Nuclear Issues

Pursuant to standing order 66(3), the following motion by Hon Robin Chapple was moved pro forma on 8 March —

That the Mining Amendment Regulations (No. 5) 2011, published in the Government Gazette on 11 October 2011 and tabled in the Legislative Council on 18 October 2011 under the Mining Act 1978, be and are hereby disallowed.

HON ROBIN CHAPPLE(Mining and Pastoral) [5.04 pm]: I know that there is a limited amount of time to debate this matter so I will keep my contribution relatively short to allow other members to enter into the debate. The reason I am seeking to disallow this amendment is that it covers the establishment of two royalty rates—one for uranium at five per cent and one for vanadium, again at five per cent. The vanadium rate is not the one I am concerned with; the disallowance is sought on the uranium royalty rate. The basis for this disallowance is that royalty rates generally set a precedent and require an analysis of the overall benefit of the project to the state. The exercise of setting a uranium royalty requires an examination of the public interest and benefit of uranium mining to the state, neither of which has occurred. In essence, this is a debate about what will be the potential cost to the state of the legacy of this industry. I hope that this opportunity to establish a royalty rate will reflect the future cost to the state of mining uranium. I will give a description of that shortly.

Uranium mining is unique. This is not just another mineral being mined and should not simply be allocated a royalty rate concentrate alongside other minerals. The royalty rates are established based on a 10 per cent freight on board and are discounted based on the value of the mineral to the state. Recent state agreements have increased the royalty rate for iron ore from five per cent to 7.5 per cent, which means that the royalty rate proposed for uranium would be less than that for iron ore. Is this appropriate given the health, public safety and legacy issues involved? I would suggest not. The costs associated with the development of uranium mining are quite different from other forms of mining. The mining and exporting of uranium will require the establishment of significant new regulatory regimes to attempt to minimise the risk to the community and the environment. Such regimes should not cost the public but should be reflected in a high royalty rate. No investigation or public consultation has been conducted into this. It is inappropriate to set a rate without consultation or interrogation. The argument that uranium should be rated at five per cent because it is shipped as a concentrate fails to properly consider the full impact of uranium mining on the state and the community of Western Australia. Royalty rates are intended to reflect an assessment of the benefits to the community and this rate does not do that. Obviously, there are a number of risks. There is a risk to the workers and communities near the mine sites and transport corridors, as well as to water sources and the environment. The key issue is the length of the legacy of the industry.

I will quickly identify some of the problems we have in Australia and also overseas to give the minister representing the Minister for Environment an idea of the issues we are canvassing. More than $25 million of taxpayers’ money has been spent trying to resolve the issues of Rum Jungle, which has failed.

Hon Jon Ford interjected.

Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE: I thank the member. I was told it was $25 million but I accept the honourable member’s advice. It is my understanding that that is government expenditure rather than industry expenditure. Narbarlek cost $10 million in 1995 and was a very small site, even smaller than the Toro Energy–Centipede Resources Lake Way site. In 2002 the estimated cost of rehabilitating Olympic Dam was around $110 million but will be significantly more because of the expansion.

We then look at what has happened overseas. I refer to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s coverage of uranium mines on the Navaho nation, reference number NNN000906087, congressional district 04, and the costs associated with trying to rehabilitate those areas. The Navaho nation was situated on a geologic formation rich in radioactive ores and many mines operated in that area. As at August 2007, the US EPA completed a large study identifying 520 uranium mines in the area. The US EPA completed the removal of two radioactive structures and a number of other issues in the area. So far, the cost of trying to rehabilitate the water column alone has been $50 million. The US EPA estimates that the cost of rehabilitating the Navaho lands is $1.5 billion. This will have to come out of the program that the federal government is running over there.

The other thing to remember is that there was a statement in the paper today or yesterday, in reply to Hon Alison Xamon’s statements in this place, in which a mining executive said that radioactive tailings or material left behind by the extraction of radiation means that all the radiation has gone. We have only to look at the conference papers from the International Atomic Energy Agency—the IAEA—to find out that some 85 per cent of the specific radioactivity remains in the ore that is left behind. Then we have to realise that is then toxic and exposed to the environment for around 4.1 billion years, which is something we quite clearly cannot cope with. According to the IAEA, some 85 per cent of the specific radiation of the original initiative remains in the tailings rather than the waste rock due to the removal of most but not all of the uranium. This declines, but it takes an awful long time to do so; it takes about 250 000 years. With uranium mining we are specifically looking at a legacy that will cost this state an awful lot of money in the long term. It will cost taxpayers’ money and Treasury’s money.

