Their early resistance suggests it may not be a simple task for the federal government to find storage for used high-level fuel rods from Australia’s future AUKUS submarines. The waste is expected to be created in the 2050s,but Defence Minister Richard Marles has said the government would begin a process to pick a site within the next year.
An Andrews government spokeswoman,referencingWestern Australia’s outsized share of the GST,said:“Given all the GST is heading to WA,perhaps they can take the nuclear waste too.”
The Queensland government said it could not set up the site in Queensland because its Nuclear Facilities Prohibition Act made doing so illegal.
“Under no circumstances will Queensland be the dumping ground for nuclear waste,” a spokeswoman for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas,whose state will financially benefit from building new submarines in the 2040s,declined to endorse opening a waste site in the state.
“Ultimately,it should be somewhere safe. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s in South Australia,” he said on ABC Radio National.