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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Environment
Tory Shepherd

Australia’s nuclear waste is scattered in ‘cupboards and filing cabinets’ – and the pile is growing

Gloved hands and a hot cell at Lucas Heights.
The vast majority of nuclear waste is stored at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation facility at Lucas Heights in Sydney. Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/AAP

More than 20 tonnes of reprocessed nuclear fuel will stay at Australia’s only reactor in southern Sydney, while nuclear waste will remain scattered in “cupboards and filing cabinets” around the country, after the federal court blocked plans for a long-term storage site in outback South Australia.

The site in Kimba was selected more than 40 years after Australia started planning for a centralised repository. But this month, that decision was quashed by the courts.

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