I suggest that my opposition to this regulation is not about rating royalties, but it is a totally inappropriate rate at five per cent based on a future use of the ground and the areas where we will leave the waste. That is, in essence, the principle of why we will oppose this regulation. We would support, quite clearly, a much higher level of royalty that reflects the costs to the nation and to the state into the future.

HON JON FORD(Mining and Pastoral)[5.13 pm]: The opposition does not support the disallowance motion on a couple of grounds. I will not be long. One is the only way that we see that we can prevent damage and the costs associated with uranium mining that Hon Robin Chapple talked about is to not mine uranium. Setting our royalties is clearly a matter for the government of the day and even if we were to accept the arguments of Hon Robin Chapple, there is no guarantee that money would be spent for the causes that he outlines. That would be more a matter for environmental bonding and I look forward to that debate.

On that brief explanation, the opposition does not support uranium mining and does not support the disallowance motion.

HON SIMON O’BRIEN(South Metropolitan — Minister for Finance) [5.14 pm]: The government does not support the disallowance of this regulation, obviously. The honourable member has moved a motion for disallowance of the Mining Amendment Regulations (No. 5) 2011 in an attempt to block the state government from introducing a five per cent royalty on uranium exports from Western Australia. Disallowance will also affect the royalty rates contained in the amendment regulations on magnetite and vanadium.

The Department of Mines and Petroleum—DMP—sought submissions from industry on the proposed magnetite, vanadium and uranium royalty rates. DMP also consulted with its Mining Industry Liaison Committee. Industry indicated in its submissions to DMP that the proposed five per cent concentrate royalty for uranium was too high. Hon Robin Chapple indicated via his media release on 8 December 2011 that the royalty rate was too low and argued that it fails to properly consider the full impact and cost of uranium mining on the state and community of WA. He highlighted the hazardous nature of uranium mining and the associated costs. He also indicated he would work towards imposing a much higher royalty on uranium.

Prior to the Mining Regulation Amendments (No. 5) 2011, no royalty rates specifically for uranium, magnetite or vanadium were included in the Mining Regulations 1981. The Mining Regulations 1981 embody the three rate royalty principles generally as follows: for general bulk material, a rate of 7.5 per cent; for concentrates, five per cent; and for metals or finished form, 2.5 per cent. Uranium oxide, sometimes called yellowcake, is a concentrate and therefore properly attracts the five per cent royalty rate. The five per cent rate was also applied to vanadium and magnetite in their concentrate form. The current uranium five per cent concentrate royalty rate is in line with the royalty principles embodied in the Mining Regulations 1981 and altering the royalty rate would set undesirable precedents for other minerals.

Royalties compensate the community for the loss of its minerals and for the sale of a commodity, as it were, but it does not provide compensation for any costs that may be imposed on the community by the production, processing and sale of the minerals. Cost to administer and regulate the uranium industry are in line with the mining of other commodities for which many costs are met directly by the industry, such as mine safety regulation. Hon Jon Ford also made reference to environmental bonds and I thank him for the opposition’s support on our position.

In conclusion, DMP has 40 years of experience regulating radioactive materials. These regulations, with some additions, will be applied to the uranium sector to ensure safety for the environment and the community. Not only do stringent state and federal regulations apply, but also the uranium sector is subject to rigorous international standards and regulations. For that reason, the government position is that we do not support the disallowance motion.

HON ROBIN CHAPPLE(Mining and Pastoral)[5.17 pm] — in reply: I obviously understand; I can see the writing on the wall. But I think we need to remember, and it needs to be recorded in this chamber, that once this industry gets a foothold, which we hope it does not, future generations of this community, of the Agricultural Region and of the Mining and Pastoral Region will clearly bear some costs into the future. The point of my raising the issues of what was going on overseas was to highlight that this is exactly what will face this state into the future. All the information that is available out there provides evidence that—whether be it the Dene nations in Canada, the DinéNavajo nations in the USA, or the Jadugoda people in India—wherever the industry has gone there have been exceptional costs long after the mining industries have gone. The idea here is that although we oppose uranium mining, it is clear that if we are to have uranium mining, which is something we do not support, it is really beholden on this government to ensure that there is some financial structure into the future to protect future generations and the environment and to help clean up toxic waste if and when we mine uranium.

Question put and a division taken with the following result —

Ayes (4)

Hon Robin Chapple                    Hon Lynn MacLaren                  Hon Giz Watson                         Hon Alison Xamon(Teller)

Noes (24)

Hon Liz Behjat                           Hon Kate Doust                         Hon Philip Gardiner                   Hon Helen Morton

Hon Matt Benson-Lidholm        Hon Phil Edman                         Hon Nick Goiran                        Hon Simon O’Brien

Hon Jim Chown                         Hon Brian Ellis                          Hon Nigel Hallett                        Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich

Hon Peter Collier                        Hon Donna Faragher                  Hon Alyssa Hayden                   Hon Linda Savage

Hon Mia Davies                         Hon Adele Farina                       Hon Col Holt                              Hon Ken Travers

Hon Ed Dermer                          Hon Jon Ford                             Hon Michael Mischin                 Hon Ken Baston(Teller)

Question thus negatived.

