Australia should avoid small nuclear reactors until 2040s, engineers warn

ENGINEERS have warned that if Australia is to reverse years of opposition to nuclear power and begin installing reactors in the country, the least risky option would be to wait until the 2040s once small modular reactor (SMR) technology has matured.

The report comes as the opposition Liberal Party argues the government’s energy strategy is overly reliant on renewables. If elected to power, the Liberal Party would overturn Australia’s longstanding moratorium on nuclear power and develop a nuclear fuels industry.

Party leader Peter Dutton has proposed seven sites where a coal-fired power plant has closed or is scheduled to close that could host nuclear reactors. The ambition is to build two SMRs or conventional large nuclear plants by 2037 at the latest.

However, this could be too ambitious according to a new study from the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).

“SMR technology could provide low carbon energy compatible with Australia’s current electricity system, however as an emerging technology, there is considerable uncertainty around commercial viability and some of these potential benefits,” said ATSE president Katherine Woodthorpe.

“Overall, the associated timescales, expense, skills gap, legal and regulatory barriers, and social acceptance of nuclear power means the technology is high-risk when compared to existing energy options.”

If Australia was to pursue SMRs, the least risky option would be to procure them after several designs have been commercialised and successfully operated in other OECD countries, the report concludes. Companies including Rolls-Royce and NuScale are pushing ahead with the development of SMR technology but there are currently no SMR designs licensed for use in OECD countries. ATSE estimates that while prototype designs might be built by the mid-2030s a market for SMRs might not be fully formed until the late 2040s.

If an Australian government pushed for a prototype SMR earlier than the 2040s, the country would need to build a nuclear workforce, work directly with reactor developers, and reform legislation. In 1998, Australia passed a law preventing the construction or operation of nuclear power plants, fuel fabrication plants, enrichment plants or reprocessing facilities. The Liberal Party is undeterred, with shadow energy minister Ted O’Brien announcing earlier this week that the party wants Australia to go beyond being the fourth largest producer of uranium and develop an end-to-end nuclear fuels sector.

O’Brien said: “As Australia establishes its own civil nuclear program, we should aspire to build sovereign capability beyond the mining and milling of uranium to include conversion and enrichment through to fuel fabrication for civil nuclear power plants,” The Australian reports.

While state premiers have said they will resist a push from the federal government to go nuclear, analysis published by parliament suggests that it has the power to override regional bans.

Australia would also need to gain public support for nuclear though recent polls hint at growing support for the technology. A decade ago, six in ten Australians were opposed to nuclear power but a poll conducted this year shows this has flipped, with 61% now in support.