Ban on nuclear power make no sense, says Coalition
Households and business will be condemned to higher power prices for decades if Australia does not embrace nuclear power, according to Coalition senators who are trying to overturn the existing ban.
While a Labor-dominated Senate Committee on Friday rejected Queensland Senator Matt Canavan’s push to abolish laws which were introduced in 1998, a dissenting report by Coalition senators said it made no sense.
“The clear evidence presented to this inquiry is that it is time to remove Australia’s ban on nuclear energy,” the report said.
nuclear
“The passage of this bill will not allow the immediate construction of nuclear power, it will simply allow our regulators to consider proposals.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and his energy spokesman Ted O’Brien have backed building small modular nuclear reactors next to retired coal-fired power stations to enable them to be easily connected to the grid.
But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Energy and Climate Minister Chris Bowen have ridiculed the Coalition’s attempt to put nuclear power on the agenda.
The Labor and Greens-dominated Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee report backed the PM, saying there was no basis for lifting the legislative prohibitions on nuclear energy for power generation.
The committee, chaired by South Australian Labor Senator Karen Grogan with Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young as her deputy, said nuclear power was too expensive compared to Australia’s plentiful renewable energy resources, while next generation SMR technology was, so far, unproven.
It said even if the ban was overturned, there was not enough time to develop nuclear power in Australia to help reach the national target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030, saying it
Read more on afr.com
