When opposition leader Peter Dutton proposed nuclear energy reactors on almost every mainland state in June last year, he reignited divisive public debate.
It’s a debate Indigenous Australians are unwillingly at the heart of. A story that starts in the 1950s, when radioactive fallout from bomb tests caused illness among Aboriginal communities that were not adequately protected by the government of the day.
Today, audio producer Julia Carr-Catzel brings us a special edition of The Morning Edition on the resistance in Aboriginal communities to a potential nuclear energy industry in Australia.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that this podcast contains names of people who have died.
Read the full story on our website: https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/there-s-a-gaping-hole-in-dutton-s-nuclear-plan-he-says-it-s-albanese-s-problem-to-solve-20241113-p5kqe4.html
From the newsrooms of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. This is the morning edition. I'm Samantha Selinger Morris. It's Saturday, January 11th, when opposition Leader Peter Dutton proposed nuclear energy reactors on almost every mainland state in June last year. He reignited divisive public debate. It's a debate Indigenous Australians are at the heart of a story that starts in the 1950s, when radioactive fallout from bomb tests caused illness among Aboriginal communities that were not adequately protected by the government of the day. Today, audio producer Julia Katzel brings us a special edition of the Morning Edition on the resistance in Aboriginal communities to a potential nuclear energy industry in Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that this podcast contains names of people who have died.
Yes, that country is quite stunning actually. There's lots of woodland areas, so mulga acacias, um, growing there, but there's sand dunes through that country. And where my late father was born as a creek called Creek, um, which is a beautiful spot as well. And, you know, such a beautiful part of the country.
This is Karina Lester. She's speaking from a brightly lit office in central Adelaide. Has long brown curls and kind brown eyes.
I come from the nation, so I'm based up on the lands at a homeland called Platina.
Karina is describing a special part of the South Australian outback, a day's drive far north of Adelaide, where her father, Yami Lester, worked for pastoralists.
So sand dunes and rocky country and woodland area. So it's quite special.
And but on the 15th of October, 1953, Yami, who was only a young boy at the time playing in the sand dunes, noticed something above.
One thing many of my old people had spoken about was the fact that this mist or this black mist rolled silently. So it came with no wind or no, you know, picking up of, you know, sticks and leaves and grasses. And it didn't come with a noise like dust storms do. It travelled silently. And it was that that was the real fear, you know, they they knew how country worked and operated and but this one was very, very different.
What Yami and his family peered up at were the remnants of a giant mushroom cloud from a nuclear weapons test in EMU Field, about a six hour drive southwest of Platina.
All these weapons were tactical weapons, such as might be used on the battlefield. There is very little wind on this particular day. The cloud hung there and appeared, if anything, to be coming towards us.
Nana recalls a very strong stench to it, like a really oily, toxic smell, and that oil had fallen over the plants, you know, over the trees, and it fell heavy on the shelters. Within hours, those oranges withered. So, you know, Nana Mob were digging holes in the sand dunes and trying to bury the children and hide them and protect them.
Operation totem was the first of two major nuclear weapons tests conducted by the British in EMU Field and signed off by the by the Menzies government. It was the 1950s, the beginning of the Cold War. Britain was developing its nuclear capabilities and the Australian outback was the perfect location with its vast remoteness.
20 minutes later, the cloud has spread right out. Notice the fallout that appears to be coming down like rain. It hung there in front of us.
You know. Little did dad know. But that was the radiation fallout then. And that community in particular had the highest level of radiation fallout over country.
During the testing of Maralinga, the.
Clouds of radioactive dust sucked up by the explosions were carefully tracked until they drifted out to sea. The clouds from successive explosions passed over much of the continent to the north, the east and the south east.
Famous British atom scientist Sir William Penney. At a press conference on his arrival in Australia, is emphatic that there will be no dangerous radiation from forthcoming tests at Maralinga. Stressing the importance of the tests, he says any weapon has to be tested. Doesn't matter whether.
It's a shell or a bullet or whether it's a.
Carrier of a weapon, like an aeroplane, it must be tested.
EMU field was the location of just two of 12 major weapons trials across Australia, and hundreds of minor trials until the 1960s. Some nuclear bomb tests were as large as Hiroshima.
Within hours of that toxic fallout. People became really sick. People's eyes became really sore and red and puffy. Nana had skin rashes on her shins. People became really sick.
