Australian Radioactive Waste Agency to be set up in Adelaide, to take responsibility for Kimba nuclear dump
The agency managing SA’s nuclear waste dump in Kimba will have its headquarters in Adelaide, creating 80 new jobs. But a conservation group says the government has jumped the gun with its announcement.
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A new national radioactive waste agency will have its headquarters in Adelaide, attracting 80 new jobs to the city.
The Australian Radioactive Waste Agency will be responsible for the design, construction and operation of a new nuclear waste management facility set to be built in Kimba.
The Federal Government expects it to create 35 jobs in SA in the next three years, and another 45 jobs when the facility is operational.
But a conservation group warns the government has jumped the gun by announcing an agency before laws to establish the site at Kimba have passed parliament.
Federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt said a site for headquarters in Adelaide was still being considered but the agency would launch this month, run out of the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources.
Administration, security, monitoring, safety and community liaison jobs will be needed. The search for a chief executive will be conducted nationally and internationally.
“There is a broad range of skills that are required,” Mr Pitt said.
Laws to establish the facility at Kimba must still go through the Senate, and Labor has yet to declare whether it will support the bill.
Mr Pitt acknowledged the laws could be delayed passing this year by covid-19 after two sitting weeks were cancelled in August due to outbreaks in NSW and Victoria.
Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman Dave Sweeney said it was “absurd to establish a new federal agency for a proposal that is still under active Senate review and has no current legislative basis”.
“This new agency appears to have been set up to rubber stamp and maintain momentum for the Federal Government’s deeply flawed and contested radioactive waste facility,” he said.