Footloose - Uranium Opening up the Outback (June 2005)

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Lately we’ve been hearing a lot about the Kyoto agreement with the government catching a lot of flack, from the Greens especially, about our tardiness in signing it – or not signing it, as is the case in point.

Take a look around the world and it seems to me that there is another issue here. The only way the developed countries and those trying to catch up will maintain their standard of living, or improve their standard of living, as the case may be, is by using nuclear power!

Holy Toledos batman! There’s that ‘N’ word. Can it be we are being driven down this path by environmentalists?

Well, it seems so.

Nuclear power now accounts for about 17% of the world’s electricity generation and there are some 440 nuclear reactors in 31 countries. But that is about to change greatly.

Japan has already 53 reactors, is building three more while there are 13 more on the drawing board. In India there’s 14 stations on the ground operating, there’s another nine being built and plans for another 24 being developed. South Korea has 19 nuclear stations and is putting another eight into operation, while in China there’s just nine operating at present but there’s two in construction and 10 more on the planning table. In the States a 3% reduction in its carbon emissions will require at least 30 large new reactors by 2012, to support the 103 operational power reactors in the USA today.

What’s this got to do with Australia and the outback?

Well, Australia has got over 28% of the world’s known reserves of Uranium, yet produces a much lower figure of the mineral for world use. Currently there are only three mines in operation – Ranger, Olympic Dam and Beverley. A fourth is cleared to start construction at Honeymoon, south-east of Beverley and close to the NSW-SA border.

Added to that is a heap of sites that have been identified but not developed, including Jabiluka which is surrounded by Kakadu NP, Kintyre on the northern boundary of Rudall River NP in WA, Westmoreland on the Qld side of the border in the Gulf region and the Yeelirrie deposit between Wiluna and Leinster, again in WA. There’s many more (see: www.uic.com.au/pmine.htm).

These are vast deposits and with the price of uranium ore now heading skyward after years of depression, the pressure to develop these mines will greatly increase.

And why not?

The world has to have energy and the only way feasible at this point and into the foreseeable future that increasing power demand is going to be met, is with nuclear power. And Australia has to be a part of it!

But that will bring changes in inland Australia – much of it to benefit outback travellers.

As Canning Resources state on their website:

The proposed development at Kintyre will add significantly to the services available in the region. Kintyre will provide electronic communications, medical services, improved road access, and all-weather air service and other reliable, modern facilities.

Such is the case in South Australia and the Northern Territory where uranium mining hasn’t been stopped by governments pandering to the Green vote.

Have a look at Roxby Downs, the facilities it has and the road network that now links it to Woomera to the south and to the Oodnadatta Track to the north.

Over on the other side of the Flinders Ranges is Beverley – a much less significant, low-key working mine. Even so, the old rough track that once used to skirt along the eastern side of the northern ranges is now a much better dirt road. The occasional well maintained ‘no entry’ track and/or pipeline cross this ‘main road’ close to the main processing plant, which is easily missed in the vast landscape of plains and rugged mountain backdrop.

Sure, there is a cost for all this development and the ‘shrinking’ of the remote areas of Australia is one of them, which we as four wheel drivers, will probably bemoan. But, there’s also a price for coal-fired power stations, wind farms and hydro-power, all of which the Greens seem to be against.

Still, we all need electricity and the outback seems to me to be as good as place as any to supply it!

For everything you wanted to know about nuclear power, check out the web site at Nuclear Clear: http://nuclearinfo.net/Nuclearpower/WebRevisons

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