South Australia to power over 100 nuclear plants

South Australia will produce enough uranium to fuel a third of the world's nuclear power plants if the Olympic Dam expansion goes ahead, Mineral and Resources Minister Tom Koutsantonis says.

The minister has offered the insight into the level of uranium production expected should mining giant BHP Billiton push ahead with the $30 billion expansion of the copper, uranium and gold project in the state's north.
Last year, SA produced 4,520 tonnes of uranium, or just eight per cent of the global total and enough to fuel six one-gigawatt nuclear reactors.

'Should the proposed expansion of the world's largest known uranium deposit at Olympic Dam progress as expected, then it's likely this state will be producing enough uranium to fuel a third of the world's 386 operating nuclear plants,' Mr Koutsantonis told the Australia China Resources Symposium in Adelaide.

'This expansion will not only result in the world's largest uranium mine, but the world's largest open pit mine, the fourth largest copper mine and the fourth largest goldmine.'

BHP Billiton has until the end of this year to give the final go ahead for the Olympic Dam expansion or face the need to renegotiate state government approvals.

Hosting Wednesday's symposium in conjunction with the Northern Territory government, Mr Koutsantonis said the state and territory offered a formidable resource base to support economic growth in China.

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Support aired for outback South Australia nuclear power

There has been a call for greater debate on the potential for nuclear energy to provide power to parts of South Australia's outback.

Earlier this week, an environmental scientist from the University of Adelaide predicted some outback mines could be nuclear-powered within 20 years.

Retired Port Lincoln geology teacher and member of the Australian Nuclear Forum, Terry Krieg, is supporting the move.

He has begun lobbying state politicians over the issue, saying South Australia should at least start considering using so-called small modular reactors.

"South Africa have been making them for years, they're small units and my view is that Olympic Dam, for example, two or three of those in a bank would power Olympic Dam and Roxby Downs and much of the north," he said.

"They're very much on the go, small modular reactors, and that would be the way to go for us in South Australia."

He says it is hypocritical of South Australians to adopt a 'not in my backyard' attitude, given SA supplies the raw materials for many of the world's nuclear power stations.

"To say that, 'well it's alright for those people to have it but I won't have one near to me', that's just silly, uninformed behaviour because it's a heck of a lot safer living next-door to a nuclear power station than it is living next-door to a coal-fired power station," he said.

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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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