#1 Sydney-siders have been told that long-lived intermediate-level wastes - including reprocessing wastes from the reactor in Sydney - will definitely be stored in SA; South Australians are told these wastes could be stored in any state.

#2 the federal government claims that the Lucas Heights reactor plant in suburban Sydney is responsible for a minority of the wastes to be sent to the planned dump, but the director of waste management at Lucas Heights admits the plant will provide “the major fraction”of the wastes

#3 Senator Minchin says the store for intermediate-level wastes does not have to be in operation until 2015, but the federal Environment Department says the store will be in operation by 2005.

#4 reprocessing has been legally prohibited in Australia, so why then is it acceptable for spent fuel from Lucas Heights to be reprocessed in Europe?

#5 Senator Minchin says “each nation should look after its own waste”, so why send ANSTO’s spent fuel overseas?

#6 the government claims to be open in its dealings on nuclear issues but a senior bureaucrat said on ABC radio (29/3/98) that the government’s strategy to handle local residents and others concerned about the Sydney reactor is “to starve the opponents of oxygen ... play the game and catch them totally unawares ... just keep them in the dark completely."

#7 Senator Minchin says there is no contingency plan in the event that overseas reprocessing options fall through for spent reactor fuel, but ANSTO and the federal Environment Department have openly stated that there is a contingency plan - i.e.  dump the spent fuel straight in SA for "extended interim storage".

#8 the government says that reprocessing spent fuel in Australia is off the agenda but a senior government bureaucrat said on ABC radio that reprocessing is "an issue for another generation. Someone else can worry about it. And reprocessing is an option then".

#9 the government has tried to short circuit the thin-edge-of-the-wedge argument by claiming that “a limit on total radionuclide activity” for the proposed dump will be established, but the government refuses to say what the limit will be.

#10 Senator Minchin says that concerns about a low-level dump becoming the thin-edge-of-the-wedge reflect some people’s “mindless determination” to stop any dump being built at all, yet government departments and agencies have openly stated that they plan to indefinitely store long-lived intermediate-level wastes in SA, that the Lucas Heights reactors will be dismantled and dumped in SA, that spent fuel could be sent directly from Sydney to SA for "extended interim storage", ...