Antinuclear

Australia’s low return high-risk uranium industry a part of global nuclear weaponry

Time to stop the (uranium) boats, SMH, Dave Sweeney, 28 Aug 13,  “…….. Time after time the uranium industry promises big but delivers little. It contributes less than 0.3 per cent of export revenue and account for 0.015 per cent of Australian jobs.

The most recent independent assessment Australia’s uranium industry – a 2003 Senate inquiry – found the sector characterised by underperformance and non-compliance and urged changes to protect the environment and its inhabitants from “serious or irreversible damage”.

Sadly, in the decade since then little has changed, even though the need to manage radioactive materials over extremely long periods with specific security and proliferation issues make uranium mining fundamentally different from other types of mining.

Uranium mining remains a contested and contaminating industrial activity that poses serious and continuing problems – now and long into the future – and continues to lack community consent and a social licence.

But Australia can – and must – do better than this.

We are a rich nation blessed with a skilled workforce and abundant renewable energy resources. Instead of literally fuelling disaster we should be leading the world in clear and sustainable energy technology and generation.

Two decades ago nuclear power provided around 17 per cent of the world’s electricity, today it is close to 10 per cent. In China, Germany and Japan – three of the world’s four largest economies – renewable energy sources generate more power than nuclear reactors.

In France, a favourite of the atomic lobby, the share value of state utility EDF, the world’s largest nuclear operator, has fallen 85 per cent over the past five years.

Talk of domestic nuclear power is fanciful but Australia is a major global nuclear player by virtue of the uranium we sell to other countries and we now need a genuine debate about our role in fuelling this trade.

As home to around 35 per cent of the world’s uranium, the decisions we make here count and – like the waste – they count for a very long time. That is why Hawke’s call for Australia to become the world’s nuclear waste dump is way off the mark. http://www.smh.com.au/comment/time-to-stop-the-uranium-boats-20130827-2snau.html#ixzz2dIOX2ZZw

August 28, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, business, uranium