THE AUSTRALIAN NUCLEAR DEBATE

Three recent articles below

P.M. calls for debate on uranium



Australia and Canada will consider establishing a "uranium OPEC", using their domination of the global market to influence the spread of nuclear power. The uranium producers group would protect the interests of the two nations, which account for 52 per cent of ore production and 43 per cent of reserves.

Prime Minister John Howard also toughened his language on nuclear power in Australia. He indicated he believed nuclear-fuelled electricity stations were inevitable. "The scene on nuclear energy is going to change significantly in our country," he said. "The pressure for change is driven in part by environmental considerations, it's driven in part by the soaring price of fuel, it's driven in part by a realisation that confronting the problem of high energy pricing is one of the big economic challenges of nations such as Canada and Australia. "I want a full-blooded debate in Australia about this issue and I want all of the options on the table."

In Washington earlier this week, Mr Howard took a softer line, saying "I don't think there is a compelling economic case" for nuclear power in Australia.

Mr Howard ended a two-day visit to Ottawa, that included an address to Parliament and talks with Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The Prime Ministers agreed to direct officials to work out the structure of a uranium producers group. It would complement the US proposal for a Global Nuclear Energy Partnership of the big nuclear power users.

Mr Howard said the US proposal had implications for Australia and Canada, who must work to ensure it did not affect "our own interests or the legitimate exploitation of uranium reserves". Mr Harper said Australia and Canada would work "very closely together" to see their interests were protected. The Canadians supported Australia sending a 25-member reconstruction team to Afghanistan, where 2300 Canadian troops are operating. Mr Harper said it was not too early to make reconstruction committments, despite the increasing violence from Taliban attacks.

The above article appeared in the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" on May, 21, 2006





Experts to put nuclear power in spotlight



The viability of a domestic nuclear power industry would be scrutinised by experts set up to advise the Federal Government, the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, said yesterday. But Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane tried to hose down hopes that nuclear power could be the answer to soaring fuel costs and climate change. He said its massive cost meant that it would not be a viable alternative to coal-fired power for at least 15 years.

Australian Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten, tipped by some to become the next Labor Party leader, accused Prime Minister John Howard of pushing the issue simply to exploit divisions in the Labor Party. Labor was not interested in "running a debate" on nuclear power in Australia, he said. Mr Shorten told Channel Nine's Sunday program that Mr Howard would drop the nuclear power issue as soon as he realised the public was still not comfortable with the idea. But he appeared open to overturning Labor's "three mines policy", which opposes the opening of new uranium mines, describing the capping of mine numbers as akin to being "half-pregnant". He declared himself "very interested" in the views of Labor resources spokesman Martin Ferguson, who has called for the "three mines policy" to be scrapped.

The Northern Territory's Minister for Mines and Energy, Kon Vatskalis, slammed the proposal for a debate on nuclear power. According to ABC Online, he said Australia had nowhere near the infrastructure required to support uranium enrichment.

But Mr Macfarlane said the public's view had moved on significantly in recent years. He said he would have to rethink a proposal for a report into nuclear power which he and former education minister Brendan Nelson put to the Prime Minister more than a year ago, and which the Prime Minister is expected to approve. "What we're going to have to look at is how we get some national debate going on nuclear energy," Mr Macfarlane said. But even if the public backed nuclear energy, it would still be at least 2020 before it became a viable alternative because it could not compete with the price of coal, he said. "At the moment we generate from coal from around $30 a megawatt hour. Nuclear energy is probably $60 plus," he said. Finance Minister Nick Minchin and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer have also raised the high cost of nuclear energy as a potential obstacle.

A spokesman for Ms Bishop said she was optimistic about the potential for a nuclear power industry in Australia. The spokesman said she was working on setting up a panel of experts to put together the evidence for the feasibility of a nuclear power industry.

But Labor's spokesman on arts and reconciliation, Peter Garrett, accused Mr Howard of calling for a debate when he had already made up his mind in favour of a domestic nuclear industry. Mr Howard lacked the imagination or environmental knowledge to recognise there were better alternatives, he said. Mr Garrett said some countries were using nuclear power as "a short-term bridge" to alternative energy, but that was something Australia did not need.

Source




The Australian Left is being nuked

The report below is all the more amusing for being largely correct. The Left of the Labor party have horrors at anything nuclear while the more pragmatic majority are much less religious about it all. And by putting the matter up for serious debate, John Howard is putting the two factions at one another's throats. The report below of remarks by Peter Garrett is a cry of pain about that. It is also quite true that the Australian government is reducing its support for Greenie nuttiness -- which pains aging rock-star Garrett. The "fat boy" in the cartoon below is Kim Beazley, the overweight Federal Parliamentary leader of the Labor Party. The hairless one is Mr Garrett





Prime Minister John Howard is creating a false nuclear debate to deflect attention from a lack of action on climate change, Labor frontbencher Peter Garrett says. Mr Howard is flagging a full-scale nuclear debate when he returns from an overseas trip later this week, as momentum builds within his own party to develop nuclear power and uranium enrichment programs. Mr Garrett, a one-time Senate candidate for the Nuclear Disarmament Party, said the prime minister had left the United States a "born-again nuclear warrior".

The nuclear debate was a false one, he said. "The prime minister's creating one his great false debates, flying kites, making mischief, and covering up for the fact that he's done absolutely zip on climate change - nothing in the budget for it," Mr Garrett told ABC radio. "(He) abolishes the Australian Greenhouse Office. We've seen half a billion dollars worth of investment in wind farms and alternative technologies go overseas because of this government's lack of action. "The prime minister comes back from America as a nukes enthusiast, but he's just clouding the debate and covering his own deficiencies."

Mr Garrett said he was also concerned about senior government ministers, including Alexander Downer and Ian Macfarlane, flagging a uranium enrichment program for Australia. "I'm astonished that the government wants to push ahead with enrichment given the huge issues around safety, around proliferation, the sort of debates that we're seeing in the Middle East about rogue states. "But more importantly, why isn't this government investing in technologies that are good for the country?"

After 40 years with nuclear power, the US had not yet dealt with its own waste, Mr Garrett said. "They still haven't, after 40 years, got a successfully approved radioactive waste safe repository." The nuclear debate was a farce, he said. "It's more than hypocritical, it's a farce for the prime minister to come back from America and suddenly become born-again for nukes." Mr Garrett said his personal conviction that nuclear power was the wrong way to go was even greater now than when he was a member of the Nuclear Disarmament Party.

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