levels of protection from radioactive contamination in routine management of waste, and in the event of criminal or terrorist activities involving radioactive materials’.

I think the opposition’s reservation about the committee’s report was very interesting. The two Labor senators emphasised strongly their concern that the government may use this legislation to allow the Lucas Heights nuclear facility to become a de facto national waste repository. That concern was also echoed by the member for Banks. They said they were opposed to Lucas Heights being used as such a repository. I find their concern quite interesting because the good senators are also opposed to the establishment of the secure, remote, geologically sound nuclear waste repository the government is planning—after extensive investigation—to build in the Northern Territory. The reason the government planned and legislated for this site to be built is that we do not want nuclear waste to continue to accumulate at Lucas Heights, in Sydney, or in any other city for that matter. We want to ensure its security. This government has no desire to use Lucas Heights as a national waste repository—although it has been used as such in the past, under a Labor government, when 10,000 drums of low-level radioactive waste were illegally stored there. In its 13 years in office the Labor government did nothing to establish suitable radioactive waste management facilities. The problem was too difficult; it did not want the responsibility. The Howard government is doing it. It has shouldered the responsibility.

If you read the Australian Democrats’ minority report you will not learn much about this bill but you will understand why the Democrats are such a small minority. Their minority report is wordy, confused, a touch hysterical and very short on substance. For instance, it says that the bill opens the door for the government to import foreign nuclear waste—not just low- or intermediate-level waste, which is all we currently have in Australia, but high-level waste—and dump it on unsuspecting states and territories. That, of course, is an absurd hypothesis. Not only does the government have no such intention but such an idea certainly would not be supported by the Australian people. I certainly would not support it.

This bill aims to give ANSTO the authority it needs to securely manage our radioactive waste, but most of our radioactive waste is low-level. ANSTO and its associated facilities, including the research reactor, HIFAR, do produce some intermediate-level waste but do not produce any high-level waste at all. I repeat: ANSTO does not produce any high-level waste, so why would we import high-level waste, with the enormous problems associated with its disposal? The bill puts beyond any doubt ANSTO’s authority to accept back and to manage radioactive waste from spent nuclear fuel from its research reactor—material it previously sent overseas for reprocessing. This waste will be returned to Australia from 2011, when the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Facility is scheduled to commence operation.

This bill gives authority and certainty to the leading scientific body, ANSTO, in the management of radioactive waste in Australia. As the Senate committee majority report says:

It will significantly improve levels of protection from radioactive contamination in routine management of waste, and in the event of criminal or terrorist activities involving radioactive materials.

This bill aims to ensure that our radioactive waste materials are managed expertly, securely and responsibly. I commend the bill to the House.

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