Prospects for nuclear power in Australia and New Zealand

The nuclear debate in Australia was recently enlivened by a Federal Government report (released in December 2006) on the economic viability of nuclear power as an option for electricity generation. Given the nation's large reserves of coal and gas, the question of the role of nuclear power rests to a large extent on future climate policy. Australia has the world's largest reserves of uranium and is currently the second largest producer and exporter of the resource in the world. There may be some scope in the future for Australia to expand its nuclear industry to include enrichment and reprocessing activities.