Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

• The federal government has scrapped plans to build the nation’s first radioactive waste storage facility on farmland near Kimba in South Australia.
• That’s because the “decide and defend” model, where a government decides to put radioactive waste somewhere and then attempts to defend it against the community, hasn’t worked anywhere.
• Those countries still don’t have any process for long-term management of radioactive waste.
• The only way to manage our radioactive waste is to engage the community from the start.

Stacking the deck

• The traditional owners had not been consulted – in fact they were specifically excluded from the consultation process.
• On Thursday morning, Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King told the House of Representatives she would not challenge the Federal Court decision.
• King noted the amount of radioactive waste will keep growing, and said her department has begun work on alternative proposals.

Consulting traditional owners is crucial

• If buried under a few metres of earth, the radiation reaching the surface is not much above normal background levels.
• Anywhere we want to store radioactive waste in Australia is the traditional land of a group of Indigenous people.
• Read more:
  There's a long and devastating history behind the proposal for a nuclear waste dump in South Australia

What should happen next?

• The idea of shifting intermediate-level waste from Lucas Heights to another temporary store 1,700km away is particularly silly.
• There’s no obvious reason it would have been better in a temporary store at Kimba than in the current temporary store of Lucas Heights.
• Read more:
  Australia hasn't figured out low-level nuclear waste storage yet – let alone high-level waste from submarines

Looking ahead

• But they also held out an olive branch to the federal government, recognising the waste problem hasn’t gone away.
• ACF looks forward to constructive dialogue with the Albanese government to help develop a new and responsible approach to radioactive waste management in Australia.

• Rio Tinto expresses its gratitude to the Western Australia’s Department of Fire and Emergency Services for coordinating the successful search effort to locate a missing capsule lost while in transit from the company’s Gudai-Darri iron ore mine in the Pilbara, Western Australia.
• Rio Tinto would also like to thank the specialist search crews from the Australian Defence Force, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, as well as all other support agencies, for their crucial role in the search and recovery efforts.
• Rio Tinto Iron Ore Chief Executive Simon Trott said, “We are incredibly grateful for the hard work of everyone involved in finding the missing capsule.
• “While the recovery of the capsule is a great testament to the skill and tenacity of the search team, the fact is it should never have been lost in the first place.

• AdvanCell, an Australian radiopharmaceutical company with a platform technology for a revolutionary cancer treatment called Targeted Alpha Therapy, announced today the closing of an A$18 million Series B financing round led by Morningside.
• AdvanCell believes this precise and powerful treatment will rapidly become a leading pillar of cancer treatment, providing treatments for diseases for which there are currently no effective options.
• AdvanCell has a world-class team and is honoured to be advised by an outstanding Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board.
• For more information visit www.advancell.com.au
  Founded in 1986 by the Chan family, Morningside is a technology and life science venture investment firm.

• These results are from work carried out on uranium mineralization from five of the Companys uranium deposits on the Macusani Uranium Project (Macusani) in southeastern Peru and confirm excellent extraction, low acid consumption and short leach cycle times.
• 91.0 to 98.0% Uranium extraction using weak sulfuric acid at ambient temperatures;
  97.0 to 99.7% Uranium extraction using sulfuric acid at elevated temperatures (60-95C) and a variety of acid concentrations;
  Results demonstrate the ability to extract even higher levels of uranium than previously demonstrated, with lower acid consumption.
• These recent results confirm the outstanding leach characteristics of Macusani mineralization.
• The high recoveries, low acid consumption and short leach cycles combined with previously announced positive gravity pre-concentration results should result in additional improvements to the already robust economics for this globally significant uranium project.