Prime Minister’s response to IPCC report misses mark on nuclear

As the prime minister talks up new technologies to cut our CO2 emissions he ignores our vast reserves of uranium which could power a clean energy future, James Morrow writes.

To borrow and somewhat rewrite an old Chinese proverb about trees, the best time to build a nuclear power plant was 20 years ago.

The second best time is now.

It was quite something listening to the prime minister responding to the IPCC’s latest report on climate change telling us that, once again, time is running out to prevent an apocalypse.

“Technology changes everything,” Scott Morrison declared, insisting that new ideas, not new taxes, were the way to bring down global CO2 levels without taking global prosperity down with them.

The nuclear power plant Jaslovske amid a golden flowering field of rapeseed in Slovakia.

But then he went on to talk about things like hydrogen and carbon capture and storage, leaving out the most promising technology of all: Nuclear.

On Wednesday Queensland Senator Matt Canavan announced he was moving amendments to remove legislative roadblocks to nuclear power — a good move even if unlikely to get up, particularly without prime ministerial backing.

The PM would be wise to think again about letting the idea die.

Australia sits on massive uranium reserves, yet we are unable to exploit them.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison talking up new energy technologies at a press conference in Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

From an environmental point of view, other industrial nations such as France achieve far lower emissions than Australia thanks to nuclear fuel bought, you guessed it, from Australia.

The economics, increasingly, seem to be stacking up for the technology as well.

Last month Rolls-Royce announced it was making a major move into Small Modular Reactors or SMRs, suggesting a further lost opportunity for Australia. They wouldn’t do it if they didn’t think there was a quid in it.

Removing bans on nuclear would also be a signal to conservatives who feel the Morrison government runs too soft on the culture wars and too hard on Fortress Australia, leaving us cut off from the rest of the world while other nations come out of their post-Covid shells.

If Australia is serious about cutting emissions, hydrogen and carbon capture are great.

But if climate change really is an emergency, then why not go the nuclear option?