AUKUS: the cradle's costed, the grave's a mystery

Michael West Media · Rex Patrick · Monday 20 April 2026

AUKUS: the cradle's costed, the grave's a mystery

Defence is meant to deliver full lifecycle costings before procurement. On AUKUS nuclear waste, the numbers and the dump sites are both missing.

Defence wants a submarine fleet but can't tell you where the glowing leftovers go. Cradle to grave costings, they call it — except they've skipped the grave bit because nobody's game to put a postcode on it. Three hundred and sixty-eight billion dollars and the waste plan has the detail of a note left for the milkman.

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