World’s Energy Dunce: Australia Slammed For Embarrassing Anti-Nuclear Power Stance

Every country that’s vaguely serious about reliable and affordable power has nuclear power plants or is in the process of building them, in earnest.

In the current global energy climate, Australia’s legislated ban on nuclear power is beyond embarrassing; it’s positively idiotic.

Australia holds the world’s largest uranium reserves and, despite its shifting policy of limiting the number of mines and states that have banned them, is the world’s third-largest uranium exporter. Happy to export it, but too dim to use it ourselves.

That Australia, among the world’s largest uranium exporters, doesn’t rely on nuclear power astonishes those from the 30 countries where you’ll find nearly 450 nuclear reactors currently operating – including the French, Americans, Canadians, Japanese and Chinese. Another 15 countries are currently building 60 reactors among them. Nuclear power output accounts for over 11% of global electricity production. But not a lick of it in Australia.

As the climate cult and those profiteering from the great wind and solar scam gather in Dubai, Australia’s embarrassing refusal to embrace nuclear power is drawing fire from anyone gifted with something approximating common sense, as these pieces from The Australian outline below.

Anthony Albanese under pressure to lift nuclear ban from senior Labor, union figures
The Australian
Geoff Chambers and Rosie Lewis
5 December 2023

Senior Labor and union figures are pushing the Albanese government to lift the ban on nuclear energy to help shield jobs and achieve net zero emissions, as new polling reveals urban voters support cheaper and reliable ­energy supply ahead of the renewables rollout.

After Emmanuel Macron and former Labor minister Joel Fitzgibbon called on the government to remove prohibitions on nuclear energy at the COP28 summit, Australian Workers’ Union national secretary Paul Farrow said nuclear energy must be on the table to protect heavy industry.

Ahead of Chris Bowen flying to Dubai for the UN climate change conference on Wednesday, Mr Farrow said “if you really believe climate change is a crisis you should be open minded to every single emission reduction option on the table”.

The AWU national secretary, who in July replaced long-time nuclear energy advocate Daniel Walton, said it is “better for the planet if Australia makes steel and aluminium and glass than if those products are made in less regulated countries”.

“But if we want those industries to stay standing we need to accept that some combination of coal, gas or nuclear power is necessary. If nuclear power doesn’t stack up on cost today, that’s one thing. But objecting because of outdated twentieth century ideology is another,” Mr Farrow told The Australian.

“Right now Australia cannot sustain, let alone grow, its heavy industry sector on renewables alone. One day we’ll get there, but anyone serious will tell you that day is a fair way off.”

Mr Fitzgibbon, a former defence and agriculture minister who represented the coalmining electorate of Hunter for 26 years, said the nuclear ban “makes no sense” because every option should be considered.

As the Coalition ramps-up pressure on the government over its renewables-only focus, Mr Fitzgibbon said the world won’t meet its net zero emissions aspirations without installing more nuclear plants.

Another senior Labor figure, who didn’t want to speak publicly, said there was an inevitability in the science community that there’d be a public debate on the uses of nuclear energy, which was only accentuated by the AUKUS agreement.

Mr Fitzgibbon, who led pushback inside Labor ranks following the 2019 election to present a more realistic climate change plan, warned too much faith in a few favoured technologies was a “recipe for failure and economic harm”.

“On the question of whether Australia should also embrace nuclear generation, that should be a matter for the market. Therefore, the prohibition on nuclear generation in Australia should be lifted. It simply makes no sense and every electricity generation option should be readily available to us,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

“Having said that, if the ban was lifted, it would be a long time – if ever – before we saw a nuclear generator in Australia. It’s hard enough to secure an approval for gas extraction, let alone for a nuclear plant.”

Mr Macron on Sunday urged Australia to lift its nuclear ban, declaring that nuclear energy is a “source that is necessary to succeed for carbon neutrality in 2025”.

The Australian understands Mr Bowen will enter negotiations in Dubai over a push to phase down unabated fossil fuels but no position has been finalised. While there is overwhelming consensus on tripling global renewable generation capacity, COP28 negotiators will finalise the wording around fossil fuels before the conference ends next Tuesday.

The Coalition for Conservation group is hosting Liberal and Nationals MPs and senators at COP28 including opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien, Bridget McKenzie, Kevin Hogan, David Gillespie, Dean Smith, Andrew Bragg and Perin Davey.

A US-led pledge on the COP28 sidelines to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050, which the government shunned, was endorsed by more than 20 countries. Of the 22 countries who joined the pledge, 18 have existing nuclear energy industries. Fourteen countries with nuclear energy industries, including Germany, did not sign the pledge.

