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Speaker 1: Let's continue our chat on nuclear energy. Rebecca Nile is

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Speaker 1: CEO It's a Chamber of mindst energy, and has been

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Speaker 1: calling for political parties to adopt I imagine a policy

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Speaker 1: similar to what we've heard today, adopt one like this

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Speaker 1: for a very long time. Rebecca, good morning, Good morning, Matthew.

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Speaker 2: Yes, we have been advocating this for a very long time,

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Speaker 2: since well before the twenty fifteen Nuclear fuel Cycle Commission

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Speaker 2: led by Kevin Scats back in twenty sixteen, fifteen, twenty sixteen.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of detail we don't know, such as cost,

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Speaker 1: for instance, and how we store waste moving forward, so

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Speaker 1: a few gaps Peter Dunton needs to fill.

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Speaker 2: In now, I think rather than focusing on the gaps,

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Speaker 2: we've always known that we can't have a logical conversation

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Speaker 2: about nuclear until the federal prohibition is overturned, and he's

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Speaker 2: made it quite clear in his announcements today that the

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Speaker 2: first part of this process is to actually sort out

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Speaker 2: this federal prohibition. So once that's done, then we can

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Speaker 2: start opening the pathway to look at cost, to look

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Speaker 2: at sighting, to look at community expectations, etc. So we

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Speaker 2: very much support that as a logical first step in

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Speaker 2: having a conversation about nuclear and how it can benefit

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Speaker 2: South Australia and more particularly the nation.

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Speaker 1: Well, sighting's already been determined according to Peter Dutton, and

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Speaker 1: here in South Australia specifically Port Agusta. Now it can't

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Speaker 1: be the side of the former power station because that's

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Speaker 1: now a green cement plant. So speaking with Rowan Ramsey,

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Speaker 1: the local MP up there, he was saying, well, there's

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Speaker 1: lots of land around the town that it could go on.

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Speaker 1: That won't be a problem. But transmission lines, I understand

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Speaker 1: from tweets put out by the Energy Minister Tom Kots

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Speaker 1: and Tonus this morning saying well it's not as if

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Speaker 1: they're sitting not doing anything. Those transmission lines from the

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Speaker 1: power station are now carrying energy produced out of renewables,

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Speaker 1: So do we need transmission lines there as well?

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Speaker 2: My understanding is that the transmission lines do have capability.

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Speaker 2: I think the Minister may be talking about future renewable power,

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Speaker 2: not those those lines are not fully occupied as I

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Speaker 2: understand it, with renewable power. But that's a conversation for

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Speaker 2: later date. We certainly have a transmission corridor, which is

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Speaker 2: what we don't have for a lot of renewable projects

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Speaker 2: up and down the East Coast of Australia. But here

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Speaker 2: in South Australia we do have a transmission corridor, and

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Speaker 2: of course the sites that have been put forward in

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Speaker 2: the Coalition's proposal are all sites that have transmission corridors,

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Speaker 2: and that's a big start, particularly when we're looking at

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Speaker 2: land access.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so if needs be, another line can be added,

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Speaker 1: or another tower next to the existing perhaps. I mean,

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Speaker 1: as you say, the corridor is the important thing.

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Speaker 2: The corridor is absolutely the important thing. And that's what's

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Speaker 2: causing a lot of anks up and down the East

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Speaker 2: Coast is that those corridors are not existing and they're

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Speaker 2: needing to be driven through areas of beautiful forest reserves etc.

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Speaker 2: Whereas here in South Australia we have got a corridor

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Speaker 2: and it's one that can be enhanced absolutely. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's funny you should say about the East

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Speaker 1: Coast and wildlife reserves, because over easter I was driving

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Speaker 1: through the back blocks around Portland, through Heathmere and other

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Speaker 1: small towns like that, and just through exactly that, through

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Speaker 1: forest reserves and the like, and all of a sudden

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Speaker 1: we've entered a clearing, thinking what's going on here? And

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Speaker 1: it's not till you look up or to you left

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Speaker 1: and right and you see the giant towers and the

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Speaker 1: forests that have been cleared all the way around as

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Speaker 1: these transmission lines go through. And obviously it's because of

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Speaker 1: the fire risks should you know, lightning strike or tower

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Speaker 1: come down or whatever, that they've cleared so much land through,

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Speaker 1: just swaths of it, just slashed through forests. And you

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Speaker 1: have a look at it and think, my goodness, if

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Speaker 1: this is happening up and down the East coast through

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Speaker 1: farmland for instance, and we're losing a lot of land

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Speaker 1: to putting in three or four or five overhead power lines.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely there. I think the estimate is somewhere about

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Speaker 2: twenty three thousand kilometers of transmission lines and are going

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Speaker 2: to need to be built. It is a problem, and

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Speaker 2: it's kind of the unseen part of the renewable energy transition.

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Speaker 2: As you know, Matthew Southstraian Chamber of Minds and Energy.

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Speaker 2: This supports all sources of energy, whether it be renewables,

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Speaker 2: whether it be gas, whether it be coal, whether it

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Speaker 2: be nuclear. So when certainly not opposing renewables but there

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Speaker 2: is downsides to all technologies, and the one that the

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Speaker 2: Southstralian government continue to focus on here for nuclear is cost.

