3CR
 Community Radio 855am

THE RADIO-ACTIVE SHOW

With Eric Miller and Linda Marks

Saturday at 10.00am

21th November 1998

Good morning, this is the RadioActive Show brought to you by the Sustainable Energy and Anti-Uranium Service. I'm Linda Marks and with me in the studio is Eric Miller. (Good Morning). The RadioActive Show is a weekly program bringing you news and information on Nuclear, Peace and Energy issues.

On today's show we hear about a delay to the approval of the Beverley mine in South Australia. David Noonan who is the Campaign Officer for the Australian Conservation Foundation in Adelaide and Gavin Mudd who is a hydrologist and a member of Friends of the Earth, will be telling us about that very interesting development. Heathgate Resources is developing the Beverley mine and they thought it would just be a rubber stamp approval process and Heathgate Resources is wholly owned by the US nuclear giant, General Atomics. Later in the show we have a very exciting report on the latest Jabiluka rally that took place in Melbourne last Thursday.

On the RadioActive show last week we urged the Federal and South Australian Governments not to approve the Environmental Impact Statement for the Beverley uranium mine, and it seems that the Australian Governments are doing just that. They've given a one month extension to the Beverley uranium mine EIS process. It's been given to allow for a independent assessment of the mine A hydrologist from the Land Quality Division of the Department of the Environment in Wyoming in the US has been invited to inspect the Beverley uranium project. Eric asked David Noonan, Campaign Officer with the Australian Conservation Foundation, 'What's happened with the Environmental Impact Statement process?'

David Noonan: Well, Senator Hill's now backtracked and he's extended the assessment of the Beverley proposal by 4 weeks. He's had to ask permission from General Atomics to be allowed to get that extension. The SA Government are employing a US specialist in hydrogeology who worked in the regulation of in situ leach mines to advise them on both the technology and the regulation for the first sulphuric acid in situ leach uranium mine at Beverley.

Eric Miller: So they weren't quite certain about the hydrology of the Beverley mine? What was going to happen to the waste and the in situ leaching?

David Noonan: No. While in public, denying that there were serious concerns, obviously in house they've recognised the position put by the conservation movement that it is an untenable industry and that there are significant flaws in both the technology and in the intended application of that by the company. They now may be doing a number of things at once, they may be attempting to cover themselves with a tight set of regulations in regard to the US experience but we believe that the are also now having to face seriously the shortcomings of this sort of proposal.

Eric Miller: How long will this put the EIS back?

David Noonan: Formally a month to start with and because of matters to do with the end of the year even, if the mine was to be approved it may delay commercial production at Beverley by two to three months. We must remember that Senator Hill's recommendations are now to be delivered on Friday the 11th December. And they are still recommendations to inform the formal decision maker Senator Minchin and there still is a role for the public to lobby both Senator Hill and Senator Minchin to get them to change direction on this.

Eric Miller: So the pilot plant will be carrying on as it has been for over 9 months.

David Noonan: Again the pilot plant needs another set of new approvals to continue and that would have to come through the South Australian Government and the ACF would strongly oppose those approvals. With the extension of this assessment it's not obvious whether the pilot plant can continue in the interim.

Linda Marks: That was Eric speaking to David Noonan who is a Campaign Officer with the Australian Conservation Foundation in Adelaide. It would be good for people to lobby Senator Hill, Minister for the Environment and Senator Nick Minchin, Minister for Minerals and Energy, telling them that you don't want the mine to go ahead. For more information look at the SEAUS web site or contact Friends of the Earth at 312 Smith Street, Collingwood, phone 9419 8700. As mentioned earlier, a hydrologist has been appointed by the government to assess the Beverley project. Gavin Mudd is also a hydrologist who has been closely involved in the Beverley EIS process. He prepared a substantial submission on the EIS for Friends of the Earth and the Australian Conservation Foundation. Eric spoke to Gavin this week.

Eric Miller: Gavin, you put in a submission on the Beverley EIS, what were your main concerns about the Beverley uranium mine?

Gavin Mudd: A whole wide range of concerns; lack of rehabilitation, lack of management contingency plans, lack of assessment on radiation issues, lack of plans for spills for instance if there was uranium being transported out, and a whole range of other things as well. Essentially there was a quite extraordinary lack of information.

Eric Miller: Some of the problems with this mine is the hydrology of it, you're a hydrologist, what were the concerns around the hydrology?

Gavin Mudd: The ground water in that area is still not very well known. They don't know where the aquifer goes, whether it goes north of the site or south of the site. They have this conceptual picture of where they think the ground water goes but can't really prove it and they're not prepared to do the work to really demonstrate where it goes. That's a critical concern.

The other issue is associated with the potential for what they call excursions. This is where the toxic mining solutions escape outside the mining zone. They contaminate either the water in the same aquifer, but outside the mining zone, or, say, the systems above or below, such as the Great Artesian Basin or what they call the Willawortina aquifer system which is used by a lot of pastoralist in the Lake Frome area.

They are probably some of the key concerns.

