Barnaby Joyce suggests free electricity as an incentive for communities to host nuclear power plants

Make nuclear power free, Barnaby Joyce says. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/make-nuclear-power-free-barnaby-joyce-says-20190721-p5299j.html, By Nicole Hasham, July 21, 2019 Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce says free nuclear power could be offered to residents living close to a reactor to help build support for the controversial technology, as an analysis pinpoints which Australian towns are best placed to host a nuclear plant.

But the pro-nuclear push by Coalition backbenchers may be losing momentum after one colleague dismissed it as a “distraction” and a senior minister said the government had “no desire to go down that path”.

Federal and state laws prohibit the development of a domestic nuclear power industry. However, federal MPs Keith Pitt and James McGrath are pushing for a parliamentary inquiry into the technology’s feasibility in Australia and the NSW Nationals last month passed a motion supporting nuclear energy.

A leading lobby group for the technology, the Australian Nuclear Association, has identified dozens of potential sites for nuclear reactors – those with stable geology and proximity to the existing grid, transport and water. The locations include those in Mr Joyce’s New England electorate in northern NSW and Liberal Ken O’Dowd’s Queensland seat of Flynn. Both MPs have backed a nuclear inquiry.

Mr Joyce said nuclear technology had come a long way in the past few decades and rejected claims that even if Australia’s nuclear ban was overturned, communities would refuse to host reactors over safety and environmental concerns.

“You just have to come up with the right policy settings and they will accept it … People will think with their wallets,” he said.

Mr Joyce floated a potential policy whereby “if you can see the reactor [from your house], your power is for free. If you are within 50 kilometres of a reactor, you get power for half price.” Discounts would scale down to 25 per cent for those living 75 kilometres from a nuclear facility.

Such a policy would trigger a rush of proposals for “hills in the middle of towns that people want a reactor on”, Mr Joyce said.

In NSW, the association also identified sites in Energy Minister Angus Taylor’s seat of Hume and Environment Minister Sussan Ley’s seat of Farrer. Proposed Victorian sites include those in the seats of Wannon and Gippsland, held by ministers Dan Tehan and Darren Chester.

Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien, whose Queensland electorate is also on the list, said he was “not enthusiastic” about the prospect of a parliamentary probe into nuclear power.

“We need to focus on bringing down power prices and bringing more supply into the market … which can be done a lot quicker than legalising nuclear energy and then building the infrastructure needed,” he said.

“It seems to be a distraction from the very real issues at hand.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said during the election campaign that his party had “no plans” to change its nuclear power stance and Mr Taylor told this publication on Sunday “the business case has got to stack up”.

A government minister told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that “there’s no desire to go down this path” in the broader Coalition.

“Financially it doesn’t stack up and … there’s also the not-in-my-backyard issue, which is a very difficult one,” the minister said.

Labor’s climate change and energy spokesman Mark Butler said Mr Morrison had allowed Mr Taylor and backbenchers to “pursue their nuclear power fantasy” as power prices rose.

Consultancy SMR Nuclear Technology promotes the benefits of small, modular nuclear reactors. Technical director Tony Irwin said about ten community groups and others had expressed interest to his firm in hosting such a reactor, should the ban in Australia be lifted.

“People are now concerned about climate change and they can see that renewables aren’t the total answer and we need everything that we’ve got,” he said.

July 22, 2019 - Posted by Christina MacPherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics

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1.This month

Webinar. Brisbane remembers Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Thurs 5 August 6.30-7.30 p.m. AEST https://events.humanitix.com/hiroshima-commemoration-webinar

Celebrating the work that the community has done over time in opposition to nuclear weapons, in Brisbane, nationally and internationally, leading to the UN Total Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty

Speakers : Dr Helen Caldicott pioneering international anti-nuclear activist, Ross Gwyther, a founder of People for Nuclear Disarmament . in Brisbane, Bob Henricks, unionist and former secretary of the ETU, Chris Henderson, from the Cities and Towns Appeal for Australia to Sign the Ban Treaty

From Ian Lowe – ”T’his is a reminder that the future is not somewhere we are going, but something we are creating. From my perspective, nuclear power now looks like an intractable problem we were just lucky to avoid. Most developed nations have nuclear power stations with mountains of accumulated waste, for which there is no effective permanent solution.

The urgent task of moving to clean energy supply, mostly from solar and wind, is made more difficult when resources have been sunk into the nuclear power industry. I believe we dodged a bullet.

Federal Parliament’s Public Works Committee is conducting an inquiry into nuclear waste storage in Australia. Most of this waste is currently stored at the Lucas Heights research reactor site 30 km south of Sydney, operated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).

Ongoing storage at Lucas Heights is a better option than dumping the waste on Aboriginal land in South Australia against the unanimous opposition of Barngarla Traditional Owners and the opposition of many local farmers and people across the state. Please make a submission to the Public Works Committee inquiry.

For updates: see Adelaide group Don’t Dump on SA https://www.facebook.com/dontdumponsa

No Radioactive Waste Facility for Kimba District https://www.facebook.com/noradwastekimba

And https://www.facebook.com/nodumpalliance

Please Sign: the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) sign on letter to federal Minister Pitt

Sign the open letter to Keith Pitt: Don’t dump radioactive waste facility on regional communities (acf.org.au)

Support the Barngarla People:

“Barngarla: Help us Have a Say on Kimba” to fund a legal challenge (judicial review)

Fundraiser by Barngarla People : Barngarla: Help us Have a Say on Kimba (gofundme.com)

Barngarla need as much support as we can to say NO to the Nuclear Waste Facility for KIMBA

Mahalia Bilney started this petition to Ken Wyatt (Minister for Indigenous Australians) and 1 other

Our Barngarla Mob need as much support as we can to say NO to the Nuclear Waste Facility proposed for Kimba! Help us fight to be heard and included in the importance of such a decision �� We won our native title to then be told we have no say and to go through this process all over again.

We don’t want the nuclear waste facility as they can’t guarantee it’s going to be safe and it will be a huge risk to the wildlife and environment. Not to mention the proposed areas are sacred and hold significance to my people and we don’t want more major damage to be caused, we want to try and preserve what we have left.

Research into this for yourselves, they say it’s low level but it’s technically high level! but our country marks it as low as our standards aren’t the same as the countries we’ll receive the waste from. It’s appalling and not wanted! So help us fight for our right to vote and hopefully stop it from happening.

For international nuclear news go to https://nuclear-news.net

PETITION https://www.alp.org.au/petitions/australians-dont-want-nuclear-power/

Appeal for Australian Government’s Actions on Japan’s Dumping Nuclear Wastewater into Sea

Submissions to the Senate Committee Inquiry into National Radioactive Management Amendment Bill. 2020. Go to our summaries of significant submissions, conveniently listed in alphabetical order at Kimba waste dump submissions or see all submissions listed at Read the Submissions

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Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items