While Australia Debates, Fiji Bets on Nuclear Ships to Power Islands and Cut Emissions

Stuart Ballantyne, chair of Seatransport, says the move could save around 5 million litres of diesel a year for the developing country.

In this handout provided by the Australian Department of Defence, a Royal Australian Navy landing craft carrying disaster relief supplies docks at Bekana Jetty in Vanua Levu, Fiji. CPL Dustin Anderson/Australian Department of Defence via Getty Images

Imagine a fleet of nuclear powered vessels patrolling the vast oceans around Fiji by day, and by night docking in a nearby town, plugging into the local electricity grid, and powering thousands of homes and facilities.

That’s the vision the Fijian government is embarking on in backing the Ocean of Peace vessel, which will carry its own mini-reactor and is estimated to save billions, while cutting down pollution from its diesel powered fleets.

Fiji is the first to adopt micro modular nuclear reactor (MMR) technology to provide the country with electricity, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said.

The technology will be sourced from Deployable Energy of Houston, Texas, and will initially be installed on the ship, Ocean of Peace, but can be rolled out across other vessels in future. Seatransport of Queensland and Lloyds Register are also involved in the project.

The three companies recently signed a formal agreement to develop the 73-metre amphibious vessel, designed for emergency response and disaster relief duties in remote areas, with two to five MMRs of 1 megawatt (MW) capacity aboard. They are planned to be deployed throughout the Pacific.

An artist's impression of a marine power station using a small modular reactor (SMR) manufactured by Prodigy Clean Energy. Courtesy Seatransport, Prodigy Clean Energy and Lloyd’s Register.

For Fiji, MMR will gradually replace the importation of petrols, which already costs Fiji over $1 billion a year, in addition to the expense of distributing power to remote parts of the country.

Micro-reactors are 100 to 1,000 times smaller than conventional nuclear reactors and range in capacity from 1 to 20 MW.

A 20 MW power source can potentially power around 16,500 average Western homes, though in Fiji, at least initially, the usage per household is likely to be lower, meaning more homes could benefit.

In a statement, Rabuka said the time had come for the creative use of technology to make Fijian life cleaner and provide power at lower costs.

“At that point, the initial diesel engines would be replaced by an MMR, which would not require refuelling for 10 years,” he said.

“The MMR power could be deployed on the Ocean of Peace ship and other vessels and used for emergency response and long-term power supply to Fijian communities at far lower costs than the present diesel-powered electricity generation.

“All alternatives were being investigated, and the new, safe nuclear technologies of MMRs appeared to be within cost and emissions targets.”

Rabuka is also revitalising the local shipbuilding industry to address skills shortages.

A new shipyard in Lautoka will train steel and aluminium welders, electricians, carpenters, plumbers, draftsmen, technicians, and administrators.

Small modular reactors (SMRs) and Micro Modular Reactors (MMRs) work by using nuclear fission to generate heat, which is then used to produce electricity through a steam turbine. The reactor core is surrounded by a thick shield to protect workers and the environment from radiation. The core also contains fuel rods made of uranium or other fissile materials. As the fuel undergoes fission, it releases energy in the form of heat, which is then transferred to a coolant that circulates through the reactor. The coolant is typically water or a liquid metal, such as sodium or lead, which absorbs the heat and transfers it to a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger then transfers the heat to a secondary coolant, which is used to generate steam and produce electricity. This image is a work of an employee of the Government Accountability Office, made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain in the United States.

Float, Plug, and Play

Stuart Ballantyne, executive chair of Seatransport, told The Epoch Times that MMR technology had applications right across the Pacific, and even in remote Australia.

For island nations, he says, simply tying the ship up each night and plugging it into the grid will save around 5 million litres of diesel a year.

Seatransport Executive Chairman Stuart Ballantyne (L) with Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka (R). Courtesy Seatransport.

“It’s technology that’s already in use in West Africa, installed by Russia, he says. ‘When the ship comes in and plugs in, the converter buildings are already attached to the local grid. And it makes a lot of sense.

“They had an old coal-fired power station that was at the end of its life; they replaced a couple of old things and just plugged in this floating nuclear power plant. And when that power plant dies, in about 30 or 40 years, they will just float another one in and plug it in. I mean, it’s pretty simple.”

No Light Bulb Moment for Australian Energy Discussion

In comparison, Ballantyne was critical of the current discourse around energy in Australia.

“It’s better to stick something on a truck like [an] MMR, and just have your own little system. [But] what they’re making you do at the moment in Queensland ...  you must pay $250 to $300 million for the the renewables transmission lines to come out [to the] mine.”

That would make the mine unaffordable, he said.

“Such is the level of stupidity in Australia at the moment, because they’re not even thinking about anything else now [other than renewables].”

“I think that there’s over 32 countries that are now using nuclear and another 30 that are seriously looking at it, including PNG, so I think they’re going to leave New Zealand and Australia behind, to be honest,” Ballantyne said, noting that calls for “zero emissions” while ignoring the potential of nuclear was contradictory.

He believes Australians would support the use of small and micro reactors, even if the Coalition’s large-scale reactors prove unfeasible.

“The latest polls indicate that 82 percent of Australians want this technology,” Ballantyne claims.

He said current moves to implement net zero was creating “huge wealth for China [through] the purchase of millions of solar panels and millions of these wind turbines.”

“Then there’s the massive tracts of land, 28,000 kilometres, for the transmission lines. They don’t care about the environment. They’re just bulldozing the whole lot. They don’t care and seem to have given this exemption because they’re so focused on [renewables].”

New Safety Features Include Self Propelled Reactors

And the presence of small reactors floating around in the Pacific shouldn’t be cause for concern, Ballantyne says, because safety technology has significantly advanced since the days of Three Mile Island or even Fukushima.

“These new ones that you’re talking about, even if it sank and the ship exploded, one of the MMR producers in the United States has got their MMR to come up to a depth of about 25 metres below this surface, and self-propel to a predetermined latitude and longitude.”