With South Australia’s labour market deteriorating at solid clip:
And Holden packing up and ready to leave, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has backed the development of South Australia’s nuclear industry, which he believes could deliver an important new source of employment and growth. From The AFR:
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is backing the creation of a nuclear fuel industry in Australia that experts say could be worth up to $35 billion for South Australia…
He said he was sceptical about the need for nuclear power, but Australia should become involved in the nuclear fuel cycle to produce fuel rods, export them and then transport them back home once used, and store them in outback nuclear waste dumps.
“That is a business you could well imagine here,” he said in Adelaide. “Playing a part in the nuclear fuel cycle, I think, is something that is worth looking at closely.”
On the face of it, the proposal to turn South Australia into a ‘whole-of-life’ exporter of nuclear energy makes a lot of sense.
The fabrication of nuclear fuel elements or fuel rods used in nuclear power generation would provide significant value-add over Australia’s current export of uranium oxide concentrate – so-called “yellowcake”. The nuclear fuel element fabrication industry is also capital, skill, and knowledge-intensive.
Australia exports nuclear fuel anyway, making up around 20% of the world’s demand, with Australia comprising around 40% of the world’s uranium deposits. It would just be a matter of doing it smarter and more safely, adding more value to Australia’s product before it leaves our shores, in the process creating more jobs for South Australians.
The plan could also potentially make the world more secure. South Australia’s geography is very stable, and it has oodles of outback land situated far from anyone’s home. So it is well suited to storing nuclear waste.
Moreover yellowcake imports can potentially be used for both power generation and nuclear bomb manufacturing. By contrast, custom-made fuel elements cannot be so easily diverted to weapons manufacturing, and delivering fuel rods to designated power generation plants can be more effectively controlled.
Malcolm Turnbull is wise to throw his support behind developing South Australia’s nuclear industry. It is something that South Australia has a comparative advantage in and offers a whole new source of jobs and growth for the state as it transitions away from traditional manufacturing.
