It’s hard not to get confused or even afraid when it comes to talking about matters involving the word ‘nuclear’.
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While it’s probably safe to say the vast majority of the population are uniform in their thoughts on nuclear weapons, when it comes to nuclear medicine, nuclear power or nuclear research, the views are as wide and varied as you might expect.
It often feels like you would need a science degree to wade through all the literature and make an informed decision.
Greenpeace is well known for its activism against nuclear power, claiming it poses an unacceptable safety risk to the environment and to humanity.
One look at Greenpeace International’s webpage dedicated to shutting down nuclear power, especially with its reference to the Chernobyl disaster in the 1980s and more recently the meltdown of reactors at Japan’s Fukushima plant, is enough to make most people rethink any support they may have harboured for a nuclear future.
However, it’s also hard to ignore the positive impact nuclear has had on our daily lives and the lives of those we love.
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, the caretakers of the 7.7 tonnes of nuclear waste that came through Port Kembla on Saturday night, is the centre of Australian nuclear expertise.
The organisation makes 10,000 doses of nuclear medicine a week, which goes to 250 hospitals and nuclear medicine centres around the country and region, including Wollongong Hospital and Shoalhaven nuclear imaging.
These medicines, which amount to more than half a million doses each year, are critical for the treatment cancer, heart and lung disease and muscular conditions.
On average, one in two Australians will need some form of nuclear medicine diagnosis or treatment in their lifetime. A whopping 80 per cent of that medicine comes from ANSTO and 85 per cent of ANSTO’s nuclear waste – the very waste that came through Port Kembla and caused Greenpeace such concern – is associated with medicine production.
It’s hard to reconcile the two competing ideals, both of which are backed by compelling examples.
Perhaps we can take some comfort in the fact that more than 80,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel has traveled around the world since 1971 in 7,000 shipments, without any reported incident.
Our shipment can be the 7,001st.
