The view that nuclear energy is enjoying a renaissance is far from universally shared. David Noonan, a nuclear-free campaigner at the Australian Conservation Foundation, says nuclear energy remains unviable without massive slabs of state support. Only China and India, he says, have the capital to fund expansion programs. And other countries, such as Russia, have found alternative sources of energy much cheaper to come by. ''There is only one reactor being built in the western world,'' he says. ''And that's in Finland.''Nevertheless, the demand for supply from the rest of the world has been building, particularly in the past three years.
In Australia, which has about 40 per cent of the world's recoverable uranium at today's prices, spending on exploration has risen from about $20 million a year in 2004 to more than $200 million last year. Mine production is expected to increase by about 6 per cent a year. As a result, export revenue from uranium is projected to rise from $940 million this year to about $1.7 billion in 2014, says ABARE.
With such bullish predictions for world growth, the increase in supply is just what would be expected. But uranium is not a normal market. Government policy deliberately excludes miners in Australia, for example, from sending their yellowcake to India, one of the largest potential customers. All countries receiving uranium exports from Australia need to sign agreements that attempt to lock them into not using the material to power military resources. But India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which would prevent the use of civilian nuclear material in the development of weapons, and Australia has resisted a supply agreement.
Russia, another potential billion-dollar trade partner, is still waiting in the wings.
Sydney Morning Herald
News
Discussions
Resources
Members
The view that nuclear energy is enjoying a renaissance is far from universally shared. David Noonan, a nuclear-free campaigner at the Australian Conservation Foundation, says nuclear energy remains unviable without massive slabs of state support. Only China and India, he says, have the capital to fund expansion programs. And other countries, such as Russia, have found alternative sources of energy much cheaper to come by. ''There is only one reactor being built in the western world,'' he says. ''And that's in Finland.''