Like decades later, in 1985. The McClelland Royal Commission concluded that, quote, inadequate resources were allocated to guaranteeing the safety of Aboriginal people. Commissioners also concluded that the one native patrol officer on duty had an impossible task of locating and warning Aboriginal people scattered over more than 100km².
It was tough as it was there being in 1953 working on a pastoral property, let alone trying to understand what government of the day was going to do, and then all of a sudden experience what happened without any control or knowledge.
Aboriginal people were not the only victims. Aircrew flew through radioactive clouds and scientists walked around sites with minimal protective clothing, sometimes none at all.
With dad's eyesight, it was a gradual process. By 3 or 4 years after 53, he was completely blinded then by those nuclear tests, so there was a lot of fear.
Yami dedicated his life to Aboriginal activism. His case was pivotal to the McClelland Royal Commission, though the commission could not link radiation to health issues, including establishing the cause of Yami's blindness. His story impacted a lot of people. Australian singer songwriter Paul Kelly even featured him in a song titled Maralinga.
My name is Yami Lester I hear, I talk, I touch, but I am blind.
Yami died, aged 75, in 2017 that.
He'd never really seen me grow up. He saw me in a different way of growing up with his disability.
Then we saw the big.
Cloud. Then the big black mist began to roll.
The government commissioned a study in the 1990s into the link between Australia's nuclear testing, including that at EMU Field, and the number of cancer cases among mostly military personnel. It didn't establish a direct link between cancer cases and radiation exposure, but the study did find the mortality and cancer rate was higher than the general population in Woomera, 600km downwind of the tests. A grave with 23 stillborn babies delivered in the years following the tests are buried. That's according to a class action case against the British Ministry of Defence.
And there's not really a lot of data around the health of people. If you look back in clinic records, Or perhaps a Yalata or even Oak Valley. There was a period of time that there was a high spike for thyroid cancers, and many have passed, you know. People have passed now.
In 1993, Britain agreed to £20 million towards the cleanup of Maralinga, the largest and most used site. And a year later, the Australian government paid $13.5 million to the indigenous people of Maralinga as compensation for contamination of the land. A spokesperson from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, or Arpansa, told The Age that EMU Field and Maralinga have been returned to traditional owners following extensive radiation monitoring and assessment of the risks posed by the residual contamination at EMU Field was considered in the mid 1990s and found to be to be negligible. The government nuclear safety watchdog also said it conducts regular safety checks and is committed to building trust with indigenous peoples to feel confident to live on and engage with their land. But Karina says that trust may take a while longer to build.
It's a whole lot of data missing around the safety of our environment and our traditional lands. We need to look at the path of where Totem one had fallen over, which is Walhachin, and how safe is it there? You know what's in the dust? What's in the soil? What's in our waters? You know what's you know how safe are our trees? Because we still go digging for witchetty grubs. And, you know, we go eating the animals like goannas and perenties and turkeys. And, you know, we still practice those things because that's part of our culture, our culture. We just need to know. And it's the unknown that is the fear for us.
Aboriginal people have found themselves unwillingly at the heart of Australia's nuclear debate for decades. So when federal opposition leader Peter Dutton reignited Australia's nuclear debate in June, Kareenah felt fearful again. It came on top of bipartisan support for the Aukus deal, which will entail the long term storage of high level nuclear waste. Carina has, like her father, dedicated her adult life to activism. In 2023, she represented the Australian wing of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons at the UN in New York. She says she will be at the forefront of community opposition.
Government of the day has a level of responsibility. It is negligent of them to be sticking waste out in community that they think is out of sight, out of mind, like the industry has completely outdone itself. Yes, it does all these amazing things, but you haven't worked out your waste solution. And the solution that you put on the table constantly to First Nations peoples is stick it in your traditional lands. No, we say no to nuclear waste. Full stop.
Okay, everyone, thank you very much for being here today. I want to make sure that the Australian public understands today that we have a vision for our country to deliver cleaner electricity, cheaper electricity and consistent electricity.
When Opposition Leader Peter Dutton announced plans in June last year for a nuclear reactor on nearly every mainland state.
These seven sites.
David Littleproud congratulated Dutton on committing to the, quote long held view a long held view of the National Party.
Is proud of me to stand here.
And the nuclear waste question reared its head again because the intractable problem with nuclear energy is its byproduct radioactive waste, specifically spent nuclear fuel, which contains high level radioactive waste that is toxic to humans for tens of thousands of years. The Albanese government has committed to disposing of nuclear waste from Aukus submarines, assuring the public that process won't begin until the 2050s, when the reactor from the first of the boats is due to be decommissioned.
