Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the senator for the question. The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership is a US initiative which seeks to develop a worldwide consensus allowing for expanded use of nuclear energy, whilst strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation regime. We, in fact, welcome the expanded civil nuclear cooperation with the United States. Australia joined the United States initiated Global Nuclear Energy Partnership at a meeting in Vienna on 16 September, and we concluded a joint nuclear energy action plan with the United States on 3 September. Australia supports the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership goal of enabling expanded use of nuclear energy while strengthening nuclear non-proliferation, and Australia has clear interests as a major uranium producer and a strong supporter of the non-proliferation regime.

The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership is still evolving and I would have thought that it makes eminent good sense for Australia to become involved early in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership’s development. The Australia-US nuclear energy action plan helps ensure that Australia stays abreast of the latest civil nuclear energy developments and, of course, it includes cooperation on research and development, nonproliferation, civil nuclear energy skills and technical training, and regulatory issues. It also provides the framework for Australia’s technical involvement in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership and the Generation IV program to develop advanced nuclear reactors.

Claims that joining the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership requires Australia to accept other countries’ spent nuclear fuel or endorse their programs, or indeed to accept radioactive waste, are in fact dead wrong. There is no such requirement. The government’s policy is and will remain not to accept other countries’ spent nuclear fuel or nuclear waste. This policy of course is recorded in our nuclear energy action plan with the United States. The government’s policy on this matter is both longstanding and well known. Australia does not accept nuclear waste from other countries and this prohibition is enacted in law.