Antinuclear

Ziggy’s nuclear plans for Tasmania now thwarted

It all seemed a long way from the heady days of December 2006, when former Telstra head, nuclear physicist and chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Ziggy Switkowski, produced a report for the Howard government on the prospects and opportunities for nuclear power in Australia.

He concluded 25 nuclear reactors could be built around Australia’s coast….One nuclear power plant was pencilled in for the Tamar River north of Launceston or on the nearby Bass Strait coast, near the undersea Basslink power-cable link to Victoria.

Nuclear not for Tassie The Mercury – The Voice of Tasmania, SUE NEALES   March 26, 2011 “……..Prime Minister Julia Gillard ….has firmly told Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, a keen proponent of nuclear energy’s potential for Australia ……that there will be no renewed nuclear power debate any time soon.
Certainly not at the national Labor Party conference, scheduled for later this year, as Mr Ferguson and other Labor Right figures had hoped.

Just four days after the tsunami started a serious chain of events at Japan’s east coast Fukishima power plant, Ms Gillard said the Government’s position was that there was no need for nuclear energy in Australia.

“We don’t think nuclear energy is right for this country,” she said.

Meanwhile, Greens leader and Tasmanian senator Bob Brown once again branded nuclear energy as clearly unsafe, while environment groups used the Japanese disaster to call for more curbs on Australia’s uranium exports and warn against creating a local nuclear power-generation industry.

It all seemed a long way from the heady days of December 2006, when former Telstra head, nuclear physicist and chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Ziggy Switkowski, produced a report for the Howard government on the prospects and opportunities for nuclear power in Australia.

He concluded 25 nuclear reactors could be built around Australia’s coast producing a third of Australia’s doubled electricity demand by 2050, the first operational as soon as 2020.

One nuclear power plant was pencilled in for the Tamar River north of Launceston or on the nearby Bass Strait coast, near the undersea Basslink power-cable link to Victoria.

But the controversial Switkowski report found nuclear power would never be competitive with coal-fired power until a price or a tax was placed on carbon emissions.

It admitted nuclear power would remain 20 to 50 per cent more expensive than coal-fired power to produce, and would only ever become cost-competitive once “low to moderate” charges were imposed on polluting carbon emissions of between $15 to $40 per tonne of carbon dioxide…….

Last week Dr Switkowski said 80 per cent of Australians were opposed to nuclear power five years ago, half the population was now in favour of its introduction. Before the latest Fukushima nuclear meltdown crisis, that is.

Nuclear not for Tassie Editorial – The Mercury – The Voice of Tasmania

March 26, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business, Tasmania