<nettime> another bright idea

[belinda@senet.com.au]

Glorious half page spread from Sydney's major newspaper,The Sydney Morning
Herald, March 23rd, pp. 17 entitled "A Wasted Opportunity" (subtitled,
'Australia could earn more than money from the disposal of nuclear
waste')--by Gerard Henderson of the Sydney Institute.

The article claims that "Australia counts for zilch internationally", that
we are "nought in the eyes of the world", and that this problem could be
easily "solved" by creating an international nuclear waste dump right here
in Oz. This is a "key international issue", after all, and we would be
become important leaders in waste management by "accepting high-level
nuclear waste from the world and disposing of it safely" in a desert in
Western Australia. This would "make even Jeff Kennett feel relevant". The
essence of it is that Pangea Resources Australia is interested in
developing a business based on the disposal of the world's nuclear waste.
It's "our responsibility", after all, because "as uranium exporters,
Australia has some obligations to handle high-level waste". We are also
"geographically stable" and isolated in comparison to the rest of the
world, so hey, our environment can take it.

Oh, and there is "a great deal of money to be made here as well", if
international respect is not the only thing we're after.

I didn't realise it was possible to dispose of mass quantities of nuclear
waste "safely". Nor did I realise that our continent was so isolated and
"stable" that we can be sure that no major natural disasters would occur
for thousands and thousands of years (it'll be thousands upon thousands of
years before we have another earthquake/flood/fire, won't it, Gerard)? I'm
also not sure that we'll be demonstrating "responsible behaviour" to the
world. All we'll be demonstrating is that we have the intelligence and
foresight of your average housebrick.

I'm not going to continue here. The project is still at the proposal stage.
If anyone is interested in reading this article, find the paper or request
the article online (www.smh.com.au). Gerard Henderson can be contacted @
<sydins2@mpx.com.au>.
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