Latest news with #AustralianSubmarineAgency
West Australian
12 hours ago
- Politics
- West Australian
Mark Schneider: WA can help AUKUS by managing low-level radioactive waste
As Australia navigates renewed uncertainty surrounding the AUKUS agreement following news of a formal Pentagon review, there's never been a more critical time to demonstrate our capability and readiness as a trusted partner. While much of the focus has been on the strategic implications of nuclear-powered submarines, one overlooked area where Australia can show clear leadership is in the management of radioactive waste. Historically, nations have struggled to manage radioactive waste from the various nuclear programs they support whether from nuclear research, power, medicine, submarines, or other applications. Australia has been no different. But unlike many countries that built complex, costly interim waste storage infrastructure, Australia has an opportunity to leapfrog traditional models and adopt a more efficient, sovereign solution in support of the AUKUS submarine program. With the commencement of Submarine Rotation Force West (SRF-West), conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) from the United States and United Kingdom will begin undergoing maintenance in Western Australia at facilities in Henderson and HMAS Stirling. Based on my 23 years of nuclear power operations, I can confirm that every maintenance period generates low-level radioactive waste. This typically includes gloves, cloth wipes, gasket materials, paper, and the plastic bags used for containment. The radiation from these items is so minimal it often won't even penetrate the yellow plastic bags they're stored in. Traditionally, both the US and UK store this waste in large warehouses that require highly trained staff and complex ventilation systems while accumulating enough material to justify transport to a long-term disposal site. But what if we could remove that middle step entirely? Western Australia is already home to Sandy Ridge, a geologically stable facility with First Nations approval that accepts low-level radioactive waste from across Australia, including from mining, state governments, and medical institutions. Most of this waste is the same type — gloves, wipes, and contaminated packaging and it is already processed and stored by experienced Australian professionals. My proposal is simple: rather than investing in temporary storage infrastructure at Henderson or HMAS Stirling, the Australian Submarine Agency should coordinate directly with the operators of Sandy Ridge to transport low-level radioactive waste from SRF-West maintenance events straight to permanent disposal. The company that owns and operates Sandy Ridge already has the logistics and technical expertise to handle this and can provide the necessary transport vehicles. The benefits are significant. Australia avoids the cost and complexity of building and maintaining new interim facilities. It demonstrates an efficient, forward-thinking approach to nuclear waste management. And most importantly, it underscores our ability to meet AUKUS-related obligations with sovereign, best-practice solutions. As the US reviews the AUKUS pact and evaluates the role of its allies in defence burden-sharing, Australia must move decisively to show we are not just recipients of capability, but contributors to it. Managing our nuclear waste efficiently, transparently, and safely is one of the most tangible ways to do that. Mark Schneider is the Chief Nuclear Officer for UBH Group Ltd
The Age
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
Next radioactive AUKUS hurdle approaching as green light sought for Perth nuclear facility
Public comments have opened on the next regulatory hurdle facing AUKUS as the Australian Submarine Agency seeks the green light to begin building a low-level radioactive waste and maintenance facility at HMAS Stirling off Perth's coast. The 'controlled industrial facility' is crucial to the next stage of the AUKUS agreement as US and UK nuclear submarines begin their rotational presence at HMAS Stirling from 2027 and Australia's purchased Virginia class nuclear subs begin arriving in the 2030s. According to ASA documents, the building will be an industrial workshop for servicing and repairing submarine nuclear propulsion components and tools and will 'receive, manage, treat, decontaminate and temporarily store solid and liquid, low-level radioactive material.' ASA needs the approval of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency to begin construction of the facility. It gained approval from the agency to begin site works in July with the agency deeming the risks from the low-level waste to be stored as the facility as negligible. 'ARPANSA found that, in this worst-case scenario, any radiological doses off-site were negligible and predicted doses on site at HMAS Stirling were significantly less than statutory dose limits' The radioactive waste component of nuclear submarine presence in WA is one of the leading causes of opposition to the AUKUS agreement. Nuclear Free WA Co-convener Mia Pepper Kerry-Anne Garlick said the community was concerned about the safety and security of the radioactive waste and how it would be transported on and off the island. 'There has been strong and consistent community opposition,' she said.
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Next radioactive AUKUS hurdle approaching as green light sought for Perth nuclear facility
Public comments have opened on the next regulatory hurdle facing AUKUS as the Australian Submarine Agency seeks the green light to begin building a low-level radioactive waste and maintenance facility at HMAS Stirling off Perth's coast. The 'controlled industrial facility' is crucial to the next stage of the AUKUS agreement as US and UK nuclear submarines begin their rotational presence at HMAS Stirling from 2027 and Australia's purchased Virginia class nuclear subs begin arriving in the 2030s. According to ASA documents, the building will be an industrial workshop for servicing and repairing submarine nuclear propulsion components and tools and will 'receive, manage, treat, decontaminate and temporarily store solid and liquid, low-level radioactive material.' ASA needs the approval of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency to begin construction of the facility. It gained approval from the agency to begin site works in July with the agency deeming the risks from the low-level waste to be stored as the facility as negligible. 'ARPANSA found that, in this worst-case scenario, any radiological doses off-site were negligible and predicted doses on site at HMAS Stirling were significantly less than statutory dose limits' The radioactive waste component of nuclear submarine presence in WA is one of the leading causes of opposition to the AUKUS agreement. Nuclear Free WA Co-convener Mia Pepper Kerry-Anne Garlick said the community was concerned about the safety and security of the radioactive waste and how it would be transported on and off the island. 'There has been strong and consistent community opposition,' she said.
