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Anti-nuclear movement in Australia

Radium Hill, a former minesite in South Australia which operated from 1906 until 1961.[1] It was Australia's first uranium mine,[2] years before the country's next major mines at Rum Jungle in the Northern Territory (opened in 1950), and the Mary Kathleen mine in Queensland (1958).[3]

Nuclear weapons testing, uranium mining and export, and nuclear power have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia has a long history. Its origins date back to the 1972–1973 debate over French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the 1976–1977 debate about uranium mining in Australia.[4][5]

Several groups specifically concerned with nuclear issues were established in the mid-1970s, including the Movement Against Uranium Mining and Campaign Against Nuclear Energy (CANE), cooperating with other environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth and the Australian Conservation Foundation.[6][7][8][9] The movement suffered a setback in 1983 when the newly elected Labor Government failed to implement its stated policy of stopping uranium mining.[10] But by the late 1980s, the price of uranium had fallen, the costs of nuclear power had risen, and the anti-nuclear movement seemed to have won its case; CANE was disbanded in 1988.[11]

As of 2015, Australia has no nuclear power stations and five uranium mines, four of which are located in South Australia. Olympic Dam (Roxby Downs) is a large underground mine, Beverley, Four Mile and Honeymoon are in-situ leach mines and Ranger is an open pit mine in the Northern Territory.[12] As of 2021 only two mines are operating (Olympic Dam and Four Mile) following the closure of Beverley and Ranger and the placement of Honeymoon into care-and-maintenance. Uranium mined in Australia is mainly for export. Australia has no nuclear weapons or nuclear-powered vessels.

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  1. ^ "Welcome". Radium Hill Historical Association. Archived from the original on 12 June 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
  2. ^ "Radium Hill, SA". www.sea-us.org.au. Archived from the original on 13 September 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
  3. ^ "Australia's Uranium and Nuclear Power Prospects". World Nuclear Association. April 2009. Retrieved 24 July 2009.
  4. ^ Green, Jim (26 August 1998). Australia's anti-nuclear movement: a short history Archived 5 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine Green Left Online. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
  5. ^ Koutsoukis, Jason (25 November 2007). Rudd romps to historic win The Age. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
  6. ^ McLeod, Roy (1995). "Resistance to Nuclear Technology: Optimists, Opportunists and Opposition in Australian Nuclear History" in Martin Bauer (ed) Resistance to New Technology, Cambridge University Press, pp. 171–173.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hutton was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Kearns, Barbara (2001). "Stepping out for peace : a history of CANE and PND (WA)". Commons Social Change Library.
  9. ^ Branagan, Marty (2014). "he Australian Movement against Uranium Mining: Its Rationale and Evolution". The Commons Social Change Library.
  10. ^ Friends of the Earth (Canberra) (January 1984). Strategy against nuclear power
  11. ^ McLeod, Roy (1995). "Resistance to Nuclear Technology: Optimists, Opportunists and Opposition in Australian Nuclear History" in Martin Bauer (ed) Resistance to New Technology, Cambridge University Press, pp. 175–177.
  12. ^ Work begins on Honeymoon uranium mine (24 April 2009), ABC News. Retrieved 15 December 2010.

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