The other concerns relate to the actual chemistry of what they are doing. The nature of acid in situ leach mining is that it will mobilise quite a lot of radioactivity and also quite high levels of heavy metals as well. The mining process will make sure that those elements and materials are left mobile and in a dissolved form. So, if there's no rehabilitation at all once they finish mining there is quite a significant potential then that it could migrate elsewhere and there's a further possibility for the contamination of ground water.

Eric Miller: Pumping the wastes under the ground again after they've done the processing must be one of the main sources of contamination of the area.

Gavin Mudd: That's another important issue as well. Certainly the levels of what they predict in their waste stream are up to 1,000 times or more higher than what is actually naturally sitting in that aquifer at the moment. They don't actually give you any data from their current trial mine on the disposal concentrations, but definitely the concentrations that they predict are higher. And then to just walk away from that without any need for rehabilitation, without any demonstrable proof that the system is contained and isolated for the length of time it needs to be.

Eric Miller: It seems that the Government had some concerns perhaps along the same lines as your concerns because, or they are reacting to your concerns in some way, because they have commissioned an independent expert who is a hydrologist.

Gavin Mudd: On Friday 13th we were expecting that Hill's decision on the Beverley EIS would be made public. On Thursday 12th, which is the day before, they actually announced that they had appointed someone to come out from the USA, who has been a regulator in Wyoming for many, many years on the in situ leach mines they have in Wyoming. So it does acknowledge that there are many concerns. We've certainly been able to demonstrate that those concerns are based on good quality science and those concerns would also be recognised by the expert coming out from the US.

Eric Miller: Are you hoping to see this expert to give her your information?

Gavin Mudd: I would expect that that would be the very minimum that we could organise. Also I would hope that we could arrange a public meeting and make sure that the public is included in some way. That it is an inclusive process.

Eric Miller: Do you hope that she just doesn't have an in house look at this, that she involves many more people than the Government authorities and the mine authorities?

Gavin Mudd: That is what an Environmental Impact Assessment process should be. There should be quite a high degree of public involvement or opportunity for public involvement. Given the nature of Beverley and the very serious concerns that we've been able to demonstrate and given the experience of acid ISL mines in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, we are setting some very dangerous precedents in terms of the future of the industry in Australia. At the very bare minimum we should be allowing public access and be able to meet the expert from the US. Then we can demonstrate that our concerns are very real.

Eric Miller: What are some of those things that have happened in Eastern Europe? They have been quite bad haven't they?

Gavin Mudd: The levels of contamination in Eastern Europe where they have tried sulphuric acid in situ leach mining have been quite horrendous. There are areas where several square kilometres of the ground water have been contaminated. What used to be a drinking water aquifer, now has a water quality worse than sea water. There have been cases where people's water wells or bores for drinking water have been contaminated and there are areas where the contamination is slowly moving towards those zones. So there are quite recalcitrant contamination problems that are going to be very difficult to clean up. At some sites they expect it to take up to several decades or more to be able to clean up and then at least control where the contamination is moving and then to minimise any potential for people's ground water and drinking supplies to be contaminated.

Eric Miller: Australia hasn't had any experience of cleaning up underground water like this, has it, it will take completely new ways and technologies to

do it?

Gavin Mudd: There has never been an in situ leach mine before in Australia that's been rehabilitated and certainly the previous trials that have been run at Honeymoon and Meningee were never rehabilitated as far as we know. It is such a large scale they are proposing at Beverley and Honeymoon and they are now trying to talk up other deposits around Lake Frome area and in Western Australia. There they are also proposing the same thing, acid leaching and no rehabilitation. To be able to say that the technology is in hand, when we can demonstrate from the US and Eastern Europe and so on that the technology isn't there. Nor is it an appropriate technology to be able to use in the first place because it's not an appropriate mining process.

Eric Miller: How long has this expert got to look at the situation at Beverley?

Gavin Mudd: Heathgate, the company, gave Environment Australia an extension of four weeks. The expert from the US is out a week before the announcement was made so I would expect her report would be made within the next two weeks. That would give Environment Australia a week to prepare their assessment report and for Hill to announce his decision and recommendations.

Eric Miller: So we should be seeing it pretty soon?

Gavin Mudd: I hope that early next week we should be able to organise something.

Eric Miller: Now, the main experience of in situ leaching has been in America, and a number of uranium mines have just been closed there.

Gavin Mudd: Yes, that's right. There's a company called Uranium Resources Incorporated that have just. They currently operate two alkaline in situ leach mines in Southern Texas, one called Kingsville Dome and the other is called Rosita. Over the last few years they have been pushing to develop the Crown Point ISL Project on the edge of the Navaho Reservation in New Mexico, and they have just received the approvals for a new mine called the Ultimeter Project. But they are going to be closing the Kingsville Dome and Rosita mines and they are stopping all development at Crown Point and Ultimeter now. The quote from the CEO is quite stark, it says we'll be shutting our mines down because the low prices for uranium. There's predicted to be no rebound in the price and the price is expected to stay low for quite some time. They are closing down their uranium mines because they don't see any prospect for prosperity out of the world uranium market. It's quite a stark contrast to what we are being told in Australia that there's this great opportunity in the market because companies in America are just not thinking like that.

