BBC Learning English Words in the News 3rd March 2010 Australia debates nuclear waste

Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2010 Page 1 of 2

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Aboriginal groups are to debate controversial plans to build Australia's first nuclear waste

dump on tribal land in the Northern Territory. Phil Mercer reports from Sydney:

In the next six years nuclear waste that Australia sent to Europe for reprocessing will be

returned but officials in Canberra have yet to decide where to put it.

Muckaty Station, an isolated property 120 kilometres from Tennant Creek in the Northern

Territory, has been chosen as a possible site. Local Aborigines have offered to sell the land

for $11 million, a move that has infuriated other indigenous groups in the area, who worry

about the health and environmental implications.

These conflicting views are expected to collide at a public meeting in Tennant Creek, an old

gold-mining town south of Darwin. Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam says the plan to

build a radioactive waste dump in the region has become extremely divisive.

Australia's federal government said that Muckaty Station would be subject to thorough

scientific and environmental assessments. Ministers have indicated that the nuclear dump

won't be built if landowners opposed it.

Critics believe that recent earthquakes in that part of the Northern Territory have raised

questions about the safety of the sites. The Australian Greens have said that radioactive waste

should be stored at the country's only nuclear facility on the outskirts of Sydney.

Phil Mercer, BBC News, Sydney

Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2010 Page 2 of 2

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Vocabulary and definitions

reprocessing

the treatment of waste so that is safer and can be used

again

an isolated property

an area of land that is owned which is a long way from

other towns and population centres

infuriated

made very angry

indigenous groups

the native population of a particular area

to collide

to crash into each other

divisive

causing strong disagreement within a community

thorough scientific and

environmental assessments

very detailed studies to find out if the area is suitable and

what the possible damage might be

have indicated

have suggested

on the outskirts of

in an area that is part of a city or town but is furthest from

the centre

More on this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8546690.stm Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2010/03/100303_witn_aborigine.shtml