Uranium mining and nuclear energy, what’s the story?

The issue of uranium mining is fast becoming the focus of media within Australia and the Northern Territory. Whether opinion on the issue of mining is for or against, there is no doubt that uranium mining has an affect on the country economically, commercially as well as personally. But just how personally can uranium mining, or even the development of anything associated with nuclear power or energy effect us as young people in the Northern Territory? Apparently, a large amount.

Globally there has been world-wide effort to reduce the amount of Co2 emissions. Though the commitment to this effort is debatable (take the example of the Kyoto Protocol), it can still be argued that at least some effort has been made to improve emissions of Co2 and green house gases globally. On a global scene it is known that Australia has around 40% of the world’s uranium supply, and current debate is raging over whether it is to our benefit, or even our responsibility to utilise this uranium.

For uranium…

Uranium is widely considered a ‘clean’ source of fuel in comparison to many alternatives because it does not generate carbon dioxide, a major contributor to climate change and global warming. In comparison to coal for instance, every tonne of uranium used for fuel production prevents approximately 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission. Other sources claim that nuclear energy is the only alternative for energy production if we were to cut out the use of fossil fuels. The argument is, that even with the combined efforts of solar, tidal, thermal and other renewable  means of energy generation  a signif -cantdifferenceinCo2levels wouldbeunachievable.

And against…

An interesting point to make here is that nuclear radiators utilise water.  And this is another issue, quite relevant to Australia, especially during a time of almost national drought. Not only do radiators utilise billions of gallons of water, but the water is returned to the environment where the radioactive materials it may contain accumulate down the food chain. Another major issue surrounding nuclear energy is the effect of radioactivity. Radioactivity does not only accumulate in our environment thus causing harm to wildlife, but it is also present in tailings or waste produced at uranium mines.

Here are some quick facts about uranium mining in the NT.

• The NT contains one of Australia’s threeuranium mines, known as “Ranger”. The mine is located 230 kilometres east of Darwin.
• Ranger is located within Kakadu National Park, and tailings are thought to have leaked in previous years over the mine boundaries due to wet season rain fall.

And some about past occurrences involving nuclear reactors globally…

• The Chernobyl disaster involved the malfunction of a nuclear reactor in the Ukraine, Russia. It led to 30 immediate deaths and a further estimated 29 deaths later. 4300 square kilometres of surrounding area were also evacuated and increases in birth defects, typhoid cancer and leukaemia have been attributed to the Chernobyl disaster.
• More recently, in 1999 Japan experienced a near fatal melt down.-
• In July 2006, there was a short-circuit in one of Sweden’s ten nuclear power plants, to avoid a nuclear melt down it and three other power plants were shut down.

Despite the concern of the public,it seems that the previous Australian Govern-ment had already begun to take steps towards investigating developments towards nuclear energy.  Recently, the previous Australian Prime Minister John Howard met with American President George W Bush and agreed to a joint nuclear action plan on cooperation of civil nuclear energy. President George W Bush also agreed to support Australia’s bid to become a member for a forum developing the next generation of nuclear radiators, known as ‘Generation IV’.

Both sides of the debate have their merits, but personally rather than take the opinion that it’s our responsibility to utilise the uranium I’m of the opinion that it’s our responsibility to avoid it. Instead of replacing fossil fuels with nuclear, why don’t we just cut down on our emission levels? It would require a global effort and from Australia’s commitment to the Kyoto Protocol (that’s no commitment whatsoever) I don’t expect anything too soon. I hope to stand firm though, after all isn’t the use of nuclear energy just replacing one evil with another?