HON ROBIN CHAPPLE(Mining and Pastoral)[2.37 pm]: I rise to speak on the motion. I think it is important to touch on the motion. When it was moved by my colleague, it was basically on the proviso “should uranium mining occur”. Quite clearly, we do not see the need for uranium mining, and I will expand on that shortly. However, should it occur, it needs to be, as far as possible, best practice, and that is, in essence, what my colleague Hon Alison Xamon was moving towards.

I want to talk about one aspect of the uranium industry. Quite often we talk about the results of Fukushima or the results of the Superphénix trials of the French. We talk about what happened at the Russian nuclear waste facility in the Ural Mountains. These are all places where there have been amazing accidents. The Superphénix ran for 27 days. It cost around $10 billion to build, and a further $10 billion has been spent trying to decommission it, and it has not been done yet. This is a reactor that failed. Of the 72 fast breeder reactors that were built in the world, only one survives, and that is in Russia, and it survives on the basis that it is providing hot water for the town. It does not even produce power. So members should understand how much money has been spent on subsidising the nuclear industry. If we go back to the American Price–Anderson act, America’s superannuation was basically confiscated to subsidise the nuclear industry. It has been a failed economic experiment, let alone a failed experiment in nuclear power.

Let us look at some of the methods of mining, which is why, if we are to have uranium mining in this state, we want world’s best practice. In situ leach mining is being proposed to a large extent by the 100-plus uranium miners that are exploring in Western Australia to date. I repeat that: 100-plus corporations have identified that they are exploring for uranium in Western Australia. In situ leach mining is when we inject sulfuric acid or alkaline material, which is nitric acid quite often, or carbonate such as sodium bicarbonate or ammonium carbonate, into the aquifer. Dissolving oxygen is sometimes added to the water to mobilise the uranium. ISL of uranium ores started in the United States sometime in the early 1960s. The first uranium ISL mining in the US was in the Shirley Basin in the state of Wyoming, which operated from 1961 to 1970, using sulfuric acid in the water column. Guess what? They cannot get the sulfuric acid out of the water column. I will shortly tell members what has been released into those areas. At the end of 2008, there were four in situ leach uranium mines in the United States, operated by Cameco, Mestena and Uranium Resources, all using sodium bicarbonate. Significant ISL mines have been operating in Kazakhstan and Australia. The Beverley uranium mine in Australia is an operating ISL mine. The Honeymoon uranium mine is also an ISL uranium mine.

We talk about self-regulation as opposed to regulation. I will just touch on some of the issues dealt with by the radiation health committee of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, which I served on for three years. One of the major problems in this nation is the lack of regulation. We establish regulatory impact statements, which are merely guidelines to the states; they have no legislative power. ARPANSA and the radiation health committee have for years been trying to formalise those regulations so that they would apply to all states. Currently, they do not. They are very good regulatory impact statements, but they do not imply compunction and therein is the need for really high-level regulatory guidelines.

I will just quickly touch on the fact that ISL is banned in most of America now. Because ISL contaminated so much of the groundwater and so many regional aquifers, it has been banned. ISL, as I said, will be one of the most significant mining types used in the calcrete regions of Western Australia, so we need to know at some level the sorts of impacts there can be. I turn to Königstein in Germany, which was an ISL mine. A total of 100 000 tonnes of sulfuric acid was injected with leaching liquid into the ore deposit. At present, 1.9 million cubic metres ofleaching liquid is still locked in the pores of the rock underground. That has led to the water column—I am reading through some data—drinking water standards having 400 times the permissible level of cadmium, 280 times the level of arsenic, 130 times the level of nickel and 83 times the permissible level of uranium. This liquid presents a hazard to not only the aquifer that is important for the drinking water, but also the broader agricultural community.

ISL operations have consistently contaminated water all around the world wherever they have operated. In Western Australia, we have our own example. There is a little-known five-spot test mine at a place called Manyingee near Onslow on what is referred to as the Twitchen road. It took us many years to find out what went on at Manyingee. It produced about five tonnesof uranium as a test mine and used a single-spot in situ leach mine. Proper in situ leach mining might be up to 100 spots. The company guaranteed that it would be able to clean up the water column adjacent to the river—sorry, I have forgotten the name of it—that runs down to Onslow. The company guaranteed that it could clean it up, but after nine years of trying, the Environmental Protection Authority eventually agreed that it could not be done and the water column still remains completely polluted. Therefore, it is a system that does not work.

