Post by lennie on Sept 27, 2006 7:13:25 GMT -5
50 years after Maralinga atomic tests, Aust 'hasn't learnt'
from ABC Online
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) believes the nation has not learned from the mistakes of nuclear testing at Maralinga in south-western South Australia.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first British atomic bomb test at Maralinga.
Witnesses have spoken about how the bombs made them sick, and one Aboriginal man says the tests burned his skin.
The ACF's nuclear campaigner David Noonan says considering what happened at Maralinga, Australia should not be mining uranium or thinking about selling the substance to China.
"Here at home we're under pressure for international nuclear waste dumping and we have a very large scale nuclear waste dump in South Australia already, at that Maralinga site, with the inappropriate burial of plutonium," he said.
"Our interest in the uranium dollar is pushing Australia back through a peak, many of the same mistakes communities have tried to avoid over the past 50 years."
Another Aboriginal man says flora and fauna near his community were destroyed in the British atomic tests.
Bruce Lennon was a five-year-old at the time.
He says the ground shook and his family saw bright lights in the sky at night.
Mr Lennon was sick for weeks after the testing, with flu-like symptoms and a rash.
But he was most affected by the desolation of the landscape.
"It's like walking around in the Garden of Eden. And then all of a sudden it's gone," he said.
"Like the flora and the fauna, the fruit trees and all those kinds of things. As far as I can recall it never really recovered."
Maralinga was officially closed in 1967.
Remediation work at the site began in 1996 and was completed four years later.
from ABC Online
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) believes the nation has not learned from the mistakes of nuclear testing at Maralinga in south-western South Australia.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first British atomic bomb test at Maralinga.
Witnesses have spoken about how the bombs made them sick, and one Aboriginal man says the tests burned his skin.
The ACF's nuclear campaigner David Noonan says considering what happened at Maralinga, Australia should not be mining uranium or thinking about selling the substance to China.
"Here at home we're under pressure for international nuclear waste dumping and we have a very large scale nuclear waste dump in South Australia already, at that Maralinga site, with the inappropriate burial of plutonium," he said.
"Our interest in the uranium dollar is pushing Australia back through a peak, many of the same mistakes communities have tried to avoid over the past 50 years."
Another Aboriginal man says flora and fauna near his community were destroyed in the British atomic tests.
Bruce Lennon was a five-year-old at the time.
He says the ground shook and his family saw bright lights in the sky at night.
Mr Lennon was sick for weeks after the testing, with flu-like symptoms and a rash.
But he was most affected by the desolation of the landscape.
"It's like walking around in the Garden of Eden. And then all of a sudden it's gone," he said.
"Like the flora and the fauna, the fruit trees and all those kinds of things. As far as I can recall it never really recovered."
Maralinga was officially closed in 1967.
Remediation work at the site began in 1996 and was completed four years later.