The commission’s report, delivered after an inquiry that drew more than 250 public submissions including 128 expert witnesses and the advice of radiation and socio-economics experts, said South Australia could safely ramp up its participation in nuclear activities assuming bipartisan support federally and across the states and territories.
It also estimated that storing and disposing nuclear fuel in the state would generate more than $257 billion over 120 years, although there is no chance of commercialising uranium processing capabilities in SA for at least the next decade.
Frydenberg noted that the federal government’s submission to the commission’s inquiry did not advocate any change to current policy, and said expanding Australia’s nuclear industry beyond its current scientific and medical purpose would require “significant” legislative and regulatory change.
“The government welcomes this initiative to discuss new and expanded industries that could create jobs, growth and significant revenue for Australia. Further, we welcome the constructive community participation that it has encouraged,” Frydenberg said.
He said participating in the nuclear fuel cycle was nothing new for Australia, which had done so for more than 60 years to help create and export potentially life-saving medicine and cutting-edge industrial technology.
However, he added that the commission is a separate and distinct initiative to the government’s process to establish a national radioactive waste management facility, which is well underway.
“This facility would store Australian generated, low and intermediate level waste only. It cannot and will not be built to store radioactive waste generated overseas or high level waste,” he said.
He said the Commonwealth would consult the SA government before responding to the commission’s final report, which is expected on May 6.
The SA Chamber of Mines and Energy was more forthright, with CEO Jason Kuchel advocating the state expanding into the nuclear fuel cycle.
He said the commission’s tentative report confirmed the state’s mining, processing and export chain, part of the “gold standard” of SA’s uranium industry.
“SACOME has long called for the removal of unnecessary and onerous duplication in regulation for uranium mining and milling,” Kuchel said.
“There is no reason why uranium should be treated any differently to any other mineral that is mined here and the findings confirm the detrimental impact our dual system is having in terms of increased costs and unnecessarily long approvals times.”
The commission’s findings also confirmed the value of SA increasing its involvement in the enrichment and further processing of uranium, along with the key role nuclear energy is playing globally to move towards a low-carbon future.
“While the tentative findings suggest the economics for nuclear energy in Australia are not favourable in the current climate, nuclear power has the scope to be viable in the future and deliver significant advances for reducing carbon emission,” Kuchel said.
“In the not too distant future, small scale modular reactors could be used to power remote mine site and communities.
“For these reasons, the commission is right in calling for Australia to remove the outdated legislative impediments that stop the potential for nuclear power.”