This is the first time in 65 years, and only the second time in history that the United States has shed its nuclear propulsion technology. And we thank you for it.
Dutton leans on this in his nuclear energy proposal, suggesting it can safely piggyback on the Aukus commitment.
Of course, the Prime Minister signed up to the nuclear submarines and therefore sent a very clear message to Australians that there are no safety concerns about the latest technology in relation to nuclear. We spoke about disposal and the government signed up to disposing waste, including the end of life reactors under the Aukus submarine agreement. We spoke about.
The Commonwealth Government have been struggling for 20 years to find a site for permanent storage of that low level waste, which is comparatively benign.
This is Ian Low, emeritus professor at the School of Environmental Science at Griffith University in Queensland.
So I've been in this area for more than 50 years, one way or the other.
Ian says the nuclear energy reactors Dutton once built will produce high level nuclear waste requiring disposal in deep geological layers several hundred metres underground.
If we were to build nuclear power stations, or indeed if we were to operate nuclear submarines at the end of their life, there would be high level waste. So really what we're talking about is, is very long term storage geological time. And one of my worries is that that is so far outside the time horizon of any elected politician, or indeed any civilization, that it really is an existential threat that we're not historically been equipped to deal with.
So not waste you'd want in your backyard or trucked through the country.
Um, you probably wouldn't want anyone to be living near that site, but it'd be a much smaller area.
Proponents of nuclear argue the benefits outweigh the negatives. Those benefits including life saving cancer treatment from nuclear medicine. And another big one emissions free energy for Australia's energy grid. Newer technology, including small modular reactors or smrs, included in Dutton's policy proposal, promise safer, smaller and more efficient production. But those don't exist yet. And it's Katrina and regional communities who find themselves at the center of the debate. Out in far flung regional towns living where waste disposal sites have been slated to go.
We have a powerful relationship with the ground and with the land and with the environment and with the animals. That's the bottom line. And that's why Arnold often speaks strongly about protection of that country. And no to nuclear waste. Whether it's medical waste, whether it's waste from power, whether it's nuclear waste. We say no to any nuclear waste because of the risk that it gives to our country. That gives us what we need as our normal, as young and as First Nations peoples across our country.
There's a long legacy of mistreatment by Australian governments, of failing to communicate radioactivity levels, modest clean up efforts, compensation, but no assurance to Aboriginal people that they and their lands won't be hurt again.
Well, there's a lack of accountability. You know, they came in and did what they did and then went away and nothing, maybe a few, you know, a few dollars here and a few dollars there. That's through the compensation. And that was a hard struggle.
The indigenous community is permanently scarred by the experience of the bomb tests in rural South Australia, and the harm that came to some people as a result of those. And every proposal by the Commonwealth government for a low level waste storage has been resisted by the local indigenous community. So if we are going to set up a site to manage intermediate level waste and high level waste In the long term, they will have to be very delicate and sensitive. Negotiations with indigenous communities to get their permission for an activity like that on their land.
We'll be right back.
There have been numerous attempts at establishing a national nuclear waste repository in Australia since the late 1990s. The most recent failed nuclear waste repository was in Kimba, a five hour drive north west of Adelaide, and with a population of just over 1000 people, Kimba became a bureaucratic nightmare, spanning eight years and rife with community tension. In 2020, a site was chosen just west of Kimba called Napandee. Then Minister for Resources Matt Canavan promised the facility would create 45 new jobs and would gift the community a fund of $31 million. The Kimber story is a microcosm of the nuclear debate raging today. Those who advocated for the waste repository argued along the familiar lines of economic opportunity and long term community survival. The site of Napandee in Kimba was chosen following a community ballot result of over 60% in favour of the facility. The only catch was that of the more than 700 locals who voted, none were the traditional owners of the land. The Bungala people. The Bungala people fell outside the local council area and were therefore exempt from voting.
They don't want to listen to us. They want to put that waste dump in Kimba no matter what.
In a short video posted online around the time Bungala elders express their concerns about the site selection process.
It's about our generations to come. They are the are the most important people that I'm concerned about the generations to come.
History repeating itself. And they're still acting like we're part of the fauna and flora. We are the people of the country.
Minister Canavan acknowledged opposition from Bungala people and said at the time we will work with traditional owners to protect culture and heritage and to maximise economic opportunities and outcomes for local Aboriginal communities near the future facility. By 2021, the Bungala people, specifically the Bungala Determination Aboriginal Corporation, had mounted a legal challenge to the federal government's plan. Nick Llewellyn-jones, a principal at Norman Waterhouse law firm in Adelaide, led the Bunglers case to victory in the Federal Court last.
