Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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AUSTRALIAN NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ORGANISATION REGULATIONS 1994 NO. 415

STATUTORY RULES 1994 No. 415

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology

Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Act 1987

Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Regulations

Section 47 of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Act 1987 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing matters:

(a)       required or permitted by this Act to be prescribed by regulations; or

(b)        necessary or convenient to be prescribed by regulations for carrying out or giving effect to this Act.

Paragraph 5(1)(ba)(iv) of the Act provides that the functions of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) include conditioning, managing and storing radioactive materials and radioactive waste arising from the activities of other persons who are specified in the regulations.

On 21 July 1994, the Governor-General made three regulations under the ANSTO Act (the Regulations) to provide for ANSTO to condition a quantity of radioactive wastes (about 10 cubic metres) arising from the activities of the Commonwealth, Australian Defence Industries Limited (ADI) and the Australian Radiation Laboratory (and its predecessors). This waste is in storage at ADI's site at St Marys, NSW. Conditioning means that the wastes are repackaged, for example by encapsulating them in concrete, to make them safer for handling, transport and storage. An incidental effect of the regulations is that they authorise ANSTO to condition all other radioactive waste belonging to the Commonwealth (a further 50 cubic metres, approximately).

On 11 October 1994, the Senate commenced debate on a motion that the Regulations be disallowed. The Senate adjourned the debate and sought advice from its Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee on the question of whether such regulations could be drafted in terms which would limit the ANSTO treatment of radioactive waste at St Marys and the transport of such waste to Woomera. The Committee interpreted its terms of reference as raising the issues of whether the regulations might be limited to apply only to the waste stored at St Marys and to authorise the treatment of the St Marys waste only at the St Marys site.

Following public hearings, the Committee recommended:

(1) that, to avoid the consequences under the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 of the disallowance or deemed disallowance of the Regulations, that the Regulations not be disallowed;

(2) that revised regulations be drafted and tabled which contain a sunset clause limiting their operation to 31 December 1995; authorise ANSTO to treat only that waste arising from the activities of the organisations mentioned above which was stored at the St Marys site on 1 November 1994;

are accompanied by a Ministerial undertaking that, should any of this waste need to be removed to or from ANSTO's site at Lucas Heights,, the Minister will provide details to the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Sutherland Shire Council of that removal not less than two days prior to such removal from St Marys.

The Government accepted the Committee's recommendations and the Senate rejected the disallowance motion.

The new regulation 4 amends the ANSTO Regulations to give effect to the Government's acceptance of the Committee's recommendations. Regulation 4(a) is an appropriate sunset clause, limiting the Regulations to those operations of ANSTO carried out before 31 December 1995. Regulation 4(b) limits ANSTO's operations to radioactive materials and radioactive waste that were stored at ADI's premises at St Marys on 1 November 1994. The Government has already provided the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate with an undertaking to provide him and Sutherland Shire Council with transport details of any removal of material to Lucas Heights Research Laboratories, not less than two days prior to such removal from St Marys.