Australian cities are facing power shortages and we need to build new power stations to keep up with the demand. The New South Wales state government has just announced the intention to build two new gas-fired power stations (300MW & 400MW) and that is a good move, especially as they have not opted for coal-fired stations. We have been against the building of new coal-fired stations in Australian for quite a few years now. But the new gas-fired stations are mainly intended for meeting peak loads, not base load. Ultimately, New South Wales and other states are going to need more base load power stations. And in the past, the only option has been coal-fired. Renewable power such as hydro, wind and solar can only take us so far, since they can only make a relatively small contribution (say 20% maximum) to the overall energy mix.

But coal-fired stations are no longer an attractive option. For a start, Australia is already being pilloried for its large carbon dioxide emissions and more coal-fired stations will only make that worse. Second, open-cut coal mines are an enormous blight on the landscape – hundreds of square kilometres of open-cut scar has to be seen to be believed – and extremely costly to restore and re-vegetate. And you can forget these weird schemes for underground carbon dioxide sequestration – that just ain’t gonna happen in spite of there being at least one small installation overseas.

So that leaves nuclear power. And why not? There is no pollution in normal operation (apart from the huge amounts of waste heat produced, as with any thermal power station). Nor is there any huge mining scar – we already have several uranium mines which could easily satisfy Australia’s demand. And we will eventually be storing long-term nuclear waste in the Northern Territory, following recent enabling legislation. So why not take the next logical step and build some nuclear power stations?

The first one could be sited next to the proposed Sydney water desalination plant at Kurnell. This will need a great deal of power and it just makes a lot of sense to build the power station next to it, just as Perth’s desalination plant will be built next to the existing Kwinana power station. To make it worthwhile, the proposed nuclear power station should not just meet the demands of the desalination plant when it is operating but also make a reasonable contribution to Sydney’s base load. In fact, if possible, it would make sense to power the desalination plant only at night and provide base power during the day. That probably means a rating of at least one Gigawatt but perhaps it should be substantially bigger, so older inefficient coal-fired stations can be taken off line.

Sure, there will initially be a huge outcry from those people who are paranoid about nuclear power but tens of millions of people in the UK, Europe, Japan and the USA have managed to live happily near nuclear power stations for decades so why should we be any different? But has any Australian government got the gumption to do it?

Leo Simpson