Environmental policy; Uranium Policy

Question

Essay Question: Should Australia use nuclear power to produce energy for peaceful purposes?
The case for the nuclear power proposition.

Some Sources to get you started: •
I Lowe, ‘Reaction time: climate change and the nuclear option’, Quarterly Essay 27, 2007
• G Baker, ‘Australia’s uranium’, Parliamentary Library Research Note 17, 26 March 2007
• A Macintosh & C Hamilton, ‘Attitudes to nuclear power: are they shifting?’, Research Paper 43, The Australia Institute, 2007

Use either the Oxford or Harvard (Author-Date) styles, guides to which can be accessed online at

<http://www.usq.edu.au/library/help/ehelp/ref_guides/oxford.htm>

<http://cyberbiz.com.au/training/citation/harvard_5.pdf> (University of Queensland)

Please Include a title page, all references, and a bibliography.

Answer

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Australia is the world’s richest country in terms of the availability of low-cost uranium. Currently, the country exports 10,000 tones of uranium oxide every year. Today, the global demand for uranium by far exceeds the current levels of production. It is expected that, in the future, more uranium will be exported from Australia at much greater prices. The future of Australia’s uranium industry depends on many issues. Most importantly, many environmental concerns are being raised with regard to nuclear power. In turn, the issue of nuclear power raises concerns to do with proliferation and the potential benefits of uranium. This paper explores the various reasons why Australia needs to start producing energy from nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

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To begin with, uranium emits low levels of greenhouse gases. This makes it a better source of energy than oil, natural gas, and coal. Whereas Australian grapples with the question of whether to use uranium to produce energy for peaceful purposes, the entire world is worried about rising energy needs(Jean-Baptiste& Ducroux2003, p. 156). The reality of the matter is that the energy crisis has many dimensions and environmental concerns constitute only one of them(Lowe 2007, p. 23).

Opponents of the use of uranium for bridging the energy deficit point extremely unsafe sources of energy. Pointing out the Chernobyl disaster does not amount to a realistic form of thinking. The disaster occurred when the technology of the 1970s was in place. Today, technological developments have taken place. Moreover, no single source of energy is perfect. The risks posed by nuclear power stations are as significant as those caused by other areas of technological development such as genetic engineering, computing, and architecture.

In terms of environmental concerns, low-carbon sources of energy account for about 20 percent, inclusive of nuclear power, hydropower and other renewable sources of energy. Additionally, our civilization faces a dual problem of increasing greenhouse emissions and energy scarcity. Quick and massive solutions are needed in order to deal with this problem.

On the issue of scarcity, it is worth noting that oil and natural gas production will soon reach a peak. These nonrenewable sources of energy account for 80% of the world’s energy needs. In the context of this situation, it is also worth noting that no speed of renewable energy generation can meet the energy demands that are expected to have doubled within the next half-century. This is where nuclear energy comes in. There is a need for an energy source that adds gigawatts without taking much space. It should be borne in mind that a high competition for land already exists in today’s world.

Booming needs for energy are already being experienced in China and India(Zweig&Jianhai 2005, p. 25). Even small countries such as Chile and Jordan have started producing nuclear energy. The demand for nuclear energy is expected to grow by 80 percent by the year 2030. This forecast portends a thriving business for Australian uranium-mining companies(Hore-Lacy2003, p. 5).

Meanwhile, the issue of compliance with regulations on nuclear power is as weighty as that of world supply and demand(Baker 2007, p. 2). However, technological advancements are not an obstacle for Australia, since the country’s level of technological advancement is remarkably high. Of much more importance, though, is the issue of proliferation, which is strongly linked to forces of global demand and supply(Macintosh & Hamilton 2007, p. 7).

The demand for Australia’s uranium in the near future will be determined by the installed nuclear capacity of the countries that are ready to sign up Australia’s nuclear safeguards agreements(Owen2006, p. 209). Going by the predictions on a global energy deficit, these countries are expected to push for the signing of these agreements in the near future.

            The main factors that will influence growth in nuclear generation capacity include energy security, economic and population growth and environmental considerations. Another crucial factor is the relative cost of nuclear power generation. As previously discussed, all these factors except the cost of nuclear power generation favor an increase in the demand for Australia’s uranium.

            Currently, the nuclear energy deficit that exists is being offset through the conversion of enriched uranium that is contained in obsolete military warheads. Additionally, more uranium for energy generation is being tapped from break-away countries that were member-states of the former Soviet Union.

Once these sources of nuclear energy are exhausted, the world will turn to countries with many uranium deposits like Australia for the supply of this crucial radioactive material. The recent sluggish growth in demand for uranium is attributed to a corresponding low growth in the nuclear-generating capacity. The peak prices recorded in 2008 were a reflection of growing concerns about the future availability of nuclear sources of energy for peaceful purposes.

In conclusion, Australia, the fifth world producer of uranium, should use nuclear power to produce energy for peaceful purposes in the future. The current energy deficit puts our civilization in circumstances where the use of nuclear energy is inevitable. In order to ensure that the country’s uranium is not diverted to nuclear weapon programs, Australia only needs to continue applying the nuclear safeguard conditions that have been in use since 1977.

References

Baker, G, 2007, ‘Australia’s uranium’, Parliamentary Library Research Note, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 1-9

Hore-Lacy, I, (2003) Nuclear Electricity (7th edition) Uranium Information Centre Ltd and the World Nuclear Association, Melbourne

Jean-Baptiste, P, & Ducroux, R, 2003, ‘Energy policy and climate change’, Energy Policy, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 155-166

Lowe, I, 2007, ‘Reaction time: climate change and the nuclear option’, Quarterly EssayVol. 27, No 2, pp. 12-34

Macintosh, A, & Hamilton, C, 2007, ‘Attitudes to nuclear power: are they shifting?’ Research Paper 43, The Australia Institute, Sydney.

Owen, A, 2006, Nuclear Power for Australia? Agenda, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 195-210

Zweig, D, & Jianhai, B, 2005, ‘China’s Global Hunt for Energy’, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 84, No. 5, pp. 25-38.