Wednesday, 25 July, 2007

by Paul Maley
The Australian

Paul Maley | July 25, 2007

AUSTRALIA'S first nuclear reactor is at least 15 years away and will require bi-partisan political support, the head of the government's nuclear agency said yesterday.

Speaking to journalists in Canberra yesterday, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) chief executive Ian Smith said a global nuclear boom was underway.

Dr Smith said the creation of a nuclear industry would require the formation of a strong regulatory regime and bipartisan supports for nuclear power - a prequisite for business investment.

And the fact that there was only one factory in the world capable of producing the large forgings required for a plant meant that it would be 15-years before nuclear energy hit the electricity grid.

''Companies are going to be doing the process over two or three elections,'' Dr Smith said.

''They'd want to make sure they won't hit a red light. (Bipartisanship) has been crucial in the US and UK.''

While the Howard Government backs the idea of Australia making nuclear emergy part of its energy mix, Labor dismisses the idea outright.

Dr Smith said around 35 plants, which cost $2-$3 billion to construct, were expected in the United States by 2015-16, 10 in the UK, five in Europe and 6-8 a year in Russia.

South East Asia was an ''intense region'' for nuclear activity, with plants planned for Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, which planned to build six plants.

Dr Smith acknowledged there were concerns regional terror groups could obtain nuclear materials, but said ANSTO was working closely with local authorities to manage nuclear waste.

One of the main risks came from radioactive material scavenged from old hospital equipment.

He said the plants themselves would be ''full-standard, Western'' reactors.

''The world nuclear industry understands that they are absolutely interdependent. An accident anywhere can be the death knell everywhere,'' he said.

Dr Smith said spruikers of clean-coal technology, often presented as an alternative to the nuclear option, were ''unjustifiably optimisitic'' about the timeframe in which it could produce high levels of electricity.

Industry souces had advised him that up to 30 per cent of the electricity generated at a clean coal plant would be required to capture and sequester the carbon capture.

Dr Smith said public support for nuclear energy would in part depend on ''how hard the climate change issue continues to bite''.

''I guess we're seeing reinforcement of it all the time, like the floods in England at the moment. If that keeps going people will be looking for solutions,'' he said.

Opinion polling indicated dimisishing support for positions adopted by anti-nuclear groups such as Greenpeace, who he said were often ''rather more sensible'' in their private discussions with ANSTO than in their public comments.

ANSTO makes $40-$50 million through commerical activities, mostly through nuclear medicine, and receives a Government appropriation of $120 million.

Dr Smith said he hoped to boost ANSTO's commercial revenue to $100 million.

Three Defence sites in the Northern Territory and one site near Tennant Creek volunteered by the Aboriginal owners were being considered as possible waste dumps, with a decision expected by early next year, Dr Smith said.