Steven Chu says Australia’s opposition to nuclear power ‘terribly strange’

NUCLEAR power is 4000-times less dangerous than coal, says Barack Obama’s former energy minister Steven Chu.

NUCLEAR power is 4000 times less dangerous than coal and it is “terribly strange” that Australia would export uranium but not use it for electricity, says Barack Obama’s former energy minister Steven Chu.

Dr Chu, a Nobel laureate physicist plucked from academia to serve as US secretary of energy from January 2009 until April last year, warned against a black-and-white approach to unconventional gas, including coal-seam gas, which could be exploited in an “environmentally responsible” way.

Dr Chu also advocated phasing out subsidies for both renewable and fossil industries, saying green power was already “the low-cost option” in many places.

Dr Chu, in Canberra to receive an honorary doctorate from the Australian National University, said of nuclear power: “Australia has actually an economic opportunity here. You have a low population, you have many good rock structures; you could actually have nuclear power in your own country and you could take spent fuel from other countries (because) you have the geology.”

Mining and burning coal was “the most dangerous” way of producing electricity, even without considering its climate impact. “What are the dangers of reactors? A meltdown, contamination, things like that?

“Well, compared to coal, per terawatt-hour generated it’s about 4000-times less dangerous, including Chernobyl.

“You could debate that. It could be 2000-to-one. It ain’t
10-to-one.”

He compared Australia’s “terribly strange” opposition to nuclear power to the US policy on tobacco, exporting cigarettes while trying to reduce domestic demand. “I see some real advantages in nuclear — it’s low carbon and it’s an understood technology, and it could be made much safer.

“The generation plants in Fukushima and Chernobyl … were first-generation nuclear reactors; the ones being designed today are much safer.”

Dr Chu acknowledged the US gas sector had made mistakes, although not to the degree claimed by activists in films such as Gasland, and said companies had learned “not to screw up”.