Nuclear for Australia founder Will Shackel interviewed by Jaynie Seal on News24.
Interview Transcript:
Jaynie Seal (Host): Well, for more, joining us live is Nuclear for Australia founder Will Shackel. Will, great to see you. And my understanding is that you wanted to go to the press club, but you were unable because it was sold out. So tell us about that and perhaps what questions you would like to share with the minister.
Will Shackel (Founder of Nuclear for Australia): Well, it was a shame not to be able to get a ticket to hear our energy minister present because unfortunately Australia is the only member of the G20 with a ban on nuclear power. And with rising electricity demand, it really is an important question for the minister why he doesn't lift the ban. I hope someone would be able to ask the question: why does the government continue to defend Australia's decades old nuclear power prohibitions which restrict next generation nuclear power technology which could help meet rising electricity demand? The government says they're serious about AI and electrification, then how are we going to get the energy? We need to have all clean energy options on the table. And I believe that includes nuclear power, which is used in over 30 countries around the world to provide clean, reliable, affordable energy.
Jaynie Seal (Host): Wouldn't you argue though that the current government, the Labor government would say that we have enough renewables to provide us with clean energy along with batteries?
Will Shackel (Founder of Nuclear for Australia): Well, the government predicts that Australia's electricity demand could nearly double by 2050. So this is an enormous challenge we've got on our hands and I believe that means we have to have every single option being considered whether it is renewables, whether it is nuclear power because it is used all around the world to help meet some of these challenges. The government's off track with this 82% renewable target at the moment and already we're just seeing some of the numbers coming out from the data center companies about the kind of demand in gigawatts that they could be needing. So I think nuclear power could be a really good solution in terms of the data center companies. You've got all of the tech companies around the world using nuclear power whether it's Meta, Google, Amazon in order to power their data centers. Microsoft has entered a deal with Constellation to restart one of the reactors at Three Mile Island. So I think keeping Australia's nuclear power bans is a real waste of energy. The government needs to be allowing all options on the table in order to meet this rising demand.
Jaynie Seal (Host): But we hear, Will, the words distraction, the time, the cost and again Australia has an abundance of sunshine. So maybe it does work for other countries but not here. What would you say to those arguments?
Will Shackel (Founder of Nuclear for Australia): Well, I don't think any of those arguments are sufficient grounds to introduce a ban on a technology source. The government's actually had to introduce a caveat in their nuclear power prohibitions for the AUKUS nuclear submarine. So they acknowledge that nuclear technology is safe. We've had research reactors in the suburbs of Sydney producing life-saving nuclear medicine for decades. So it's not an issue with nuclear per se, but all of those arguments that they typically bring up, cost, time, well, if those are so true, then why not lift the ban and ultimately see what happens? They're not reasons why we ban technologies. If those were the grounds to ban things, we'd have all of these different technologies banned across Australia. You wouldn't be seeing Teslas when they were first introduced because they would have been too expensive. And now we're seeing this huge take up of electric vehicles. So it really is contradictory policy. If the government is so certain that nuclear doesn't stack up, then why not lift the ban? It was introduced in the middle of the night on last day of parliament in 1998. And it was debated for just 10 minutes. So why can't they use the same amount of time to get rid of that barrier to a clean energy technology which is being proven all around the world?
Jaynie Seal (Host): So is it an ideology then? Why do you think the Labor government is not even willing to look at it in your opinion?
Will Shackel (Founder of Nuclear for Australia): I think unfortunately it is an anti-nuclear ideology and there's been lots of nuclear fear campaigns. We saw in the last election the three-eyed fish, the $600 billion figure, all of which were simply not true. And I think it's time that the government moves past their anti-nuclear ideology.
Jaynie Seal (Host): It is dangerous though, isn't it? Wouldn't you say we've seen certainly Chernobyl and Fukushima and we've seen nuclear power plants that have shut down because of the heat. We know that there was some misinformation with that scenario, but talk us through some of the dangers.
Will Shackel (Founder of Nuclear for Australia): Well, nuclear is actually statistically the second safest energy source and that includes factoring in the consequences of those events that people would be familiar with. Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima. But the important thing is nuclear technology's come a long way since then with many lessons learned. No reactor built in the last 40 years has had a major accident like that. And Australia will be able to adopt next generation nuclear technologies which have passive safety systems which can shut down without the need for human intervention and all of these other new advancements which mean that new nuclear technology is incredibly safe particularly compared to our energy alternatives like fossil fuels which have real safety consequences on human health. Even some renewables also have safety consequences as well. So unfortunately there's no energy source which is perfectly safe. But the important thing is the nuclear industry has come a long way since some of those incidents in the past.
Jaynie Seal (Host): Will, thank you so much for your time and expertise. Appreciate it.
Will Shackel (Founder of Nuclear for Australia): Thank you.
[End]
This transcript was generated with the assistance of AI and may contain errors.