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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Daniel Hurst Foreign affairs and defence correspondent

Australia risks being ‘world’s nuclear waste dump’ unless Aukus laws changed, critics say

UK, US and Australian flags in front of the USS Ashevilla, a Los Angeles-class nuclear powered submarine, in WA
A Senate committee has recommended Aukus legislation be amended to clearly show Australia will reject ‘high-level nuclear waste’ from its defence partners, the UK and the US. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

Australia risks becoming the “world’s nuclear waste dump” unless the Albanese government moves to rewrite its proposed Aukus laws, critics say.

A Labor-chaired inquiry has called for the legislative safeguard to specifically rule out accepting high-level nuclear waste from the US and the UK. One of the members of a Senate committee that reviewed the draft laws, independent senator Lidia Thorpe, said the legislation “should be setting off alarm bells” because “it could mean that Australia becomes the world’s nuclear waste dump”.

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