Bushfires, drought: Nuclear the answer to burning problems

Illustration: Eric Lobbecke

Most of inland Australia is gripped by one of the worst droughts the country has experienced, certain­ly since European settlement began 230 years ago. The world’s oldest landmass has always been prone to long dry periods, but what is new is that Australia now has a population of more than 25 million who need to be fed, clothed and housed, and this puts unprecedented pressure on an alread­y fragile environment.

Before European settlement, its inhabitants would have numbered about 300,000.

It will rain again, that is sure, but we cannot say when. In the meantime, regional communities are suffering and bushfire smoke has been choking our cities as major fires break out around large metropolitan areas, Sydney particularly.

What the country lacks, and it certainly has the resources to allevia­te the situation, is water. This drought crisis is gripping the land at the same time as a divisive debate over climate change and what Australia should do about it. The drought and climate change are connected, and so is the solution to both.

Climate change warriors are demanding an end to all carbon dioxide generating energy ­sources, but this country needs reliable energy to drive its economy and employment, and to help produce­ the water it requires to mitigate the effects of frequent droughts.

The answer is emissions-free nuclear energy, but not from the large conventional power stations the world is familiar with. Rather, it’s from one of the most exciting nuclear developments since the industry emerged in the 1950s — a new generation of small modular reactors. They offer arguably the best entry point for Aust­ralia.

Polit­ical momentum to con­sider the ­nuclear option has result­ed in a federal parliament­ary committee recommending that the ban on nuclear energy be lifted. Committee chairman Ted O’Brien has declared: “Nuclear energy should be on the table for consideration as part of our future energy mix. Australia should say a definite ‘no’ to old nuclear tech­nologies but a conditional ‘yes’ to new and emerging technologies such as small modular reactors.”

These are reactors of less than 300MW electric and can be built down to five megawatts — suitable­ for mining operations. The technology is an adaptation from nuclear ships, submarines in particula­r.

The global home of innova­tion, California’s Silicon Valley, is abuzz with entrepreneurs who have started up companies to commercialise this technology.

Small modular reactors are manufactured to standardised designs that offer economies of scale and can be delivered on trucks to remote sites. They have real potential to drive the flexible-scale desalination plants Australia needs for its growing population. For instance, they could desalin­ate brackish underground water, far away from the sea.

Because they are so much smaller than conventional plants, small modular reactors are less scary to the public. And they requir­e lower investment.

As the peak body dealing with climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has declared, the world needs carbon­-clean nuclear power to stem the tide of global warming. Indeed, it has said its target cannot be met without a contribution from nuclear power.

Already it supplies 11 per cent of world electricity, from 450 react­ors across 30 countries; 13 other nations are building capacity.

Acknowledged by the IPCC, nuclear and hydro are the only CO2-free sources of baseload power, the lack of which has so markedly penalised South Aust­ralia’s reliance on capricious renewables. As Canada has shown, hydro, while plentiful there in places­, cannot do the job alone.

The answer to Australia’s droughts and this country’s need to respond to climate change is clear then; small emission-free modular reactors to provide ­continuous reliable power to desalinatio­n plants, large or small, and a network of pipes to take the water to where it is needed inland.

So why aren’t we doing it?

Notwithstanding this obvious solution and the manifest improve­ments to safety, waste disposal and cost structure for nuclea­r achieved since the issue was last addressed, federal legislation passed 20 years ago prohibits Australia from ever using nuclear power. We export uranium all over the world but cannot have a nuclear industry of our own. This is absurd.

Criticism by activists on the grounds of high cost and problems with waste disposal that might have applied a decade or more ago are no longer valid.

If the government accepts the substance of the parliamentary committee’s recommendations, the ban will be wholly or partially removed to allow use of the new generation of reactors.

Then the market should decide whether and to what extent nuclear­ should be deployed. As the drought in inland Australia drags on and the bushfires burn, it is a compelling solution.

Tony Grey founded Pancontinental Mining and
played a role in the exploration and discovery of the Jabiluka uranium deposits.