The Albanese Government has sought to dispel community concerns surrounding a planned radioactive waste management site at HMAS Stirling Naval base in Western Australia the home port of the AUKUS nuclear submarines. It comes as the chiefs of navy of the three AUKUS countries the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia met for the first time in Australia, at the base in Perth’s south.
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00:00Tripartite unity on display at HMAS Stirling Naval Base, where AUKUS nuclear submarines
00:08will dock and be serviced.
00:11It's a real privilege and an honour to be here with two of my best friends in the international
00:15Navy community.
00:17As you said, we stood shoulder to soldier.
00:18I like to say in the Navies, we have been steaming in formation for well over 100 years.
00:24And AUKUS is a great opportunity for us to build on that collective capability.
00:29The British First Sea Lord reaffirming his new government's commitment to AUKUS.
00:34But it is going to take time, it's going to take commitment every single day, because
00:39each and every day matters if we're to hit the very demanding timescales.
00:44Australia's Chief of Navy confident HMAS Stirling is on track to receive US and UK nuclear submarines
00:50by 2027.
00:51But if we had to mobilise this base to support nuclear powered submarines from Stirling tomorrow,
00:57all of the key building blocks are already in place.
01:00The nuclear watchdog, ARPANSA, has given initial approval for a low-level radiation waste and
01:06management site at the Naval Base to service and repair nuclear submarines.
01:11Think things like gloves and other things that naturally become slightly radioactive
01:16as they handle componentry.
01:18The Albanese government says the local community will be completely safe.
01:22This is akin to what occurs in 100 other sites around the country.
01:27Anywhere that has a hospital that deals with medical imaging that involves radioactive
01:32isotopes has exactly the same level of waste.
01:36But one community group, the Medical Association for Prevention of War, says while hospital
01:41waste is short-lived, submarine radioactive waste needs isolation for hundreds of years.
01:46The radioactive waste will be temporarily stored here at HMAS Stirling Naval Base before
01:52it's moved to a more permanent repository.
01:53However, the Commonwealth Government hasn't yet said where that will be.