Woman arrested in SA nuclear protest

A woman protesting against SA's nuclear fuel cycle royal commission has been arrested outside Government House in Adelaide.

Nuclear waste

File image. Source: AAP

An anti-nuclear protester has been detained by security as South Australia's nuclear royal commission handed over its final report.

The 65-year-old woman attempted to walk through the gates of Adelaide's Government House shortly before Royal Commissioner Kevin Scarce delivered his final report to Governor Hieu Van Le on Friday.

Police said the woman had been reported for trespass and would be summonsed to face court at a later date.

The ceremonial handover marked the end of SA's nuclear fuel cycle royal commission.

Mr Le will now deliver the report to the state government, with the findings to be made public on Monday afternoon once Mr Scarce has briefed state cabinet.

It's expected the report will recommend SA hosts the world's high-level nuclear waste, in line with tentative findings released in February.

The state Labor government will consult with the public and is not expected to decide whether SA should become more involved in the nuclear fuel cycle until the year's end.

It could face opposition from federal Labor, whose national platform states the party is "strongly opposed to the importation and storage of nuclear waste" in Australia.

Labor MP Nick Champion on Friday said there were environmental and safety concerns that needed to be addressed.

"There are a number of considerations that would need to be made before we took a step down that road and we'd want to have a lot of public discussion before that was done," he told reporters in Adelaide.

Environmentalists have campaigned strongly against SA's further involvement in the nuclear industry, while Aboriginal groups have said a dump would threaten their culture.

"We're too much of a beautiful state to be the world's dump," Adnyamathanha woman Regina McKenzie told AAP.

"We have more to offer than a radioactive dump."

Premier Jay Weatherill has said the report will be the starting point in a public debate about whether SA should become more involved in the nuclear fuel cycle.

The royal commission found in its interim report that a high-level dump could generate more than $257 billion in revenue over its 120-year lifespan.

Anti-nuclear campaigners have argued the findings were based on dubious economics and a dump could have massive costs for SA.

The commission heard from 132 expert witnesses, including 41 from overseas, and received 170 direct responses to its tentative findings.


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Source: AAP


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Woman arrested in SA nuclear protest | SBS News