Peter Dutton released his fundamentally flawed “costings” for his nuclear fantasy this month and couldn’t even remember to include WA and SA – two whole states. We were there giving evidence to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Nuclear Power, telling the politicians that nuclear is not the answer for us, for ETU members! ETU members need a real plan, not a pipe-dream that will put electrical trades workers on the back foot. You can read the ETU’s official statement on Dutton’s nuclear fantasy here
Knowing the risk Dutton’s plan poses to ETU members’ jobs and the future of our industries, the ETU has appeared at the Parliamentary Inquiry into Nuclear Energy that has been touring the country. The ETU most recently appeared in Collie and provided evidence to demonstrate how nuclear energy is not an answer for ETU members. We have 100,000s of electrical jobs in renewables, new transmission and green manufacturing under construction and in the pipeline. And we told the inquiry that by going nuclear we risk the future of our industries, and thatDutton’s ill-thought-out nuclear scheme will ultimately kill jobs.
ETU WA organiser, Simon Brezovnik appeared for the ETU in Collie this month. Prior to becoming an organiser for the ETU, Simon was an electrical instrument technician with over two decades of resources sector experience working on coal, oil, diesel and gas fired power and steam generators for large tier one, energy intensive resource projects.
He played an integral part in the commission of the last two coal fired power stations built in Australia, and they were plagued with design issues, cost blowouts and delivered years after the scheduled completion date.
“If we cannot build coal fired power stations on time and on budget there is no way we will be able to deliver nuclear power stations on time and on budget.”
Here are the key points Simon made to the inquiry:
Risk to Supply and Future Jobs:
The Muja and Collie stations are both due to close in the next few years.
Michaelia Cash said that that earliest nuclear could be built in WA would be 2050 – this does not offer a future for our members in Collie. Most of our members working at power stations in Collie would be retired by then or no longer with us.
The LNPs nuclear fantasy deliberately creates policy uncertainty, is sowing chaos and putting projects on ice today. The last thing Australia needs is more energy uncertainty after the previous decade of Abbot, Turnbull and Morrison’s deliberate and purposeful delays to renewables which dried up investment in new generation and drove up energy costs. The LNPs nuclear fantasy will destroy thousands of jobs, lead to major energy shortages because nuclear is too slow, and taxpayers and power users will pay the bill for decades to come.
Local Projects:
The ETU has been working hard with other unions, business, and the state and federal governments to develop new local industries and a plan to transition Collie out of coal.
The Collie just transition plan means that members will be supported to retrain so that they can participate in the new job opportunities that are flowing on from the renewable energy transformation in Collie and in the regions, or into retirement.
ETU members are getting jobs today on major renewable energy projects. With many more in the pipeline.Renewables and grid scale batteries will create jobs for thousands of additional electrical workers every year.
Acciona’s Bellwether wind farm to be built out the back of Collie starts in 2028 and will deliver 3GW of wind. This will provide 400 long-term construction jobs and over 100 full-time jobs during the projects initial 30 years of operation.
The project will provide drought-resistant incomes to farmers and support local towns with new business opportunities. Additionally, the project would be able to provide power to existing businesses seeking to decarbonise their operations.
A 3.2GW Offshore wind project proposed to go off the Bunbury coast is planned to commence by 2030 with thousands of construction jobs and over 200 permanent jobs in operation. The proponent of this project will also be using local companies to manufacture turbine components further adding value to the Australia and local economy. A Dutton lead LNP will end this project.
The Collie Green Steel project is slated to start construction next year and will use renewable energy to create green steel products for the Australian market. This will bring construction jobs and once completed permanent ongoing jobs for Collie residence.
BHP and Woodside have plans for a massive hydrogen production facility to be built in the Kwinana industrial strip to produce green hydrogen for export – this will never happen without cheap green renewable energy.
South32’s Worsley Alumina and Alcoa are both wanting to decarbonise and they can only do this through cheap renewable energy.
Low-cost renewable energy can rebuild Australian industry because manufacturing and downstream processing of raw materials is by its nature, very energy intensive.
Nuclear in Collie:
The LNP have not released any detail on how a nuclear reactor of any design could safely operate in Collie. There is one glaring inescapable technical problem – the lack of water.
The South West of WA has had a year on year declining average rain fall for decades and this trend is continuing.
This reduction in rain forced local alumina producer South32 to construct a pipeline from the Welington Dam to the refinery so that the refinery operations could be sustained.
The privately owned Bluewaters coal power station was forced to run both of its units at 20% below capacity towards the end on last summer due to a lack of water.
Serious questions remain around water consumption and waste storage.
Cooling water is critical to the safe operation of a nuclear reactor and if the worst should happen, as it has before – water will be the only way to prevent a catastrophic failure of the reactor core. A 1GW nuclear reactor consumes nearly 100 times more water than coal fired power.
The same 1GW reactor would require over 27 tonnes of enriched uranium fuel per year and that needs to be stored long term. Will the radioactive waste be stored on the proposed site in collie, if not, where in Western Australia will the waste go and how will it be transported, which regional town will become the toxic dumping ground of Dutton’s nuclear fantasy?
Nuclear delivers too little, too late, it is far too expensive and carries a lot of risk. This risk is not only environmental but also economical. With global energy demand expect to double by 2050 Australia has the opportunity to become a major renewable energy exporter. Exporting clean renewable energy as hydrogen, ammonia or through underwater cables directly into Asia. Australia is blessed with everything it needs to become a renewable energy superpower if only we choose to do so.