Daniel Wills: High-level nuclear waste dump would create incredible wealth for SA

WIPE out most state taxes? Yep. Build two new RAHs and two new Adelaide Ovals every year? Yep. But to get that expected windfall, the Government needs public support for the nuclear waste dump.

Images from Onkalo Nuclear waste storage in Finland . Credit: Posiva Oy

• REPORT: Historic united support for high-level nuclear waste dump in SA
• ANALYSIS: A breathtaking vision for our state
• ELECTRICITY: Nuclear power ‘not viable — for now’
• TRADE: SA’s uranium exports could triple by 2040
• FUTURE: Could we combine uranium mining with fuel leasing?

WHAT a difference a decade makes.

In 2004, former premier Mike Rann claimed to have scored a resounding victory over the forces of nuclear evil by stopping a Federal Government push for a low-level dump in SA.

The former journalist and master of the political sound bite used the bully pulpit that is the state’s highest office to whip up widespread popular opposition and get the dump dumped.

Today, through this silence, Premier Jay Weatherill is giving the idea new life.

Former Governor Kevin Scarce’s findings were predictable to most close observers. In fact, when the Royal Commission was called a year ago, it was always expected to turn out this way.

While it is technically possible for the state to enrich uranium or use it in an atomic power station, there’s no money in it and little reason to think it could happen any time soon.

Inside the Onkalo nuclear waste storage in Finland.

The dump, on the other hand, has long been an opportunity for a major payday.

In politics, and among the experts, this was the conclusion everyone expected.

The most striking thing about the commission’s finding is the sheer scale of wealth a high-level dump could inject into the state. It’s an almost unimaginably huge bucket of money.

Imagine Scrooge McDuck swimming through a money bin of glowing gold coins.

The expected revenue of $5 billion per year would almost be enough to wipe out all other state taxes. Or, SA could build two new Royal Adelaide Hospitals and two Adelaide Ovals every year for at least three decades. Want a new tram in your neighbourhood? No problem, have two.

The feared future health and education budget black hole would be the concern of a bygone era.

But such a major change is impossible without public support. The fear campaign around three-eyed fish, concerns about reputation damage and basic conservatism remain powerful.

There is substantial support in the highest ranks of state Labor to follow the tentative findings of the Royal Commission, there is also an acute awareness it cannot be forced on the public.

Mr Weatherill has curated the best available information, and a debate that trends to an outcome.

The Government wants to create a space in which popular support can coalesce around the proposal for a dump, and then take action on it. In November, 65 per cent of respondents to the Sunday Mail State of SA survey backed some expansion of SA’s nuclear industry.

Should Mr Weatherill take this historic step, with support from the people of SA, the next challenge will be Canberra — and a federal Labor Party which could be tougher still to convince.