“If we want to reduce carbon emissions … get with program of bringing about nuclear energy,” Senator Joyce said.
“If you don’t do that then you look completely and utterly hypercritical … in the rest of the statements and arguments about being clever, about being carbon effective, about developing jobs, about being a world leader.”
Senator Joyce said Labor’s approach to nuclear technology was mired in a 1954 Cold War mentality.
The Labor party did not make sense to export Australia’s uranium reserves without benefiting from the resource ourselves, he said.
“We can be the Middle East in the generation of wealth from nuclear energy,” Senator Joyce said.
According to Nick Xenophon, Independent senator, Australia should not rule out nuclear energy as an energy option in future if no other alternative to fossil fuels is available.
“Although I’m very cautious about it, I want to make sure that there is no other option to fossil fuels,” Nick Xenophon said.
Meanwhile, if base-load renewable energy like geothermal power did not become available in the next few years, the nuclear option must be looked at, Nick Xenophon said.
“I don’t think we should rule it out completely, because it doesn’t have the same emissions but there are other risks involved particularly in relation to nuclear waste.”
