Who is behind Pangea and what do we know about them?

Pangea Resources was created specifically to explore the global nuclear dump concept and is a spin-off of the international geotechnical company Golder Associates, based in Toronto, Canada. Investors include British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL), Swiss radwaste agency Nagra, and Enterra Holdings Ltd. (EHL), Golder’s parent holding company. EHL is based in Canada.

The idea for the company came out of a discussion between two of Golder’s nuclear waste veterans, James Voss and then Golder Chairman, David Pentz, several years ago in which they surveyed the status of nuclear waste disposal programs worldwide. They didn’t discover much progress. Instead, they found a plethora of progress-halting geologic, economic and political problems, according to Voss. They concluded, he said, there had to be a better way to dispose of the waste.

The international nuclear dump concept is not new. German and Swiss industry investigated the possibility of locating one in China’s Gobi Desert in the 1980s. Australia, which does not have any nuclear power plants but is a major source of uranium, suggested the idea itself in 1992, according to Voss. More recently, U.S. Fuel & Security advocated storing the world’s spent fuel on a South Pacific island. A handful of German utility officials, meanwhile, has floated the idea of locating a similar repository in South Africa. For the moment, that effort isn’t going anywhere, sources said.

The company’s global search for a geologically “superior” site turned up four candidates - sites in Australia, Argentina, China and western South Africa. Sites in China and South Africa were eliminated because they didn’t have the right mix of good geology, strict regulatory regime , and solid democratic politics, said Voss.

Initial and informal interest exhibited in Australia resulted in the Argentine site being put on the back burner.

Pangea Resources Ltd is listed as an associate company of Golder Associates and Pangea's office at 4104 148th Avenue NE, Redmond USA 98052, the same address as Panterra Resources Ltd, is listed as one of Golder's United States offices.

Golder also states that the America directors of Pangea Resources Ltd (Seattle) are David L Pentz and James W Voss.

The current Directors (1999) of Pangea Resources Pty Ltd (ACN 080 660 126) are:

The current Directors (1999) of Pangea Resources Australia Pty Ltd (ACN 081 203 652) are:

Pangea's senior management team was identified by David Pentze on the 1st March 1999 as including Gregg Butler, Charles McCombie, Peter Winter, Ralph Stoll and James Voss.

At this time the only other known corporate relationship in the Pangea saga is that of Norman Alfred Sekold who is listed as the Chairman of West Australian Bolnisi Gold and Mogul Mining and as a former Chairman of Pangea Resources. It is of interest to note that one of the mines operated by Mogul was Bamboo Creek in Western Australia, adjacent to the current Pangea proposal site.

Initial research has shown that Enterra Holdings Ltd is the parent company of Golder Associates, an employee-owned international geophisicist/hydrogeological engineering consultancy . Enterra is based in Canada, Golder is based in Seattle US, but has offices all over the world. Their web site is www.golder.com.

Pangea Resources is listed on this site. It appears that Enterra has a minority share of Pangea Resources Pty Ltd, along with British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, NAGRA the Swiss based nuclear waste management corp and another Canadian based entity.

Golder Associates Australian division have given assurances that they have no direct investment in Pangea, however they have been undertaking consultancy work in relation to the proposed international nuclear waste dump.

The British Government involvement in the Pangea proposal to establish a nuclear waste dump in outback Australia is through the Government-owned British Nuclear Fuels Limited which is a major shareholder of the US-based company Pangea. The Observer Newspaper in London has reported: BNFL has sunk £5 million into a controversial scheme to build the world's biggest repository in the outback. Britain has the world's second largest stock of nuclear waste from power stations and environmentalists fear Australia will be used as a nuclear dumping ground.

BNFL, wholly owned by the British Government, has never publicly announced its involvement, but the Observer had learnt that it is a major investor and a key member of the technical team.

Bill Anderton, a BNFL official, has told industry insiders: "We've invested around four million pounds (about US $6.6 million) cash in the project as well as between 500,000 pounds and 1-million pounds in providing expert opinion and advice," said BNFL's Anderton. "We're a company involved in the forefront of nuclear technology, and we're always seeking innovative solutions. Because of practical considerations, it's inevitable that there will be some degree of international collaboration in the construction of waste repositories."

Last month The Observer revealed the size of Britain's radioactive waste stockpile, which includes enough plutonium for 5,000 bombs. Only the US has larger stocks. The British Government's 1997 decision to abandon work on their deep-level Nirex nuclear dump in Cumbria means there is nowhere in the UK to dispose of the waste, which will remain radioactive for more than 250,000 years.

The Government's advisory body, the Radioactive Waste Management Committee, has already told Ministers that an overseas repository could be 'the best environmental option'. A BNFL spokesman said: 'Australia has the right geology and the political stability vital for a deep disposal site. We have to find a way of dealing with waste, and BNFL wants to be involved in the solution. We believe there would be substantial economic and other benefits for Australia.' The company had no plans to transfer British waste to Australia, he added.

Pangea contacted Nagra two years ago, saying it was impressed by the Radwaste agency's international reputation on scientific and technical issues, said Nagra President Hans Issler. He said the Swiss national agency found Pangea's concept to be very rational and agreed to participate.

Since then Nagra has invested about US$1 million in Pangea, but has received some of that money back for its consulting services. Nagra and BNFL are both part of an in-house Pangea technical group, Nagra has helped develop a multibarrier system that, potentially, could be used in an Australian repository. The system was adapted from work the agency did for Switzerland's own HLW program. Issler added that while Switzerland's first priority is to provide a national solution for spent fuel and waste management, the country has always kept open the option of a multinational repository. "Maybe this is the best offer at the moment," he said.