US to become Australia's nuclear dumping ground.

THE US will become Australia's nuclear dumping ground in a remarkable 10-year agreement that takes the pressure off the Howard Government to find a domestic waste site.

The agreement to take spent fuel rods from the proposed new Lucas Heights reactor in Sydney was sealed at ministerial level late last year following talks between the US Department of Energy and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

The deal was revealed yesterday in a letter from ANSTO released by the country's nuclear watchdog, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency.

Link

Could this agreement be interpreted as the U.S. 'paying Australia a favor' for Pine Gap and other facilities which a crucial to the U.S.? A 10 year agreement is a large commitment by any allied country, especially given that it involves nuclear waste.

Sanc'.

edit: double title

[edit on 20-1-2005 by sanctum]

Consider also that the Yucca Mountain site (radioactive waste dump) is nearing completion. With nuclear power becoming once again appealing (due to extreme fossil fuels price), this may be a clever pubblicity stunt, to tempt other countries. While Australia will be given access for the first ten years at very favorable conditions, all the others will probably have to pay, both in cash and in political favors. Yucca Mountain is clearly oversized for the US needs, maybe it was built with "waste trading" in mind from moment one.

Or Perhaps the fact that Australia possesses 28% of recoverable Uranium (863,000 tons) and the US has 3% (104,000 tons), this could be not a favour from the US to Australia, but a strategic deal.
Since some of this waste can be recovered and given a military aplication.

www.abelard.org...
(check this quality site)


The Japanese have been doing it for sometime now.