Howard initiates nuclear power debate

SYDNEY—Australia’s conservative Prime Minister John Howard said Sunday that he would review government policy on nuclear power, a source of energy not used despite the country’s vast uranium reserves.
Howard said the review would examine the economics of nuclear energy and investigate security, health, safety and environmental concerns. It will also seek to determine whether uranium enrichment or nuclear power plants are economically viable and safe and also look at options for the disposal of radioactive waste, he said. The prime minister said the government had an obligation to examine the benefits of nuclear energy, including the extent to which it could help reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions produced by other sources of electricity production.
“We will engage in a full public debate. There is little point in a review if you put barricades around areas which you fear might be unpopular,” Howard wrote in a regular column to national newswire Australian Associated Press. Howard said recent high petrol prices demonstrated an approaching energy crisis in oil production and consumption. “The debate on alternative energy sources has to include nuclear energy, or else we run the risk of denying Australians an affordable power source which will not pollute the environment, nor put a brake on the economy,” he said.
Opposition politicians said most Australians were opposed to nuclear power plants. There is one reactor in the country, the Lucas Heights plant in southern Sydney which was built in 1958 but is used only for research.
“It’s only John Howard that’s having this debate, it’s only John Howard that wants us to think about nuclear power,” Australian Labor Party deputy leader Jenny Macklin said. Senator Christine Milne, of the Australian Greens, said Howard had misjudged Australian feelings over nuclear power. “The fact is we wouldn’t be having this debate about nuclear if we weren’t in the middle of a resources boom,” she said.
A report by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation released Sunday found that nuclear power was economically competitive with gas or coal as an energy source.—Agencies.