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Argentina to Build Australia approves new nuclear research reactor

 
CANBERRA, April 5 (Reuters) - Australia has given Argentine state firm INVAP SE the green light to build a controversial research-only nuclear reactor to replace the country's ageing Sydney reactor, the government said on Friday.

Environmentalists have vowed to block the A$300 million (US$159 million) project, saying Australia's 44-year-old Lucas Heights reactor should not be replaced, even by a reactor which only produces radioisotopes for medical use.

Australia has no other nuclear reactors besides the Lucas Heights research facility. Green groups and residents of the south Sydney suburb where it is located say replacing the ageing reactor is the last thing Australia should be doing given post-September 11 security concerns.

But the nation's nuclear watchdog, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), said the new reactor, to be completed by 2005, was designed to withstand even a direct aircraft attack.

"I'm satisfied that even in the unlikely event that such an attack were attempted, that the probability of the attack being successful is now very small indeed," ARPANSA said in a statement.

Science Minister Peter McGauran dismissed environmental concerns about the project, saying the need for a reliable source of isotopes -- used in more than 440,000 nuclear medicine procedures in Australia last year -- was paramount.

"The government had a clear choice between saving lives and providing for more ground-breaking scientific and industrial research, or succumbing to minority groups and their protest actions," McGauran said in a statement.

Radioisotopes are artificially-produced chemical elements used in physical and biological research or medical therapy.

Green groups and Sydney residents have long argued there is no safe way to dispose of nuclear waste, even in its reprocessed form, and that Lucas Heights has become the de facto nuclear waste dump of Australia.

The government has not yet decided where it will dispose of the medium and low-level nuclear waste from the reactor, but said a decision would be made before the reactor comes on line in 2005.

Last August, Australia and Argentina signed a nuclear energy treaty paving the way for Australian nuclear waste to be shipped and processed in the South American country.

The reprocessed waste would eventually be returned to Australia for permanent storage.

In the past Australia has sent spent fuel to France for reprocessing by state-owned nuclear reprocessing company Cogema, but activists including Greenpeace have protested against it, saying shipping spent fuel is dangerous.

McGauran also shrugged off questions about the viability of INVAP after a fellow minister told the Senate last month the Argentine technology firm had received a A$10.5 million ($5.6 million) bailout from the Buenos Aires government.

INVAP is owned by Rio Negro province and its board is controlled by Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission. Its main work is related to space exploration and nuclear construction and research in places like Argentina, Peru, Algeria, Cuba and Egypt.

23:30 04-04-02

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