Port Kembla is no stranger to nuclear fuel being one of the many goods and cargoes that pass between ship and dock.
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Nuclear waste from the reactor at Lucas Heights regularly passes through the Illawarra on its way to and from processing overseas.
Wollongong City Council Mayor Gordon Bradbery makes this point when discussing the proposal to base nuclear powered submarines at Port Kembla and Wollongong's status as a nuclear-free zone.
Despite this, however, Cr Bradbery acknowledges that the community response to having nuclear powered vessels based in their region will be shaped by less positive examples of nuclear power.
"There's a big challenge there in the profile that is associated with nuclear, because since the days of Chernobyl and Fukushima, nuclear energy has gotten bad press," Cr Bradbery said.
Since Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that Port Kembla was in the running to be the permanent base for Australia's future fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, locals have reiterated concerns whenever nuclear projects are proposed.
Cr Bradbery said he shared these concerns.
"There needs to be a lot more work done on assuring me and that community, that having nuclear submarines docked in the city is safe."
Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said that these safety concerns had been addressed and that the region stood to benefit from having a naval base in Port Kembla.
"Not only are we talking about jobs, but we're also talking about the additional investments that comes from new technologies. We're talking about advanced manufacturing, skills investment and housing developments."
Senator Fierravanti-Wells has long been a supporter of moving naval facilities to Port Kembla, having co-sponsored a paper laying out the economic benefits of relocating the Garden Island naval base in Sydney to Wollongong.
RDA Illawarra, which was also involved in the previous push, estimates that if four submarines were located in Port Kembla, $3.2 billion would be added to gross regional product and 7000 jobs.
"A small maritime Defence presence in Port Kembla would deliver a huge economic benefit to the region," said RDA Illawarra CEO, Debra Murphy.
Greens candidate for Cuningham, Dylan Green said that if funds of the magnitude of a submarine base were going to be spent in the Illawarra, other issues should be a top priority.
"Our public money should be spent on addressing our biggest problems like climate change and inequality."
Branch secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia's Southern NSW Branch Mick Cross also laid out alternative priorities.
"This government has so far failed to act on climate change, disaster relief, protection for women from workplace abuse, and the plight of elderly people living in aged care, to name just a few," Mr Cross said.
While the Labor party has supported the AUKUS agreement, which set out that Australia would purchase nuclear powered submarines from either the UK or the US, the party is yet to say where it stands on the location of submarine bases.
With the future submarine fleet not expected to be delivered to Australia until 2040, Cr Bradbery said that further work needs to be done to get the balance right.
"It needs to be better thought through in terms of not just the fact that there's nuclear submarines proposed, but how the port would handle any expansion," he said.
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