nuclear-news

Claire Stewart

Australia will need to start enriching uranium and storing the nuclear waste if it is going to sustain a competitive ­uranium industry in the future, says senior finance and resources figure Mark Johnson.

Mr Johnson, a former deputy chair of Macquarie Bank and former chairman of AGL, said Australia had a “great opportunity” to become a participant in a “free world nuclear fuel cycle”, if it produces uranium.

“But the consequence of that is we would also have to store spent uranium,” he told Financial Review Sunday.

Federal government laws explicitly prohibit the building of nuclear fab­rication, enrichment or power plants and the return of nuclear waste to ­Australia for storage.

“Nobody wants spent nuclear fuel in their backyard, even if it would be right in the centre of the outback of Australia, [with] very stable geological conditions,” Mr Johnson said.

The price of uranium has halved since governments around the world promised to cut their reliance on nuclear power following the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Energy Resources Australia chief executive Rob Atkinson said the market will turn, particularly given expected demand from China.

For other democracies, nuclear power is “off the table for generations”, Mr Johnson said, prompting sug­gestions that enrichment and storage of waste will be a key part of expanding the industry.

Australia currently processes uranium to the “yellow cake” stage, which is then exported for further processing and concentration, and in some cases turned into fuel rods.

Uranium as a fuel source can only be used for about three years before it becomes too unstable, said Australian Conservation Foundation nuclear ­campaigner Dave Sweeny.

He said making Australia part of the global fuel cycle was about opening the country up for return of that spent material. “Industry returns are meagre and the risks are significant and continuing,” he said.

“Storage is the Achilles heel . . . it highlights the political, social and technical difficulty of doing this.”

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The Australian Financial Review