Year, but there was a very strong desire to push it through no matter what and whether that was how they structured the ballot.
Justice Natalie Charlesworth found there had been apprehended. Bias in the decision making process under Canavan's successor, nationals MP Keith Pitt.
Emotions ran high as the bungalow people celebrated a hard fought legal victory. Traditional owners have strongly opposed the storage facility for radioactive medical waste, which was to be built near Kimba. Now the Federal Court has ruled in their favor, finding there was an.
Apprehension of bias. The legal framework about fairness in decision making. So it's a legal framework which protects people by ensuring that decision makers operate in a way which is transparent and fair, and ultimately means that there's a meaningful engagement with them before they make a decision. And these are actually really important.
Nick says exclusion from the ballot was just one of the claims the court considered. It also considered the federal government's attempt to remove the Bungalow's right to judicial review.
There it was a very strong desire to push it through no matter what, and whether that was how they structured the ballot, whether that was starting construction work before the court case was resolved, whether that was trying to pass legislation to remove any court challenge to it. This was part of a broader mentality about pushing this project through. Come hell or high water. And in fact, it was that mentality which actually largely led to the court result in a way, because that was what led to the apprehension of bias funding.
The failed Kimber project highlights the overwhelming challenge for governments nearly a decade spanning three different ministers site assessment and selection, land ownership and community consultation and consent, Senate committee hearings and inquiries, legal challenges at state and local levels, and countless regulatory hurdles. And that's just for a waste repository at the end of the nuclear fuel cycle, let alone the infrastructure planning needed for a nuclear energy reactor itself. And that's not to say renewable energy projects are without bottlenecks of their own community division and challenges. But Australia's nuclear story has largely been an indigenous one.
Aboriginal traditional owners near the Flinders Ranges are outraged. Their land has been selected as the proposed site for Australia's first nuclear waste dump.
Traditional landowners protesting in Darwin over plans for a new desert dump site to build a.
National nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station, north of Tennant Creek. They're concerned about the process.
Of site selection was disgusting and a form of cultural genocide. And they're travelling across the country to take their fight to Canberra.
Pile of nuclear waste has erupted again with almost.
Every waste dump is near an Aboriginal community. It's like, yeah, we're just they're only a bunch of blacks. They're only a bunch of abos. So we'll put it there. Can't they just leave? Leave my people alone. Honestly, we've faced so much shit in the past.
Australia's history of failed nuclear waste site proposals is less than encouraging for the coalition's hopes of a nuclear energy future. Many have been met by Aboriginal opposition and involved concerning tactics by successive governments to rush developments, entice vulnerable communities with large sums, override state laws or, in the case of Kimba, legislate a site directly without judicial review. The challenge of winning over communities in far flung regional towns and individuals like Karina, a second generation survivor of nuclear weapons tests, has so far failed.
The intelligence of the white system is to tweak a clause in an act that allows them to come in behind the back or sideways or, you know, come in because of the system. And this is where these cultures clash constantly. You know, I think it's very unfair and it's very unjust. It will be First Nations peoples. So there needs to be a level of consultation that needs to engage with the peoples and those traditional lands that these locations will be impacted.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton says he wants this year's election to be a referendum on energy.
I think people are going to be very pro-nuclear and people are going to be very anti-nuclear and people are going to be in the middle of it. The difficulty in a debate like this isn't necessarily working out who's right. The difficulty in a debate like this is creating a structure where people's rights don't get sacrificed by one side or the other.
Karina says ultimately, it will be the Australian people who must decide.
Aside so Dutton with his bright idea. Take it to Australia, and Australians need to make that decision on whether we are going to be a nuclear powered nation. As Australia, you know, Australians, you do have a say. This is a decision that you need to make and we ask that you make this decision the right way.
Today's episode of The Morning Edition was produced by Julia Carcasole. Our executive producer is Tammy Mills. Our head of audio is Tom McKendrick. The Morning Edition is a production of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. If you enjoy the show and want more of our of our journalism. Subscribe to our newspapers today. It's the best way to support what we do. Search the age or smh.com.au. Subscribe and sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter to receive a comprehensive summary of the day's most important news, analysis and insights in your inbox every day. Links are in the show. Notes. I'm Samantha Selinger. Morris. This is the morning edition. Thanks for listening.