Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to throw some light on the public debate about uranium and the mining of uranium in Australia today. Slowly but surely the Australian public are emerging from the darkness in relation to their opinion of uranium mining and the use of uranium for peaceful purposes. We have the elephant in the room right now, which is nuclear energy. Everyone wants to discuss global warming and the contribution of fossil fuels to that global warming, and there are divided points of view on that topic. So many people are concerned about global warming and carbon pollution contributing to global warming but no-one, it seems, wants to talk about the issue of uranium mining.

Before we can have nuclear energy we have to have uranium mining. After that mining, uranium oxide is produced, which is commonly referred to as yellowcake. That yellowcake needs to be transported from mine site to the manufacturer of fuel rods and then to nuclear reactors for the generation of power, and it is the issue of transport that I want to refer to.

So many commentators in the public arena today are talking about the perception versus the reality of the safety of yellowcake. I have held yellowcake in my hand, with absolutely no risk whatsoever to my person. Yellowcake is much less dangerous than a bucket of petrol. Every day we see petrol tankers and gas tankers moving on our city streets in every part of Australia, yet there are commentators saying that we might be forced into mining uranium in Western Australia and once it is processed the yellowcake will have to be transported in special safety corridors well away from populated areas. That is an absolute nonsense.

There is much information published by international authorities about the safety of yellowcake. It is considered by international bodies to be a low hazard. We have become accustomed to petrol. We once thought that petrol was terribly dangerous and needed exceptionally special storage. We now know that it is something we can handle when there are particular conditions for its transportation and storage. Exactly the same pertains to yellowcake.

Yellowcake is a much safer product to start with. We are going to have to provide uranium for the world to produce nuclear energy to reduce the production of carbon gases. We therefore need to transport yellowcake. Yellowcake is a safe product. With good control measures in place for its transportation, it is not a hazardous substance that must be prevented from coming through our city areas. We need to let miners get on with the job, process the product, transport it through our streets and provide it to the world. (Time expired)