This article would no0 doubt come as a surprise to you .... Its not too late to have a revelationary experience. -------------------------------------------------- WA uranium ban wedge issue for fed govt 12-January-07 by AAP Latest News
Western Australia's resolve is set to be tested in coming months as pressure mounts on it to overturn its uranium mining ban.
Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell this week said he wants the WA Labor government to overturn its "obscene" ban because the world needs uranium and nuclear power can help in the fight against climate change.
But WA Premier Alan Carpenter has been emphatic that uranium mining will never happen in WA under his government. The ban was one of Labor's central policies at the 2005 state election.
With climate change an increasingly pressing issue, Prime Minister John Howard has been pushing the nuclear option hard, and the federal government appears to be in a strong position.
Federal Labor is expected to abandon its three uranium mines policy at the ALP National Conference in April, placing intense pressure on the WA government to overturn its uranium ban.
The Howard government has the option of using its commonwealth powers to force WA to overturn its ban, even though Senator Campbell is playing down the option, according to constitutional experts.
These powers were underlined late last year after the High Court ruled against state Labor governments and unions when they challenged the new federal workplace laws as being unconstitutional.
The federal government also has the weight and momentum of the government-commissioned report into nuclear energy headed by former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski.
The report said 25 reactors could supply up to a third of Australia's electricity by 2050, although this was so expensive it would not be viable unless a price was placed on carbon pollution from fossil fuel power.
And, putting even greater focus on Australia's uranium supplies, Canberra last week signed an agreement to sell uranium to China.
Senator Campbell's argument for overturning WA's uranium mining ban rests chiefly on a study by Princeton University's Robert Socolow.
The senator said nuclear energy was one of seven measures identified by Professor Socolow, including renewable energies and energy efficiencies, that could stabilise greenhouse gas emissions.
"By denying one of those technologies ... you are deciding that you want to cook the planet, Senator Campbell said.
"If you say no to exporting uranium, you are not serious about climate change."
But WA Environment Minister Tony McRae says nuclear energy is a redundant technology.
The world's reserves of high grade uranium will be depleted in 30 years, nuclear plants need massive subsidies to operate and nuclear energy leaves a legacy of at least 25,000 years nuclear waste, Mr McRae argued.
"Were not going to be involved in a dirty and dangerous fuel cycle. Ultimately, this is 'Please sell uranium to the world because they need it' and next year it will be 'Please take your waste back because the world needs it'," Mr McRae said.
The science put forward by the ministers appears as conflicting as their political positions.
Prof Socolow does not say nuclear energy must be one of his seven measures, or "wedges" as he calls them, that could stabilise carbon dioxide emissions.
In a 2006 paper, he said many combinations of 15 different technologies, including nuclear, could fill the seven wedges.
"I wouldn't agree with an argument that you need nuclear power to achieve the kind of reductions we need," Dr Chris Riedy (Riedy), an energy researcher at the University of Technology, Sydney, told AAP this week.
But according to Professor Leslie Kemeny, a retired academic and now consulting nuclear engineer and physicist, nuclear energy is the best defence against climate change because nuclear plants essentially create zero greenhouse gas emissions.
"Nuclear is the only one that could take over three or four of the seven wedges with no trouble at all," Prof Kemeny said.
Prof Kemeny rejects Mr McRae's assertions as well, saying there is enough uranium to create energy for 700 years and that fourth generation nuclear reactors will be as cheap as coal-fired power stations.
And after 300 years of storage, nuclear waste is no more dangerous than uranium in the ground, he said.
While there is debate over the science, the politics of the issue seems to strongly favour the federal government.
With a federal election looming, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd will put huge pressure on WA to overturn its ban at the ALP National Conference, said Edith Cowan University politics lecturer Peter Van Onselen.
"The new Labor leader is not going to want, as one of his first major acts as leader, to be rolled on changing their three mines policy. He's going to put pressure on WA to lift the ban."
Despite the pressure, WA will probably not yield because of state electoral dangers, Dr Van Onselen said.
"They will rather stay with their commitment during this election cycle, but they may give an indication that they will look to review that in their next term of government."
If that did not satisfy the federal government it could use its commonwealth powers to overturn the ban, said Curtin University constitutional law expert Professor Greg Craven.
He has dismissed Senator Campbell's claim that talk of using the corporations power was a "distraction".
"That's nonsense. The reality is after the Work Choices case the commonwealth has a very strong argument that it can regulate anything done by a trading corporation," Professor Craven said.
However, the federal government was unlikely to do this on such a controversial issue in an election year, Dr Van Onselen said.
"They would rather use this as a wedge issue for the Labor Party between its federal and state spheres, rather than push it through by violating a state's rights and perhaps incurring the backlash themselves.
"The federal government are in a strong position because they believe in lifting the ban but there's no rush to exert that pressure, so it's all on the Labor Party to jump first."
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