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- Title
PROTECTING AUTHORITY, BURYING DISSENT: AN ANALYSIS OF AUSTRALIAN NUCLEAR WASTE LAW.
- Authors
MORSLEY, ANGELA
- Abstract
This paper considers the Australian legal framework for a national nuclear waste repository in the context of the Commonwealth government's preference for a controversial site located near Barndioota, in South Australia's Flinders Ranges. Although the environmental, political and economic justifications for a national repository are acknowledged, the article suggests that the Commonwealth's failure, to date, to secure a site for the repository has resulted from its disregard for dissent from State and Territory governments, as well as from communities local to proposed sites. In considering whether the current framework provides for a fairer process with respect to the proposed South Australian site, the author examines the arguments and outcomes of previously litigated actions, the provisions of the National Radioactive Waste Management Act 2012 (Cth) (NRWMA), the assessment and approval process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBCA), and the constitutionality of the Commonwealth's approach of excluding State and Territory laws from application at the repository site. The paper argues that the current law protects the Commonwealth's decision-making in relation to a repository site, but at the expense of matters important to the public interest, and with the consequence that the siting process is inherently compromised.
- Subjects
AUSTRALIA; RADIOACTIVE wastes -- Law &; legislation; RADIOACTIVE waste management; RADIOACTIVE wastes &; the environment; ENVIRONMENTAL law; BIODIVERSITY laws
- Publication
Macquarie Law Journal, 2017, Vol 17, p56
- ISSN
1445-386X
- Publication type
Article