Katherine residents question nuclear dump plan

About 150 Katherine residents attended a fiery public meeting this week to discuss the Federal Government's proposed Commonwealth nuclear waste dump.

A Commonwealth defence site located at Fischers Ridge, south of Katherine, is one of three sites in the Northern Territory being considered for a waste dump.

Like concerned residents at an earlier meeting in Alice Springs, also a potential nuclear dump site, the Katherine meeting raised objections to the dump on grounds of safety issues.

Commonwealth officials from the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) provided information about the Katherine site and what a nuclear waste dump there would involve.

Katherine residents are concerned that the dump will have serious negative effects on underground aquifers.

A DEST representative argued that the facility would store solid wastes above ground and therefore would not be an issue for Katherine's underground water.

He assured Katherine residents the dump would be safe, prompting questions as to why it was not therefore being built near a major city.

The DEST spokesman replied that since the potential site in Katherine was Commonwealth land, it was ultimately a Federal Government decision.

2005-08-04