Nuclear power on agenda -


Prime Minister John Howard has put nuclear power firmly on the election campaign agenda, creating a clear demarcation between the coalition and the strongly anti-nuclear Labor and green groups.
Mr Howard, attending the Queensland Liberal conference in Brisbane, said he would do nothing to put the mining industry at risk by taking a panicky approach to greenhouse emissions.
His assurance follows the leaking of the findings of the government's nuclear energy task group, headed by former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski, which said nuclear power could be commercially viable within 15 years.
Mr Howard said nuclear power was potentially the cleanest and greenest of all forms of energy.
He said Australia needed a response to climate change which protected Australia's national interest and preserved its competitive advantage.
"Wouldn't it be an extraordinary national paradox if this country had achieved great prosperity, in no small measure due to the resources that providence has given us, and we are then to be knee-jerked into a response to global warming that crippled the very industries that gave us that prosperity," he said.
"And we would be foolish, from the national interest point of view, with our vast resources of uranium, to say that we are not going to consider nuclear power."
In the late 1960s the coalition government seriously considered a nuclear power station at Jervis Bay, NSW.
But the plan was shelved because nuclear power couldn't compete with power from abundant coal.
Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said the reality now was that nuclear power would be competitive within 15 years, as requirements to capture carbon pushed up the cost of electricity from fossil fuels.
He said the next step was a public nuclear energy debate which used facts rather than fear.
"We want to see debate that is based in understanding and knowledge, not a debate based on scare tactics," he said.
The proposal prompted a strong reaction from Labor and green groups.
In Sydney, Labor environment spokesman Anthony Albanese told the Walk Against Warming rally the government was again pushing its nuclear fantasy.
He added it was unsurprising the government inquiry, which he said was made up of nuclear advocates, supported nuclear energy.
"Australians want to live with a solar panel on their roofs, not next door to a nuclear reactor," he said.
Opposition resources spokesman Martin Ferguson said Australia was a fossil fuel dependent economy with more than 600 years of coal reserves and there was no way nuclear power was going to stack up.

"Other nations will go nuclear ... our responsibility is to reduce our emissions through clean coal technology while also promoting the growth of renewables," he said in Melbourne.
Greens leader Bob Brown said Australia was now facing the dangers of both climate change and a nuclear power industry.
"Nuclear cannot and will not address climate change. It would take one to two decades to get going, ensure a major waste dump in Australia and inevitably encourage proliferation in neighbouring countries," he said.
Greenpeace said nuclear power wasn't clean or green, and never would be.
"Even if these technologies were feasible and safe, they wouldn't be able to contribute to reducing emissions for decades. That's just too late," Greenpeace spokesman Danny Kennedy said in a statement.
Wilderness Society nuclear campaigner Imogen Zethoven said the government was working towards establishing a toxic nuclear industry in 15 years, when renewable energy technologies were available now.
"The prime minister should be transforming Australia into a renewable energy power house not a nuclear waste dump for the rest of the world, an outcome that will be assured if we go down the nuclear energy path."
AAP