Aboriginal groups are to discuss plans to build a nuclear waste plant on their land.
A public meeting has been arranged to debate plans to build Australia's first nuclear waste dump on tribal land.
The likely site is a remote cattle station north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, the BBC reported, with proposals causing divisions between aboriginal groups.
Ministers said the facility will not be built if indigenous landowners oppose it, but the waste being returned from Europe in the next six years will have to go somewhere.
According to the news provider, aboriginal groups have offered to sell the site, a move which has angered other sections of the indigenous populace who have fears over health and environmental implications.
Australian greens senator Scott Ludlam told the news provider that Australia has been operating a research reactor for several decades without investigating waste storage.
"So, now in 2010 they are now desperately casting around for an aboriginal community who will take that legacy waste from the last few decades," he said.
Nuclear waste can remain dangerous for billions of years and ways to store it depend on the radioactive isotopes contained within.
A public meeting has been arranged to debate plans to build Australia's first nuclear waste dump on tribal land.
The likely site is a remote cattle station north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, the BBC reported, with proposals causing divisions between aboriginal groups.
Ministers said the facility will not be built if indigenous landowners oppose it, but the waste being returned from Europe in the next six years will have to go somewhere.
According to the news provider, aboriginal groups have offered to sell the site, a move which has angered other sections of the indigenous populace who have fears over health and environmental implications.
Australian greens senator Scott Ludlam told the news provider that Australia has been operating a research reactor for several decades without investigating waste storage.
"So, now in 2010 they are now desperately casting around for an aboriginal community who will take that legacy waste from the last few decades," he said.
Nuclear waste can remain dangerous for billions of years and ways to store it depend on the radioactive isotopes contained within.
