Article by Vincent Barry: “It’s mid-2016 in Adelaide. It’s been raining for days. Wind relentlessly buffets the city. 52 random people are picking their way around a swarm of raincoated protestors and into a room brimming with journalists. Cameras and boom mics are thrust in their faces. There’s Stanley, a 35-year-old software engineer from Torrensville. There’s Jenny, a 56-year-old screen printer from Port Augusta and Khatija, 38-year-old business owner from Adelaide. The list goes on. They’re all here for one thing: to discuss the prospect of establishing an international nuclear waste storage facility in South Australia. They’re here for a citizens’ jury.
A strange, confused tension reigns. Nuclear things are a touchy topic in South Australia. Rural parts of the State, Maralinga and Emu Field, were used for nuclear weapons testing in the ’50s and ’60s, and the land there—home to multiple First Nations peoples—remains contaminated and uninhabitable today. South Australia has the world’s largest known single deposit of uranium which supports an industry for mining, milling and exporting it. Over the years, a political forever-war has raged between those wanting to exploit this natural resource and those wary of the stakes and costs. Indeed, as the citizens’ jury on nuclear waste deliberated, a once-in-50-years storm caused widespread blackouts, for which many blamed an overreliance on renewable energy and pointed towards nuclear power as an alternative. It’s a complex, generational issue that has increasingly polarised the people of South Australia. Partisan positions are set. Consensus seems impossible.
So, you can understand why, as 52 random citizens arrive to report on the opportunities and risks of the nuclear fuel cycle, onlookers aren’t quite sure what to make of the scene. What good could this do? What could Shane, a retiree from Brompton, know about the nuances of storing, managing and disposing of high-level nuclear waste? The process is championed by people touting mini-publics and deliberative innovations that will put the ‘people’ back in ‘people power’. But can lay people really command such a vexed issue?..(More)”.
