“For too long in Australia, radioactive waste disposal has been in the ‘too hard’ basket. It no longer needs to be. Australia has a solution.”
That was the message from Tellus Managing Director & CEO Nate Smith to the House Select Committee on Nuclear Energy Inquiry at its hearing yesterday in Perth.
You might ask why Tellus would want to get involved in such a highly political issue at the national level, especially since we’re not advocates for (or against) nuclear power in Australia.
We decided to get involved for a couple of reasons:
The first reason is we want to let Australians know about what we’ve built at Sandy Ridge – what an important national asset we have, and how important it is to support the clean energy transition and create a cleaner Australia. We’re proud of what we’ve built and want to share it with the world.
The second is to help inform the national debate.
Our parliamentarians are making big decisions that affect us all; we want to help them by giving them the best information to make good decisions.
For example, throughout the Nuclear Energy Inquiry various people or groups have stated that Australia has no disposal capability for low-level radioactive waste, or that we are decades away from an Australian solution. Of course, all of us at Tellus know this is not true.
If Australia does decide to go down the nuclear energy pathway, our leaders in government should know that there’s an existing company with world-class expertise and a world-class facility in operation right here they can work with to come up with solutions that protect people and our environment.
With our experience in gaining social licence and Native Title support, finding a safe and suitable location, obtaining regulatory approvals, completing construction on time and under budget, and now operating Sandy Ridge, we can play an important role in safeguarding our green future. That is our mission.
Finally, it’s important to note the civility of yesterday’s discussion. We appreciated the opportunity to appear, and the respect provided by the Committee – Chair Dan Repacholi, Deputy Chair Ted O’Brien MP and their colleagues – in hearing our story.
Read about our submission here
You can listen to Nate’s full evidence below: