Saturday, 28 April, 2007

by Alec Marr
Adelaide Advertiser

LABOR, the Australian Democrats, Greens and environmental groups today spoke as one in slamming the government's plan for an Australian nuclear industry.

Under that plan, the government said it will remove all excessive restrictions on mining, processing and exporting of Australian uranium as a preliminary step to embarking on domestic nuclear power generation.

That announcement coincided with Labor's national conference in Sydney, which is expected to lift longstanding objections to expanding uranium mining but maintain opposition to nuclear power.

Labor treasury spokesman Wayne Swan said Prime Minister John Howard was playing politics.

"John Howard has been in parliament for over 30 years and suddenly the Australian people are expected to believe that on the day of the Labor Party national conference that's debating uranium he's suddenly discovered a new way to fast-track nuclear power," he said.

"It's just not credible nor is it dignified for the prime minister of Australia to play politics in such a silly and demeaning way.

"Australia has abundant supplies of gas and coal, which will supply our energy needs for hundreds of years."

Greens leader Bob Brown said this was a bomb of a policy.

"People are concerned about the future wellbeing and security of their families and this is the wrong direction. It is unnecessary," he said.

"People don't want nuclear reactors in Australia, they don't want uranium enrichment and they don't want the nuclear waste dump that (Environment Minister) Malcolm Turnbull says we must be looking at."

Australian Democrats leader Lyn Allison said Australia did not need to turn to nuclear power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"The prime minister says we need either fossil fuels in coal or we need nuclear in order to power our baseload. The prime minister is wrong," she told reporters in Melbourne.

"In fact, South Australia will have around 30 per cent of its capacity generated by wind in the not too distant future and Denmark is well and truly at that point."

Wilderness Society campaigns director Alec Marr said Mr Howard's plan to prepare Australia for a nuclear future would increase the unsolved problems of nuclear waste.

"The prime minister has said he wants to develop a nuclear industry but what he isn't saying is that Australia is being lined up to become the world's nuclear waste dump," he said.

"A nuclear industry in Australia, including increased uranium exports, will create vast new amounts of toxic waste that will be deadly to humans for as long as 250,000 years."

Friends of the Earth spokesman John Hallam said Mr Howard was living in nuclear fairyland.

"It has been clear for decades that nuclear power is neither safe, cheap, nor is it in any way a solution to the problem of climate change. Rather, nuclear power is the most expensive, complex, inefficient and dangerous way to boil water ever devised," he said.