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Australia Nuclear Update

By Eric McErlain
From The Australian:
JOHN Howard's hand-picked nuclear energy taskforce will find that a nuclear industry could be commercially viable within 15 years, giving the green light to the Prime Minister to radically shake up Australia's energy market.

Former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski's review will also find the cost of nuclear power should come down dramatically as more global powers invest in the technology and the cost of fossil fuels go up.

Last night, Minister for Industry and Resources Ian Macfarlane said a 15-year timeframe was "very realistic", offering an optimistic assessment from the Howard Government on the way forward for nuclear power.
For more on the implications for the Australian job market, visit Rod Adams.

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Comments

Matthew66 said…
The new research reactor at Lucas Heights, near Sydney, has started operating. See
Lucas Heights Reactor Fires Up. This reactor replaces the 1950's era reactor on the same site. Greenpeace sued the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Authority (regulator), Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (owner) and INVAP (builder) to prevent construction. Greenpeace lost and had to pay court costs and the legal costs of all the defendants (see
Greenpeace v ARPANSA and Ors
November 3, 2006 at 4:16 PM
Anonymous said…
Nuclear's key competitor for baseload power generation is, of course, coal (and to a lesser extent natural gas where it's cheap). And Australia has large amounts of both coal and gas; in many cases the coal is so conveniently located we've be able to build our baseload stations right next to the mines and deliver the coal with conveyor belts. So it's hard to imagine a more favourable situation for fossil fuels.

So, if nuclear will be competitive with coal and gas (with carbon sequestration) here in Australia, it will probably be the cheapest option for clean baseload power just about anywhere else in the world.
November 4, 2006 at 8:21 PM
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