PARLIAMENT OF VICTORIA LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Environment and Planning Committee Inquiry into nuclear prohibition Parliament of Victoria Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee Ordered to be published VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT PRINTER November 2020 PP No 181, Session 2018–2020 ISBN 978 1 922425 12 6 (print version), 978 1 922425 13 3 (PDF version) Committee membership CHAIR DEPUTY CHAIR Cesar Melhem Clifford Hayes Western Metropolitan Southern Metropolitan Dr Matthew Bach Melina Bath Jeff Bourman David Limbrick Eastern Metropolitan Eastern Victoria Eastern Victoria South Eastern Metropolitan Andy Meddick Dr Samantha Ratnam Nina Taylor Sonja Terpstra Western Victoria Northern Metropolitan Southern Metropolitan Eastern Metropolitan Participating members Georgie Crozier, Southern Metropolitan Dr Catherine Cumming, Western Metropolitan Hon. David Davis, Southern Metropolitan Dr Tien Kieu, South Eastern Metropolitan Bev McArthur, Western Victoria Tim Quilty, Northern Victoria ii Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee About the Committee Functions The Environment and Planning Committee (Legislation and References) is established under the Legislative Council Standing Orders Chapter 23—Council Committees and Sessional Orders. The Committee’s functions are to inquire into and report on any proposal, matter or thing concerned with the arts, environment and planning the use, development and protection of land. The Environment and Planning Committee (References) may inquire into, hold public hearings, consider and report on other matters that are relevant to its functions. The Environment and Planning Committee (Legislation) may inquire into, hold public hearings, consider and report on any Bills or draft Bills referred by the Legislative Council, annual reports, estimates of expenditure or other documents laid before the Legislative Council in accordance with an Act, provided these are relevant to its functions. Government Departments allocated for oversight: • Department of the Environment, Land, Water and Planning • Department of Premier and Cabinet. Inquiry into nuclear prohibition iii About the Committee Secretariat Michael Baker, Committee Manager Vivienne Bannan, Inquiry Officer Caitlin Connolly, Research Assistant Justine Donohue, Administrative Officer Contact details Address Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee Parliament of Victoria Spring Street EAST MELBOURNE VIC 3002 Phone 61 3 8682 2869 Email [email protected] Web www.parliament.vic.gov.au/epc-lc This report is available on the Committee’s website. iv Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee Contents Preliminaries Terms of Reference viii Chair’s foreword ix Findings xi 1 About the Inquiry 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 The Terms of Reference 1 1.3 Submissions 2 1.4 Public Hearings 2 2 Nuclear activity and regulation in Australia 3 2.1 Nuclear Activities (Prohibitions) Act 1983 (Vic) 3 2.1.1 Effect of repealing the Prohibitions Act 3 2.2 Commonwealth laws and national regulatory framework 5 2.2.1 Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) 7 2.2.2 Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998 (Cth) 8 2.2.3 Commonwealth regulatory agencies 9 2.3 Regulation of nuclear and radiation‑related activities in Victoria 11 2.3.1 Radiation Act 2005 and Radiation Regulations 11 2.4 Lucas Heights Reactor 13 2.4.1 Open Pool Australian Light-water (OPAL) Reactor 14 2.4.2 Nuclear medicine and radiopharmaceuticals production 14 3 Australian uranium and thorium mining and export 17 3.1 Uranium: national overview 17 3.1.1 Mining and production 17 3.1.2 Export 19 3.1.3 Issues relating to uranium mining 20 3.2 Thorium 25 3.3 Uranium and thorium mining in Victoria 26 3.3.1 Uranium mining 27 3.3.2 Thorium mining 30 Inquiry into nuclear prohibition v Contents 4 National energy policy and nuclear power in the National Electricity Market 33 4.1 Overview of the current energy industry 33 4.1.1 Energy consumption in Australia 33 4.1.2 Victorian context 38 4.2 Nuclear and renewables in the energy mix 43 4.2.1 An energy market in transition 43 4.2.2 State of the Energy Market 2020 44 4.2.3 Integrated System Plan 2020 46 4.2.4 A mix of technologies 47 4.3 Supply and demand: grid stability and energy security 49 4.3.1 Grid stability 49 4.3.2 Energy security 53 5 Costs of nuclear energy 59 5.1 Introduction 59 5.2 Costing of energy 59 5.2.1 How are costs compared across different electricity technologies? 