Are nuclear reactors a solution to climate change?

If nuclear power was fast tracked into 25 reactors around Australia we would still be waiting decades for them to be operational. It would then take around another seven years of output to offset the emissions associated with their construction. (Source: Chris Riedy, Institute for Sustainable Futures)

Nuclear fuel requires a huge amount of fossil fuel to extract and refine to the point where it can be used. As the easy to access high quality deposits are extracted more fossil fuels need to be burnt to extract what's left in deposits that are either deeper or need more energy intensive refining, or both.
In September of 2007 Rio Tinto announced that the deposits at the Ranger Uranium mine in Kakadu national park were in fact much larger than previously thought. The mine life, they said, would be extended to 2012 by the discovery. This means that they will have mined the last of the uranium deposits at Ranger at least a decade before the first Australian reactor could possibly come online.

Just as Australians have to pay international market rates for oil despite having local sources we will have to pay international prices for uranium as well. As additional nuclear reactors are built the international demand for uranium will increase and with it the price, meaning Australia will be paying a premium for uranium to fuel any local reactors. Just as any Australian reactors come online the price of uranium could be the highest it's ever been and consuming it domestically would cut export earnings and increase power costs.

Economic modelling for the Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change has shown that achieving a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from year 2000 levels by 2050 is possible while maintaining strong economic growth, and that this can be done without resorting to nuclear power.

Below are links to a well produced video presentation by WA's Scott Ludlam on nuclear power.

Google Earth Link

Follow this link for an aircraft window view of Australia's three uranium mines using Google Earth.

Olympic Dam, the second mine in the tour is owned by BHP, the most profitable company in Australia's corporate history. BHP is conducting a feasability study on expansion at the mine which will see it become an 'open cut' mine with four times it's current production. This will mean the removal of a million tonnes of 'overburden' (the earth that lies on top of the ore body) every day for about two years totaling 800,000,000 tonnes of earthmoving. The reomoval of nearly a billion tonnes of earth will require an enourmous amount of energy and leave a hole behind that is 1.2 kilometers deep. The expanded mine would requre hundreds of kilometers of gas and water pipelines, a desalination plant, at least one new fossil fuel fired power plant and a staggering amount of diesel fuel. While the mine will produce other mineral ore's the major focus is uranium.

Ranger, the last mine on the tour sits just six kilometers from Jabiru, one of Australia's top tourist locations and as you can see is in a large flood plain. Should the mine's dams burst there is at risk of radioactive contamination across this world heritage area. Climate change is bringing more storms and heavy rain to this part of Australia and increasing the flood risk. Following exploration at the site Rio Tinto announced in September 2007 that the size of the uranium ore body is significantly larger than previously thought.