The deal does nobody any good. It heightens tensions in an already dangerous part of the world.It weakens the Australian economy and places our people at great risk. It consigns millions of Australians to continued waiting lists for basic services because there will be no fat in any budget any time soon.
All this to stave off an enemy that is still to be proven to be anything but a mirage and to prove fealty to the United States.
Source: AUKUS cements U.S. interests and endangers Australia’s security
The department admits that the storage and disposal of such waste and spent fuel will require necessary facilities and trained personnel, appropriate transport, interim and permanent storage facilities and “social license earned and sustained with local and regional communities.” But it also notes that the UK and the US “will assist Australia in developing this capability, leveraging Australia’s decades of safely and securely managing radioactive waste domestically”.
That’s mighty good of them to do so, given that both countries have failed to move beyond the problem of temporary storage. In the UK, the issue of disposing waste from decommissioned nuclear submarines remains stuck in community consultation. In the US, no option has emerged after the Obama administration killed off a repository program to store waste underneath Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. The reasons for doing so, sulked Republicans at the time, were political rather than technical.
Source: Spent Matters: The AUKUS Nuclear Waste Problem – » The Australian Independent Media Network
“Morrison says that to accommodate the AUKUS submarines deal, Australia’s defence budget will need to increase to 2.5 per cent of GDP, and there’s not much doubt he’s right. That’s an extra $10 billion or so per year, on top of a structural deficit of $50 billion a year, already rising to $70 billion. Make that $80 billion. So where is the money coming from? Tax increase or spending cuts?
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