Lake Macquarie City Council have voted against a motion to host a nuclear power plant at the former Eraring Power Station.
The motion asked councillors to repeal a long-standing ban on nuclear power stations, and consider building one on the Lake's shore.
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998 and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act ban the approval, licensing, construction or operation of any nuclear fuel fabrication plant, a nuclear power plan, enrichment plant or reprocessing facility in Australia.
However, North Ward Councillor Colin Grigg, who brought the motion to council, believes nuclear power is a clean, sustainable solution to the region's power problems.
"I believe we need to take a look at nuclear because as it stands right now, renewables are not sufficient to meet the demand and I think we need to have reliable base load power," Cr Grigg said.
However, council was not persuaded, and voted 12 to 1 against the motion at last night's meeting, citing issues surrounding the storage of nuclear waste, and the station's environmental impact on the area.
In response, Cr Grigg said council needs to "take of the shades" and continue the discussion about what to do next.
"I'm disappointed that councillors missed the opportunity to read the facts sheet that I sent to them all. They were quoting from understandings from before like Chernobyl and I think that's the problem; the community has basically been scared off nuclear and all I'm saying is we need to, with fresh eyes, take a look at nuclear," he said.
He also said placing the plant at Earing was just a suggestion, and he'd be happy to see a facility placed elsewhere.
"There's 45 countries in the world that are using nuclear power. There's 450 nuclear power stations in the world; American has 100 and is building more, and France has over 50 and is building more. I think that we're lagging behind on this. If there's an alternative that could provide reliable base load power, I'm happy for it, but at the moment there's nothing else."
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| Image: CSIRO |
