Four nuclear plants needed for economic viability: ANSTO. 05/06/2006. ABC News Online: "The chief executive of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) says nuclear power is a viable alternative to coal-fired power in Australia.
But in order for Australia to have a viable nuclear power industry, Ian Smith says four or five nuclear power plants would have to be built on the east coast.
'This would be, power stations would go on the main grids and would supply electricity into those main grids. A normal fleet of four or five nuclear stations would produce something in the vicinity of 5,000 mega-watts of power,' he said.
'Because nuclear power produces large quantities of power it would need to be on the major grid... We're talking about, yes, the east coast is the major grid in Australia.'
Mr Smith's comments come after ANSTO presented a report to federal Cabinet, which concluded that nuclear power is currently competitive with coal-fired power for the base load generation of electricity in Australia.
'This report finds that the electricity produced averaged over the lifetime of the power station is about the same, if not a little lower, than that of a coal-fired power station constructed at the same time,' he said.
Mr Smith says the report did not look at how many nuclear power plants Australia would need.
'The report is an economic analysis, so it does not assume that. I think in reality a nuclear operation would require more than one power plant,' he said.
Mr Smith says a decision where those plants would be built is a long way off.
'Well, I think there is a long way to go before you look at sighting of these stations,' he said.
'The first thing the Government has to do is to make a decision, it then has to put the regulative and legislative framework in pla"