Eric Miller: These mine would be alkaline base in situ leach, not the more dangerous acid base?

Gavin Mudd: Yes, that's correct. If you are a company, the only way that you can really cut your costs and make a profitable mine to be able to produce uranium at such a low price is if you can avoid restoration, rehabilitation costs and if you can use cheaper chemicals such as acid. That's the only way you're really going to be competitive. A very dangerous precedent is being set by Beverley in terms of what our Government will demand from industry in terms of environmental standards and radiation standards. And yet the basic standards in the US are shutting down mines.

Eric Miller: We are being looked upon like a third world country with less regulation and American mining companies are moving out here where they don't have to comply with all of the regulations.

Gavin Mudd: That's basically about it. That's a good way to look at it.

Eric Miller: Thanks very much Gavin.

Linda Marks: That was Eric speaking with Gavin Mudd, a hydrologist and member of Friends of the Earth and The Australian Conservation Foundation. The music played during that interview was Canadian performer and anti-nuclear activist Bob Bossin with 'Atomic Blues.'

We understand that sometime on Monday a valve at Energy Resources of Australia's Ranger uranium mine in Kakadu malfunctioned and this resulted in contaminated material escaping from the tailings dam and escaping from the Restricted Release Zone. The extent of the spill is not known but it adds to the record of over 100 publicly documented breaches, leaks and incidents at the mine. Yesterday in the Financial Review it was reported that the German Government is going to lobby the European Union not to buy uranium from Jabiluka. The European Union buys one quarter of ERA's production.

And now to Thursday's Jabiluka rally in Melbourne. The protesters met at Flinders Street Station to march to a secret radioactive location. Eric was there to report for the Radio-Active Show.

Singing: 'No more uranium, leave it in the ground. Hey, hey, hey.'

Speaker: We're here to stop it going ahead on Mirrar land in Kakadu National Park. We're here to stop 250,000 years worth of radioactive waste being dumped in Kakadu National Park on the land of the people who don't want it and have been trying to say so for the last 20 years. Now the purpose of this rally today is to take our protest to the streets. To be loud, to be visible, to be out there, saying what we know is right. Stop Genocide, Land Rights Now, Jabiluka, Mirrar Land. I'm just reading the placards that people are holding up here, Land Rights Now, No Radioactive Waste. That's what we are standing for. Due to the exigencies of the police presence, we may be taking a bit of a creative route to get to the destinations that we have picked out today. That we are going to honour with our presence. We ask people to bear with us, to bear with the marshals, to follow the directions of people who have got the megaphones and are going to be giving people the word as to where we are going, and when and so forth. One of the main reasons that we are having this demonstration today is not just to publicise the issue in general but to publicise the fact that we are trying to build a massive rally on the 6th December starting at the State Library. Jaqui Katona, who is the spokesperson for the Mirrar people is going to be here. She is going to be speaking to Melbourne about what Melbourne can do to stop the Jabiluka mine going ahead on Mirrar land. Without further ado, we'll start heading off.

Singing: We are singing the song of Jabiluka, Hey, hey, hey, No more uranium, Leave it in the Ground.

Linda Marks: The secret radioactive location was the stock exchange where police on horses galloped through demonstrators as they entered the building.

(The sound of horse's hooves and people expressing alarm at how dangerous it was to ride horses through a crowd of people, calls for a camera)

Chanting: Land Rights, Not Mining Rights, Stop Jabiluka Mine.

Speaker: Why are we standing here at the stock exchange? The stock exchange fortunately has seen the share price of the company that is building the Jabiluka mine plummeting day by day. North Ltd yesterday had a 4 year low. Because the fact is, uranium is not only a deadly industry, it's a dying industry. Even the uranium industry's biggest fan club, the Uranium Institute in London, recently put out a report saying that the supply of uranium is going to exceed demand for the next 20 years. This industry is going down hill no matter which way you look at it. As if the legacy of Chernobyl and Hiroshima wasn't enough! We want to see an end to uranium mining and an end to speculation on uranium such as here. We think it might be a good idea to head back towards town where there are more people, with our banners, in the same kind of way that we came here.

Singing: We are singing the song of Jabiluka, Hey, hey, hey.

Linda Marks: And that was a report of the latest Jabiluka rally in Melbourne on Thursday.

If you are stirred up and would like to lobby Senator Robert Hill or Nick Minchin, and let them know that you don't want Beverley uranium mine to go ahead and we think that the Environmental Statement is full of holes, see the SEAUS site for information. And get along to that rally on the 6th December starting at the State Library at 4pm. It's a very important rally and we want as many people there as possible.

Eric Miller: The next few weeks are going to be an exciting time. The World Heritage Commission is meeting on the 27th of this month 'til 3rd December and it should be very interesting what comes out of that. We'll see if Kakadu is put on the In Danger list. But that's all the time we have for the Radio Active show this week, Linda, so it's goodbye from Eric.

Linda Marks: And it's goodbye from Linda.

Transcript produced by Linda Marks - with much thanks!!!
Page last updated January 8, 1999.
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