Gas woes renew nuclear calls

West Australian
Saturday 7/6/2008 Page: 12

WA's gas supply crisis has resurrected the polarising nuclear energy debate, with the State's peak business group and experts urging an unwilling State Government to consider it to strengthen the vulnerable power market. nuclear energy is one of the energy alternatives preferred by the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry. CCI chief executive James Pearson said nuclear energy had to be on the table as a base-load power source in a carbon-constrained future, especially when the State was home to one of the world's richest sources of uranium.

"The two gas disruptions in the last six months are a call to action which we don't want the Government to ignore and the business community in WA would like to work with the Government to help develop an energy blueprint," Mr Pearson said. He said the CCI planned to lobby the Government on this "pressing" issue in the lead-up to the election. Alan Carpenter yesterday restated the Government's anti-nuclear stand, saying WA would never see domestic nuclear energy under his watch.

"What we have now is a fire at a gas plant which is a very significant issue. Can you imagine what would be happening now if we had a nuclear energy plant in Western Australia on fire?" he said. Opposition Leader Troy Buswell said yesterday nuclear energy was not an option for WA in the foreseeable future, despite the Liberals' support for uranium mining.

Nuclear energy expert Ziggy Switkowski, who headed a task force established by former prime minister John Howard into the use of nuclear energy, said the advance of nuclear energy was inevitable. Dr Switkowski, chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and former Telstra boss, believed nuclear energy generation would be a reality in the mid-2020s and would start operating first on the eastern seaboard.

But in WA, smaller, compact reactors could supply power to provincial towns, mines or desalination plants before it was connected to the South- West grid. "In my opinion as we go farther down the path of understanding the severity of the emission reductions that are ahead of us and the vulnerability we have in existing gas and coalfired power stations which are pausing awaiting the new environmental rules... it may be years, but it's only a matter of time before we consider nuclear energy as a serious alternative," he said.

"As demonstrated in WA this week, the current alternatives are limited to coal and gas... if that's what you're dependent on and one of those platforms breaks down you're exposed." Dr Switkowski said the WA Government's main argument against uranium mining of accepting and storing radioactive waste would be solved with a "straightforward engineering task."

Australian National University dean of science Aiden Byrne said nuclear energy could not be discounted and greenhouse gas emissions were likely to be the catalyst for an eventual government backup. Professor Byrne said nuclear reactors, which if happened were at least 20 years away, should be built near coalfired power stations sites because the grid, cooling and heating infrastructure were all accessible. Greens MP Giz Watson said nuclear energy was not viable for WA and it was better to focus on expanding renewable energy sources.