NSW cabinet backs uranium exploration

14 Feb 2012, 8:44 pm   -   Source: AAP
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The NSW cabinet has backed a proposal to overturn the state's uranium exploration ban.

Uranium exploration in NSW is one step closer to becoming a reality after Premier Barry O'Farrell's cabinet ticked off on a proposal to overturn a 26-year-old ban.

The Seven Network on Tuesday reported that cabinet had agreed to reverse the state ban, after Mr O'Farrell flagged the change in December.

The NSW parliament will now have to approve legislation repealing the ban.

A week after Labor's national conference to remove its ban on uranium exports to India, Mr O'Farrell said he was open to overturning the exploration ban, and would take the proposal to cabinet.

"We should as a state know what resources exist here," he said at the time.

"It makes no sense not to know what resources are in the state.

"Overturning the ban would then enable a sensible and mature discussion to be held as to whether we go into mining of those resources."

Comment was being sought from Mr O'Farrell's office.

NSW Opposition leader John Robertson accused Mr O'Farrell of a "massive backflip", after he ruled out overturning the ban last August.

"The people of NSW didn't vote for Barry O'Farrell so he would set up uranium mines in their backyards," Mr Robertson said.

Greenpeace campaigner Julien Vincent said the announcement could not have come at a worse time, describing it as an "insult".

"Next month we are marking the first anniversary of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, which is one of the best reasons for not going nuclear," Mr Vincent told AAP on Tuesday.

He said uranium mining was bad for the environment and for the economy.

"The nuclear industry is on the decline. ... It's hard to see what genuine benefits we are going to get out of this."

Mr Vincent said the only long term, sustainable option was boosting the renewable energy sector.

Greens spokesman on nuclear affairs Scott Ludlam also pointed to the nuclear disaster in Japan on March 11 last year.

"Australian uranium was used in every reactor at Fukushima. Why would the O'Farrell government want New South Wales to be complicit in the next disaster?" he said in a statement.

Uranium mining in the Northern Territory had a "long and sorry" history, Senator Ludlum said, and should serve as an example.

"More than 40 years after (former mine) Rum Jungle's closure, the federal government recently committed eight million dollars over four years just for an attempt to figure out how to clean up the mess."

He urged Mr O'Farrell to stick to his original position and not overturn the ban on uranium mining in the state.

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