By DANE LILLINGSTONE
A COMMUNITY meeting held at Inglewood on the Oman Ama nuclear storage facility proposal has reaffirmed what a lot of people already knew – people do not want anything nuclear near their homes.
The Inglewood Civic Centre played host to the meeting on Wednesday where over 200 people attended included members of the community, local police, television news crews, local politicians, government representatives and industry experts.
Many community members were visibly angry that something like this could be happening so close to their homes.
“Disasters do happen,” and “Why can’t they go to the desert in the middle of Australia?” were two of the responses that came from local residents in the meeting.
One of the recurring concerns raised in the meeting by the community was the valuation of homes that were located near the site and the future economic viability of the region.
Head of Resources for the Department of Industry Bruce Wilson said he was adamant there would be no risks with the finalised proposal.
“I’ve very confident there won’t be any risk to any health or the environment,” Mr Wilson said.
“The license and procedures and regulatory procedures will not allow us to construct or operate or work this facility if there are any material risks of disease.”
However Mr Wilson said while they were confident, nothing could be zero risk.
“There’s never such a thing as zero risk however we can be assured and will be assured that the operation and construction of this facility will make any risk as low as reasonable,” he said.
“We’re very confident in the long term.”
The consultation process will now go on for another 120 days with at least another two or three community meetings.
Southern Downs MP and State Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said he was adamant that nothing would go ahead without community backing.
“The Federal Minister has said to me personally that it won’t go ahead here or elsewhere without broad community support,” Mr Springborg said.
“I think if you looked at this meeting today, people do understand that if we are producing this material for the benefit of the broader community, this material for nuclear medicine and treating cancers, that we do need to do something responsibly about disposing it in a central place. The point to be decided of course is where is that?”
The next step in the consultation will be to narrow down the proposed six sites to a final two or three and then commence more critical assessments on the sites including risk management assessments, a safety case, technical evaluations and further community consultation before deciding on a final site towards the end of next year.
The current plan is to begin construction of the facility in 2018 with a projection to start operation sometime from 2020.
