Wollongong may see more nuclear waste shipments passing through a "nuclear free" local government area after ANSTO at Lucas Heights won permission to prepare a site for an expanded interim storage facility.
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The nuclear regulator ARPANSA has issued a licence for expanded nuclear waste storage at the Lucas Heights site, called the Intermediate Level Waste Capacity Increase (ILWCI) facility.
ANSTO has several buildings that hold Intermediate Level Waste (ILW), ANSTO's general manager of waste management services Paula Berghofer said.
"One of these was completed about seven years ago, and holds two TN-81 cask containing reprocessed spent fuel that returned from Europe, including the one that arrived last weekend," she said.
"A second is a 1960s-era facility, which was upgraded and extended about five years ago to increase its capacity until 2027 based on current waste production.
"Once this latter building reaches capacity, waste contents will continue to be monitored and a new interim ILW solution will be needed.
"This is why ANSTO is planning to build a new interim ILW storage facility, which based on current projections, will is provide at least another 10 years' capacity until 2037."
The move was welcomed by environmental group the Australian Conservation Foundation, which maintains Lucas Heights is a more appropriate location than the contested desert site near Kimba for Australia's "most problematic waste".
"Extended storage of Australia's most problematic waste at Lucas Heights where most of it is already stored, makes far more economic, environmental and radiological sense than the ill-considered Kimba plan," ACF campaigner Dave Sweeney said.
"Lucas Heights has the best security and radiation monitoring and response capacity in Australia. It is also currently home to around 95 per cent of the ILW waste and so avoids doubling handling and transport duplication."
The below-ground storage would hold materials including nuclear medicine production tools and cans of compacted liquid waste.
Future approvals will be needed for ILWCI facility construction, operations and decommissioning.
ARPANSA (Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency) is responsible for licensing Commonwealth entities that use or produce radiation.
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Ben Langford
Senior journalist writing on the environment. Opinion columnist, independent. We rely on your news tips so please, don't be shy to let us know what's going on.
Senior journalist writing on the environment. Opinion columnist, independent. We rely on your news tips so please, don't be shy to let us know what's going on.
