The Federal Member for Fairfax says Australia is being left in the dark and should embrace nuclear power.
Mr Ted O’Brien, the Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy, believes the nation is lagging behind other countries that have adopted nuclear power for a range of benefits.
This is the second part of a Sunshine Coast News series on nuclear power and its future on the Sunshine Coast and in Australia. Read part one here
“The world is embracing zero-emissions nuclear energy because it solves the energy trilemma of affordability, reliability and emissions reduction,” he said.
“It’s no surprise that 32 nations, including our closest allies and countries like Canada and Sweden, already use zero-emissions nuclear energy and another 50 are looking to do so for the first time.
“History shows that the fastest way to decarbonise an electricity grid is with the introduction of zero-emissions nuclear energy, with five of the world’s top 10 quickest decarbonisations due to nuclear energy.”
Mr O’Brien said nuclear power could propel the country into a new era of prosperity.
“I’m optimistic that Australia can successfully develop a thriving civil nuclear industry which will see clean, cheap, emissions-free energy pumping through our grid and underpinning our economy for the future,” he said.
And it appears the Australian public is warming to the prospect of nuclear power.
The latest Newspoll showed most people would support replacing coal-fired power plants with small modular nuclear reactors.
Fifty-five per cent of voters supported it, 31 per cent were against and 16 per cent were unsure.
People aged 18-35 showed the most support.
Mr O’Brien appeared on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing on February 27 and said the poll was “encouraging”.
He said the Coalition was not basing its policy on polls but “the voice of every Australian needs to be heard in this debate, especially Australian households who are paying some of the highest (electricity) prices in the world”.
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Mr O’Brien’s opinions on nuclear power have been contrasted by a leading local academic and the federal government.
Sunshine Coast expert Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe said nuclear power would take too long to produce and be too costly, and said renewables like wind and solar were more realistic.
The Department of Climate Change and Energy also favoured wind and solar power, and questioned what beach Mr O’Brien would be willing to put a nuclear facility near.
International concerns
Professor Lowe says nuclear capacity in Australia could threaten regional stability.
“One obvious concern if we were to embrace nuclear energy would be our relations with our neighbours,” he said.
“The reason Iran’s neighbours are nervous about its nuclear program is that they see a country with plentiful other resources going down a path that does not appear economically rational, so they suspect the real motivation is to acquire nuclear weapons, just as India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have.
“I think our neighbours like Indonesia would be equally suspicious of our real agenda if we were to suddenly decide it was worth paying two to three times as much for power as it could cost to keep expanding solar panels and wind turbines.”
He also said professionals from abroad would be needed to make nuclear power possible in Australia.
“We do not have the expertise or experience that would be needed for construction and for regulating the process to satisfy community concerns,” he said.
“We have a small research reactor at Lucas Heights, which also produces isotopes for medical imaging and cancer treatment, but a nuclear power station would be at least 40 times the size of that installation.
“We would almost certainly have to bring in experts from other parts of the world if we wanted to build a nuclear power station.”
Read more about Professor Lowe’s insight on nuclear power in part three of the series on Sunshine Coast News in coming days.
