Antinuclear

Nuclear powered universities – the latest bright idea from Barnaby’s people

Murray Hogarth, 2 December 2024,  https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/columns-columns/the-nuclear-files/nuclear-powered-universities-the-latest-bright-idea-from-barnabys-people/

It’s common knowledge that Australia’s university sector is facing challenging times, but who knew installing nuclear reactors on campuses might be part of the future fix?

At least, that’s what the local anti-renewables, pro-nuclear campaign group in National Party maverick Barnaby Joyce’s home electorate of New England in north-eastern NSW is proposing.

Joyce, a former Deputy Prime Minister and current opposition frontbencher, is a leading voice in the self-styled “bush rebellion” against so-called “reckless renewables”, and a prominent political champion for Australia embracing nuclear energy.

He campaigns very actively on his own territory, but also roves further afield, even venturing into metropolitan Sydney, most recently at an anti-renewables, pro-nuclear forum in Labor Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s own electorate of McMahon.

His local ginger group, Responsible Energy Development for New England (RED4NE), has pitched this novel idea for regional universities in its submission to the current House Select Committee on Nuclear Energy.

It focuses on the University of New England, which is headquartered in the region’s largest urban centre, Armidale, and cites rising power demand for AI at all universities as a key driver for its nuclear notion based on next-generation Small Modular Reactors, or SMRs.

Just wait for the fallout from the university’s students and academics, and the local Armidale community’s not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) brigade, if this gains any credence.

Although that said, given that no SMRs have been developed commercially anywhere in the OECD – as a number of the now over 340 submissions to the inquiry make clear, with only a couple of completed examples of SMRs in the world, in Russia and China – it may be a very long time before the good burghers of Armidale will need to get too worked up.

In its inquiry submission, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) confirms SMRs may power discreet use cases such as data centres and mining sites in the future, but describes the technology as still being in its “infancy”.

It says: “ATSE’s report on SMRs concluded that commercial releases in other OECD countries could be possible by the late 2030s to mid-2040s, with a mature market emerging by the late 2040s.”

Power-hungry universities growing their AI will need a lot of electricity well before then.

Such a proposition totally ignores the Liberal-National coalition pledge, should it win the national elections due within six months, to restrict its planned nuclear reactor developments to just seven already-named locations on old coal-fired power station sites across five states.

None of these seven sites are in the New England region, with the nearest being Muswellbrook in the adjoining Hunter Valley region, and currently the Coalition’s still poorly-defined and uncosted nuclear policy only specifies SMRs being built at sites in South Australia and Western Australia.

Under the heading “Deployment of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) for New England Tablelands”, the RED4NE submission to the parliamentary inquiry says: “Even though renewable energy sources have a role to play in Australia’s energy mix, nuclear power, particularly through the deployment of SMRs, offers a compelling alternative for the New England Tablelands region.”

It then gets more specific, with a subheading “High energy needs of AI for Universities”, proposing that: “One of the most compelling uses would be the installation of SMRs for high energy users such as the University of New England (UNE) in Armidale.

“As Universities in general move to using more Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, their need for power increases exponentially. New version SMRs do not require the vast quantities of water inherent in older models. As such, SMRs would be of vital importance for the continuing competitiveness for regional universities such as UNE.”

The New England Region is one of the NSW government’s five designated Renewable Energy Zones (REZ’s), which are earmarked for large-scale solar, wind and storage developments connected to high-demand areas of the electricity grid by transmission lines.

RED4NE’s submission mirrors most of the nuclear lobby’s standard arguments, concluding that: “When considering the alternatives, nuclear is more reliable, less destructive to communities and ecosystems, cheaper, and has longer lifespan. We urge you to consider seriously the positive benefits of nuclear power generation for Australia to avoid unnecessary violation of such beautiful rural communities such as the New England Tablelands.”

The submission also makes clear that RED4NE is collaborating with one of the pro-nuke brigade’s favourite “environmentalists”, wildlife photographer turned anti large-scale renewables campaigner Steven Nowakowski. He has helped them to produce a cumulative impact “panascope” of the wind, solar and battery developments, including transmission line and road infrastructures, proposed for the New England REZ.

Nowakowski was a guest speaker at a RED4NE-hosted community forum in Armidale on 3October, addressing landholders and other local residents on the topic: “Is the New England REZ broken?”

Other pro-nuclear speakers promoted for the forum included Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) Energy Director Aiden Morrison and Nuclear for Climate Australia founder Robert Parker, who, like Nowakowski, are regulars at similar events being held across regional Australia.

Of course, Barnaby Joyce is a regular too, frequently honing his arguments against the renewables-led energy transition – which he decries as the Labor government’s “cult-like attachment to intermittent power” – with his own constituents.

On the morning of the RED4NE forum, Joyce told his Facebook followers: “Tonight I am in Armidale with yet another gathering of standing room only of every political persuasion with one thing in common. We have been misled, ripped off and lied to. This is a social, environmental and energy train wreck of monumental proportions.”

It’s going to be a wild and wacky ride as the renewables versus nuclear, Labor versus coalition contest rages right up to election day. 

December 3, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized