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Radium Hill, South Australia in 1906 by Arthur Smith

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Radium Hill, South Australia in 1906 by Arthur Smith Dear Sir, The attached submission is relevant to the evidence being presented to the Royal Commission hearings into the uranium industry. I trust this information will help the Commission in its deliberations. Kindest regards Kevin R Kakoschke OAM 'NUKE' OR POLLUTE? Recent editions of the 'Advertiser', Saturday Dec. 13, and the 'Australian', Saturday Dec. 13, 2014, highlighted two contentious environment issues, namely the reduction of carbon emissions and nuclear energy. The production of electricity using nuclear energy as the power source was an option for reducing carbon emissions. But what of the radioactive waste? Where did the nuclear dilemma in Australia begin? Radioactive uranium/radium was discovered at Radium Hill, South Australia in 1906 by Arthur Smith. The use of radium for producing electricity was highlighted way back in 1906. A newspaper article stated; 'that one ounce of it is equal to one hundred thousand nominal horsepower'. ...and that small quantity would be sufficient to drive or propel three of the largest battleships afloat for a period of two thousand years. By 1912, there were thirty-five miners working in the mine at Radium Hill extracting the uranium/radium bearing ore which was concentrated before being dispatched to Hunters Hill in Sydney for further processing into radium bromide (350mgms) and uranium (150kgms). Many of these men had links with Broken Hill. In 1913 an article in the 'Adelaide Register' newspaper claimed, 'It will mean that foreign nations will be obliged to seek from us the power wherewith to heat and light their cities, and find means of defence and offence,...The small space for storing radium would be infinitesimally small in comparison to that required for the storing of oil, coal or coke,... ...Its full value and resources should be exploited by the people for the people of Australia'. How prophetic, one hundred years on. It wasn't just that the uranium/radium was useful for energy purposes, it had medicinal applications as well. As noted in the equivalent of the 'Australian Medical Journal ' at the time; Dr. Herman Lawrence, a Melbourne doctor 'stated that Australian radium has been found effective in treating cancer cases'. He went on to say; 'The Radium Hill Co. South Australia, sent a ten milligram specimen of radium bromide to me, asking me to examine same therapeutically.....I have also treated cases of keratoses, rodent ulcers, epithelioma,... and the results have been very satisfactory... its being used in the treatment of inoperable malignant growths and likewise being applied after operations for cancer, etc., in order to try and prevent a recurrence of the disease, there should be plenty of demand for all that can be produced in Australia, and as I understand the radium carrying ore exists at Radium Hill in large quantities, it may yet be a valuable export'. It is amazing that the beneficial uses of radioactive ores was established way back in the early 1900's and that it had export potential even then. That same year of 1913 saw the birth take place at Radium Hill of a little baby boy whose proud parents John and Eliza named him Radium, yes, Radium Keith Lively. Unfortunately, when the mine closed in 1914, the Lively family and others, moved to Broken Hill, where in 1917, young Radium succumbed to the influenza epidemic which was raging at the time in the Hill. In 1923 the mine was reopened by the Radium and Rare Earths Co. During a few days hectic trading in 1924, the shares zoomed from £3 to £19-10-0 each. No doubt some of the Broken Hill share trading 'entrepreneurs' would have had a slice of this action. The mine closed again in 1931. In 1940, the Australian Mining and Smelting Company, a subsidiary of the Consolidated Zinc Corporation of Broken Hill took up the lease but gave it up after being unsuccessful in treating the complex ores. In 1944, Reg Sprigg conducted a geological appraisal of the deposit which led to diamond drilling in 1947 and setting up a 50 man, exploration camp in 1949. This work indicated a potential mine for uranium. The uranium would be used for military purposes by the American and British interests. The Premier of South Australia, Thomas Playford had other ideas. He wanted a share of it to be used as the energy source for producing electricity, a nuclear reactor. His development schedule was; June 1954, commencement of an experimental nuclear reactor design. January 1960, commencement of nuclear reactor construction. January 1962, experimental nuclear reactor on stream. The nuclear reactor was to be located at Backy Bay (Fitzgerald) just north of Whyalla. The reactor would produce electricity and desalinate water. Unfortunately