Nuclear energy in Mount Isa? Robbie Katter thinks it could work
Robbie Katter is looking elsewhere for an answer to Australia’s energy argument, and says it’s time to have an informed debate about nuclear energy.
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Traeger MP Robbie Katter will use an upcoming Nuclear Energy Forum in Mount Isa to plead his case for a rethink on Australia’s attitude to the hotly debated power source.
Currently, nuclear power is outlawed across Australia and has been since 1998, but Mr Katter insists the debate around nuclear energy is being held in bad faith, and that it could form at least one piece of the larger energy puzzle the country faces.
“No one who’s against nuclear power ever gives a good reason as to why. Toxic waste is probably the only thing. Everything else, there’s not much information backing it up and it seems to mostly be an emotive response.
“The most recent excuse they give is that they say it’s too expensive, but that’s not a reason to ban something. It’s pretty extraordinary that you’d ban a really efficient form of energy that’s used all across the world because it’s too expensive.”
Mr Katter is referring to recent comments made by federal Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen, who said in a press conference on September 18 that an LNP proposal to adopt nuclear energy in response to emission reduction targets wasn’t feasible.
“Since the last election, the party which spent 10 years telling us we didn’t need to worry about climate change says they’ve found a solution for climate change and it’s nuclear,” Mr Bowen said.
“To help the Opposition, we’ve released today the costings of what it would look like to just simply replace coal-fired power with nuclear.
“(There is) 21.3 gigawatts of coal-fired power in the Australian system at the moment. If we were just simply to replace it with nuclear, it would be $387bn (with) 71 nuclear reactors spread across Australia.”
Mr Katter said both parties were at fault for letting the issue stagnate.
“It’s pretty safe to say that both sides seem very reluctant to support the industry. It just seems ridiculous that you’re going to keep something banned because it’s too expensive,” Mr Katter said.
“We are yet to see this debate approached sensibly in the political arena, and in the meantime we are hurtling towards spending $1.5 trillion by 2030 and $9 trillion by 2050 if we are to continue on the delusional path to reach ‘net zero’ via batteries, wind and solar,” Mr Katter said.
“These numbers completely dwarf the $387bn figure Minister Chris Bowen said an initial transition to small modular nuclear reacts would cost, and that would ‘fly in the face of economics and reason’.
“Wouldn’t you let the market make that decision? If they want to say it’s not safe, well, tell us what the risks are and why it’s not safe and we’ll have that debate, but they’re saying it’s too expensive.”
Among the list of guest speakers at the forum are nuclear energy campaigner Will Shackel, energy economist Professor Stephen Wilson and nuclear energy expert Dr Adi Paterson.
The forum will be held at 10.30am at John Middlin Centre on Wednesday, October 4.
Originally published as Nuclear energy in Mount Isa? Robbie Katter thinks it could work
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