Senate debates

Monday, 21 June 2021

Bills

National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Specification, Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020; In Committee

8:04 pm

Photo of Rex PatrickRex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

In some sense, the question is as much about Woomera as it is about Kimba because if the circumstances are that you can't store that particular type of waste—as I said, there are small amounts of plutonium stored there—then, in fact, you're going to be in a situation where you have a facility at Kimba, presumably, but you still have a radioactive waste storage area in the very place that Defence says it can't exist, because it's not consistent with their operations. I wonder if that question was ever asked of Defence in order to test their assertions in relation to the claim that you can't put this waste there. Is it the intention of the government to close the Koolymilka site at Woomera and in what time frame?

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