Resistance To Nuclear Power Leaving Australia Vulnerable -Official
October 12 2010 - 4:12AM
Dow Jones News
Australia's resistance to a domestic nuclear power industry
risks leaving the country vulnerable if the world agrees to
greenhouse gas emission targets, the head of Canberra's nuclear
power body said Tuesday.
Ziggy Switkowski, chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and
Technology Organisation, said the country's current dependence on
fossil fuels would leave it exposed if carbon emissions targets are
agreed to.
"This is a national vulnerability. If the world moves to clean
energy, then what's been a source of competitive advantage for
Australia--low-cost fossil fuels--will become a competitive
disadvantage," he told a conference in Brisbane.
Australia is home to around 38% of the world's uranium reserves
and two of the world's three biggest uranium mines--BHP Billiton
Ltd.'s (BHP) Olympic Dam mine and Energy Resources of Australia's
(ERA.AU) Ranger mine.
However, it was alone among the world's 28 largest economies in
not considering nuclear power as part of a future energy and
climate change policy, Switkowski said.
The country's only working nuclear reactor, at Lucas Heights
near Sydney, produces medical isotopes.
Around 90% of Australia's electricity is generated from fossil
fuels, principally coal, and establishing a nuclear industry would
be essential to breaking that pattern, he told Dow Jones
Newswires.
"We're just about the highest per capita greenhouse gas emitters
in the world, and we are publicly committed to massive greenhouse
gas reduction targets.
"But I don't see how we're going to get there without nuclear
power in the narrative. I can't make the numbers work."
He suggested that ten 1,000-megawatt reactors could be built by
2050 to deliver a quarter of the country's energy needs, built on
the location of existing fossil fuel stations because of their good
grid connections, water supply, and the absence of local
communities.
However, the result of recent federal elections, after which the
Labor government holds power thanks to the support of a Green party
MP and three independents, has made the prospects of change more
remote, he said.
The Greens are publicly opposed to nuclear power, and two of the
three independents have a record of opposition to the nuclear
industry.
"I think the election outcome has, if anything, slowed or
tempered any enthusiasm for nuclear power at the policy level for
some time," he said.
At the same conference, Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of Tokyo
Electric Power Co. (9501.TO), one of Japan's largest power
utilities, said Australia was more suited to nuclear power than his
own country.
"You have lots of land where people don't live. You don't have
earthquake issues because you have solid geology," he said. "But it
is difficult to convince your community on the basis of energy
security," since the country has such abundant energy supplies,
"and also fossil fuel power generation is very low cost, so it is
very difficult for nuclear to compete."
Tepco operates 17 nuclear reactors in Japan, accounting for 40%
of the company's electricity output. Its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant
is the world's largest-capacity reactor.
-By David Fickling, Dow Jones Newswires; +61 2 8272 4689;
david.fickling@dowjones.com
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