Skip to main content

Switkowski: Nuclear Power in Australia in 20 Years

From the Herald-Sun (Australia):
VICTORIA will have its first nuclear power station in 20 years, the head of the Federal Government's nuclear taskforce has predicted.

Dr Ziggy Switkowski said eight nuclear power stations would be built in the state by the middle of the century.

But Dr Switkowski said he believed a framework for carbon emissions trading would come first from the debate over climate change.

"I think the decision to go nuclear can be made in the next few years and then you add 15 before you see the first reactors," he said yesterday.

Comments

Anonymous said…
By the way, as predicted, the Labor Party voted to end its ban on new uranium mines at its conference a couple of weeks ago.

However, the individual state governments (which are all controlled by Labor) will have a free choice as to whether they allow uranium mining in their states or not.

What this means is that in South Australia and the Northern Territory, where Australia's existing uranium mines are located, new mines are free to be established with neither the federal or state governments objecting.

Queensland has also changed its policy and will allow mines in that state.

Of the mining states, only Western Australia now prohibits uranium mining there.

Expect new supply from Australia to come on to the market in the next few years.

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday Update

From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin...

Fluor Invests in NuScale

You know, it’s kind of sad that no one is willing to invest in nuclear energy anymore. Wait, what? NuScale Power celebrated the news of its company-saving $30 million investment from Fluor Corp. Thursday morning with a press conference in Washington, D.C. Fluor is a design, engineering and construction company involved with some 20 plants in the 70s and 80s, but it has not held interest in a nuclear energy company until now. Fluor, which has deep roots in the nuclear industry, is betting big on small-scale nuclear energy with its NuScale investment. "It's become a serious contender in the last decade or so," John Hopkins, [Fluor’s group president in charge of new ventures], said. And that brings us to NuScale, which had run into some dark days – maybe not as dark as, say, Solyndra, but dire enough : Earlier this year, the Securities Exchange Commission filed an action against NuScale's lead investor, The Michael Kenwood Group. The firm "misap...

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...