59 5.2.2 Australia 61 5.2.3 Conclusion 71 6 Nuclear fuel cycle and power generation 73 6.1 Nuclear power generation and the fuel cycle 73 6.1.1 Nuclear fission 73 6.1.2 Generating electricity with nuclear energy 73 6.1.3 Nuclear fuel cycle 74 6.2 Viability of other nuclear fuel cycle activities 75 6.2.1 Enrichment and fuel fabrication 75 6.2.2 Reprocessing of nuclear fuel 78 6.2.3 Waste Management 81 6.2.4 Waste from nuclear power generation 82 6.3 New and emerging technologies 84 6.3.1 Small Modular Reactors 87 6.3.2 Thorium 101 7 Nuclear energy issues: security and safety 107 7.1 Introduction 107 7.2 Security and weapons non‑proliferation 107 7.2.1 Australian settings 107 7.2.2 Nuclear security 112 7.2.3 Expansion of nuclear activities in Victoria and Australia 115 vi Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee Contents 7.3 Health and safety 115 7.3.1 Public health 116 7.3.2 Nuclear plant safety and accidents 124 8 Nuclear energy issues: waste management and the environment 149 8.1 Introduction 149 8.2 Waste and waste management 149 8.2.1 Radioactive waste management in Australia: current approach 149 8.2.2 Potential high-level waste management in Australia and Victoria 154 8.2.3 Views about waste management and disposal 155 8.2.4 The Committee’s view 158 8.3 Environmental impacts of nuclear energy 159 8.3.1 Low or no emission technology 160 8.3.2 Nuclear risks a much lesser evil than climate change 165 8.3.3 Contrary views on nuclear impact on the environment 171 9 Public opinion and social licence to operate 177 9.1 Community engagement 177 9.1.1 Traditional Owners and First Nations People 179 9.2 Social licence to operate 181 9.2.1 Community consent 184 9.2.2 Intergenerational equity 187 10 Nuclear activities in Victoria 191 10.1 Nuclear‑related opportunities in Victoria 191 10.1.1 Nuclear medicine 191 10.1.2 Thorium exploration and mining 197 Appendix 1 About the Inquiry 199 Extract of proceedings 205 Minority reports 229 Inquiry into nuclear prohibition vii Terms of Reference On 14 August 2019, the Legislative Council agreed to the following motion: That this House requires the Environment and Planning Committee to inquire into, consider and report, within 12 months*, on potential benefits to Victoria in removing prohibitions enacted by the Nuclear Activities (Prohibitions) Act 1983, and in particular, the Committee should— 1. investigate the potential for Victoria to contribute to global low carbon dioxide energy production through enabling exploration and production of uranium and thorium; 2. identify economic, environmental and social benefits for Victoria, including those related to medicine, scientific research, exploration and mining; 3. identify opportunities for Victoria to participate in the nuclear fuel cycle; and 4. identify any barriers to participation, including limitations caused by federal or local laws and regulations. * Reporting date extended to 30 November 2020. viii Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee Chair’s foreword The current energy market in Australia is in a state of transition, with major fossil fuel (coal) power generation plants reaching the end of their life and being replaced by other sources of electricity generation. Concerns about climate change and the impact of fossil fuels on carbon emissions, not only within Australia but globally, has driven this shift away from fossil fuels towards variable renewable energy sources. It is this need to shift towards low-emissions power generation that the question of nuclear power has been raised in recent years. Currently nuclear power plays no role in energy generation in Australia and never has. In fact, since the Nuclear Activities (Prohibitions) Act 1983 (Vic) was enacted, there has been a legal prohibition on the construction and operation of nuclear facilities in Victoria. In addition to the Victorian legislation, Commonwealth laws also prohibit the use of nuclear energy for electricity generation across Australia. It is this legal prohibition of nuclear energy production that has been the focus of this Inquiry. During the course of the Inquiry, which attracted 80 submissions and during which the Committee held six days of public hearings of witnesses from Australia and overseas, the Committee heard a range of evidence both supporting and opposing the removal of the legal prohibitions on nuclear energy. In this report, the Committee makes no recommendations and does not take a strong position on nuclear power as an alternative energy source in Australia, and particularly in Victoria. It is clear that currently, it is not possible to accurately cost nuclear energy, as no nuclear energy industry exists in Australia and therefore any costing would be speculative and based on experiences of other countries with different infrastructure. However, figures produced by the CSIRO would indicate that traditional nuclear energy generation is currently expensive and unlikely to be taken up in Australia. It will be interesting to see over the next few years whether new nuclear technologies, such as small modular reactors (SMRs) which are in the final stages of development, change the costing of nuclear energy over time. Of course, the cost is only one element of the viability of nuclear power. Issues of waste management, public and environmental safety, potential health impacts and a range of other issues would need to be carefully considered before nuclear power became a reality in Australia.