From STOP THESE THINGS
Markets don’t lie. The growth in demand for uranium is driven by the world’s growing demand for nuclear power.
Australia holds the world’s largest uranium reserves and, despite its shifting policy of limiting the number of mines and states that have banned them, is the world’s third-largest uranium exporter. Happy to export it, but too dim to use it ourselves.
That Australia, among the world’s largest uranium exporters, doesn’t rely on nuclear power astonishes those from the 30 countries where you’ll find nearly 450 nuclear reactors currently operating – including the French, Americans, Canadians, Japanese and Chinese. Another 15 countries are currently building 60 reactors among them. Nuclear power output accounts for over 11% of global electricity production. But not a lick of it in Australia.
In 1998, the Federal government enacted legislation that prohibits nuclear power generation in any form. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act, specifically prohibit nuclear fuel fabrication, power, enrichment or reprocessing facilities.
With Australia’s grand wind and solar ‘transition’ in its death throes, getting rid of Australia’s idiotic ban on the use of nuclear power is top priority amongst anyone gifted with common sense, logic and reason.
BHP Billiton is one of Australia’s leading miners, and its mineral extraction operations include uranium mined at its Olympic Dam mine in Australia’s Far North (see above).
Known as the ‘Big Australian’, BHP has had its fair share of the costly and chaotic delivery of wind and solar in Australia’s renewable energy capital.
Back in September 2016, its Olympic Dam operation was shut for the best part of a fortnight after a vigourous spring storm resulted in the automatic shutdown of SA’s wind power generation fleet, plunging the entire State into darkness – for days in some places – and that cost hundreds of millions in lost production.
Earlier that year, BHP killed off plans to expand its Olympic Dam operations, simply because power costs in South Australia were running out of control – on one occasion BHP Billiton was forced to pay $2.57 million in a single day for electricity – that would normally cost them around $250,000 – due to a total and totally unpredictable collapse in wind power output.
So, if any corporate entity has a stake in obtaining reliable and affordable power, it would be BHP.
Hence BHP’s move to get rid of the ban and allow Australia to join every other country in the G20 that benefits from ever-reliable, safe and affordable nuclear power.
BHP pushes Anthony Albanese to remove “prohibitions” on nuclear energy in net zero transition
The Australian
Geoff Chambers
6 June 2023
Mining giant BHP is pushing the Albanese government to remove “prohibitions” on nuclear energy to help achieve 2030 and 2050 climate targets, amid fears that restricting power sources in the grid will hold back the clean energy transition.
The Australian can reveal BHP, one of the world’s biggest uranium miners, made the pitch to Treasury ahead of the May 9 budget.
BHP’s intervention came weeks ahead of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s budget reply speech in which he put nuclear power and gas at the heart of the Coalition’s future energy blueprint.
Mr Dutton’s declaration that in the 21st century “any sensible government must consider small modular nuclear as part of the energy mix” was met with fierce opposition from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, who rejected nuclear as an option.
BHP’s Olympic Dam mine in South Australia is home to the largest known single deposit of uranium in the world and the miner’s Xplor division in April announced it would expand its exploration focus beyond copper and nickel to prospective uranium and lithium projects.
BHP’s leadership in recent months has firmed up the company’s focus on uranium and the benefits of nuclear power, and told the government more must be done to protect energy security, affordability and decarbonisation.
“Reducing barriers to the energy transition … should include removing unnecessary restrictions on new sources of energy supply (such as existing prohibitions on nuclear energy),” BHP told Treasury.
The company also said the government must ensure “environmental approval and land access processes are effective at achieving environmental, heritage and social objectives while delivering timely and predictable outcomes for project proponents”.
In its pre-budget submission, BHP warned Treasury that federal and state governments continue to adopt divergent approaches on energy and climate policy, which “has the potential to increase transaction costs and discourage investment”.
“The government’s Rewiring the Nation initiative and Capacity Investment Scheme are useful in this regard but may not be enough to support a low-cost and orderly transition.”
The latest Department of Resources quarterly report in March projected uranium export values would double from $605m in 2021-22 to around $1.2bn by 2027-28.
