Nuclear Energy Report
Scientists to review PM's nuclear report
Stephanie Peatling
November 18, 2006
THE REPORT on nuclear energy commissioned by the Prime Minister will be reviewed by a group of scientists to provide an alternative view to what they say is a politically stacked taskforce.
The group, which calls itself the EnergyScience Coalition, yesterday put a series of reports and studies on nuclear power on its website and said it would continue to provide alternative views on the energy debate.
Jim Falk, the director of the Australian Centre for Science, Innovation and Society at Melbourne University, is joined by the retired diplomat Professor Richard Broinowski, academics from the University of NSW and Monash University, and members of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War.
The head of the Federal Government's inquiry into nuclear energy, Ziggy Switkowski, will release his report next week but has already given an interview in which he said it was not economically viable.
Dr Switkowski told the Herald last month that Australia has so much cheap coal that "any comparisons will be unfavourable for every alternative source" of energy, including nuclear.
But it could become economically competitive if new taxes were placed on coal.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, surprised many people this week when he announced that he would establish another taskforce to examine carbon trading, a system of taxing greenhouse gas emissions.
A member of the nuclear taskforce, Warwick McKibbin, a member of the Reserve Bank board, has already developed a model for carbon trading.
Dr Switkowski, the former head of Telstra and a nuclear physicist, will release his report in Canberra on Tuesday. There has already been much fanfare before its release, with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet organising a busy schedule of media appearances for Dr Switkowski after the report's release.
Environmentalists believe the report's findings are a foregone conclusion, pointing to Dr Switkowski's time as a board member of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. He was serving on the board when Mr Howard asked him to head the inquiry, and stepped down from it shortly afterwards.
Professor Falk said he believed that Dr Switkowski's report would support the continued mining of uranium as well as a domestic uranium enrichment industry.
He said any finding that nuclear power could be economically effective in the future could be disputed because of the high level of government subsidies required to overcome side effects of nuclear power such as waste disposal and storage.
Also yesterday the Opposition frontbencher Martin Ferguson criticised proposed plans by the European Union to place a passenger carbon tax on all flights in and out of European airports.
The move comes after much speculation in Europe that the plethora of cheap airlines operating were contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
"Green protectionism is Europe's latest export, and it's time for Australia and the Asia Pacific to stand up for ourselves," Mr Ferguson said.
To read the original article from the Sydney Morning Herald, click on:
SMH
Stephanie Peatling
November 18, 2006
THE REPORT on nuclear energy commissioned by the Prime Minister will be reviewed by a group of scientists to provide an alternative view to what they say is a politically stacked taskforce.
The group, which calls itself the EnergyScience Coalition, yesterday put a series of reports and studies on nuclear power on its website and said it would continue to provide alternative views on the energy debate.
Jim Falk, the director of the Australian Centre for Science, Innovation and Society at Melbourne University, is joined by the retired diplomat Professor Richard Broinowski, academics from the University of NSW and Monash University, and members of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War.
The head of the Federal Government's inquiry into nuclear energy, Ziggy Switkowski, will release his report next week but has already given an interview in which he said it was not economically viable.
Dr Switkowski told the Herald last month that Australia has so much cheap coal that "any comparisons will be unfavourable for every alternative source" of energy, including nuclear.
But it could become economically competitive if new taxes were placed on coal.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, surprised many people this week when he announced that he would establish another taskforce to examine carbon trading, a system of taxing greenhouse gas emissions.
A member of the nuclear taskforce, Warwick McKibbin, a member of the Reserve Bank board, has already developed a model for carbon trading.
Dr Switkowski, the former head of Telstra and a nuclear physicist, will release his report in Canberra on Tuesday. There has already been much fanfare before its release, with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet organising a busy schedule of media appearances for Dr Switkowski after the report's release.
Environmentalists believe the report's findings are a foregone conclusion, pointing to Dr Switkowski's time as a board member of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. He was serving on the board when Mr Howard asked him to head the inquiry, and stepped down from it shortly afterwards.
Professor Falk said he believed that Dr Switkowski's report would support the continued mining of uranium as well as a domestic uranium enrichment industry.
He said any finding that nuclear power could be economically effective in the future could be disputed because of the high level of government subsidies required to overcome side effects of nuclear power such as waste disposal and storage.
Also yesterday the Opposition frontbencher Martin Ferguson criticised proposed plans by the European Union to place a passenger carbon tax on all flights in and out of European airports.
The move comes after much speculation in Europe that the plethora of cheap airlines operating were contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
"Green protectionism is Europe's latest export, and it's time for Australia and the Asia Pacific to stand up for ourselves," Mr Ferguson said.
To read the original article from the Sydney Morning Herald, click on:
SMH
posted by Pax Christi @ Saturday, November 18, 2006
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