Right: South Australian Premier talks to members of the SA Citizens' Jury, about the nuclear waste dump proposal.
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Background information
(The information contained below has been drawn primarily from two sources.
That relating to an overview of South Australia's nuclear industry has been abbreviated from the Wikipedia entry titled 'Nuclear industry in South Australia'. The full text of this entry can be accessed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_industry_in_South_Australia
The information contained in the description of the type of nuclear waste storage facilities proposed for South Australia and the explanation of how they would operate has been drawn from the Jacobs MCM consultants' report cited in the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission report and used as the model for its discussion and proposal.
A summary of this consultants' report can be accessed at http://nuclearrc.sa.gov.au/app/uploads/2016/02/NFCRC-Summary-Radioactive-waste-storage-and-disposal-facilities-in-South-Australia.pdf)
Referendum
A referendum is a vote by the electorate on measures proposed or passed by a Parliament.
The South Australian referendum, if it is conducted, would be on the recommendation put by the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission that South Australia pursues the establishment of a nuclear waste storage facility.
The term is generally applied to a vote about an issue raised by the federal Parliament, usually impacting on the Australian Constitution.
South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, has indicated that the verdict indicated by the referendum will be acted on by his government.
Overview of South Australia's nuclear industry
The established nuclear industry in South Australia is focused on uranium mining, milling and the export of uranium oxide concentrate for use in the production of nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants. The state is home to the world's largest known single deposit of uranium, which is worked by BHP Billiton at the Olympic Dam mine. Contaminated legacy sites exist at Maralinga and Emu Field, where nuclear weapons tests were conducted in the 1950s and 1960s and at former uranium mines and milling sites. Nuclear waste is stored by CSIRO at Woomera and prospective future waste storage sites were earmarked during the deliberations of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission in 2016. The Commission has recommended that South Australia considers opportunities in nuclear waste storage (including developing a repository for spent nuclear fuel), the establishment of a nuclear fuel leasing scheme and the repeal of prohibitions which currently prevent future nuclear industrial development nationally.
The type of nuclear waste storage facilities proposed for South Australia
1. Initially South Australia would establish an interim storage facility for used nuclear reactor fuel and intermediate level waste in above-ground dry casks and containers.
2. South Australia would then establish a combined deep geological repository for used fuel, located together with an intermediate depth repository for intermediate-level waste.
3. There would also be a near-surface low-level waste repository for the low-level waste produced as part of the operations of the deep and intermediate depth repositories.
The operation of the proposed facilities
1. The interim storage facility would take some 11 years to build.
2. Used nuclear fuel would not be brought to the site until year 11 and would be stored above ground in dry casks and containers in the interim storage facility.
3. The transfer of the intermediate level waste to the intermediate depth repository is expected to begin 26 years into the project.
4. The transfer of used nuclear reactor fuel to the deep geological repository is not expected to begin until year 28 of the project, as it is estimated that it usually takes 40 years for fuel to have cooled sufficiently for permanent disposal.
(Author's note: It would appear that these projections assume that some of the fuel received would have been significantly cooled before arriving in South Australia. It should also be noted that some other estimates of the time needed for cooling suggest 50 years. Economic considerations would also delay the building of the underground facilities. Some of the money earned from the above-ground storage would be used to pay for the building of the below-ground facilities.)
5. It is anticipated that nuclear fuel would be brought into the interim storage facility for a period of 85 years after the start of the project.
6. Nuclear material would be kept in above-ground interim storage facilities for a total of 109 years.
7. Nuclear material would cease to be placed in the intermediate depth and deep geological repositories after 120 years.
8. What would then be required is 'long-term monitoring' of the nuclear material stored in the below-ground repositories. (Author's note: Some estimates place this at 100,000 years.)