“Uranium prices are forecast to lift, from $US51 a pound in 2022 to above $US60 a pound by 2028 (in real terms). This is expected to encourage stronger production from Kazakhstan, Australia, Canada and Namibia,” the report said.
“Australian exports are forecast to increase, from 4933 tonnes in 2021-22 to almost 8000 tonnes by 2027-28.”
The department’s Office of the Chief Economist forecasts higher global uranium demand as “nuclear deployments continue to expand”.
Increased demand is being reported in China, Japan, South Korea, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
“With new reactor deployments growing, stronger investment in supply will likely be needed to avoid a supply deficit emerging towards the end of the outlook period. While uranium costs are only a small share of overall costs for nuclear power, the current price trajectory provides strong incentives to potential suppliers, and is likely to encourage greater investment in uranium production over time,” the report said.
“In the short term, this will likely be met through higher output from traditional suppliers. New output is expected from Australia’s reopened Honeymoon mine (from 2024).”
Speaking at The Australian’s strategic business forum in Adelaide last year, BHP chief technical officer Laura Tyler said nuclear energy “has to be a part of the conversation” and uranium should not be discounted as a baseload power source.
“I would like to think that Australia could consider it as part of the whole. When you think about where we will see reliable baseload, if you don’t have the storage … then you need the baseload, because you’ve got to keep hospitals and things running 24/7, you’ve got to be able to keep big business running 24/7,” Ms Tyler said.
“If you’re not prepared to do oil and gas or coal, then what is it going to be based on? There’s a very shoot-from-the-hip response to uranium, because it’s difficult to manage, it’s not as simple as maybe oil and gas but at the same time … its consequences can be big.”
With nuclear accounting for around 10 per cent of global electricity generation, rising to almost 20 per cent in advanced economies, the International Energy Agency says “nuclear power can play an important role in clean energy transitions”.
“Nuclear power is an important low-emission source of electricity. For those countries where it is accepted, it can complement renewables in cutting power sector emissions while also contributing to electricity security as a dispatchable power source,” the IEA says. “It is also capable of producing low-emission heat and hydrogen. More efforts are needed to get nuclear power on track with the net-zero emissions by 2050 scenario.”
The Australian
Coalition backs BHP nuclear push
The Australian
Geoff Chambers
7 June 2023
Opposition energy and climate change spokesman Ted O’Brien says global businesses will shift investment away from Australia unless the nation embraces the potential of zero-emissions nuclear technologies.
In response to mining giant BHP’s pre-budget push for the government to remove prohibitions on nuclear energy, Mr O’Brien said Australia’s industrial and resources sectors that are desperately seeking to reduce emissions cannot be “ignored”.
“While BHP is Australian born, it brings a global perspective and is uniquely positioned to reflect on the most cost-effective and efficient technology options to reduce industrial emissions,” Mr O’Brien told The Australian.
“BHP makes it clear that global businesses are looking at Australia’s ‘unnecessary restrictions’ on zero-emissions nuclear energy as an inhibitor to innovation, investment and efficiency. The stark reality is that capital is fluid and moves around the world in search of better market conditions.”
In his post-budget reply speech last month, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton put nuclear power and gas at the heart of the Coalition’s future energy blueprint.
Mr Dutton is expected to develop gas and nuclear policies ahead of the 2025 election, pitting the Coalition’s energy plan against Anthony Albanese’s “renewables revolution”.
With high inflation driving up interest rates and Australians copping record energy bills, Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley on Wednesday said the government must implement an “affordable, reliable” plan.
“The policies they have on energy are not the policies we had, or would have,” Ms Ley said.
Mr O’Brien said many Australian businesses are “committed to reducing emissions, but are desperate for practical solutions that are cost-effective”.
“It’s no surprise that businesses are looking around the world at the role of zero-emissions nuclear energy in driving deep cuts to industrial emissions and wanting the same opportunity here in Australia,” he said.
Queensland Nationals senator and former resources minister Matt Canavan said he supported BHP for trying to “talk sense” to the government about removing barriers to nuclear energy.