for Premier Playford, a nuclear research reactor was built in NSW instead. Maybe BHP will reactivate this concept to produce electricity for refining its copper etc. in Australia at Olympic Dam rather than overseas. It could also replace the polluting Pt. Augusta brown coal fired power station when it closes. The new power station would provide employment opportunities for workers at both Pt. Augusta and Whyalla. As an added bonus it could also produce hydrogen to reduce reliance on oil products for use in motor cars. The Radium Hill uranium mine operated from 1954 until 1961. During the life of the mine, Broken Hill was the magnet for house wives to do their shopping and the single men to socialise and play sports. (A popular rendezvous for the single miners was the pubs and the 'Orange Spot Milk Bar'. Two beautiful girls served behind the counter at the milk bar and a popular order by the men was for a milk shake or an ice cream. Such an order meant that the girls needed to bend right over to scoop up an ice cream. The men would 'watch' the girls intently as they fulfilled their order and it wasn't to make sure that the ice cream scoop was full). The experimental phase of metallurgically treating the Radium Hill ore at the AMDEL Laboratories, Thebarton, Adelaide, meant that radioactive waste was produced. In the 1970's such public pressure was exerted on the Government of the day that on 2nd April 1981, they Gazetted 247 hectares at Radium Hill to be the site of a Low Level Radioactive Waste Repository. This was the first such State Government Radio active waste repository site to be Gazetted in Australia. It complies with the nine site selection criteria of The National Health and Medical Research Council. Low Level Radioactive waste in 200 litre drums, mainly comprising contaminated soil, was transported to the site and buried in what was the old slimes (sands) dam. One load had three drums placed at the rear of the semi-trailer, as far away from the driver as possible for the journey, why? The last load was buried in 1998. In late 1997 contaminated radioactive wastes from the Beverley uranium leaching trials were also buried at the Radium Hill repository site. In 2005, when a national radioactive waste repository site was being sought, the Premier of South Australia Mike Rann, was very vocal in his objection to it being located in South Australia, as was the anti-nuclear lobby 'fear industry'. The Premier of the time didn't want such a site in his State. He conveniently overlooked the Government Gazetted Radium Hill low level radioactive waste repository site for which he was ultimately responsible and treated the South Australian public as mushrooms by feeding them political bullshit. The Adelaide Metropolitan area has 62 'known' scattered sites in which radioactive material is stored, why not just one? If it's OK to use the products of a nuclear reactor in the form of Cesium-137 and other radioactive isotopes for nuclear medicine including the treatment of cancer (over 300,000 doses of medical radioisotopes are produced each year) and the industrial applications of cobalt-60 and americium-241, then surely it must be acceptable to use nuclear reactors to produce carbon free electricity. On principle, it would be hypocritical to think otherwise. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Sweden has developed an intermediate level nuclear waste site which will have the waste buried in a shaft and tunnels 500 metres underground from 2015. Radium Hill has a shaft 420 metres deep and at least one drive (tunnel) 1.8m W x 2.2m H x 905m long. Could it be used for storing the container of reprocessed reactor rods enclosed in stainless steel cylinders and synroc type material and due to be delivered back into Australia in 2015? Up to ten personnel would be required to oversee the storage of waste at the site during the storage operation. Maybe Broken Hill folk would find work opportunities during this phase? Or would the spent rods be stored in Federal Parliament house during the 10 months that Parliament won't be in session? A bit cynical of Parliamentarians? Yes. It would give impetus for Parliamentarians to make a decision rather than appoint another committee to look into the matter as they have been prone to do over the last forty five years and which has cost the Australian taxpayer millions of dollars which could have been better spent on hospitals and education. Legacies of Radium Hill are of National significance as the following list illustrates. RADIUM HILL HISTORIC LEGACIES AND A CATALYST 1. It was Australia’s first Uranium mine (1906) 2. In 1981 Radium Hill became the first Australian State Government Gazzetted Radio-active waste Dump site. (S.A. Government Gazette 2nd. April 1981) 3. The Uranium Ore was named Davidite by Sir Douglas Mawson (Trans.
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