The Guardian
31-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Australia should persist with Aukus despite risk of US relationship ‘becoming unstuck', former defence chief says
The US is a 'less reliable and a more demanding ally' under Donald Trump's second administration, but Australia should persist with the Aukus submarine deal, despite its risks and growing political and military concerns, former ambassador Dennis Richardson has argued. 'The worst possible thing we could do at this point would be to change course,' he told the Security and Sovereignty conference organised in Canberra by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on Monday. Richardson – former secretary of both the defence and foreign affairs departments, a former Asio chief and a former ambassador to the US – has been tasked with conducting a 'top-to-bottom' review of the Australian Submarine Agency amid emerging concerns over its management of the Aukus submarine deal. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email He said abandoning the controversial $368bn Aukus agreement would show 'we have learned nothing'. Under pillar one of the Aukus agreement, the US will sell Australia between three and five Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines, with the first to be delivered in 2032. These will replace Australia's ageing Collins class diesel-electric submarines before Australia's own Aukus nuclear-powered submarines can be built. However, the agreement mandates that the sale of US boats to Australia 'must not degrade' American undersea capabilities. The US's submarine fleet numbers are a quarter below their target and the country is producing boats at half the rate it needs to service its own needs, US figures show. The Congressional Research Service has argued America may not have enough boats for its own defences and the capacity to sell any to Australia. Richardson said there were risks inherent in any program the size of Aukus, but he argued that, four years into the deal, reversing the decision and extricating Australia from the tripartite deal would simply set Australia back and expose its defences. 'Four-to-five years down the track, if we are going to go back to square one, we have learned nothing,' Richardson said. 'If we do that, we've learned nothing over the last 20 years, we've constantly switched and changed over the last 20 years.' Richardson said it was in Australia's national security interest to acquire nuclear submarines. 'In an environment in which you want the best military capability in increasingly demanding environments … nuclear submarines are the best submarines to get.' He argued that while the US was an increasingly unreliable and unpredictable partner, he saw the greatest risk to Aukus not from American capriciousness, but Australian capacity and commitment. 'I understand those risks and I think they are real. However, I think the biggest risk is here in Australia.' He said there were risks over Australian 'political will', over budgetary capacity, and over availability of the requisite shipbuilding and maintenance skills. Richardson told the forum Australia's relationship with the US would be increasingly difficult to manage, given the unpredictability of the current US administration, and its willingness to castigate and abandon allies. 'The biggest risk is not the Americans walking away from Aukus, the biggest risk is the relationship with the United States more broadly becoming unstuck. 'I can think of a number of scenarios in which that relationship would get into real trouble. What, for instance, if the Americans, against all rationality, militarily went into Greenland … they would have it taken over by lunchtime. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'Would we as a country … do anything but condemn that and vote against it in the UN? And … would Trump stand up and say, 'you're either with us or against us, and if you're against us, we no longer have the relationship we currently have'?' Speaking on a panel with Richardson, retired R Adm Peter Briggs argued the Aukus deal was fundamentally flawed, and that Australia should abandon it immediately. He proposed adopting a 'plan B': buying Suffren-class nuclear-powered submarines built in France. The Suffren-class could be built in Australia, he said, and was a smaller submarine more suited to Australian needs that Australia's navy had the capacity to adequately crew. 'The Suffren-class is the only off-the-shelf option, and it's a far better fit … we will be in charge of our own destiny. This is the only sovereign option.' Opening the forum, Turnbull said Australia's relationship with the US had been irrevocably altered by the new Trump administration. 'We cannot allow our affection for America and Americans, our long shared history, to blind us from the objective reality that the president of the United States has political values more aligned to the 'might is right' worldview of Putin than they are to ours, or indeed to any of his modern predecessors,' he said. Turnbull told the forum some in the defence and diplomatic establishment had argued Trump's chaotic governing style was 'just froth and bubble', and believed 'normal transmission will resume if not soon, certainly in four years'. 'We shouldn't be so sure. Look at the young men, including the vice-president, said to be the future of the modern movement. We should not assume that 'America First', Trump-style is going to evaporate anytime soon.' In an occasionally tense debate, Turnbull and Richardson clashed over the utility of Aukus. Turnbull was the prime minister who in 2016 signed a $50bn deal with French submarine manufacturer Naval to build diesel-electric submarines for Australia. It was this deal that was torn up by his successor Scott Morrison in 2021 in favour of Aukus. Richardson upbraided the former prime minister over his scepticism over Aukus. 'Self-evidently, if the Virginia [class submarine sale] falls over, we're in trouble. But in continuing to press that point, you're almost making it a certainty that we won't get it. I think there's a good chance that we will get it. It depends upon the degree of commitment that we have in this country and our preparedness to pursue it as a national enterprise, not as a defence project.'
