With 28 Percent of Global Uranium, Australian Government Now Pushed to Reconsider Nuclear Ban

Thi sphotograph taken on April 27, 2024, shows the Tihange nuclear plant from a cable car, in Huy. (Photo by NICOLAS MAETERLINCK / Belga / AFP) / Belgium OUT (Photo by NICOLAS MAETERLINCK/Belga/AFP via Getty Images)

Trade Minister Don Farrell has confirmed Australia possesses 28 percent of the world’s uranium, and is keen to continue exporting the resource overseas.

His comments come amid a debate over whether the country should develop nuclear power plants locally.

Australia is one of the only countries in the world that bans nuclear power generation. Yet, the topic has been thrust into the mainstream again with the federal opposition vowing to build seven facilities across the country if it wins office.

During Question Time in the Senate on June 24, Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham asked Mr. Farrell what percentage of the world’s uranium deposits were in Australia.

“We have 28 percent of the world’s resources of uranium,” responded Mr. Farrell (pdf).

Mr. Birmingham also asked Mr. Farrell if he would like to see more Australian uranium mined and exported, to which Mr. Farrell responded, “yes.”

Australia has the most uranium reserves in the world followed by Kazakhstan and Canada, who are also the top producers followed by Australia.

Uranium companies on the Australian Stock Exchange include BHP, Paladin Energy, Boss Energy, Deep Yellow, and Bannerman Energy.

Following the Senate debate, Mr. Birmingham posted a video to Instagram questioning why the Australian Labor government did not want to use uranium in Australia.

“Nineteen out of 20 of the world’s biggest economies are using nuclear energy or planning to use nuclear energy,” he said.

“Australia. Biggest supply of uranium. Exporting it to the world. And with a Labor government saying they want to send even more of it to the world, yet somehow they don’t want us to use it here?”

The Coalition’s Nuclear Push

Australia’s nuclear ban was introduced on Dec. 10, 1998 in the Senate after the Greens moved an amendment to the then-Howard government’s legislation to establish a nuclear research reactor at Lucas Heights near Sydney.

The government accepted the amendment to enable the new research reactor to go ahead.

Now, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s push for seven reactors will likely see this ban overturned.

The seven locations include the Liddell and Mount Piper Power Stations in New South Wales, Loy Yang Power Stations in Victoria, Tarong and Callide Power Stations in Queensland, the Northern Power Station in South Australia, and Muja Power Station in Western Australia.

The plan is to replace retiring coal-fired power stations with nuclear facilities, with the first being built in the 2030s.

“Our plan will see the majority of coal plant workers keep their jobs as they transition to nuclear plants.  Hundreds more new and higher paying jobs will be created,” he said in a speech to the Liberal Party Federal Council in Sydney.

“Communities hosting nuclear power plants will become centres for new industries, new manufacturing, and new investment.”

“And as Australians will soon see, our plan will cost a fraction of the government’s $1.3 trillion plan—a figure not even the PM’s cricket team of Labor spin doctors can conceal.”

Dutton’s Response to State Premier’s Lack of Interest

Labor state premiers have all refused to back the Coalition’s nuclear plan.

“The decisions I make will be in our national interest to the benefit of the Australian people,” Mr. Dutton said, while promising to work “respectfully and collaboratively” with the states.

“Commonwealth laws override state laws even to the level of the inconsistency. So support or opposition at a state level won’t stop us rolling-out our new energy system.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on June 24 that his government was not interested in the proposal.

“It’s been in place for some time,” he said of the nuclear ban.

“And what we know is that the plan ... has no costings, they can’t tell you what form of nuclear reactor would be built, they can’t tell you how many reactors will be built at the seven sites that have been selected,” he told reporters.

“They can’t tell you how you would overcome the fact that six of the seven owners of the sites have ruled it out. The fact that it can’t overcome the state as well as the national ban on nuclear power. The fact that it can’t tell you either what will happen with the waste.”

Mr. Albanese claimed nuclear power is the “most expensive form of new energy and it requires a delay into the 2040s before we have a transition.”