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Speaker 2: But I think what is important that the coalition's policy

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Speaker 2: has brought out it's just the impending waste that will

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Speaker 2: come from solar and wind. Where they're looking at the

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Speaker 2: numbers that they're quoting and it's similar to what we've

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Speaker 2: been seeing. This is expected to be over a million

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Speaker 2: tons of end of life's solar panels by twenty thirty five.

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Speaker 2: It's not far away. It costs six times as much

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Speaker 2: to recycle solar panels as sending them to landfill, and

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Speaker 2: we're going to have about sixteen thousand tons of blade

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Speaker 2: composite waste by twenty thirty four. So a there is

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Speaker 2: a downside to every energy solution, whether it be a

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Speaker 2: fossil fuel or a renewable source. And our position has

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Speaker 2: always been let's have a conversation about it, and we

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Speaker 2: haven't been able to have that conversation about nuclear because

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Speaker 2: there has been a federal prohibition. And that's what's exciting

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Speaker 2: today is that there is at least a conversation about

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Speaker 2: removing that federal prohibition and looking at how nuclear could

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Speaker 2: support our industries going forward here in South Australia. Our

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Speaker 2: survey found that seventy five percent South Australian support having

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Speaker 2: an informed and balanced conversation about having the nuclear energy

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Speaker 2: industry in South Australia and fifty eight percent support progressing

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Speaker 2: the necessary political dialogue and regulatory reform to be enabled

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Speaker 2: to do that. Certainly, from Saycom's position, we have been

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Speaker 2: consistently calling on both major parties to provide funding for

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Speaker 2: government agencies to actually undertake the work that is necessary

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Speaker 2: for South Australia to be ready for being part of

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Speaker 2: a nuclear program. There is a whole nuclear readiness piece

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Speaker 2: that is also being overlooked. We need to make sure

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Speaker 2: that our government agencies are well funded and have got

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Speaker 2: the resources to be able to look at these opportunities

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Speaker 2: for our states. So that's very much what we're calling

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Speaker 2: on the Melanowskis government to partner with the coalition and

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Speaker 2: enable our bureaucrats to be ready for nuclear power. Should

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Speaker 2: we overturn a prohibition at a central level?

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Speaker 1: All right now, well, especially considering we've got uranium from

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Speaker 1: Port Augusta, what is it, four hundred probably not even

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Speaker 1: kilometers up the.

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Speaker 2: Road, yeah, absolutely, We've supply twenty five percent of the

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Speaker 2: world's uranium, but we're not using it for our own purposes.

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Speaker 2: We've also got a state government through their State Prosperity Project,

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Speaker 2: which is very ambitious in terms of providing copper, critical minerals,

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Speaker 2: iron and steel. We've just got so many building blocks

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Speaker 2: of a fantastic economic, strong economic future and that's all

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Speaker 2: wound up in the State Prosperity Project. But key to

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Speaker 2: all of the delivery of all of that is industrial heat.

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Speaker 2: And we absolutely know that renewables cannot produce industrial heat

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Speaker 2: to drive smelters. It can provide electricity and that's what's

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Speaker 2: been looked at to produce hydrogen. And if hydrogen is

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Speaker 2: able to be delivered at scale, yes, that could provide

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Speaker 2: in industrial heat. But there's still a lot of question

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Speaker 2: marks over the viability of hydrogen. So we need to

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Speaker 2: keep providing industrial heat to though the three key smelters

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Speaker 2: in date, but also the manufacturing around those smelters that

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Speaker 2: need industrial heat.

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Speaker 1: The lessons from the Royal Commission, the Nuclear Fuel Cycle

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Speaker 1: Royal Commission, can they be applied to this nationally or

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Speaker 1: certainly here in South Australia. Do we need another Royal Commission.

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't think we need another Royal Commission. I

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Speaker 2: know that the Coalition State Coalition called for that, whether

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Speaker 2: I think we've had that conversation. What we need is

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Speaker 2: to have bipartisan support for South Australian agencies and government

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Speaker 2: to be ready for the opportunity. I'll just quote what

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Speaker 2: Kevin Scarce said in his final report in May twenty sixteen.

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Speaker 2: He recommended that the South Australian government pursue removal at

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Speaker 2: the federal level of existing prohibitions on nuclear power generation

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Speaker 2: to allow it to contribute to a low carbon electricity

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Speaker 2: system if required. So it's very clear about the core

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Speaker 2: there calling on the South Australian government to pursue the

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Speaker 2: federal removal of that prohibition. But since the Commission, no

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Speaker 2: South Australian government of any political persuasion has pursued this

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Speaker 2: recommendation or undertaken the preparatory where it's necessary for the

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Speaker 2: establishment of nuclear That's what we need to get back to.

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Speaker 2: I don't think we need to have another Royal Commissioner.

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Speaker 2: I think we need to overturn a federal prohibition and

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Speaker 2: get on with logical conversations about how to provide South

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Speaker 2: Australians with affordable, reliable energy that will support their businesses.

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Speaker 1: All right, Rebecca, appreciate your time.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you, Matthew.

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Speaker 1: Rebecca Null there from the essay Chamber of Minds and

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Speaker 1: Energy