(December 22, 1989) The Australian mining giant CRA will soon be attempting to export uranium and thorium without safeguards from Australia's most "antinuclear" state, Victoria.
(323-324.3244) WISE Glen Aplin - Having discovered possibly the world's largest deposit of mineral sands, lying deep below western Victorian farmland at Wimmera, CRA has set up a pilot plant to refine the sand into monazite, which contains uranium and thorium as "incidentals". The comparatively left-wing government of John Cain, upon taking control of Victoria in 1982, promised the then new anti-nuclear laws of the state would also cover the export of radioactive fuels as incidentals in mineral sands, but with the economic hard times, principles have proved to be elastic.
The loophole has already been long exploited in Western Australia (WA), as uranium and thoriumwith no strings attached to their use - have found their way into French refineries, and hence to the bomb factories and reactors of the Republique. The quantities involved in WA are indicated by the output of Allied Eneabba, the world's largest prodeer of monazite sands, which exported 10,000 tonnes in the year 1985-86. The size of the Victorian escapade will depend on the mineral content, but Wimmera Mineral Sands (WIM)CRA's front for the job - has received approval for a pilot plant to chew through a million tonnes of mineral sands as a demonstration of feasibility. Apart from the extraordinary lack of safeguards the mineral sands system allows, the project has other negative implications for the local environment, especially the groundwater, as the mining and refining will inevitably involve heaps of radioactive tailings. The Victorian government, saying the project is "well worth strong support", is kicking sand in the face of caution.
Source: FOE (Victoria) Newsletter, Nov. 1989.
Contact: FOE, 222 Brunswick St., Fitzroy, Victoria 3065, Australia, tel: 03-419 8700.