Nuclear power only path for industrial heat generation

Nuclear power is the only renewable technology capable of powering industrial heat for vital industries including steel production to meet the nation’s net zero emissions target, a report has found.

Minerals Council of Australia chief Tania Constable says nuclear fission is the only power source able to support industrial heat production. Picture: Nigel Hallett

The Mineral Council of Australia says nuclear power is the only renewable technology capable of powering industrial heat for vital industries including steel production to meet the nation’s net zero emissions target.

An MCA report says the decarbonisation of industrial heat could only be reliably driven by nuclear power because it can deliver the energy required at “virtually any scale, in virtually any location”.

Industrial heat was responsible for 21 per cent of the nation’s emissions last year – a greater proportion than the transport sector – highlighting the importance of viewing the push towards decarbonisation outside the narrow lens of electricity generation.

Modern industrial processes require a reliable supply of heat up to 1000C, using combustion gases or steam production, to manufacture products such as steel, food, fertilisers, chemicals, minerals and paper.

MCA chief executive Tania Constable said the fact that industry was prohibited from accessing nuclear power under current policy settings put Australia behind the US, Canada, the UK and China in industrial decarbonisation. “Australia’s march towards net zero is being restrained by a failure to see nuclear energy as a key solution to reducing emissions,” she said.

“To decarbonise Australia’s economy in the most cost-effective way, we need all energy options on the table, to ease the burden on heavy industry and manufacturers, and ensure they maintain their international competitiveness.”

Ms Constable said the nation needed to undergo a “profound change” to achieve net zero by 2050, and accused the government of being held back by an “outdated” ideological position against nuclear power.

“It requires an agnostic approach to technology and energy, one that overcomes outdated ideological positions and stubborn mindsets,” she said. “An approach that puts all the options on the table and explores every avenue to emissions reduction.

“We must embrace all options ... deploy what we have and develop what we haven’t. That means the development and deployment of nuclear energy, carbon capture and storage, bio-methane and renewable diesel.”

Ms Constable said renewable energy options were not sufficient to generate the temperatures required for industrial heat production, or else risk manu-facturers to look for other jurisdictions in which to operate.

“This is of paramount importance for our emerging critical minerals sector, where building vertical capability will be integral to maximising the economic and social benefits of what will be a once-in-a-century mining boom,” she said.

“Australia has, in abundance, what the world needs to meet its climate ambition; the critical minerals such as copper, cobalt, lithium and nickel that form the components of electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines.

“But to secure a vital place in the global supply chain, Australia needs the investment and capability to not only extract such rare earths and minerals, but to process them in a cost-effective and reliable way ...”

The report says industrial energy accounts for 42 per cent of Australia’s total energy consumption, with half devoted to industrial heat, however the sector had been neglected in conversations about decarbonisation.

Ms Constable said the challenge of decarbonising the economy had been too focused on electricity generation rather than the vital transition to renewables within the industrial sector.