The top mining organization in Australia has once again asked the government to consider ending its ban on nuclear power in the country, which it says would provide a reliable, zero-carbon emissions energy source with proven technology.
The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) made headlines in the fall of 2017 with its initiative to speak up against the ban. The mining group said in 2017 that nuclear power was banned in Australia in 1998, because it was “horsetraded for the passage of legislation centralizing radiation regulations.”
“Public debate at the time, flamed by the anti-nuclear movement, centered on the replacement of the Lucas Heights reactor. The political fix was to draw a line through the industry,” the group said.
The ban was passed when the need for nuclear power was low, given the country was “full of coal” and there were other low-cost alternatives. At that point, “There was no reason to believe that would change,” the group said.
The good news, the group said, was that the ban can be reversed by simply repealing four words “a nuclear power plant” from Section 140A(1)(b) of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. If so, nuclear projects would still be required to meet the country's “stringent environmental and safety requirements,” the group said.
Australia is the world's only high-electricity-consumption country without a nuclear power plant, the World Nuclear Association says. However, it is the world's third largest uranium producer with 34 percent of the world's uranium reserves.
The MCA's latest push to end the nuclear power ban came in the form of a 42-page pre-budget submission to the federal government. “Nuclear power has the advantage of being able to generate baseload electricity with very low CO2 emissions over its lifecycle. Modern small modular reactors could offer long-term stable electricity supply to underpin household and industrial use in mining and other remote towns. The ban on nuclear power in Australia is hampering an open debate about future energy and climate change management and stands at odds with Australia's export uranium mining industry,” the group said.