Meltdown fears crush case for nuclear power - Sydney Morning Herald

THE Fukushima nuclear accident has quashed consideration of nuclear power in Australia, with the government's energy white paper arguing there is no compelling economic case for it and insufficient community acceptance.

And the Coalition won't contest the conclusion when the long-awaited white paper is released on Thursday to set policy directions for the next two decades. The bipartisan reluctance to debate nuclear power comes despite the fact that some senior Labor and Coalition figures privately support the idea.

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has said it should remain ''a live debate''. Foreign Minister Bob Carr said before he re-entered politics: ''I support nuclear power because I take global warming so very seriously … [it] should certainly play a role in Australia's future mix of energy sources.''

Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop has said it should be considered ''in the mix'' and Senator Barnaby Joyce has said: ''If we are fair dinkum about reducing carbon emissions … then uranium is where it's going to be.''

But Labor and the Coalition are formally opposed to domestic use of nuclear power, and the Fukushima accident has reinforced that political judgment. The Greens are opposed to nuclear power and uranium mining.

Labor argues nuclear power is not economically necessary in Australia, since the carbon tax and the renewable energy target are already shifting power generation to renewables.

Coalition leader Tony Abbott once said he believed nuclear power was the only realistic way for Australia to cut emissions, but at the last election he argued the time was not right because Australia still had abundant reserves of coal and gas. He said the Coalition had ''no policy to promote nuclear power''.

In fact, neither major party has advocated nuclear power since John Howard went to the 2007 election with an in-principle stance in favour, and was attacked with a Labor television advertising campaign asking in which marginal seat the nuclear reactors would be built.

A review of nuclear energy for Mr Howard was conducted by Dr Ziggy Switkowski, who believes Australia will eventually turn to nuclear power.

''Fukushima has certainly delayed a serious debate about nuclear power by quite a few years, but we are basing our hopes for low emission baseload power on geothermal and carbon capture and storage, neither of which has proven viable, so I think we will have to have the debate eventually,'' Dr Switkowski said.

■Fears of a nuclear Iran will be aired at security talks in Canberra as European nations seek to boost strategic ties with Australia.

Helga Schmid, the European Union's deputy foreign policy chief, said international negotiators were still searching for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with Iran.

Ms Schmid praised Australia for supporting sanctions to pressure Tehran back to the negotiating table.

She said the ''ball is in the Iranian court'' after negotiators presented a package of confidence-building measures in a bid to restart talks.

■Israel is alarmed at the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran, calling on the international community to draw a ''red line'' where Tehran must stop nuclear developments or run the risk of a military strike. With

DANIEL FLITTON