First, I would like to acknowledge former Senator for South Australia, Cory Bernardi, for his work in this area.
We are the only developed country, only G20 country in the world that actually bans nuclear energy.
This ban was introduced via a Greens amendment in the Senate on 10 December 1999. There was less than 10 minutes of debate on the matter. The Howard Government at the time was seeking legislative support to build a new nuclear research reactor at Lucas Heights. With no immediate prospect of a nuclear power station being built, the Government accepted the amendment so it could proceed with the new research reactor at Lucas Heights.
Of the 20 richest nations in the world only three do not have nuclear power: Australia, Saudi Arabia and Italy. Saudi Arabia is building a nuclear power station and Italy gets much of its imported electricity from France, where three quarters of the electricity is produced by nuclear.
Our status as a nuclear outcast is more remarkable given that Australia has the largest reserves of uranium in the world.
Nuclear energy delivers electricity by harnessing the heat produced in the fission, or splitting, of radioactive isotopes of uranium or plutonium in a reactor. Nuclear energy is also widely used in submarines for power and propulsion, but also other shipping, including aircraft carriers and icebreakers.
Nuclear plants are generally characterised by large capacity and output, high capital cost, and long construction times, but relatively low operating costs and almost zero emissions to air from their operation.
Nuclear energy is used to produce electricity in 31 countries from some 450 nuclear reactors, providing around 10 per cent of global electricity. Many nations are building new nuclear power plants because they provide reliable, emission free power.
There are 54 nuclear power stations under construction. Over the next 30 years, the International Atomic Energy Agency predicts that global nuclear power capacity could increase by 80 per cent, and possibly triple in the Asia-Pacific region.
Nuclear power is safe. Nuclear energy has resulted in far fewer deaths than that from dam failures, oil rig explosions and even, on some measures, the number of people that fall when installing solar panels.
Nuclear does less damage to the natural environment than other energy options. Wind energy takes up 250 times more land than nuclear power and solar takes up 150 times more land.
Because of these facts, the critics of nuclear power now tend to focus on the high cost of building nuclear power stations in western countries.
Nuclear power stations used to be constructed in around 5 years. In western countries, time frames for construction have blown out to 17 years.
In the west, it now takes longer to build a nuclear power station from off-the-shelf technologies than it did to invent, design and build the first nuclear power station in the 1950s.
The potential for high costs is not a reason to ban anyone building a power station, however.
Our environmental laws should focus on protecting Australia’s natural environment. Decisions about the relative profitability of different investments should be left to the businesses making those decisions.
The relative costs of nuclear compare well to renewable energy. Between 1965 and 2018 the world spent $2 trillion on nuclear compared to $2.3 trillion for solar and wind, yet nuclear today produces around double the electricity than that of solar and wind.
There is also the potential for costs to reduce soon.
Multiple companies in the US, the UK, Canada and China are at various stages of installing and trialling Small Modular Reactors.
While Small Modular Reactors are still in a development phase, they remain high cost. Yet if they become a commercial prospect, their modular nature may deliver substantial cost savings through mass production.
Support for nuclear power is growing. A Lowy Institute poll earlier this year found a majority would support removing the ban on nuclear power with a continuing decline over the last year of the number of people who opposed the removal of the existing ban. This compares with only 35% in 2011 being in favour of nuclear power.
Nuclear power production is currently not permitted under two main pieces of Commonwealth legislation—the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998 (the ARPANS Act), and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act). These Acts expressly prohibit the approval, licensing, construction, or operation of a nuclear fuel fabrication plant; a nuclear power plant; an enrichment plant; or a reprocessing facility. There is also a range of other legislation, including state and territory legislation, which regulates nuclear and radiation-related activities.
The Environment and Other Legislation Amendment (Removing Nuclear Energy Prohibitions) Bill 2022 seeks to remove all of the prohibitions in Commonwealth laws—that is for the approval, licensing, construction, or operation of a nuclear fuel fabrication plant; a nuclear power plant; an enrichment plant; or a reprocessing facility.
The ARPANS Act regulates activities undertaken by Commonwealth entities affecting radiation, to ensure that the health and safety of people, and the environment, are protected from the harmful effects of radiation.
This Bill does not affect the ability of the Minister and/or the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency to ensure those protections remain in place.
And any proposal to build a nuclear power station would still require both a licence under the ARPANS Act and a permit under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation (Safeguards) Act 1987. Any plant would also need to comply with other state, territory and federal laws.
The EPBC Act provides for the protection of the environment, ecologically sustainable development, biodiversity conservation and heritage protection by giving the Commonwealth a role in regulating matters of national environmental significance.
This bill does not affect the ability of the Minister and/or the Department to ensure those protections remain in place and that the other objects of the Act are respected.
We should support removing the bans on nuclear power because that would be the best way to take advantage of future technological developments that could see nuclear energy as the most competitive carbon free option to produce electricity.
We should be looking at this, and the first thing we should do is remove the prohibition, so at least nuclear options can be discussed and considered.
Finally, I want to thank my colleagues Senators Antic, Cadell, Colbeck, Fawcett, Nampijinpa Price, O’Sullivan, Rennick and Van who are also sponsoring this Bill.
