Nuclear debate

AUSTRALIA should consider nuclear energy in its future power generation plans, two senior federal ministers told a climate change conference yesterday.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said nuclear energy generation was "a debate that Australia is yet to have and should be done on the basis of science and fact, not emotion".
Yesterday's opening of the two-day Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate hosted meetings between representatives of Australia, Japan, the US, South Korea, India and China and mining and metals industry leaders.
The conference has been dubbed a "coal pact" by environmentalists who protested outside central Sydney's Four Seasons Hotel because the summit will not set targets for greenhouse gas reduction or uptake of renewable energy.
Australia is the only one of the six nations represented that does not have a domestic nuclear energy program.

US Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said nuclear power was "an obvious requirement on an ongoing basis" to meet global energy requirements which are expected to grow about 50 per cent in the next 20 years.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer agreed.

"I do think there needs to be continual discussion about the benefits and costs of nuclear power," he said.

Environment Minister Ian Campbell played down any likelihood of nuclear generation for Australia.

"Based on everything I know it's unlikely to be an economical option for Australia for a long time," he said.

Senator Campbell said Australia "can do the world a really good service environmentally" by selling uranium to other countries.

Roundtable talks about low-emission technologies will be held today.

Environmental groups including Greenpeace attacked yesterday's talks as a "smoke screen" for not setting mandatory targets for industry.

"Simply relying on the goodwill of industry and promoting business-as-usual cannot ensure that we will reduce pollution at all, let alone enough to tackle climate change," Greenpeace campaigner Catherine Fitzpatrick said.