The government says it will commission an independent study to identify and protect indigenous heritage sites near the dump. Costing around A$100 million, the dump would occupy 100hectares ofa cattle ranch called Wallerberdina. It would store low-to intermedi ate-level radioactive material ranging from con taminated gloves and gowns to the byproducts of radio-pharmaceuticals and the reprocessing of spent fuel from a research reactor in Sydney. Such waste, enough to fill two Olympic-size swimming pools, is scattered across about 100 locations nationwide, mostly in hospitals and universities Even before Canberrasettled on Wallerberdina for the repository, the state government moved in March to repeal legislation outlawing the storage of radioactive waste in South Australia, a legacy of past opposition to nuclear dumps. The government says almost one in two Aus tralians will be treated with nuclear medicine sometime in their lives