South Australia’s plan to take on 13 percent of the world’s nuclear fuel and turn it into billions of dollars in economic benefit is viable.
That’s one of the takeaways from a glowing interim report Australia’s Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission delivered this month, estimating the plan could mean AUS $5 billion in annual state revenue over a 30-year period and $2 billion annually after that.
Introduced in 2015 as “the nuclear opportunity,” South Australia Sen. Sean Edwards’ plan would tap into Asia’s market for nuclear fuel disposal services. As proposed, South Australia would take ownership of about 60,000 tons of waste at about AUS $1.4 million per unit. Edwards claims there’s a way to completely recycle the material while generating zero-carbon electricity.
The commission estimates total revenue at more than $257 billion and total costs at $145 billion. The tentative findings, delivered this month ahead of the final report due in May, say the plan could create 1,500 full-time jobs during construction over a 25-year period, and more than 600 jobs once operation begins.
The report estimates that the storage and disposal facility could be in operation by the late 2020s, and it could take on significant amounts of waste from the Asia-Pacific region, including Taiwan, Japan and Korea. Capacity is estimated at 138,000 tons of heavy metal waste units and 390,000 cubic meters of intermediate level waste over the course of 100 years.
Prior to the commission’s findings, the Australia Institute, a Canberra think tank, released its own report, calling the Edwards plan an “impossible dream.” In the 20-page report released this month, the Institute argued that Edwards’ proposal fails to address 90 percent of the imported waste, claiming only 4,000 tons of the 60,000 tons can be recycled. Author Dan Gilchrist called the plan a Catch-22, as Edwards assumes no other entities will compete for waste disposal projects in Asia.
