freediver
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Uranium mining support growing: poll
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Uranium-mining-support-growing-poll/2007/05/16/1178995191121.html
Australians are adapting quickly to the age of uranium expansion, with almost 60 per cent of people now supporting yellowcake exports, says the head of a nationwide lobby group.
Mainstream Australia was turning to the nuclear fuel alternative, the executive director of the Australian Uranium Association, Michael Angwin, told the second Australia's Uranium Conference in Darwin.
People recognised its environmental credentials as an energy source, its economic benefits and the abundance of uranium in Australia, he told more than 300 delegates.
Quoting statistics from an ANOP opinion poll commissioned by the association, Mr Angwin said 50 per cent of Australians supported the uranium mining industry.
Nuclear 'cheaper' than fossil fuels
http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/nuclear-cheaper-than-fossil-fuels/2007/05/21/1179601321683.html
Pricing carbon through an eventual emissions trading scheme will raise the price of fossil fuels to make nuclear energy a cheaper and cleaner electricity alternative, says the government's nuclear expert Dr Ziggy Switkowski.
Dr Switkowski told a Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) function that nuclear energy for Australia was cheap when costs associated with greenhouse gas emissions were taken into account.
"If fossil fuels are properly costed for their emissions, pollution and particularly greenhouse gases, it doesn't take much of a cost for greenhouse gas ... to close the gap.
"It wouldn't take more than a few tens of dollars per tonne of carbon dioxide per year, which is in the range of what people are thinking, to make nuclear in Australia lower cost than fossil fuels and demonstrably cleaner."
"In the 2020s, nuclear energy will be the most cost effective and cleanest form of base-load electricity that Australia has on option to consider," Dr Switkowski said.
However, director of the West Australian Conservation Council Chris Tallentine said the cost of storing nuclear waste needed to be factored into the equation.
"We need to factor in those sorts of things, when we do the cost comparisons, and when that is done properly, we'll even actually see, even with the introduction of emissions trading ... the price differential between uranium and nuclear power will be much higher than renewables," he said.
Nuclear reactors possible in Vic: Bracks
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Nuclear-reactors-possible-in-Vic-Bracks/2007/05/30/1180205295801.html
Victoria would not be able to stop a nuclear reactor being built on commonwealth land whether the state wanted it or not, Premier Steve Bracks said.
Nuclear not the climate cure: US report
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Nuclear-not-the-climate-cure-US-report/2007/06/15/1181414500963.html
Nuclear power would only curb climate change by expanding worldwide at the rate it grew from 1981 to 1990, its busiest decade, and keep up that rate for half a century, a report released in the US says.
While the report also supported storing US nuclear waste at power plants until the long-stalled Yucca Mountain repository opens, 10 dumps the size of Yucca Mountain would be needed to store the extra generated waste by the needed nuclear generation boom.
That outlook was too optimistic in light of how many new nuclear plants are currently on the drawing board, the report said.
Fed govt urged reveal more nuke details
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Fed-govt-urged-reveal-more-nuke-details/2007/06/14/1181414465439.html
The federal government is under pressure to reveal more details of its nuclear plans after admitting discussions are underway on building a uranium enrichment plant.
A company called Nuclear Fuel Australia is believed to be studying the feasibility of a $2.5 billion plant which could be operational by 2015.
Canada approves burying of nuclear waste
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Canada-approves-burying-of-nuclear-waste/2007/06/15/1181414495801.html
Canada says it has approved the idea of burying nuclear waste deep in the ground at a single location, a proposal that green activists say would be unsafe.
MP ducks queries on Qld nuclear reactor
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/MP-ducks-queries-on-Qld-nuclear-reactor/2007/06/28/1182624066117.html
A senior federal minister has ducked questions regarding the location of a nuclear reactor in Queensland while talking up a federally-backed plan for the energy source.
Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane on Thursday told a Queensland Media Club luncheon nuclear energy was a key component of climate change technologies as the only zero emission baseload electricity source.
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