uranium debate heats up...

Source: www.miningnews.net

Uranium debate heats up

Greg Tubby
Tuesday, 17 April 2007

SOUTH Australian Premier Mike Rann said yesterday he would seek to have Labor's "no new uranium mines" policy scrapped later this month, while Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane challenged Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd to a public debate on nuclear energy.

Rann said he would lobby Labor colleagues to overturn the ban on new uranium mines at the party's annual conference later this month.

The 25-year-old ban was "outdated and illogical" and had not stopped uranium exports tripling during that time, he said.

"I cannot think of anything more important, politically and symbolically, for the whole resources sector than to see that this illogical and outdated policy is ended when the party's national conference is held later this month," he told delegates at the annual conference of Australia's peak oil and gas body, APPEA, in Adelaide.

However, Macfarlane told reporters after Rann's address it was illogical to support increased uranium exports but not have a national debate on nuclear power.

"To say as Mike does that we should export as much uranium to our friends ? people that we've chosen, people that we exchange our culture with ? and not even have a debate here about nuclear power is simply inconsistent and doesn't make sense," Macfarlane said.

Nuclear energy is the only zero emissions technology currently available for baseload electricity generation, he said.

"It doesn't make sense to have a policy as (Federal Opposition Leader) Kevin Rudd does to lower greenhouse gas emissions by 60% and not have a debate about the only baseload zero emissions technology currently available," Macfarlane told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.

"Nuclear power is the only zero emissions baseload technology that produces electricity. We export our uranium to our friends for them to use in nuclear energy; why don't we have a debate in Australia about using that uranium to run zero emissions nuclear power stations?"

But without firm bipartisan support for nuclear power, he said it would be impossible to attract investment in the sector.

"If the (Federal) Government loses power before a nuclear power station is built, or even after it's commissioned, the Opposition are bound to switch it off. Until you have bipartisan political support for a nuclear power station in Australia, you simply will not get the investment needed," he said.

Macfarlane claimed the Federal Opposition had been running a scare campaign on nuclear power.

"I'm calling for Labor to participate in a debate where they argue the debate based on facts, not the scare campaign that they're running at the moment.

"We actually want a debate where people understand that the technology of nuclear power has moved a long way in the past decade."


End.

Cheers, Pie