Australia announces nuclear power inquiry
Australia will study whether to start a nuclear power industry, the prime minister announced today.
The Cabinet agreed to appoint a panel of experts to investigate whether Australia should start shifting some of its reliance on coal and gas energy over to nuclear power, and to report to the government by the end of the year, Prime Minister John Howard said in Canberra.
He said any power station would be built by the private sector rather than the government.
“Cabinet has approved the establishment of a prime ministerial task force to review uranium mining, processing and nuclear energy in Australia,” Howard said.
“What this inquiry is about is whether in the medium to longer term, firstly, should more be done about uranium mining, should more be done about the processing of uranium – the value-adding process – and is it economically feasible to contemplate the establishment of nuclear power stations in this country,” he added.
Howard’s push in recent weeks for a nuclear power debate in the world’s largest coal-exporting nation has surprised many observers, because nuclear energy was not covered by a government policy document on cleaner future energy technologies released less than a year ago.
