Australia needs a safe, permanent repository for nuclear waste. Even though we have no nuclear power plants, the small reactors we do have for research and to make isotopes for medicine produce radioactive waste and it all requires safe storage.

Everyone agrees that nuclear waste should be stored safely, rather than lying about the suburbs in forty-four gallon drums as it is now. The sticking point is where to put the dump.

‘Out of sight, out of mind’ is a popular strategy for allaying NIMBY fears. For this reason, sites in remote Australia end up on the short list, preferably where not many voters live.

But we’re not thinking it through. Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory is possibly the worst place imaginable to store radioactive waste.

Once our waste repository is operational, it will be receiving additional shipments on a regular basis for many decades at least. Some of the higher-energy waste, such as the reprocessed fuel rods returning from France and Britain in the next few years, will need safe storage for thousands of years, if not forever.

An on-going repository needs a front door with guards on around-the-clock shifts. How many guards will be needed to maintain the security of our waste if it’s ‘out in the middle of nowhere’?

Where will they live and what will it cost to house them for thousands of years? What will it cost to provide the security on the 750 kilometre journey from Darwin?

We are doing no favours for our descendants by ‘harnessing the power of the mighty atom’ — quite the opposite. The benefit we gain today will be paid for by future generations who will foot the bill for waste storage cost in wages and maintenance for the next few thousand years.

Then there’s the problem of terrorists getting hold of radioactive waste for the purpose of doing, or just threatening to do, us great harm. Putting the waste in a remote location makes it just that much easier for a gang of desperados to gain access to deadly materials of mass destruction.

Australia does need a place to safely store radioactive materials. The best place to put it might be deep beneath a well-guarded building like a police station or an army barracks. That way we could all sleep well, safe in the knowledge that our waste was well protected at least.

It will also serve us well to keep nuclear waste in sight and in mind, because if we’re a bit iffy about storing hospital waste and small research reactor fuel rods, there’s no point in thinking that nuclear power stations might one day save the day on carbon emissions.

Nowhere on the planet is there a permanent disposal site for high-level radioactive waste. But if we don’t go for nukes to make electricity we won’t be faced with that problem.

What about a low- to medium-level waste repository under new parliament house? That would keep our politicians focussed on the problem — and it would be absolutely safe, wouldn’t it?

Surely we are not planning to expose remote Aboriginal communities to risks that we ourselves would not take?