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The White Hat Guide to Nuclear Power in Australia

Of the 20 nations known as the G20, Australia is the only one that does not make use of nuclear power. Yet it has the third largest reserves of uranium of any country in the world and continues to export large amounts of it. Australia's largely coal-based energy system creates major greenhouse issues, so why doesn't Australia use the much more greenhouse-friendly nuclear power?

The reasons date back to the the 1960s and the several major and legitimate concerns of the Australian people at that time:

• The by-products of nuclear energy can be used for nuclear bombs and warheads. It is an issue that continues to concern numbers of people around the world.

• The safe disposal and storage of the radioactive waste from nuclear reactors was and still is a major issue.

Much of Australia is geologically stable and using the Australian invention Synroc is better equipped than most other countries to store nuclear waste 'safely'. But how 'safe' is 'safely'?

All in all it seemed to Australians that the best course was to err on the side of caution and not to develop nuclear power stations. Then over the decades we became aware of the problems associated with greenhouse gases and climate change. The parameters had been changed. However the issue is still not simple. Australia has an enviable track record in the area of nuclear physics. Lawrence and William Bragg remain the only father and son pair to be awarded the Nobel Prize. Sir Marcus Oliphant was to become governor of South Australia and Shirley Strickland de la Hunty not only shone as a nuclear physicist she was was an Olympic gold medallist as a sprinter. However, nowadays most of Australia's nuclear scientists have headed off overseas so there is no longer an established local skill base meaning we would probably have to buy in the technology. Furthermore, nuclear power is hungry on water and Australia is the world's driest continent. Then building nuclear power stations has a lengthy lead time and climate change seems to require short term significant action.

So what is the future of nuclear power in Australia? Here at White Hat we see no major moves in that direction at the moment.

Australia has one small reactor at Lucas Heights which is used mainly for research and small scale production of isotopes for medical use and the like. If we notice any important movement on this front we will post it on this page.