Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that:

(i)

in 2001, the United States (US) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established radiation standards for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, setting a dose limit of 15 millirem per year for the public outside the site for a period of 10 000 years after closure,

(ii)

the standards were challenged in the Federal Court which found the timeframe of the EPA’s standards was inconsistent with the recommendations of the US National Academy of Science,

(iii)

in 2005 the EPA proposed a revised rule of two dose standards that would apply after closure of the site, namely 15 millirem per year for the first 10 000 years and 350 millirem per year for the period between 10 000 to one million years, and

(iv)

the revised standards require the Department of Energy to demonstrate Yucca Mountain can safely contain wastes, considering the effects of earthquakes, volcanic activity, climate change and container corrosion, for over one million years;

(b)

recognises that establishing regulations that apply to the next one million years is absurd; and

(c)

opposes and condemns the development of such nuclear waste repositories on Australian soil.

Question put.