Port Adelaide Enfield Council joins opposition to nuclear submarine waste storage at Osborne

The federal government wants to store nuclear waste from AUKUS submarines at Osbourne in Adelaide’s west – and the local council is stunned.

Plans to store low-level radioactive waste generated by the building of the AUKUS nuclear submarines in Port Adelaide have been opposed by a local council – though elected members acknowledge they have little say in the decision-making process.

Recently passed federal legislation will allow the Osborne Naval Shipyard – set to be expanded to build future nuclear-powered submarines – to house a facility that would be “managing, storing or disposing of radioactive waste’’.

The community has railed against the move, with Port Adelaide Enfield Council this week joining growing opposition to the plan.

On Tuesday, elected members unanimously voted in opposition to the storage or disposal of radioactive waste in the AUKUS facilities at the shipyard and called for comprehensive community engagement around progression of the plan.

“I’m concerned about a transformative change coming to our community under our watch and most of the decisions being made will be out of our hands,” said councillor Joost den Hartog.

While the legislation does not detail what level nuclear waste would be stored at the site, a spokesperson for Defence Minister Richard Marles earlier said it would be “low level”.

But councillor Lazaras Panayiotou, on Tuesday, said on-the-ground concerns about low-level waste were “as real as medium and high-level waste”.

It is understood the AUKUS facilities at Osborne are currently not licensed to manage, store or dispose of any radioactive waste in a “designated facility”.

According to council documents, Australian Naval Infrastructure, with the support of the Australian Submarine Agency (ASA), is progressing an application for a licence “to prepare a site for a prescribed radiation facility”.

In correspondence with council, ASA said the radioactive waste that would be managed and temporarily stored at the Osborne ship yards would consist of materials such as personal protective equipment – “similar to the waste generated by hospitals and research facilities around Australia”.

“The exact quantities of low-level radioactive waste to be generated at Osborne are not yet known,” the agency said.

A spokesperson for Mr Marles said it was “anticipated the submarine construction, test and commissioning activities planned for Osborne will generate small amounts of low and very low-level radioactive waste”.