WE NEED to address the nuclear issue

[Flash]

WE NEED to address the nuclear issue before the Howard Government pre-empts the argument with their "non-biased" enquiry. Too many people have fought the issue in the past to allow this simply to go through without protest.

I know there are many in the party who see the economic arguments as the only criteria for debate and the associated green-house global warming benefit. Do people really have such a limited memory as to forget the Chernobyl disaster where Greenpeace claim 93,000 casualties, and the Three Mile Island accident where the estimated cleanup cost of around US$975 million.

Also don't forget November 1955 when an experimental reactor partially melts down near Idaho Falls in the USA; October 1957 when a fire burns 11 tons of uranium and kills 32 people at Windscale in England; March 1958 where an explosion at nuclear plant in Fyshtym in the Soviet Union devastates a large area and kills hundreds; January 1961 when a reactor at Idaho Falls explodes, killing three men; October 1966 when there was a partial meltdown of Enrico Fermi experimental breeder near Detroit; December 1975 when a fire at Lubmin in the former East Germany causes near meltdown; March 1992 when a reactor releases radioactive iodine near St. Petersburg; November 1995 when a reactor accident leaks tons of sodium in Japan; and also in Japan in September 1999 when workers trigger a nuclear reaction by mixing too much uranium into a storage tank.

These and other incidents are far too numerous to be discounted and the consequences of a large-scale accident too devastating to be ignored. This is what our Prime Minister wants for Australia and members of his government are talking the economic benefits accruing from nuclear power.

Is this something that we want here in Australia? Is this what the Labor party wants to offer the people of our country? Let's find out.

[lennie]

Ignoring nuclear power foolish, PM says

The Prime Minister says nuclear power production must be an option in Australia and it would be foolish to ignore the option with the country's vast reserves of uranium.

A review by the Federal Government's nuclear energy task force has found a nuclear power industry could be commercially viable within 15 years.

Speaking at the Queensland Liberal Party's annual convention in Brisbane today, John Howard said the world's attitude toward nuclear power was changing.

"Nuclear power is potentially the cleanest and greenest of them all," he said.

"We would be foolish from a national interest point of view, with our vast reserves of uranium, to say that we are not going to consider nuclear power - not even going to look at it, we are going to say no to it before the debate even starts.

"One of the options that has got to be on the table is nuclear power, I believe that the world's attitudes toward nuclear power is changing and I believe that Australian attitudes towards nuclear power are changing."

Mr Howard says he will not be pressured into making changes that would place Australia at an economic and competitive disadvantage.

"Australia is different from Europe, it is different from America, it is different from Asia," he said.

"In many respects the whole debate surrounding the Kyoto Protocol is being driven out of Europe rather than out of countries whose economic circumstances are similar to our own."

But environmental groups say they are concerned by the assessment made by the nuclear energy task force.

The Federal Government says it believes the 15-year time frame is realistic.

But a spokeswoman for the Wilderness Society is calling on the Government to rule out using nuclear power and instead investigate other options for generating baseload electricity - like the use of natural gas.

Queensland Conservation Council spokesman Toby Hutcheon does not believe Australia will have a nuclear power industry by 2021.

"All the surveys suggest that the Australian people are considerably opposed to nuclear power in this country," he said.

"I believe that the Government has got a real hard road to travel to even get that acceptance.

"So I would say no, I don't believe that there's any prospect of nuclear power in Australia in the foreseeable or long-term future."