The unparalleled advantage of nuclear energy

Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable. Picture: Aaron Francis

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There is no escaping this impenetrable fact. If Australia is to remain competitive in the global marketplace, its industries must be given every opportunity to reduce emissions in a cost-effective way, while maintaining access to reliable baseload power.

A Future Made in Australia relies on it.

It relies on Australia building a broad energy mix to meet our environmental and economic goals; to keep our vital industries not only competitive, but viable in the face of enormous cost pressures and ambitious emissions targets.

This reality requires an agnostic approach to energy, with all solutions on the table to tackle the biggest challenge our economy has faced in generations – decarbonising our economy, while maintaining its competitiveness and productivity.

Developing a reliable energy system that delivers, not just during the day, or next week, or even the next 10 years but across the next 50 years.

This is the unparalleled advantage of nuclear energy, both from a broad energy system approach and the critical provision of the industrial heat required by Australia’s miners, producers, and manufacturers.

And why nuclear must be considered as part of the nation’s future energy mix, as a zero-emissions, 24/7 baseload energy source, backed by the potential for domestic supply of uranium.

We must not be restricted by narrow sightedness or reactionary thinking.

At stake is not only the opportunity for our future, but our credibility with our trading partners. Make no mistake, access to reliable and affordable energy is vital in the quest for the investment required to unlock our mineral wealth, build our economy, create jobs and generate prosperity.

Our AUKUS partners, our key allies who are trusting Australia with world-leading nuclear technology it has never shared with anyone else, will be watching too.

Australia must urgently move past the Cold War mentality that defines the antinuclear movement.

It is nonsensical to portray nuclear energy as a “threat” when 18 nations in the G20 either rely on the fuel source or are busy building new reactors. The US has identified 120 locations to build new reactors. Not a scare campaign in sight.

It is unscientific to suggest nuclear energy is a “risk” when studies show a flight from Tokyo to New York will expose you to more radiation than living next door to a reactor for an entire year.

When did science suddenly become inconvenient?

As well as a reliable, long-lived supply of electricity at industrial scale, nuclear energy can provide much-needed stability to energy systems, support for renewables, and industrial heat, as well as building sovereign capability. It allows for a transition to net zero in a cost-effective manner, by utilising current transmission and storage infrastructure.

It is not a replacement for traditional renewables, nor a reason to slow the pace of electrification. But a valuable, ongoing partner.

Large, diversified industrialised nations all over the world have long conceded that achieving net zero on wind and solar alone is an improbable task, without undermining one’s economic strength and eroding their manufacturing and industrial base.

There is not a modern industrial nation on earth that has achieved emissions reduction in its electricity grid at the levels net zero requires, without nuclear, hydro-electricity, or a combination of both.

For these reasons, nations around the world are not banning the technology. They are enabling and developing it. They are investing and recommissioning. This revolution is occurring at pace, with rapid technological advancement providing a myriad of solutions, from wholescale energy generation, right through to micro reactors the size of shipping containers, to power remote sites and operations, including mines and energy-intensive data centres and AI processing facilities.

Energy and heat whenever needed, wherever needed and at whatever scale needed, without the need to combust a single carbon atom.

The first step to considering the potential of nuclear energy is a simple one: End the ban on commercial nuclear energy. The opportunity will be afforded to parliament in coming weeks when the federal government introduces changes to the EPBC Act. Parliament should act in the national interest, backed by the growing majority view of Australians, and amend the legislation to remove the ban on nuclear energy.

Let the market and its participants work out what is the best avenue for bolstering our energy system, reducing emissions and putting downward pressure on energy prices.

Give businesses and big energy users all the available tools to reduce emissions without reducing their competitiveness; without ceding ground to their global competitors who are steadily banking this advantage.

It is time to trust the science and remove the political constraints.

Tania Constable is the chief executive of Minerals Council of Australia.