Nuclear places Australia's aluminium smelters at risk: analysis

Analysis commissioned by Renew Australia for All has warned that prioritising nuclear energy over renewable energy could place Australia’s aluminium smelting industry and 13,500 associated jobs at risk.

According to the report, delaying renewable energy in favour of nuclear reactors in Australia could risk the country’s four aluminium smelters, as the sector would face high energy prices and a collapse in electricity usage across the eastern states by 2035.

The analysis has looked at the implications of the federal Opposition’s modelling that informs its nuclear policy. It shows that under the proposal, industrial electricity usage would halve by as early as 2035. (Down from 45.4 TWh per year currently to 22.8 TWh by as early as 2035).

A collapse in energy usage of this magnitude is equivalent to the closure of Australia’s four aluminium smelters. (They currently use 23.5 TWh of electricity per year).

The risk posed by this collapse is further exacerbated by a nuclear policy that would drive up energy costs and is too slow to meet the decarbonisation timelines required by our environment or those outlined by industry.

Australia’s aluminium industry currently supports 7594 direct jobs and 5886 jobs indirectly. Renew Australia for All says that repowering the smelters with lowest-cost, firmed renewable energy can ensure the sector’s viability for those 13,500 people who rely on its sustainability for employment.

“The real-world impact of the opposition’s nuclear policy will be to create significant investor uncertainty and crowd out private investors who will invariably deter a significant part of the 260 GW and $300-400 billion in renewable energy investment proposals already in the grid connection queue across Australia,” said Tim Buckley, Founder of Climate Energy Finance. “This will further erode our manufacturing sector’s competitiveness by forcing our industry to consume high-cost, high-polluting electricity generated from fossil fuels for decades longer, before even higher-cost, notoriously slow-to-build nuclear plants are eventually constructed.”

“This new analysis has confirmed the real price of this policy — that nuclear power is not just expensive, but puts at risk a critical industry and the well-paid jobs of thousands of Australians,” said Michele O’Neil, President, Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). “At a time of global uncertainty, it’s even more important for Australia to have sovereign manufacturing capacity, and aluminium is a critical part of that. It is reckless and dangerous to put such a critical industry at risk to pursue an expensive nuclear pipedream.”

Image caption: Queensland Alumina Limited refinery, Gladstone. Image credit: iStock.com/Tammy Walker