Antinuclear

Bob Hawke and Jay Weatherill – Labor fans of nuclear power and radioactive waste dumping

Bob Hawke supports SA nuclear dump The Australian, 9 Feb15 FORMER prime minister Bob Hawke has backed siting a nuclear waste dump in South Australia after Premier Jay Weatherill ­revealed he would hold a royal commission into the state’s deeper involvement in the nuclear ­industry.

The commission’s findings could also open the door to opportunities for nuclear generation and construction of nuclear-­powered submarines in the state, said nuclear physicist Ziggy Switkowski, who led the 2006 commonwealth government inquiry into the viability of a domestic ­nuclear power industry.

Consultation on terms of reference begin today, and are expected to cover the state’s further potential for mining, enrichment, energy generation and storage phases of the nuclear cycle for peaceful uses.

Mr Hawke’s decades-long lobbying for Australia to take the world’s nuclear waste had been a no-go zone with the state Labor government, despite South Australia being a prime storage candidate with a vast, geologically sound backyard. The former Labor PM called the commission a “hell of a good idea” and said the ALP, which has a platform forbidding the establishment of nuclear power plants and all other states of the nuclear fuel cycle in Australia, had previously been open to altering its nuclear policy.

“The Labor Party has shown that it has a degree of flexibility in the nuclear debate, particularly with export of uranium,’’ he said……….

Mr Weatherill said his personal anti-nuclear stance had changed and he was “well along the journey” to an open mind when he seconded the motion at the party’s 2011 national convention to ­approve Australian uranium exports to India. Commission recommen­dations would be taken to the party, he said.

Mr Weatherill said South Australia had been in the nuclear fuel cycle for the past 25 years, exporting uranium from one of the world’s richest deposits — BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam.

“The truth is we’re already in the nuclear fuel cycle. ………

“It seems, on the face of it, that nuclear energy, at least in the large-scale transmission form, is not something which would be economically viable in South Australia, or indeed the nation, ­although technological changes are occurring with much smaller nuclear generation plants.

“And of course the question of enrichment, adding value to the ore that we presently send over in a relatively unprocessed manner. All of these things are within scope for this inquiry, although some would be less likely than others.”

Dr Switkowski said the commission was “timely for a number of reasons” and a welcome step, appropriately put by the state with the biggest involvement in the global supply chain in uranium.

“Nuclear power still offers the greatest option in providing cost-effective, clean, baseload energy.” http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/bob-hawke-supports-sa-nuclear-dump/story-e6frgczx-1227212370963

February 9, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, South Australia