A group of academics, described by an Adelaide University publication as an expert panel, has supported the need for a national radioactive waste repository (Adelaidean 14/8/00; City Messenger, August 2000; Canberra Times 24/8/00).

One of the experts, a radiation safety officer, recently reported that a store for radioactive waste in the Physics Department had been flooded and that he had no choice but to bucket the water into the drains. (The Advertiser, 21/8/00). Storage of radioactive waste in a flood-prone basement and bucketing possibly contaminated water into the drains is not what one would expect of an expert in radiation safety.

Such matters are of concern to the Radiation Protection Committee (RPC) of the SA Health Commission. A second member of the expert panel has been a member of the RPC since it was formed some 20 years ago.

The same person believes that public management of dangerous waste is better than private storage. The proposed repository will be built, managed and operated by a private company; tenders have been called for (The Advertiser, August 2000). As with the existing stores, government will oversee and regulate the repository.

Even if a central dump/store is built there will still be a need for interim stores such as that at Adelaide University. From the flooding incident at Adelaide University it is apparent that better arrangements need to be made for on-site storage.

Another of the experts not only thought that the planned national repository was only for low-level radioactive waste* but also that the waste was not going to be buried. These misconceptions suggest that the expert had not been following the repository issue very closely.

* JG - The planned dump will also take short-lived intermediate-level waste, e.g. dismantled nuclear reactor components from the nuclear reactors in Sydney.