Antinuclear

The 13 leading sites for a nuclear reactor in Australia – including a dam that supplies drinking water for a major city.

• Nuclear for Climate has Liberal Party endorsements
• It favours turning coal stations into nuclear reactors 
• Also suggested Brisbane’s Wivenhoe Dam as site

By STEPHEN JOHNSON, ECONOMICS REPORTER FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA,12 May 2024 

A dam that supplies drinking water near a major city could be used to cool a reactor should Australia embrace nuclear power.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is expected to use his upcoming Budget in Reply speech to provide more detail on potential sites for nuclear reactors, with the Coalition arguing Australia cannot solely rely on renewable energy to meet its climate change targets.

Nuclear for Climate Australia has been endorsed by Coalition MPs and its founder, a disillusioned former Labor candidate, is now advising the Opposition on nuclear energy policy.

Nuclear plants use the process of fission – splitting atoms – to heat water from the dam to create steam, which powers a turbine that creates electricity.

The dam’s water would also be used to cool down the nuclear system, with the water then recirculated back into the reactor.

‘While recirculating systems don’t add heat to the river or lake, they do consume water through evaporation,’ Nuclear for Climate Australia said……………………………

Robert Parker said Wivenhoe Dam offered cooling qualities during a drought.

‘You need to ensure that you got sufficient water in the highest demand, hot periods when everyone’s got their air conditioners going, you do not want your plant losing cooling ability,’ Mr Parker told Daily Mail Australia. 

‘Smaller nuclear power plants would need to be able to get an allocation of water, particularly in the hot-weather periods out of those dams to cool themselves.

‘If the water allocation can be given to the power station, it would be a phenomenally good resource for cooling a nuclear power plant.’  

This site was one of 10 ‘probable’ sites in Queensland along with another three ‘possible’ sites in the home state of Mr Dutton and the Coalition’s energy spokesman Ted O’Brien.

Opponents of nuclear power argue it is too risky to put a plant near any population centre because of the risk of meltdown, even though nuclear medical isotopes for cancer treatment are produced at Lucas Heights in suburban Sydney.

The meltdown at the Soviet-era Chernobyl plant in Ukraine in 1986 resulted in a mass leakage of radiation that devastated surrounding areas for decades, while the effects of the 2011 earthquake on the Fukushima plant in Japan also caused a major radiation event. 

Other possible nuclear power plant sites 

Nuclear for Climate’s 13 recommended potential reactor sites include seven existing coal-fired power stations: Callide, Stanwell, Tarong, Gladstone, Millmeran, Kogan Creek and Collinsville, along with gas-fired Swanbank in suburban Ipswich.

‘In Queensland coal fired plants were constructed adjacent to available coal mines and other infrastructure,’ it said.

‘New nuclear plants will where possible take advantage of the resource used for cooling at these plants.’

Mr Dutton has flagged the idea of potentially converting five disused coal-fired power stations into nuclear energy reactors, arguing Australia could not entirely rely on wind and solar energy to meet its target of net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. 

The Coalition argues the existence of electricity transmission lines from these sites meant nuclear power could be delivered affordably – unlike Labor’s $20billion Rewiring the Nation plan……………………………………….

Nuclear for Climate has also suggested Ross River in north Queensland, the existing site of a solar farm near Townsville that is also close to the sea.

The three ‘possible’ sites included Stockleigh in suburban Logan south of Brisbane, Samsonvale west of Brisbane, and the Burdekin regional in north Queensland.

Mr Parker compiled that list in 2022 but since then he has revised it to drop two sites too far inland, citing droughts……………………………………………….

Nuclear advocacy group 

Nuclear for Climate was influential within Coalition circles even before Mr Dutton in March revealed a government led by him would push for a nuclear power industry.

Mr Parker, who ran as a New South Wales state Labor candidate in 2007, said he was now providing advice to the federal Coalition……………………………

In 2022, he addressed the Parliamentary Friends of Nuclear Industries, chaired by Nationals backbencher David Gillespie.

Coalition senators in 2022 also cited Mr Parker in their dissenting report on the government’s plan for Australia to source 82 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.

Hollie Hughes, Ross Cadell and Bridget McKenzie wrote their report as members of a Senate environment and communications committee who opposed the Climate Change Bill 2022, which Labor and the Greens backed.

Mr Parker’s Nuclear for Climate group had made a submission to this bill arguing Australia could not rely on renewable energy for power generation……………………………….

Mr Parker has also been endorsed in Parliament by Liberal MP Rick Wilson.

In November 2022, the assistant shadow minister from Western Australia hailed his expertise on small modular reactors that can produce 300 megawatts, or 300million watts of power.

‘Speakers like Robert Parker, founder of Nuclear for Climate Australia, described the journey of Canada’s expanding nuclear power using SMR technology,’ he said.

SITES EARMARKED FOR NUCLEAR POWER

’10 PROBABLE SITES’

COLLINSVILLE: coal-fired plant in Whitsunday region of north Queensland 

MILLMERRAN: coal-fired plant in Darling Downs region of south Queensland (dropped)

CALLIDE: coal-fired plant at Biloela in central Queensland 

GLADSTONE: coal-fired plant in central Queensland 

TARONG: coal-fired plant in South Burnett region of south Queensland (scaled back)

STANWELL: coal-fired plant near Rockhampton in central Queensland

KOGAN CREEK: coal-fired plant north-west of Toowoomba in south Queensland (dropped)

SWANBANK: gas-fired plant in Ipswich in south-east Queensland

WIVENHOE: hydro plant north-west of Brisbane in south-east Queensland

ROSS RIVER: solar farm near Townsville in north Queensland 

‘3 POSSIBLE SITES’

STOCKLEIGH: rural area west of Logan

BURDEKIN: pumped hydro in north Queensland 

SAMSONVALE: rural area west of Moreton Bay in south-east Queensland

Source: Nuclear for Climate Australia’s 2022 list which founder Robert Parker has reconsidered in 2024   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/money/article-13394175/13-sites-nuclear-reactor-Australia.html

May 15, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics