Ex-hostage volunteers for nuclear panel. 07/06/2006. ABC News Online


An Australian once held hostage by Iraqi militants says he should be on the Federal Government's task force that is examining the nuclear industry.
Prime Minister John Howard yesterday announced a six-member panel, headed by former Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski.
The panel also includes nuclear physicist Professor George Dracoulis and Professor Warwick McGibbon of the Australian National University.
Douglas Woods, 64, was held hostage in Iraq for more than six weeks before being released in June 2005.
The engineer says has he led the construction of new generation reactors in the United States and refitted a Soviet reactor in the Czech Republic.
He was also involved in a 1970s feasibility study into an Australian atomic project for Jervis Bay, on the south coast of New South Wales.
Mr Wood says he can deliver hands-on experience to a task force that is "long on theory".
"I think I've got a practical background in the construction of nuclear power plants that might be more useful to add more breadth to the scientific types that have been selected to date," he said.
"It's not just an academic debate on how the physics of reactor works but also what components could be manufactured in Australia as opposed to imported, what jobs it might bring to Australians in the construction and maybe even the operation."
Debate needed
Mr Wood says he believes Australia needs to have a debate on the nuclear power issue.
He says the current technology is very different from that used at Chernobyl.
"Technology has progressed, America actually incorporated a lot of those changes in the requirement for plants in the US after Three Mile Island and after Chernobyl, a lot of money was spent modifying plants," Mr Wood said.
Mr Wood says he believes the nuclear power proposal for Jervis Bay in the 1970s was knocked back for economic and practical reasons.
"The New South Wales electrical commission was going to operate it, yet it was going to be owned by the nuclear authority agencies and there were some leanings towards ... if you like more of an experimental, futuristic type of reactor," Mr Wood said.
"Rather than the nuts and bolts and practical side and rather just have a light water reactor, that we know works and are practical."
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