Nuclear power the way forward: climate scientist

• Michael Owen - From: The Australian - June 05, 2012 12:00AM

 
ONE of the country's leading climate scientists believes it is inevitable Australia will need to turn to nuclear power by 2020 to seriously cut carbon emissions
 
Barry Brook, the director of climate science at the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute, said the country would have no choice but to embrace nuclear power to meet sustainable energy needs and would focus on next-generation nuclear technology that provided safety, waste and cost benefits.

"Coal, oil, and natural gas are the main cause of recent global warming, and these fossil fuels must be completely replaced with clean sustainable energy sources in the coming decades if serious climate change impacts are to be avoided," Professor Brook said yesterday.

He said an attractive sustainable nuclear technology for Australia was the Integral Fast Reactor.

"Although the scientific community has known about the benefits of IFR-type designs for many years, there are currently none in commercial operation because the energy utilities are typically too risk averse to 'bet on' new technologies. This is a wasted opportunity for Australia and for the rest of the world," he said.

"Integral Fast Reactors are much more efficient at extracting energy from uranium, can use existing nuclear waste for fuel, produce far smaller volumes of waste that does not require long-term geological isolation, and can be operated at low cost and high reliability.

"They are also inherently safer than past nuclear reactors due to passive systems based on the laws of physics."

Professor Brook said that by 2025 the first contracts would be issued for small nuclear reactors built on outback mining sites and by 2030 small amounts of nuclear-generated power will start to flow into the national electricity grid.

By 2050 larger nuclear power plants will be located at a dozen energy parks and in various remote areas, and by 2100 Australia will have 100 gigawatts of installed nuclear power, he predicted.


But the South Australian government, which is pushing for BHP Billiton to mine the world's largest uranium deposit at an expanded Olympic Dam operation in the state's far north, yesterday rejected a nuclear future.
Premier Jay Weatherill said wind, solar and geo-thermal power generation was better than the "risks and controversies" of nuclear power.

"Leaving aside broader objections, there is a practical financial objection that means nuclear power for South Australia is unlikely to be viable," Mr Weatherill said.

"The best advice I have is that it's not a feasible financial proposition."

Mr Weatherill said what other states did regarding nuclear power was a matter for them.
Greens MP Mark Parnell pointed to Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster as evidence of a "dangerous technology".

"Nuclear power is too expensive, too dangerous and too slow," he said.

"Some 60 years into the nuclear age, we still have no way to safely dispose of radioactive waste."

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