Nuclear industry in South Australia

The established nuclear industry in South Australia is focused on uranium mining, milling and the export of uranium oxide concentrate for use in the production of nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants. The state is home to the world's largest known single deposit of uranium, which is worked by BHP Billiton at the Olympic Dam mine. Contaminated legacy sites exist at Maralinga and Emu Field, where nuclear weapons tests were conducted in the 1950s and 1960s and at former uranium mines and milling sites. Nuclear waste is stored by CSIRO at Woomera and prospective future waste storage sites were earmarked during the deliberations of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission in 2016. The Commission has recommended that South Australia considers opportunities in nuclear waste storage (including developing a repository for spent nuclear fuel), the establishment of a nuclear fuel leasing scheme and the repeal of prohibitions which currently prevent future nuclear industrial development nationally.

Uranium mining has occurred in South Australia, since the early 20th century, when radium was the target mineral in uranium-bearing ore. During the Cold War, the Playford government facilitated the development of the Radium Hill uranium mine and the associated Port Pirie uranium treatment complex. These closed in the early 1960s after a seven year contract of supply had been fulfilled. In the 1970s, the discovery of a massive uranium-bearing IOCG orebody near Roxby Downs led to the eventual opening of the Olympic Dam mine in 1988. In the 2000s, the sector expanded to include in-situ leach mining operations at Beverley, Four Mile and Honeymoon. As of May 2016, Beverley and Honeymoon mines are in care and maintenance mode owing to weak uranium prices in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

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