Australia should add nuclear to the clean energy mix: Minerals Council.

Australia should develop a nuclear power industry to reduce its emissions, the Minerals Council says, and the Turnbull government should take the first step by removing legal road blocks.

U.S. nuclear power.

In a new paper titled Removing the Prohibition on Nuclear Power, the lobby group argues just four words - "a nuclear power plant" - need to be cut from the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act to begin clearing the legal path to the development of a nuclear industry.

It argues that any nuclear power plant would still be subject to Australia's strict environmental laws and that nuclear power offers zero emissions, base-load energy that can run day and night, and that it is operating in 30 countries around the world.

Most contentiously, it argues the technology is safe, citing a British study by Friends of the Earth - a claim opponents would dispute by highlighting the Fukushima, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island disasters - and affordable, which opponents would also  dispute.

Read James Massola’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Australia should add nuclear to the clean energy mix: Minerals Council.”

(Nuclear power should not be included in Australia’s future energy mix - many things make it unviable, but among them is the mining and transport of the uranium, the power plant’s construction, the safety considerations, and, most importantly, the time it would take build the complex facility.

Reliable research illustrates that the carbon emissions from the fundamentals of a nuclear power plant, building suppling and maintaining such a facility are quite high, but probably the most important consideration of all is that we simply don’t have the time - climate change evolving far faster than ever anticipated and so Australia, or the world, simply can’t wait the ten, or even 15 years, before the new energy source is commissioned.

Renewable energy technologies, such as solar and wind already exist and can be employed quickly and relatively cheaply, while a nuclear facility is at least a decade away and comes with a price tag in the $billions, and so for the price of one nuclear power plant, the Australian government could bring largely clean solar and wind power, pumped hydro and battery back-up to much of the country - it’s a solution  that makes social, environmental and economic sense - Robert McLean)