I will turn quickly to South Australia’s uranium mine, the Beverley in situ leach mine, and quote some reported accidents that have occurred in relation to the injection of in situ leach. On 1 May 2002, there was a spill of almost 7 000 litresof brine solution containing uranium. On 5 May 2002, there was a spill of 14 900 litres of water containing uranium. On 7 June 2002, there was a spill of 1 500 litres of injection fluid that contained sulfuric acid. On 13 June 2002, there was a spill of 17 000 litres of brine solution. On 8 December 2004, there was a spill of approximately 2 300 litres of mining solution containing uranium. The list goes on, but the most recent accident was on 19 February 2011. It was a spill of 15 000 litres of injection solution containing uranium. Therefore, we can see that even using modern standards, things do not work.

Hon Max Trenorden: I’ve been to the Beverley mine; that’s what it is about.

Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE: It is about environmental spills.

Hon Max Trenorden: The uranium’s in the saline solution. If you pull it out of the water and spill it, what’s the difference?

Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE: Yes, but the company will never clean it up.

Hon Max Trenorden: But it’s there! It’s already there.

Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE: The member has not listened to what I have been saying. Let me just continue.

Hon Max Trenorden: I’ve been there. Have you ever been there?

Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE: Yes, I have—many times. I have also been to Rum Jungle and I have been to most of the uranium mines —

Hon Max Trenorden: I’ve been to Beverley.

Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE: I’ve been to Lake Way and helped clean up the uranium there. The minister knows about that.

Hon Max Trenorden: Uranium is suspended in saline water.

Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE: Absolutely.

Hon Giz Watson: It’s under the ground, isn’t it?

Hon Max Trenorden: It’s under the ground—that’s right.

Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE: Giz got it! That’s really good.

ThePRESIDENT: Order!

Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE: Anyway, moving on. After the last election, the National Party signed an agreement with the government about royalties for regions. I will read from the letter from Hon Colin Barnett to Mr Brendon Grylls in relation to royalties for regions. There is a fundamental reason I do this that will become apparent in a minute. The letter states —

In order to ensure that programs such as the above —

There is a list of programs that could be for royalties for regions —

and more can be delivered, the Liberal Party is pleased to join the National Party in committing to a policy of returning to regional Western Australia an amount equivalent to 25 per cent of mining and petroleum royalties received by the State in each year.

As discussed, the Liberal Party agrees that this policy be underpinned by the following broad principles:

·          An amount equivalent to 25 per cent of mining and petroleum royalties received by the State will be invested in the regions (Liberal Party policy to lift the ban on uranium mining will add to WA’s royalty revenues);

Therefore, the royalties for regions deal is quite clearly attached to uranium mining.

I will go back to the issue of in situ leach mining. I am following what various corporations are doing around the state. I have a view that Brendon Grylls’ move to the Pilbara might be fortuitous when we come to look at the proposed uranium mining in the central wheatbelt. Mindax and Quasar Resources, which are wholly owned by General Atomics out of America—a US company that manufactures weapons and owns the Beverley uranium mine in South Australia—have been exploring for uranium in the central wheatbelt.

Hon Max Trenorden: “Wholly owned”—are you absolutely sure of that?

Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE: Yes, absolutely. They have found a number of deposits that will be suited for in situ recovery, which is the very process that I have just been talking about. It is a mining method banned in most parts of the world. The uranium project is called the Mukinbudin project and comprises two leases—namely, E70/2920 and E77/1405. As I have already explained, in situ leach mining uses the following processes: water with either sulfuric acid or alkaline fluid being injected into the uranium deposit. These deposits sit in the heart of Mr Grylls’ electorate and, I am sure, would cause him a serious backlash, especially in respect of the deal struck between the two parties that I have just read out.

Hon Max Trenordeninterjected.

Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE: One has to remember what the in situ leach mining does to the water column. The farmers and the people in that area who wish to use that water column in the future —

Hon Max Trenorden: It’s saline.

The PRESIDENT: Order! I cannot see that Hon Max Trenorden has made a contribution to the debate at this stage. The opportunity awaits.

Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE: It is in a saline solution—agreed. But as I have already identified, it has freed up mercury, uranium and all those toxic heavy metals that make the water column unusable for the known future. The National Party must understand that that is the legacy that it is giving to the people in that region by supporting uranium mining. Does it understand? It has been read into Hansard, the National Party has the figures, and it knows what is contained in those water columns. That is the legacy that the National Party is giving to the people in its heartland—the wheatbelt.