Hughes MP Jenny Ware wants Lucas Heights nuclear reactor to help power Australia

Newly elected member for Hughes Jenny Ware has declared Australia has to start talking about adding nuclear into the mix, otherwise we won’t be able to keep the lights on.

Sydney’s Lucas Heights reactor has the potential to become a technology hub for an Australian nuclear power industry, according to the newly elected MP for the seat that is home to the nation’s sole atomic facility.

“We’ve got some of the best nuclear physicists in the world here at Lucas Heights,” said Jenny Ware, who handily won the seat of Hughes for the Liberals.

“We are already using nuclear technology in one sense for medicine, so why not piggyback off what we are already doing?”

“We need to have that conversation and see what that might look like and what role that might play” in a mix of a variety of power sources including coal, gas, and renewables, she said.

Ms Ware said that rising power prices were an increasing concern for her electorate, and noted that her own power bill for a family of four had gone up by $300 in the last quarter.

In her maiden speech Jenny Ware spoke about how the Lucas Heights reactor could be used to help with power supply problems. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“That’s a massive jump, we are four people and we are not doing anything differently, and that would be hard to absorb for people on single or low incomes or on the pension,” she said.

“It is interesting that there are greens around the world in places like Finland who are now supporters of nuclear power because they see it is scientific.”

Exterior view of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor cage in Sydney. It is Australia’s sole atomic facility.

“It is now up to Labor to come up with a policy that is scientific and that makes sense for people and that will produce enough baseload power.”

“Coal and gas will have to remain part of the mix, too, even as we move to cleaner energy, which is important.”

“I don’t want to see an Australia where people have to worry about turning on the heat at night.”

If power bills keep increasing, Australians will have to think twice before heating their homes at night, says Hughes MP Jenny Ware.

Ms Ware, who grew up in Cronulla and was a third generation student at the selective St George’s Girls High School, said that coming to Canberra as an MP was a powerful experience for her especially as 16 years ago she delivered very premature twins at Canberra hospital in her 26th week of pregnancy.

Because of a spike in births in 2006 there were not enough beds for her in Sydney, she said, and she was flown to Canberra by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Despite challenges and setbacks, Ms Ware says her boys are now two tall and strong young men whose survival she owes to the care she received from the doctors and nurses there.

“I do plan to go back at some point in the coming weeks to visit the hospital and just say thank you again,” she said.

Originally published as Hughes MP Jenny Ware wants Lucas Heights nuclear reactor to help power Australia