Peter Dutton said it was sensible for Australia to embrace nuclear energy just as other developed countries had done, labelling Mr Macron’s call to revoke the nuclear power ban “a cry of common sense”.
The Australian

Coalition push to unleash uranium reserves and nuclear power
The Australian
Geoff Chambers
8 December 2023

Opposition climate change and energy spokesman Ted O’Brien will advocate for removing uranium mining and exploration bans – in addition to lifting the nuclear power moratorium – because “Australia has a moral obligation to provide the world its uranium”.

In a World Nuclear Association speech on the sidelines of the UN COP28 climate change summit in Dubai on Saturday, Mr O’Brien will argue Australia’s world-leading uranium ­reserves must be unlocked to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Mr O’Brien will broaden the Coalition’s push for nuclear power to include the consideration of uranium mining and ­exploration across all Australian jurisdictions. Under existing rules, uranium mining is allowed in South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia, while exploration is approved in NSW. Uranium mining is banned in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania.

Mr O’Brien will tell World Nuclear Association delegates and business leaders investing in nuclear technologies that Australia has the world’s largest reserves of uranium and “we should use it”.

As the Albanese government pursues hydrogen and renewables to establish Australia as a clean energy superpower, the Queensland LNP MP will say “we already are … we just need to step up to the plate and start doing something about it”.

Mr O’Brien will issue a call to arms for the West to “take back” global energy security, which has been dominated in recent decades by China and the Middle East.

“We have what the world needs,” he will say. “It’s time we took back energy security for the West. And we should do so ambitiously for we have the capacity as a nation to do more than just supply uranium but also develop capabilities in other areas of the nuclear fuel cycle to become an indispensable part of a broader supply chain.

“Much has been said about the moratorium on nuclear energy in Australia, but it is also a lesser-known fact that the mining and exploration of uranium too is banned in some jurisdictions.

“Not only must Australia consider the removal of the nuclear energy ban, but I would also encourage a rethink on the moratorium on the mining and exploration of uranium.”

Mr O’Brien on Saturday will join World Nuclear Association director-general Sama Bilbao y Leon, Westinghouse Electric Canada president Eddie Saab and Coalition for Conservation chief executive Cristina Talacko on a panel about “Australia’s nuclear energy potential”.

Seven Coalition MPs have travelled to Dubai with Mr O’Brien, including frontbenchers Bridget McKenzie, Paul Fletcher, Perin Davey and Kevin Hogan.

After 22 nations signed a pledge to triple global nuclear energy capacity by 2050, Mr O’Brien will say it is a “wake-up call to Australia that we have a role to play in helping our allies and partners shore up their own energy security as they decarbonise while keeping their power prices down and lights on”.

“Energy security is important to all nations, especially those which are geographically constrained for choice. We have what they need,” he will say.

“It’s not just an enormous commercial opportunity, but a moral obligation for us. Even if our own government remains blind to the need for zero-emissions nuclear energy for Australia, they can’t deny that the rest of the world sees things differently and they need what we have – our uranium. It’s fair to assume that tripling the capacity of nuclear energy is likely to triple the demand for the raw material used to power plants around the world.”

Labor has pushed back against the nuclear pledge, because 18 of the 22 countries that signed up already had nuclear energy industries. Mr Bowen has backed the centrepiece COP28 pledge to triple renewable energy capacity, along with 117 other countries.

Mr O’Brien will say: “A conclusion I have drawn after considerable due diligence is that Australia cannot reach net-zero without nuclear energy. It’s not a silver bullet solution, but it has to be part of our future energy mix. No nuclear, no net zero. Nuclear energy keeps power prices down because it reduces total system costs. On security, nuclear energy can provide baseload power with new and emerging nuclear reactors able to ramp-up and down to load follow renewables, accommodating their intermittency.”

[Note to Ted: recouping the capital costs of nuclear plants requires running them around-the-clock, ie delivering safe, reliable and affordable power 24 x 365 and earning a continuous stream of revenue. Nuclear plants are not designed as load followers; they’re not meant to be ramped up and down. The only justification for wind and solar was based on the myth that they’re capable of reducing carbon oxide gas emissions in the electricity generation sector – there’s not a shred of evidence to support that, by the way, indeed all the evidence is to the contrary. Moreover, by the time Australia scraps its ban on nuclear power plants and has its own nuclear plants up and running, every wind turbine and every solar panel that is occasionally delivering power at present will have been junked – thousands of turbine blades and millions of toxic panels nestling together in landfills. With nuclear power plants there simply is no need for parasitic wind and solar. Nuclear power plants are the only stand-alone power generation source that does not generate carbon oxide gas in the process; no need for batteries, no need for back up. It’s that simple. The sooner the Liberals stop pandering to the wind and sun cult, the better.]

Ahead of a summer when the energy grid will come under stress, Mr O’Brien will warn Australia is at a “fork in the road” and if the country chooses the wrong path “the consequences will be dire”. “At present, Australia is venturing down the wrong path … An alternate path exists.”
The Australian