Antinuclear

Australian Financial Review joins the spruikers for Australia as the world’s nuclear waste dump

Christina Macpherson 15 June 13, Today the Financial Review published a very worthy(?) article entitled  “Energy sources to be a diverse mix by 2100”  I should have been warned, when I saw it quoting Australian Renewable Energy Agency chairman Greg Bourne sayng that 100 per cent renewable energy power supply is not realistic.

But no –  I read on this lengthy article, and then comes the real message – at the end:

AUSTRALIA COULD BE ‘THE WORLD’S REPOSITORY OF NUCLEAR WASTE’

“In any discussion of Australia’s future energy needs and mix of sources, there is always a very big elephant in the room: nuclear energy. Australia is the Saudi Arabia of uranium, with almost 1.4 million tonnes of known recoverable resources. That is 1.4 times the resources of the number two supplier, Kazakhstan, and 2.6 times the resources of number three, Canada.

But Australia does not use the metal – exporting all it produces – and has no plans to do so. “Nuclear energy is quite simply the purest, cleanest and lowest-emission form of energy there is, and Australia has enormous reserves of that form of energy,” says Professor Stephen Martin,chief executive of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA).

“If Australia is serious about mitigating the effects of climate change, then nuclear must be on the table. It has the potential to provide low-cost, clean, baseload energy and will be an important back-up if other renewable or clean energy options do not come to fruition. If we want to improve environmental outcomes, if we want to lower emissions, nuclear energy is a no-brainer,” Martin says…….

From the mini-reactors being developed, which are buried in the ground, to the ‘Generation IV’ reactors, and the potential of small-scale thorium reactors, it’s a pretty exciting outlook for nuclear energy. In fact, through technological changes, Australia could be the world’s repository of nuclear waste – which we could then refine and re-use,” Martin says.

Michael Angwin, chief executive of the Australian Uranium Association, agrees there needs to be a “reconfiguration of the Australian political dynamic” for our uranium to be used domestically for power, but says the case is compelling.

“Nuclear power is one technology that can supply electricity reliably for large population centres, with no emissions. It does this all over the world. If Australia had a nuclear industry we would be very keen to supply it,” Angwin says. http://www.afr.com/p/2100/energy_sources_to_be_diverse_mix_A2laV1flAoEMOCg5XYHneL

June 15, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | media, wastes