The Australian
Mixed signals on nuclear power stations will scuttle AUKUS submarine deal
The Australian
Ted O’Brien
6 June 2023
AUKUS will not succeed if the Australian government remains ideologically opposed to nuclear energy and the national security committee keeps sending mixed messages about our capability to manage nuclear technology.
AUKUS is Australia’s biggest military venture since World War II and the most complex manufacturing program we have ever embarked on, on par with the post-war automotive program and the Snowy Scheme.
AUKUS must succeed – the future of our nation and the stability and security of our region depends on it.
Putting this at risk is Anthony Albanese’s ideological opposition to the technology that lies at the heart of the AUKUS arrangement. That technology is nuclear energy. Nuclear reactors in submarines are smaller versions of the reactors used in today’s power plants and are similar in size to next-generation micro-reactors that soon will generate electricity in the US and Britain.
Both generate energy, although submarine reactors also enable propulsion. It is untenable for an Australian prime minister to oppose such technology.
Australia is to become one of only seven nations to operate nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS deal, joining world heavyweights the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and India.
But there’s one enormous difference between these nations and us: they all have civil nuclear energy industries and we don’t.
Between them, these nations operate 273 nuclear power reactors and are busily constructing 39 more, while the size of their workforces range from 64,500 in Britain to 200,000 in France. These thriving civil nuclear industries aren’t a coincidence – they are integral to successful nuclear ecosystems in these nations.
Foundational skills in engineering, physics and mathematics are required, whether in the civil nuclear industry or in the nuclear submarine industry. Indeed, as I learnt on a recent trip to the US, many of those working in the civil nuclear industry are former submariners. Creating lifelong career paths, including post-service job opportunities for submariners who are highly trained and skilled in nuclear technology is how it works there.
The Royal Australian Navy’s six Collins-class boats each require a crew of more than 40, compared with the nuclear-propelled Virginia-class that demands a crew at least twice that size.
Australia will need a committed and capable workforce to operate its own fleet of nuclear-propelled submarines, a task that will be more difficult in the absence of a civil nuclear industry.
It’s not just about submariners, though. Although we will need some industrial assistance from our AUKUS partners, making AUKUS a success also will require an expansion of Australian industry and skills, especially with hundreds of thousands of components needed to build and maintain the submarines.
We need to enhance our own sovereign manufacturing capability, and not just for a one-off procurement job but ideally for a broader mix of industries that will leverage nuclear technology for decades to come.
Yet, despite the obvious contradiction, Albanese continues to oppose nuclear energy. The problem is bigger than the Prime Minister, however. There’s also a split in the national security committee, which he chairs.
The national security committee is Australia’s peak decision-making body on matters of national security and consists of the government’s most senior ministers. If there were something on which these ministers might all align, you would think it would be AUKUS.
But these ministers’ public statements suggest otherwise: just consider the video by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen last month, disparaging Australia’s competence in nuclear technology. His criticisms had the effect of undermining our standing among AUKUS partners. Bowen argued that Australia not only lacked the expertise to manage energy-generating nuclear reactors but also that it would take us decades to develop it. Yet, under AUKUS, Australia has assured our partners that we will achieve sovereign readiness to receive our first Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarine by 2032.
Bowen argued that Australia will struggle to store nuclear waste associated with nuclear reactors, ignoring the fact we already do. Australia has safely stored the nuclear waste from the Lucas Heights reactor since 1958.
Yet, under AUKUS, Australia has committed to manage all low and medium-level waste associated with the nuclear-powered submarines and to manage the permanent disposal of high-level spent fuel.
It is not in our national interest for such mixed messages to be sent to our AUKUS partners. In turning a blind eye to this issue, Albanese has allowed things to fester in Labor ranks.
Just last weekend, Queensland Labor’s state conference voted down a motion congratulating the Albanese government on AUKUS by 229 to 140. For AUKUS to succeed, the Prime Minister must lead.
To start, he should drop his opposition to nuclear energy, pull Bowen into line or remove him from the national security committee, and champion a pro-AUKUS motion at Labor’s national conference in August.
The Australian