Nuclear leasing

Acting PM Mark Vaile called on Australians to keep an open mind on the issue of 'nuclear leasing'. This would enable the sale of uranium to countries which have not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty provided they use the uranium for power plants and return spent nuclear fuel. A fillip to the Australian mining industry because it could then sell uranium to countries such as India which have not signed the NPT, a way of assisting globally to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and of reducing holdings of spent fue;l which could be used for nuclear weapons. But I am very skeptical of the ability of Australians to have a civil non-hysterical debate about this issue. As The Australian's editorial remarks:

'...Mr Vaile seems to have forgotten the way state and territory governments went into histrionics, when they were not hysterical, over Canberra's call a few years back for one of them to bury the tiny amounts of nuclear waste produced by Australia's only atomic installation, the research reactor at Lucas Heights. It will take a great deal of talk before the new idea of taking back for safe storage the residue of uranium we have exported gets a fair hearing'.

Nuclear power is a reality and a major new international source of electrical energy. The debate about whether it will be used is irrelevant. It will be used. The issue is to ensure it is used safely both from an environmental perspective and to keep this material out of the hands of terrorists. The idea of leasing - and more generally of storing spent fuel safely in Australia, is worth addressing.

There are difficulties with this proposal - it is part of George Bush's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership - but it should not be rejected out-of-hand. My fear is that interest groups in Australia will seek to turn discussion of this issue into an attempt to bury the Coalition. If smart politicians like John Howard sense this the debate won't even occur. Howard will not seek to develop policy initiatives that he knows won't be implemented even if the reasons behind non-adoption make no sense. This failure to consider options would be a pity.