Business
14 August, 2024
Time to lift uranium ban, says Dutton
In order to enact his nuclear power strategy, Peter Dutton says uranium will be required.
Australia should capitalise on global demand for uranium by extracting and exporting the large deposits in North West Queensland, says Peter Dutton.
Responding to questions posed by North West Weekly in Mount Isa on Friday, Mr Dutton said he believed the national economy would benefit from the recommencement of uranium mining in Western Australia and the North West.
“Why, at a time when there’s huge global demand for uranium, wouldn’t we be taking the opportunity to meet that demand and exporting that product, creating wealth for our country, creating tens of thousands of jobs?” Mr Dutton said.
“We need to have a government here that can make decisions about investing into the regions – because that’s where the jobs will be created.
“We need to make sure that we can revitalise our state again.”
According to recent figures released by the World Nuclear Association, it is forecast that global demand for uranium will surge 51 per cent over the next two decades due to increases in existing reactor capacity and more nuclear reactors being constructed.
Despite a call by Member for Traeger Robbie Katter for Mount Isa to be considered as a potential nuclear power site under the federal LNP policy, Mr Dutton said there were no plans for additional sites.
“We’ve identified the seven sites and we’re not proposing to go beyond that,” Mr Dutton said on Friday.
“The reason we’ve chosen the seven sites is that they’re coal fired power stations that are coming to an end of life.
“We need to have nuclear in the mix because we know that out of the top 20 economies in the world, Australia is the only one that doesn’t have or hasn’t signed up to nuclear power.”