Uranium Mining, Nuclear Power, and Australia’s role: Unfortunately again my views on this are being voiced ahead of when I would consider appropriate. Australia’s ex prime minister, Bob Hawk, just came out in favor of establishing a nuclear waste storage facility in Australia. Quite a few politicians are backing up this viewpoint from all sides of politics. And almost everyone is jumping in on this issue to have their two cents. (So I’m going to do the same!) In the end we have a situation where it is almost impossible to have a constructive discussion on the issue.
Lets just establish a few things first.
^ topWhy do we need more power? And why not “wind” or “solar”?
I could write a book answering this question, but simply put we need power to live. Without power we can’t farm. We can’t conduct business. To sustain a global population of 6 billion people with today’s technology you simply need power.
Why can we not fill this demand with wind or solar power? The sun goes down, the wind stops blowing. These are simply not viable options.
Why should Australia care?
Here is a list of the top uranium producers.
Another thing of importance is that there have already been a number of nuclear test sites in South Australia (Emu Field, Maralinga and Woomera). Since we already have contaminated sites, along with stable tectonic plates, makes Australia a sensible place to manage global nuclear waste.
^ topI’d like to take the parallel of uranium with other minerals a little further. Australia is, in my viewpoint, essentially loosing out in the import export industry. Australia exports a whole lot of basic minerals (like iron ore), ships them to countries that do the processing (smelters in Japan) and then buys back the products at greatly increased prices.
Unfortunately it does not make much economic sense for Australia to start producing the smelters and industries that go along with this to compete with Japan. It’s simply cheaper for us to ship the ore to Japan and ship the cars back for us to buy. Unfortunately, it’s a bit too late for us to compete in that game.
The situation is not the same with nuclear power. Nuclear technology really is a brand new industry. Nuclear fission really is just the starting block for technological applications of nuclear power. Early in 2005 France was announced as the host nation for a 10 billion euro fusion research power plant.
This is a multi billion dollar industry beginning in its infancy, and Australia has the unique opportunity to play a critical role. Australia is a rich, stable, developed, mining nation and as such is the only nation able to provide a total range of services in the nuclear spectrum. Australia can provide services starting from the initial mining of the uranium ore, to the design, construction, and operation of nuclear power stations, to the waste management of the end products.
There is no other country in the world that can compete at the same scale. (Canada lacks our reserves and mining knowledge, although we lack their nuclear knowledge)
This is the decision that could build a very strong foundation for the future economy of Australia. In fact, were in a very good position: all the other countries are already doing all the hard R&D work. We just need to recreate the technology, optimize them, and commercialize them. This is a beautiful opportunity to secure a massive technological, economic and security win for Australia.
^ topEconomy
Uranium This is relatively straightforward. Mining uranium is a massively profitable industry. As Russia’s stockpiles of uranium slowly dwindle away Australian deposits will take on a greater importance.
China, India.
There are currently some
political/military issues with supplying uranium to
India and China. However, there is no denying that these two countries, with 1/3rd of the worlds population are requiring more and more energy. Australia’s proximity to these countries enables us to take a prime trading advantage over more distant sources of uranium.
Costs of power generation
Nuclear power is actually
quite cheap. Australia has a disproportionate representation of costs since coal is so very cheap and accessible in this country, and we don’t presently care much for pollution. Not so for other countries - we will find it quite easy to sell our nuclear goods elsewhere. With the advent of fusion power it is quite likely that nuclear power will be by far the cheapest option.
Oil
In theory nuclear power could reduce our dependence on oil producing nations, boosting our economic position and our safety. Although, its probably just easier to make coal into oil.
Additional benefits of large power sources Some things simply require a lot of power in one place. Having nuclear power plants would foster energy dependent industrial processess. (like smelting)
Safeguarding Australia.
I call this simply the “Switzerland” strategy. If Australia takes such a valuable position in the delivery of energy to other nations it will become an invulnerable asset. This can not be achieved by simply exporting uranium. Conquest of the Australian continent will provide the victor with control over the uranium deposits. If Australia embraces the services that accompany nuclear technology - designing, constructing, and operating nuclear power stations, then other nations will require not only our ‘physical’ assets but also our ‘mental’ assets. (Smart people have a tendency to flee invaded countries - hence conquering the Australian continent is unlikely to yield the technological results desired)
The second point is that the construction of effective nuclear weapons is a complex process. Refining uranium to yield weapons grade plutonium is a costly and complex task. If Australia takes on the role of managing the nuclear waste generated from its Uranium it can carefully control the possible military applications of nuclear technology and as such prevent hostile countries from gaining access to these weapons. The centralized reprocessing of the waste products will yield additional economic bonus’s.
Finally, if Australia can use its massive reserves and nuclear technology to establish itself as the key player in the nuclear market it will be protected by global interests, which will ensure no single hostile force has exclusive control. Australia could play a pivotal a role in the future of the world’s energy decisions - effectively ensuring Australian security and prosperity.
Environment.
I’m tempted not to touch this issue. But I honestly do feel that nuclear power generation is one of the cleanest (realistic) power generation methods available. Moving to nuclear power could reduce carbon pollution by 25%.(Says green peace, so you can probably bet it would be more significant than that).
The Future.
I have demonstrated how I believe nuclear power is crucial for Australia’s future - economically, technologically, and security wise. But it is also crucial for the future of mankind. Nuclear power provides the only currently viable source for power technologies for space exploration. (Most high orbit satellites, and all deep space satellites currently use nuclear power)
You don’t have to be a genius to realize that one day, eventually, space technology is going to be very very important. Much like naval technology was crucial for the establishment of America. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Australia was at the forefront of space technology? ( Virgin Galactic tell us we'll be hollidaying in space by 2010, and unlike other attempts, they already have the technology to do it. So it's not THAT far off.)
Now I'm tempted to delve into the risks associated with nuclear technology, but I'll have to save it for another time. To sum it up: There aren't any big risks.
^ topFailure to engage in the complete process of nuclear power production could prove a security risk to Australia (and the world) and squanders a great opportunity for Australia’s economic and technological development.