David Noonan is an Australian

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

and member of the

anti-nuclear movement in Australia Nuclear weapons testing, uranium mining and export, and nuclear power have often been the subject of public debate in Australia, and the anti-nuclear movement in Australia has a long history. Its origins date back to the 1972–1973 debate ove ...

. Noonan is a former

anti-nuclear The Anti-nuclear war movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, n ...

campaigner for the

Australian Conservation Foundation The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is Australia's national environmental organisation, launched in 1965 in response to a proposal by the World Wide Fund for Nature for a more co-ordinated approach to sustainability. One high-profi ...

, and has been a prominent spokesperson during campaigns against the expansion of

uranium mining in Australia Radioactive ores were first extracted in South Australia at Radium Hill in 1906 and Mount Gee#History, Mount Painter in 1911. 2,000 tons of ore were treated to recover radium for medical use. Several hundred kilograms of uranium were also prod ...

and against the establishment of

nuclear waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear ...

storage facilities. He has a science degree and a Masters in Environmental Studies.

Advocacy

Noonan has been a regular media spokesperson and opinion-writer representing the case against the establishment of

nuclear power in Australia Nuclear power in Australia has been a topic of practical debate since the mid-20th century. Australia has never had a nuclear power plant, and has only one nuclear reactor (OPAL), the third in a series at Lucas Heights, New South Wales, which ...

and Australia's participation in the global nuclear industrial fuel cycle. Noonan has also advocated for investment in

renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

and

energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a rat ...

as alternatives to

nuclear energy Nuclear energy may refer to: *Nuclear power, the use of sustained nuclear fission or nuclear fusion to generate heat and electricity *Nuclear binding energy, the energy needed to fuse or split a nucleus of an atom *Nuclear potential energy, the pot ...

. In the 1990s, Noonan spoke against the development of

Jabiluka Jabiluka is a pair of uranium deposits and mine development in the Northern Territory of Australia that was to have been built on land belonging to the Mirarr clan of Aboriginal people. The mine site is surrounded by, but not part of, the World ...

and

Beverley Beverley is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is located north-west of Hull city centre. At the 2021 census the built-up area of the town had a population of 30,930, and the smaller civil parish had ...

uranium mines. With respect to the Beverley mine's in-situ leaching process, he drew attention to the absence of any requirement for the mine's operators to re-mediate impacted groundwater. Noonan has provided evidence to Parliamentary inquiries into nuclear issues at state and federal levels. In 2002 he provided evidence to a Parliamentary standing committee on nuclear safeguards. The following year, he provided witness testimony to a parliamentary inquiry into nuclear waste transport and disposal in New South Wales. Following the South Australian government's successful appeal against a decision by the

Howard government The Howard government refers to the Government of Australia, federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister John Howard between 11 March 1996 and 3 December 2007. It was made up of members of the Liberal Party of Australia, Li ...

to establish a nuclear waste dump in South Australia, Noonan told the media:

"The court has shown here today that the federal government exceeded their powers in trying to override the will of the South Australian community and the will of the SA parliament... They have failed in the land acquisition for this nuclear waste dump and they will not get away with imposing a nuclear waste future against SA's interests."

Noonan went on to win the

Conservation Council of South Australia The Conservation Council of South Australia, also known as Conservation SA and Conservation Council SA, is an environmental organisation serving as a Peak organisation, peak body, representing over 50 member groups, representing over 90,000 indi ...

Jill Hudson Award for Environmental Protection The Conservation Council of South Australia, also known as Conservation SA and Conservation Council SA, is an environmental organisation serving as a peak body, representing over 50 member groups, representing over 90,000 individual members, in ...

to acknowledge his campaigning work opposing the waste dump development. In 2005 he referred to former Australian Prime Minister

Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician and trade unionist who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991. He held office as the Australian Labor Party, leader of the La ...

's advocacy to end the Labor Party's three mine policy on uranium mining and to establish a nuclear waste repository in Australia as "undemocratic and dangerous." In the same year, he argued that to replace coal with nuclear power generation in the name of fighting climate change, was simply replacing a hazardous process (burning coal) with a hazardous technology (nuclear power). Noonan has advocated against the export of Australian uranium to Russia and China as he considers both nations to be in non-compliance with their

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperatio ...

obligations. In the wake of the

Fukushima nuclear disaster The Fukushima nuclear accident was a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan, which began on 11 March 2011. The cause of the accident was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which ...

, Noonan drew attention to export sales of Australian uranium to Japan made by

BHP BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. As of 2024, BHP was the world� ...

and Rio Tinto, and warned Australia to "steer clear of the risks of nuclear energy." Noonan's advocacy efforts attracted criticism from pro-nuclear environmentalist

Ben Heard Benjamin "Ben" Heard is a South Australian environmental consultant and an advocate for nuclear power in Australia, through his directorship of environmental NGO, Bright New World. Career Heard completed a Bachelor of Applied Science, Occupatio ...

, who described him as having an "ultra-combatative demeanor" and "rusted on politics" in 2011. He has spoken out against various aspects of the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine and its planned open cut expansion, including the management of its radioactive mine tailings and its water and energy requirements. He is opposed to the establishment of a new seawater

desalination plant Desalination is a process that removes mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination is the removal of salts and minerals from a substance. One example is soil desalination. This is important for agriculture. It is possible ...

Point Lowly Point Lowly is the tip of a small peninsula north north-east of Whyalla in the Upper Spencer Gulf region of South Australia. The wider peninsula is shared by a combination of defence, industrial, residential, recreational and tourism interests ...

, where the brine discharge could threaten the breeding grounds of the giant Australian cuttlefish. Noonan has also spoken publicly on nuclear issues in academic debates, at public forums, conferences, demonstrations and community events.

References

Links

Transcript: Eric Miller interviews David Noonan from ACF Adelaide about the Laffery report on the Beverley uranium pilot plant.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Noonan, David Living people Australian environmentalists Australian anti–nuclear power activists Year of birth missing (living people)

Advocacy

See also

References

Links